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Arts

Music Notes
This website promotes a curriculum entitled Music You Can Read through membership in this website program. There are some good suggestions offered in this website that the teacher can use in the elementary music classroom.
http://www.musicnotes.net/

Music Education Launch Site
This website contains articles for the music educator to read as well as links to lesson plans at every grade level. The site is also interactive for students and contains service links from which to get additional information.
http://www.talentz.com/MusicEducation/index.mv

K-12 Resources for Music Educators
This website is loaded with links to a multitude of websites for band, orchestra, vocal/choral and classroom teachers. It also has links to MIDI resources, research, biographies, and other search engines.

Music Sites
This website contains links to every music website imaginable from A to Z.
http://www.aea2.k12.ia.us/curriculum/music.html

Music Lesson Plans
This website contains easy-to-read lesson plans. Each lesson plan includes an overview, materials needed, activities and procedures. The site also includes additional internet resources.
http://askeric.org/cgi-bin/lessons.cgi/Arts/Music/

Music: The Universal Language
This website contains a variety of links. The Help section offers a meta-crawler that allows you to search several search engines at the same time. The site offers games for teachers as well as students. It also offers articles, bulletin board suggestions and lesson ideas.
http://www.educationline.com/

Children's Music Workshop
This is a very useful website because it contains numerous links for instrumental, choral, general music teachers, and music education. There are articles dealing with the importance of music education as well as a message board and chat room for music educators. This site also contains a pre-formed e-mail educators can complete to emphasize the importance of music education to their local United States Senator or Representative.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2405/

Classical Archives
This website is a useful resource that contains over 10,000 MIDI format pieces of music from more than 800 composers. With teacher direction, a student could look up any piece of classical music.
http://www.prs.net/

Language Arts

Blackdog: The Site for Kids
Students can visit Black Dog's Halloween party and encounter lots of great opportunities to practice spelling, grammar, and phonics, all of which have a Halloween theme. Ghosts, goblins, witches and monsters entice children to become engaged for hours.
http://blackdog.net/holiday/halloween/index.html

Language Arts for Kids
This website allows students to explore a multitude of games and activities in reading and language arts. Students can assess their knowledge of grammar by visiting Grammar Blast and completing a ten-question quiz.
http://kidslangarts.about.com/kids/kidslangarts/

GameGoo: Learning that Sticks!
This site is great for K-2 students. It is also great for low-level readers in the third grade, who could visit Wizards and Pig's Poetry and sharpen their phonics skills. This is a very kid-friendly site.
http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/config.html

Funschool.com
This site has a great assortment of games and lessons for students to enjoy. Students can get in some extra skills practice and have fun doing it.
http://www.funschool.com/

Discovery School
This website offers wonderful interactive games and activities for students to enjoy. Many subjects are available for students to explore on this website.
http://school.discovery.com/

Kratt's Creatures
Students will enjoy researching information about different animals and displaying the data they have collected in an exhibition. Students can use this website to find a lot of interesting information about animals.
http://www.pbs.org/kratts/

Words and Pictures
This BBC website is a fun place for elementary students to sharpen their phonemic awareness. Consonant clusters, high frequency words, and long vowel sounds are just a few of the sections students can choose from.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/wordsandpictures/

Kids' Corner
Ohio University offers up a group of Beatrix Potter stories. Students can investigate nursery tales by reading the stories aloud or having them read aloud.
http://www.tcom.ohiou.edu/books/kids.htm

You're the Detective
This is a great website for investigating the genre of mystery and suspense. Students can read a couple of stories and review a glossary of mystery writers. One activity for students would be to read the story starters and complete the story on paper.
http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5109/

Children's Storybooks Online
This website offers students pure and simple reading. There are stories directed toward younger children, older children and young adults. Some stories even include great illustrations as you click through the pages.
http://www.magickeys.com/books/index.html

The Potawatomi Fables Bookstore
At this website students can experience one book online per month by a Native American author. Students may also investigate Native American folktales by clicking on thumbnails of many books written by Native American authors.
http://www.cruzio.com/~nikan/index.htm

Kid's Domain
This website is one of the few websites that offers more than a student can accomplish in a forty-minute block of time. Sections include sports, holidays, crafts and contests.
http://www.kidsdomain.com/kids.html

Language Arts for Kids
This website has great links for students to several topics within the language arts. Alphabet Fun, Parts of Speech, Writing Room and Grammar Guide are just a few of the sections students can explore. Lots of fun!
http://kidslangarts.about.com/kids/kidslangarts/

Fairrosa Cyber Library of Children's Literature
This website offers students a chance to explore classic literature and its authors. Students simply click through the pages and read an online book. A new experience for students; may entice the hesitant reader.
http://www.dalton.org/libraries/fairrosa/

