Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Crawford the Cat is a website that teaches young children about health issues like brushing your teeth and social skills like working together. There are numerous 5-minute videos teaching students about good table manners, trying new food, exercise, colds and flu, and several other health/science topics. The site includes videos, audio interactive books, printables and interactive games.

tag(s): audio books (29), dental health (14), hygiene (9), preK (289), social skills (23)

SciGirls Connect! provides resources to connect and encourage girls to engage in STEM (Science, Math, Engineering, and Technology) activities including videos, interactives, and hands-on activities. Browse the site to find resources divided into topics including technology, role-model profiles, and various science themes. Additional information provides resources for teachers including participation and lesson guides. SciGirls Connect! places a heavy emphasis on providing resources in Spanish, these include Latina role-models and Spanish versions of most content.

tag(s): animal homes (57), animals (293), careers (182), earth (182), engineering (137), environment (251), graphic design (49), heart (27), nutrition (140), space (220), spanish (112), STEM (310)

Follow the Whole Kids Foundation Kids Club for monthly activities encouraging kids and families to eat healthily and live healthy lifestyles. Each month the site shares downloadable make, eat, and read projects. Select any month from the yearly calendar to choose from the provided offerings. Also, the Kids Club includes several other downloads for coloring pages, nutrition lessons, and book club activities.

tag(s): fitness (39), nutrition (140)

This site offers a free mini-unit on tick bite prevention and Lyme disease. Download the teacher overview (correlated to Next Generation Science Standards), PowerPoint, and student packet for use in any classroom. The full-color presentations include easy to understand information and activities including a graph, crossword puzzle, wordsearch, fill-in-the-blank worksheet, and a design your own brochure assignment.

tag(s): diseases (66), insects (68)

This is NBC Learn's Spanish-language version of the Parent Toolkit, reviewed here (English version). The Parent Toolkit provides an informative guide to child development from pre-K through High School. Videos offer information and advice for parents and teachers.

tag(s): back to school (55), child development (24), learning styles (17), nutrition (140), parents (56), social skills (23)

Maintained by a company that sells pool accessories, this collection of links on swimming, swimming pools, and water-related topics helps teach students about being safe around water. Scroll down the page to see resources organized by grade levels and content areas. The links include research articles, videos, lesson plans, worksheets, experiments, activities, and games for science, math and history classes. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.
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tag(s): chemicals (39), safety (68), sports (85), water (105)

Find an easy to use, interactive fire safety guide. The guide includes the best ways to prevent fires in each of the rooms of the house, as well as common causes of house fires. Learn how to protect your loved ones, including children and pets. Gather information about what to do during and after a fire.
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tag(s): fire (22), fire prevention (16), fire safety (16)

Wimp offers a wide variety of videos with family-friendly content. Browse through the site using a keyword search or choose categories such as popular, life, culture, learning, and more. Choose a video to read a short description and view. Videos are imported from many different locations such as Vimeo, YouTube, and individual websites. Also, view Wimp on your mobile device by clicking on their link that is optimized for mobiles. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable. Although the content is family-friendly, this site contains comments that aren't monitored. If sharing with students, go to the direct link provided with each video for viewing without some of the distractions (and possibly inappropriate comments).
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tag(s): animals (293), musical instruments (54), video (267)

Common Core Conversations is your place to find Common Core resources. The Standards, Resources from state education departments, free resources in all subject areas, using tech tools for learning the standards, and a section for parent information provides a great basis for your Common Core needs. Resources include: ENL/ELL, library, careers, family and consumer sciences. Join the online community to join in the conversations.

tag(s): commoncore (73)

The Diabetes Quiz is a free educational resource to help you learn about diabetes, healthy bodies, and minds. There are 400 multiple choice questions about diabetes basics, diet and nutrition, fitness and exercise, stress and relaxation, and statistics. Take a quiz and find out what you know. Make a plan for a better you! Diabetes Quiz will work on any device with a modern web browser and an Internet connection.

tag(s): mental health (50), nutrition (140)

