Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

This site offers five "ready to go" lesson plans for Father's Day. Lessons include art, history, writing, and more. Standards are provided. There is also some general history of Father's Day provided.

tag(s): fathers day (17)

DLTK's Custom Chore Chart provides an easy, quick way to create any type of chart. Charts can be created for chores, homework, behavior, reading, math facts, and any other type of information that can be monitored and displayed as a chart. Creating a chart is so simple that students can create their own and choose a theme that interests them. The site allows you to choose the theme (or create your own), the text color, text size, font, color or black and white for printing, what specifically goes into the columns and rows, and more. Since the themes are more juvenile, you may want to suggest the "create your own" option with older students. This site does not require any registration. Be aware there are minor pop-up ads which are rather annoying, but worth it for this free tool.

tag(s): behavior (49), charts and graphs (182), preK (322)

This sentence scrambler allows teachers to type or paste in as many sentences as they would like and scrambles the words at random. Any punctuation typed in remains attached to the word it is next to. Students can then try to unscramble the sentences. Options include putting slashes or dashes between words to make them easier to distinguish. After typing/pasting the desired number of sentences, teachers should check the box marked "Add Numbers" in order to have the sentences separated and numbered. Sentences in Spanish can also be scrambled. Rearranging the words is not part of the interactive activity.

tag(s): grammar (140), inferencing (7), multilingual (84), sentences (22), sight words (22), spanish (112)

If you're looking for a resource that will engage reluctant readers or help new readers with unfamiliar vocabulary words, you may want to incorporate these fun and interactive stories into your classroom. Students can read through the interactive texts independently, click on troublesome words, and listen to their pronunciations. Select from movies, videos, and games that illustrate special sounds, pronunciations, and spelling rules.

tag(s): audbk (25), audint (13), audio books (43), audtxt (19), sound (73), sounds (39), vocabulary (252)

This electronic version of "match the cards" teaches early readers the beginning sounds of words. Students match alphabet letters to the corresponding picture card. A child's voice says the words. Bells sound when the student makes the correct match. Scores record how many cards were matched correctly. Keeping track of the time is an option to challenge students.

tag(s): alphabet (45), phonics (53)

Find out all you can about Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang on Snoopy.com. This site provides a variety of great comic strips that can be applied to many classroom lessons. The site also provides an Author Spotlight on Charles Schulz. There is also a link for fun and games with printable pages, puzzles, word problems, and other "fun" stuff. Some of the activities require Shockwave. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page..

tag(s): comics and cartoons (67)

This is a simple site, but extremely useful in helping students understand how "clothes make the man." Whether you are talking about costuming a play or how clothes represented classes in social studies, this site will enable students to see how clothing has helped make that "first impression" since the beginning of time.

The "History of Costume" was printed from 1861 to 1880 in Munich by the publishing firm of Braun and Schneider. It was originally published as individual plates in a German magazine. Later, these plates were collected and bound into book form. The total publication consisted of 125 pages, with four pictures per pages, for a total of 500 costume designs. These plates consisted of historical dress from antiquity to the end of the 19th century. This book is an excellent source for students who are studying the history of fashion and for costume designers. One must be aware though, that these illustrations have a Victorian perspective to their designs. The last 35 pages consist of contemporary folk dress (c.1880) from most European, Asian, and African countries. These provides a source for researching plays which take place during the Victorian period, such as "The King and I" or "The Sea Gull". The original book was published in German, so at times, the English translation is confusing. This is especially noticeable in the contemporary folk dress plates where many of the countries mentioned now have different names or no longer exist.

tag(s): costumes (3)

Improve your students keyboarding skills with these free typing tests that give instant feedback on speed and accuracy. A great site to use as meaningful "filler" in the computer lab.

tag(s): keyboarding (28)

Kids a Cookin' is loaded with simple and easy recipes. Each recipe comes with a how-to video. The site also provides lesson plans and a glossary of terms. Be sure to watch the food safety and healthy eating tips videos prior to the start of cooking activities. There is also a link to view this site in Spanish. (The Spanish, Espanol, button is to the left of the title).

If you use the back button, you may end up in a different language! If this happens, click English or Espanol, to return to the preferred language. This site requires RealPlayer and Adobe Acrobat. You can get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

tag(s): cooking (34), directions (9), measurement (125), spanish (112)