Absolutely Whootie: Stories to Grow By
This website is wonderful for a quick write or short story critique writing. Students may choose from a number of options such as: Adventure, Animal tales, Fairy tales, Folk tales, Legends, Kings & Queens, Magical Creatures, or Riddles.
http://www.storiestogrowby.com/

Spiderman: Amazing Adventures
This website is endorsed by the Department of Education. Spiderman stars in many adventures that are based upon strengthening and building upon skills in sequencing, antonyms, blends, using rebuses and general reading.
http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/spidey/

Between the Lions
This site contains stories that change every Monday and can be read online or printed out. After reading the story, students can participate in interactive games that reinforce skills in phonics, listening, comprehension and much more.
http://pbskids.org/lions/

GrammarCat
This multilingual website offers students practice in grammar basics such as verbs, nouns, and word pronunciation.
http://www.grammar-cat.com/

Syvum English Activities
Through the use of games, students can practice and improve vocabulary, spelling, and grammar. This website also has stories for practice with reading and math activities.
http://www.syvum.com/online/english.html

Alfy Cool Sites
Students can listen to and read short books and stories. There are many activities for students to participate in online, as well as many opportunities to challenge children's creativity. It is also an ideal place for students to begin to learn research skills.
http://www.alfy.com/

American Library Association - Cool Sites for Kids
This site contains many useful links to sites that teachers can use with students. Writing links include Kids on the Web (students write and post stories), Inkspot - Young Writer's Resource (web magazine for young writers), and KidPub (children publish stories and poems). Reading links include links to many homepages of popular children's series (Animorphs, Arthur, Baby-Sitter's Club, Goosebumps, and the Magic School Bus).
http://www.ala.org/alsc/children_links.html

Official Berenstain Bears Website
Children can link to a variety of activities relating to the popular Berenstain Bears. At the Post Office, children are encouraged to compose an e-mail to one of the bear family members.
http://www.berenstainbears.com/

Billy Bear's Playground
This site has activities for young children that foster writing skills. Students can select stationery and compose friendly letters. They can also send virtual cards and postcards, adding brief messages along with sound. There is also a link that helps children design simple webpages. Internet safety is stressed, and children are cautioned to tell their parents what they are doing.
http://www.billybear4kids.com/

Candlelight Stories
This helpful site for parents, teachers and students has many menu choices, including Storybooks (children can listen to and read stories), Pen Pals (children can connect with pen pals around the world), Mystery Contest (children write mysteries to win books), and Story Theater (children listen to audio stories).
http://www.candlelightstories.com/

Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site
This website for teachers includes a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas for ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes, and professional topics. It does advertise books and magazines for sale, but useful articles are interspersed throughout the site.
http://www.carolhurst.com/

The Charlie Horse Music Pizza
Students can create their own version of a well-known story, such as The Musicians of Bremen, and then listen to the story they have created. They are then prompted to recall story details. This website also includes a projects and crafts section that relates to the story. A parent's page is provided so that parents can read a brief description of the PBS televised episodes.
http://www.pbs.org/charliehorse/

Cyberkids
The mission of Cyberkids is to provide a voice for young people on the Internet. First, they publish original creative work by kids ages 7 to 12. Second, in the "Kids Connect" area of Cyberkids, they provide chat rooms and message boards where kids can communicate with their peers. A software filter is used to minimize inappropriate messages in the chat room. In the "Launchpad" area, there are categorized links to other Internet sites for kids, and the "Learning Center" has links to online tutoring, homework help, and scholarship information.
http://www.mamamedia.com/home/

Enchanted Learning
This is an educational search engine that can be used by both teachers and students to get information on many topics for research reports or lesson planning. There is also an illustrated dictionary with 1,728 entries. There is an English version, or students can select the English-French, English-German, English-Portuguese, or English-Spanish versions.
http://enchantedlearning.com/

Guide to Grammar & Writing
A grammar and writing guide for teachers and students. The guide is well-organized, including rules of writing on the sentence, paragraph, and essay composition levels. The site does include several interactive, computer-scored quizzes to review presented rules, which are set up similarly to standardized tests. Students can also submit grammar or English usage questions online.
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

Kid Bibs
Good resource for teachers with activities in a variety of subject areas. Includes activities and strategies for using books with children.
http://kidbibs.com/

Kid's Bookshelf
Students and teachers can read book reviews online, enter contests, or read a newsletter. There is also the opportunity to submit stories for publication on the site. Articles for teachers can also be found on this site.
http://www.kidsbookshelf.com/