Ducksters is a safe, extensive, educational portal for kids. Find a wide choice of content such as interactives, sports, movies, and music. Begin by choosing a category to explore choices. The study category includes extensive information such as world history, many biographies, science explanations, and information on all continents and many countries. Interactive subjects include math times tables, checkers, and guess the country. There is a TON here to explore.
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tag(s): addition (127), african american (119), american revolution (83), animal homes (57), animals (293), artists (87), biographies (94), china (83), civil rights (219), civil war (141), cold war (31), continents (33), countries (73), data (150), division (96), egypt (59), elements (33), energy (133), environment (251), explorers (64), fractions (159), friction (9), geometric shapes (133), greece (47), habitats (93), human body (91), inventors and inventions (81), keyboarding (28), mean (19), median (16), mode (13), multiplication (120), planets (113), presidents (136), puzzles (149), recycling (45), renaissance (38), rome (37), solar system (108), sound (71), sports (85), subtraction (108), sun (69), world war 1 (77), world war 2 (163)

Where have you been? Create a color-coded map of the United States or Canada that highlights states that you have visited. Go through the list of states and choose a color for each state. There are four colors to choose from indicating your amount of time spent in that state. Just click on the state and then find your color. Or use the list of states found under the map. Choose an image width and pick the "Create" button to make your personalized image map. Save the map to your computer in png format. Please note: this is part of an individual's travel blog, and posts are not moderated for school use. Be sure to check out content links before sharing or student use. Or better yet, advise students NOT to click on any external links.

tag(s): maps (224), north america (15), states (125)

Find over 100,000 unusual and interesting drawings, paintings, photographs and advertisements related to medical and social history through contemporary healthcare and biomedical science. This site is dedicated to the history of health and medicine, and the oldest examples go back two thousand years. Everything is available under Creative Commons licensing. Browse the collection through the galleries or search by keyword. The titles of the galleries are Explore, Favourites, Science, History, Art (for Schools), and Galleries. Under each title, find several categories such as Olympics, Health, World, Pathogens, Cell Division, DNA, Vaccines, Surgery (Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern), Aids Posters, Patterns and Texture, and many more. The site was created in the UK, so some of the spellings may differ from those in American English.

tag(s): creative commons (28), images (263), medicine (57), photography (131)

Visit Cool Kid Facts to find information for just about anything in this world or even out of this world! Select from Geography, History, Science, Animals, and Human Body. There are also topics in the right menu on the home page that range from Albert Einstein to Volcanoes and nearly everything else you can think of (alphabetically) in between. There are articles, videos, pictures, and quizzes, too. The videos are from various outside sources and are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, they may not be viewable.

tag(s): animals (293), australia (29), brain (56), china (83), deserts (17), earth (182), egypt (59), greek (47), heart (27), human body (91), italy (30), magnetism (35), mars (26), mexico (46), moon (72), newton (21), photosynthesis (21), rainforests (18), rome (37), sun (69), tornadoes (14), tsunamis (15), volcanoes (55)

The Parenting Guides provide informative guides to child development from preK through High School. Choose from grade-level charts to view academic, health, and social guidelines with benchmarks and tips. Articles by noted experts offer up to date information and advice for parents and teachers of all grade levels. Don't forget to browse through the National Resources for local help with Mathematics and English, searchable by state.

tag(s): child development (24), learning styles (17), parent conferences (21), parents (56), preK (289), social skills (23)

This informative article provides a quick overview of Ebola virus information. Find symptoms associated with Ebola, how it spreads, and learn where it came from. Click the speaker icon to have the article read to you. You can also choose the link to read (or hear) the story in Spanish.
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tag(s): bacteria (21), diseases (66)

Make the most of Red Ribbon Week with ideas and support from the official Red Ribbon Campaign website. Choose from many downloads such as the official planning guide, Red Ribbon fact sheet, printable pledge sheet, and photo contest flyer. Sign an online pledge for adults to help children grow up safe and drug free. Read the Red Ribbon Blog to stay up to date on all the latest events and information about the Red Ribbon Campaign.
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tag(s): drugs and alcohol (28), red ribbon week (10)