The Reading Room
This site gives useful advice to parents on how they can improve their child's skills in reading and writing. Parents can also submit questions online. The Games and Activities section has games that can be used to improve reading/language skills, such as Antonym Bingo, ABC Games, and Here and There: Game of Opposites.
http://www.women.com/family/readingroom/

U.S. Department of Education: Reading Improvement
This U.S. Department of Education online resource provides tips and activities to promote reading for children from infancy through age 10. Chapters include: The Basics; Important Things to Know; Read Along; Write & Talk, Too; and Parents and the Schools. There is also a list of resources included. A hard copy of the booklet may be obtained free of charge.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/reading.html

Writing with Writers
This site offers students step-by-step writers' workshops led by notable authors, such as Jack Prelutsky and Jane Yolen, in a variety of genres, including poetry, myths, and mystery writing. The authors offer samples from their own writing, autobiographical sketches, writing tips and prompts, and challenge students to complete their own writing. The site also offers students personalized certificates of completion signed by the author upon completion of the workshop. The site is an excellent reinforcement of the steps of the writing process.
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/index.htm

Weekly Reader Galaxy
This is a site based on the Scholastic Weekly Reader publication for students in kindergarten through grade six. It offers information on a variety of current events and allows students to explore various topics as well as several interactive activities. The site also allows students to write to characters (such as "Buddy Bear" for first grade) about a problem and read the response the following week. Great curricular ideas and information for teachers and parents.
http://www.weeklyreader.com/

Vocabulary University
This site is a high-level approach to teaching new vocabulary words for upper middle and high school students. The emphasis is on presenting groups of words with the same root, and teaching students to use knowledge of root words to determine word meaning. There are also a variety of different word puzzles to reinforce new word meanings.
http://www.vocabulary.com/

Just For Kids Who Love Books
This site allows students to choose from a comprehensive list of titles, authors, and series, read reviews written by other students, and write reviews on books they have read. The site also contains links to other sites on specific books, which include interviews with the authors, interactive student activities, and related class projects. The site is updated monthly with current holiday-related activities and literature suggestions.
http://www.alanbrown.com/

MysteryNet's Kids Mysteries
Students can read and solve online mystery stories. The site also includes writing contests and story starters, as well as tips on how to write a mystery story. Teachers can use this site to help teach critical thinking and deductive reasoning.
http://kids.mysterynet.com/

Math

Cool Math
This is a useful site for students, parents and teachers. For students, it includes an attractive homepage and colorful visuals around specific content, e.g., fractals, geometry, on-line calculators, and even some science connections.
http://www.coolmath.com/

MathStories.com
This site offers over 4,000 open-ended and critical thinking word problems for students of all grade levels to solve. It has dozens of pages of word problems on which a student can work at his or her own pace.
http://www.mathstories.com/

AAA Math
This site contains hundreds of pages of basic math skills with interactive practice on every page. It includes an explanation of the math topic on each page, ranging from operations and measurement to geometry and statistics. There are several challenge games on every page. It is excellent for visual learners as it animates illustrations of concepts, and is good for all ability levels.
http://www.aaamath.com/index.html

This is MegaMathematics!
MegaMath is made up of a subject-based workbook that requires very high-level thinking skills. This site is clearly for high school level and beyond, as it involves inductive and deductive reasoning and logic paradoxes; skills which have not usually been developed by students in the 7th grade.
http://www.c3.lanl.gov/mega-math/

The World of Escher
This site integrates art and math as one visits the works of the artist M.C. Escher. It gives visual meaning to an understanding of geometry and repeating patterns. It includes a biographical chronology of Escher, and links to some of his best art in the Art Museum Section.
http://www.worldofescher.com/

Figure This!
This site offers families a challenge to solve word problems that reflect real world situations and that help parents improve their children's understanding of math. Designed in part by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the challenges encourage higher-level thinking skills.
http://www.figurethis.org/

The Puzzlemaker
This is an excellent web site for teachers and students. One can create and print customized word search, crossword, and math puzzles, using given word lists which cross all curricular areas, or one's own lists. There is also a Science Fair page, which gives students project ideas, book lists for research, and links to other helpful sites.
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/

FunBrain.com
This is an excellent website for both teachers and students. It is an interactive educational site with games to improve math, science and grammar skills. It is age appropriate; students simply click on their age to get lessons for their grade level.
http://www.funbrain.com/

Matrix of Example WebQuests
This site is loaded with great ideas for teachers looking for projects across all curricular areas. Many of these projects require students to think critically, work together and use higher level thinking skills. The site is rich in content and assessment, for both teachers and students.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/matrix.html

MathStories
The goal of this website is to help students improve their math problem-solving and critical thinking skills. It is an excellent website for teachers to find supplemental word problems for students. Teachers can copy problems and worksheets free of cost for use within their classrooms.
http://www.mathstories.com/

Cornell Math and Science Gateway
This Gateway provides links to resources in mathematics and science for educators and students in grades 9-12, although teacher of other levels may find these materials helpful. Students can connect to homework help sites and ask specific questions or go through an archive of previously asked questions. Some links might be beyond the high school level.
http://www.tc.cornell.edu/edu/mathscigateway/

Base 10 Blocks
This site allows students to model multiplication of algebraic expressions by using algebra tiles. This site can be used for any activities where algebra tiles are used. Students may need some initial help with the set-up of problems.
http://www.best.com/~ejad/java/b10blocks/

Puzzles.COM
This site provides many types of puzzles, including mazes, tangrams, brainteasers and illusions, for students at various levels of mathematics proficiency. Students can work on problem-solving strategies and spatial relationships.
http://www.puzzles.com/

Mrs. Glosser's Math Goodies
Math Goodies is a free educational website featuring interactive math lessons, worksheets, puzzles, homework help and message boards. It is geared more toward middle school students, but many of the lessons could be adapted for high school students. It has links for new teachers and a message board for teachers to ask others about math topics.
http://www.mathgoodies.com/

The Math Forum
The goal of this website is to provide an online community for those who have an interest in math and math education by "encouraging communication throughout the mathematical community, providing high-quality math and math education content, offering model interactive projects, growing with the web, and making math-related web resources more accessible". This comprehensive site has links to many topics and resources, and if you are looking for anything to do with math education, you will probably find it through this site.
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/

A+ Math
This site can be used with students to reinforce math facts and basic math skills. In the "Flashcard" section, students can work on math facts, and in the "Game Room" area, students can reinforce what they have learned by playing games like "Concentration". This website is most appropriate for use with lower and middle school grades.
http://www.aplusmath.com

Algebra I: Graphing Linear Equations
This site provides both students and teachers with a very clear and concise presentation of the topics found in a unit on graphing linear equations. Topics are clearly presented, and there are interactive questions for students to try out their newly-acquired knowledge. There are also puzzles and assessment pieces (including an online project) that accompany the unit. This would be an appropriate introduction to or review of graphing linear equations.
http://www.terragon.com/tkobrien/algebra/

Math Guide
Math Guide provides free lessons, mathematics news, a help center, and more for students, teachers, and parents. There are also links to projects, word problems, and puzzles.
http://www.mathguide.com/

ExploreMath.com
This is a great site for interactive activities and lesson plans. There are lessons for many topics in Algebra I, Algebra II, Precalculus, and Probability and Statistics. The lesson plans are well-organized and the interactive activities provide students with a means to experiment and explore a variety of topics. Students can change values and see how their manipulations affect the problems they are working on.
http://www.exploremath.com/

Math in Daily Life
Math concepts such as ratio and probability are explained in detail in relation to everyday decisions and tasks. Online activities, charts, graphs, and video clips are included.
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/dailymath/

Coolmath4kids
A fun math website for children of all ages. Includes brainteasers, online calculators, math games, and some lessons for teachers to use in the classroom.
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

Science

Cells Alive
This site is useful for seventh graders because of its video microscopy and images of living cells, bacteria, parasites and pharmaceutical effects, plus three-dimensional biological animations.
http://www.cellsalive.com/

Earth and Moon Viewer
This site will link to live satellite photos of Earth from the Sun and Moon. It includes vocabulary and text that are at an advanced level of comprehension. It can be used effectively in conjunction with hands-on activities on revolution and rotation.
http://www.fourmilab.com/earthview/

Volcano World
This site is the premier source of up-to-date volcano information. It provides teachers with lessons about volcanoes, including methods of building volcano models.
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/

FEMA for Kids
The Federal Emergency Management Agency's web site is complete with games, personal stories, safety tips and other information about floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and winter storms.
http://www.fema.gov/kids/

Star Child: A Learning Center for Young Astronomers
This is an excellent website for teachers as well as students. It addresses space science at both beginning and advanced levels, touching on a variety of astronomical topics.
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/StarChild.html

Space Link: NASA's Resource for Education
This is a tool that connects our space program with student learning. It includes an educator focus, with many links for curriculum support. It provides a wealth of information appropriate for students, links for help, and an abundance of educational materials to enhance science-related topics.
http://spacelink.nasa.gov/.index.html

National Geographic: The Solar System
This website allows students to take a fly-by tour of the Sun and each planet in its orbit, in a three-dimensional environment. Students can get a close-up view of the planets and extraterrestrial weather patterns. The site includes links to other resources, including NASA's websites, other multimedia collections, photojournals and links to fun and game sites, all related to space science.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/solarsystem/

Academy of Achievement
This site gives detailed biographies of and interviews with real, live scientists. It gives a "kid's eye" view of scientists (students do the interviewing), relative to student's lives.
http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/halls/sci/

Amazing Space
This site is a set of web-based activities, primarily for classroom use, but available for all. Some of the activities require students to use critical thinking abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry. This site is useful for teachers, too, as it gives teaching tips, lesson plans, and overviews.
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
This site includes hundreds of educational resources available throughout the United States Federal Government, across all curricular areas. There is a wealth of information from government agencies ranging from the Center for Disease Control and the Department of Defense to the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services.
http://www.ed.gov/free/

Monarch Butterfly Lab
This site provides great background information for older students and teachers. There is a description of the "Monarchs in the Classroom" project, as well as activity ideas for K-12 students.
http://www.monarchlab.umn.edu/

Thinking Fountain
This site is very well-organized. It provides an alphabetical listing of activities, books, galleries and surprises, with icons for each category. Information is useful, accurate and age appropriate.
http://www.sci.mus.mn.us/sln/tf/nav/tfatoz.html

Batquest
This site invites students to explore Stellaluna's world and become bat experts. Students are asked to identify unique characteristics, find similarities and differences between bats and other animals, differentiate between facts and myths, and identify contributions bats make to their ecosystem.
http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/chavez/batquest/batquest.html

A Quest for Respect with The Grouchy Ladybug
This site can be used to extend comprehension of The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. It is a webquest designed to help students discover facts about ladybugs and the meaning of respect.
http://www.yorkville.k12.il.us/webquests/webqfrey/webqsfrey.html

Bats Bats Everywhere
This site provides a wealth of information about bats, including where they live, what types of homes they live in, how they help humans, bat myths and interactive games.
http://members.aol.com/bats4kids/index.htm

Butterflies: On the Wings of Freedom
This site has links to art projects, stories and poems, butterfly facts, and a short movie of a caterpillar hatching. The content is useful and accurate.
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002251/index2.shtml

The Butterfly Conservatory
This site gives an overview of many topics, including butterfly anatomy, metamorphosis, self-defense, and conservation. Students can even watch pre-recorded movies of butterflies. The "just for kids" section includes open-ended activities and tips for adult helpers.
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/butterflies/

Insects
Through this WebQuest students will use the Internet and resource books to learn about insects. Students will learn about specific bugs: body parts, environment, food, movement and senses, and will use a multimedia program to write about and illustrate their day as an insect.
http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/sessions/insects/

Day in the Life of an Insect
This web quest is a comparison of four different insects: bee, ladybug, ant and cockroach. The activities on this site encourage students to use higher-level thinking and multiple intelligences.

Volcano World
This website contains a wide range of information about volcanoes, as well as links to pictures of erupting volcanoes. There is also a teaching/learning component with volcano lessons and activities. The site is easy to navigate and the photos are extremely accurate.
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/

"Frogland": All About Frogs
Teachers and students can find facts about frogs and toads, and learn how to care for pet frogs on this website. There is also a "Teachers' Corner", which gives ideas for frog activities and how one might use this website in the classroom.
http://allaboutfrogs.org/froglnd.shtml

The Great Plant Escape
This website can be used by both teachers and students to learn about the parts of a plant and what a plant needs in order to survive. Its "kid-friendly" design incorporates colorful and interactive graphics, and students can work alone or in groups to solve the "plant mysteries" presented on the site. Other highlights include a glossary for students and a Teacher's Guide.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/index.html

Life on the Rocky Shore
This site is useful for researching some of the animals that call the tidal pool their home. Animal groups are listed with their characteristics, and specific animals within the groups are mentioned. Students can click on unknown words to access the glossary, and test their knowledge with games and online quizzes.
http://library.thinkquest.org/J001418/

Volcanoes
This website from the Annenberg/CPB Project explores the how and why of volcanoes, and the study and prediction of eruptions. It provides excellent information about past volcanic eruptions, and the destruction they have caused. There is even a part of the website where users can melt their own rocks to experiment with the effects of temperature and pressure.
http://www.learner.org/exhibits/volcanoes/

Windows to the Universe
This website is sponsored by NASA and the Michigan Space Grant Consortium. There are links to many varied and interesting topics such as space weather, myths, and astronomy throughout history. The site has wonderful graphics, and Kids' Space and Teacher Resources are clearly marked. An informative site for both students and teachers.
http://www.windows.ucar.edu/

Amazing Space
Web-based activities that allow students and teachers to explore topics such as comets, galaxies, black holes, and the Hubble Space Telescope. There is a link to Teaching Tips, as well as links to brain teasers and space facts.
http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/

Astronomy for Kids
This website can be used by students to learn about planets, view sky maps to find stars and planets, and find answers to astronomy questions. There is also a small section on the phases of the moon. The site is easy to navigate, and the language is "kid-friendly".
http://www.dustbunny.com/afk/

Chem4Kids
This website is a beginner's look into the states of matter, atoms, reactions, and other chemistry concepts. Included is a periodic table with links to more information about the specific elements.
http://www.chem4kids.com/

The Soap and Detergent Association
Discover earth-friendly ways to dispose of soaps and cleaners while learning about their chemical makeups. Also includes tips on recycling and water conservation.
http://www.sdahq.org/

Weather Dude
This site is owned by Nick Walker, meteorologist for the Weather Channel. It includes music that makes learning about weather fun and interesting. The links are in alphabetical order and relate to various weather topics. There are also resources for parents and teachers, such as songbooks and autographed pictures.
http://wxdude.com/

The Senses
This is a great site with movie clips, diagrams, and activities that help to explain the uses of each of the five senses.
http://www.brainpop.com/health/senses/

Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble: The International Boiling Point Project
The project described and detailed on this website actively engages students in the inquiry process by asking students to hypothesize on a set of factors which could influence the boiling point of water. Classrooms are asked to submit data based upon a controlled experiment performed in their classroom. By analyzing the submitted data from around the world, students can evaluate their findings and revise their hypothesis.
http://k12science.stevens-tech.edu/curriculum/boilproj/

Exploring Caves
This site, developed by USGS, is outstanding in its organizations and depth of resources. Using American caves as a starting point, each chapter in an engaging story involving two children leads viewers through several topics. The teacher's resource list is thorough and extensive. Another plus - the story is downloadable and not reliant on live Internet connections.
http://www.usgs.gov/education/learnweb/caves/intro.htm

Contrasts in Blue: Life on the Caribbean Coral Reef and Rocky Coast of Maine
This well-organized site from the Smithsonian Institute can be the basis for lots of compare and contrast activities. The documentation and reading are all stored as PDF files, making it easy to download and print handouts. The three lessons are sequential and logical.
http://educate.si.edu/resources/lessons/art-to-zoo/contrast/cover.html

BBC Science in Action
This site is great for sparking hypotheses and explorations in five areas: air, light, microbes, mixtures, and force. Stella, the student guide, takes participants through sets of puzzles that will appeal to upper elementary and middle school students.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sia/home.html

Structures Around the World
This site, developed by the San Francisco Exploratorium, will enable teachers to implement some high-level thinking and problem-solving models with students in Grades 1 and up. Each structural project is fully explained and a suggested time frame is given.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/structures/index.html

Lightning: The Shocking Story
This website discusses the science behind lightning, and contains some excellent photos. Also included are stories from people who have been struck by lightning and an online quiz on lightning facts and safety.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lightning/index.html

Cyber Tiger
This visually-pleasing and interactive site could be used independently by Grade 4 students. Students role-play throughout the site; they are part of a team of zoologists who make a decision about housing an endangered Siberian tiger in a zoo. Plenty of background information about the tiger's habitat.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/tigers/maina.html

ScienceMaster
ScienceMaster includes a lot of information on a variety of topics in the space, earth, life and physical sciences, and technology. Each of these major categories has its own page, full of information, news, links, pictures, products and services, with the best content from NASA, the USGS, the EPA, NOAA and colleges and universities.
http://www.sciencemaster.com/

Welcome to the Planets
Basic information about each of the planets, as well as a glossary. Excellent photos of the planets. Might be more appropriate for upper grade students.
http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/

Treasure Trove of Scientific Biography
Students and teachers can search this site for brief biographies of important scientists and inventors.
http://www.treasure-troves.com/bios/

Social Studies

The Awesome Library
The Awesome Library contains links to a multitude of social studies sites on the web. Some of the categories are current events, ecology, economics, government and much more. It also contains lesson plans with curriculum framework standards.
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/social.html

Internet General Hotlink Page for Educators
This is a general site of social studies resource links on the web, created by Marcia Sheridan, Ph.D. It is a great site for teachers of all grade levels.
http://www.iusb.edu/~msherida/general/socstudies.html

Eye Witness: History Through the Eyes of Those Who Lived It
This is an excellent site presented by Ibis Communication, Inc., a digital publisher of educational programming. Eye Witness characterizes the past and looks at major events in history through personal narratives and other first-hand sources such as personal letters, essays, diaries,etc. This site gives an interesting and real perspective on the past.
http://ibiscom.com/

American Memory: Historical Collections from the National Digital Library
This site is co-sponsored by the Library of Congress and contains more than 80 online collections. From articles and images to frequently asked question, this site is an abundance of information. This site also includes "Today in History" and lesson plans.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/ammemhome.html

United Nations Cyber School Bus
The UN Cyber School Bus provides information on current global issues. There are excellent lesson plans, classroom activities and teaching modules. The lesson plans are interesting for all ages and clearly state the age group for which they were written. Students and teachers have the option of viewing this site in Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese and Russian

There are some very good research tools that older students could use with very little supervision, such as the information database, photos, art, and a virtual UN tour. There are also some fun quizzes and games, as well as an animated adventure for younger students.
http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus/

Let's Go!: Around the World
This site is from Creative Connections and is designed to be a global exploration web site for students, teachers and parents.
http://www.ccph.com/

History/Social Studies for K-12 Teachers
Teachers would likely use this site more than students would. Students could use it for specific research projects, however, "the major purpose of this home page is to encourage the use of the Internet as a tool for learning and teaching and to provide some help for K-12 classroom teachers in locating and using resources from the Internet in the classroom."
http://www.execpc.com/~dboals/boals.html

Xpeditions
This is an excellent site with great resources for the geography classroom. It contains lesson plans for every topic of geography and includes the teaching standards. It contains an impressive atlas, interactive maps, tours and activities. It also includes home entertainment and learning as well as the classroom activities.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/

Geobee Challenge
This site was designed by National Geographic Online. The "Play the Game" section posts five new quiz questions each day. There is information on the National Geographic Bee, which uses materials prepared by the National Geographic Society. "The contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography. Schools with students in grades four through eight are eligible for this entertaining and challenging test of geographic knowledge."
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/geobee/

The Digital Classroom
This website provides teachers and students with access to online historical documents. It also provides numerous lesson plans, activities and materials from the National Archives and methods for teaching with primary sources. The site provides reproducible primary documents, educational units correlated to national academic standards, and cross-curricular connections.
http://www.nara.gov/education/classrm.html

The History Net
The History Net has numerous archived articles relating to American history, world history, wars, and much more.
http://www.thehistorynet.com/

Geography
this site has information and links to everything geographic. Topics include news, cartography, census and population, climate time zones and much more. It also has links to political science, history and science information.
http://geography.miningco.com/science/geography/

New Perspectives on the West
This site offers very good insight into our nation's frontier. It includes documents and information on historical people, places and events. It also offers an interactive biographical dictionary, as well as a selection of Internet resources on the history of the American West.
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/

Terra Server
This site was created by Microsoft. It provides satellite images from almost everywhere. Students may need some assistance finding locations. It is well worth visiting.
http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/default.asp

Geo Teacher
Geo Teacher is designed to be a research tool and to provide geography links and other resources for high school students, parents and teachers. Created by R. S. Williams, it provides great links and information of general interest to those who teach and study world geography.
http://home.att.net/~rmmwms/geoteach/geoteacher.html

Geography World
This site is a collection of links and resources for geography teachers and students at all levels. It covers areas from around the world and topics such as ecosystems, biomes, erosion, natural resources and much more.
http://members.aol.com/bowermanb/101.html

The Social Studies Center
The Social Studies Center consists of "related resources that include textbook support, an interactive geography game, outline maps, a discussion forum, history update and current events."
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/index.html

All Politics
This site contains the latest information on politics, government and current events. It is helpful to both students and teachers alike.
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/

Pilgrim Life Adventure
Students will work through this WebQuest to complete a family tree, a Venn diagram, create a vehicle for their own travel, and create a play about their life adventure. The activities focus on multiple intelligences as well as Social Studies and Language Arts strands.
http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/kimbrough/pilgrimlife/index.html

American History 102: Civil War to the Present - The Dawn of Liberalism: Progressivism
This website provides an overview of the Progressive Period in American History. It includes an overview of the period, followed by specific topics, with a photo gallery of the abuses of the period that led to the Progressive Movement. This site helps to acquaint students with some of the specific areas of abuse and with those involved in the movement.
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture11.html

Eurodocs: Primary Historical Documents from Western Europe
This site provides access to innumerable primary documents for World History and for the global aspects of American History. This website, updated in October 2000, provides thousands of hits arranged alphabetically by twenty-four European nations. It includes documents that deal with European government as well as conflicts.
http://lib.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/homepage.html

The World War I Document Archive
This website provides access to archives and primary documents from World War I. In addition to archives, the site provides biographical information as well as a pictorial record of the major actors of the War. It will be helpful to students who are doing research and who are seeking to discover the causes of war.
http://lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/

The Presidential Website at Lycos Network
This site provides simple, efficient access to biographies of American Presidents and to links to numerous resources associated with those Presidents. http://dir.lycos.com/society/history/United_States/Presidents/

The World Factbook 2000
This website includes the economic statistics of the nations of the world including the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Per-capita Income. Other statistics such as life expectancy are suggestive of the standard of living in each nation. Also included are the land uses and chief industries of each nation.
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: Educational Resources
This website provides an excellent economics review and "Treasure Hunt" self-testing or competitive game for students. It includes a "Great Economic Timeline" which provides clues to be used in finding and opening the Treasure Chest.
http://www.frbsf.org/education/index.html

Wright Investors' Service: Company Profiles
This website provides links to 350,000 company profiles. It will prove useful to students who have been assigned to research various corporations. It is also useful for stock market investment simulations.
http://profiles.wisi.com/profiles/listd.htm

CBS MarketWatch
This website provides students with fifteen-minute delayed stock and mutual fund quotes. This site is superior to other similar sites in that it provides excellent historical quotes. http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/newsroom.htx

FRBSF American Currency Exhibit
This site from the FRBSF includes a history of money. The menu has a chronological grouping of historical periods, each of which is a link to the history of American money for that period. There are also photos of money from different historical periods.
http://www.frbsf.org/currency/index.html

The Panama Canal
This website provides current and historic perspectives and views of the Panama Canal. There is an on-site camera, and a link to an animation of the workings of a lock canal. The information on this website helps students understand how regions may be identified by economic activities and recognize how geographic factors affect economic development.
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/index.html

The Avalon Project at Yale Law School
This site contains a collection of major documents appropriate for U.S. History students in grades 6 to 12. The documents are from ancient times as well as the modern era. This is an excellent website for teaching all aspects of U.S. History and World History because of its wide range of sources.
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/major.htm

Kids and Community
This website provides a job description for a city planner and describes city planning in general. Online activities prompt students to think about their own communities. Students can complete a Scavenger Hunt by collecting items that are part of their community. This site would fit in well with a study of local history.
http://www.planning.org/kidsandcommunity/

A Hypertext on American History
This site contains primary historical documents and transcripts from 1400 to 2000. There are also biographies of important historical figures related to American History, including the U.S. Presidents. Some of the topics included in this site: American History, American Economy, American Government, Geography and Literature. The text contains hypertext-links to relevant documents, original essays and other Internet sites.
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/usa.htm

The Odyssey: United States Trek
The U.S. Trek allows students to follow the progress of a team of educators doing a 9-month trek around the United States to explore U.S. history and culture. They document the people and places they visit through their own writing, pictures and video, and through special live and recorded interviews with significant people. Some topics included in this site: In Search of American Roots, Birth of the United States, and Civil War and Reconstruction.
http://www.ustrek.org/

American Memory
The Learning Page contains links to lesson ideas and activities. Students can learn about history using primary sources. Online activities help to build literacy skills by having students search the documents to answer a historical question.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html

Inventors
This site has a timeline of inventions from 1900-1999 with background on inventors and inventions. Creativity, innovation and problem-solving steps taken in creating an invention are linked to historical examples. Steps for inventors, definitions, and articles on the invention process are also found on the site.
http://inventors.about.com/science/inventors/

America's Homepage: Plymouth, MA
Lots of great pictures, but the text is somewhat sophisticated for elementary level students. This homepage may be most helpful for teachers planning field trips to Plymouth Plantation.
http://pilgrims.net/plymouth/

Chantessy's Happy Thanksgiving! Page
This is a great site with links to historical documents and information relating to Thanksgiving. Includes coloring pages, puzzles, poetry and music.
http://www.rainbow-magic.com/holidays/thanksgiving/

The First Americans
Lots of information for elementary students and teachers on the five main cultures of Native Americans.
http://www.germantown.k12.il.us/html/intro.html

Native Americans
Students can use this website to research various aspects of Native American culture.
http://www.mce.k12tn.net/indians/index.htm

A Colonial Family and Community
Students will love to go back in time as they investigate the daily lives of the Daggetts, a colonial family from northeastern Connecticut. This website provides great visuals and movie clips of colonial life, and is a great way to help kids identify with history.
http://www.hfmgv.org/smartfun/colonial/intro/

Ancient Egypt
A wealth of information on many aspects of Egyptian life, including gods and goddesses, mummification, pyramids, pharaohs, and geography. Separate section for teachers that provides hints on how to best use the website in the classroom.
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/