The Web Catcher » Ages 06-09 years

Scholastic Homework Hub

K. Haugen — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:52:11 +0000

The Homework Hub from Scholastic.com includes advice and references to jump-start reports, activities and quizzes to boost skills, writing help, organizational tips, preparing for tests, and more.

The Poetry Foundation

K. Haugen — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 05:27:31 +0000

The online home of the Poetry Foundation – Use the Poetry Finder to find poems by poet, category, occasion, title, first line and glossary term. Also many other poems and poetry resources, including audio

(tags: literature literacy search teens ages09-12 cooltools audio authors poetry)

RIF Reading Planet

K. Haugen — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 14:46:46 +0000

From RIF (Reading is Fundamental) comes the Reading Planet, a place to explore, create and… read! Choose from the Activity Lab, Games Station, Book Zone or Express Yourself. Explore and have fun, or ‘join the club’ to be able to create your own ‘bookshelf’ and save your activities.

Favorites: The activity lab includes links to kids contests, and in Writer’s Blocks you can collaborate with other kids online to write a story together. The super sorter helps kids get a recommended reading list after answering a few questions.

Pros: Bright, no ads, many options. Membership is free and gives some nice additional features.

Cons: Animated stories simply play or pause and the animation, while simple, distracts from paying attention to the text. More reading is required to navigate this site than one would expect from a site for kids learning to read

Leo Reynold’s Letter Collection

K. Haugen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:51:35 +0000

Today we take you to a Flickr page of photo collections by photographer Leo Reynolds. What’s unique about Leo’s photos is he takes close-ups of letters in all kinds of wonderful, whimsical locations, often more than 100 examples of each letter. He invites visitors to use the letters (and many, many other photos) in any non-profit activities, under a Creative Commons license. You’ll want to visit Leo’s other collections as well, including signs, nuts and bolts, mosaics, cemetaries and churches, and more. This site invites you to consider letters and literacy in a whole new light!

Rader’s Geography4Kids

K. Haugen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:45:25 +0000

Rader’s Geography4Kids provides clear explanations and helpful examples related to physical geography, including the earth’s structure, atmosphere, biosphere, climates and Bio-Geo-Chemical (BGC) cycles. It also includes interactive quizzes and some video

An Astronomical Alphabet

K. Haugen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 02:09:34 +0000

An Astronomical Alphabet is a fun introduction to astronomy. The photos displayed show the alphabet shapes as found in a variety of astronomical phenomena. A picture’s worth a thousand words, so this one’s worth 26,000 at my count, but really what happens here is the photographed ‘letters’ are the hook — if you click on one, you learn what the photos represent. It’s wonderfully simple and sophisticated at the very same time.

CountOn

K. Haugen — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:11:52 +0000

CountOn offers numerous interactive math activities from England (hence ‘maths’ instead of ‘math’). Use the links on the left to fully explore what’s here, including numerous links and helpful resources. The activities themselves are straightforward and engaging, making it a useful classroom tool. Explore Pictures Interactive, a creative building-like interface which leads to explorations that link math to music, art and more.

GhostReader from ConvenienceWare

K. Haugen — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 14:00:24 +0000

GhostReader (formerly TextParrot) reads text aloud with high quality voices and optional word-by-word highlighting. From ConvenienceWare, a part of AssistiveWare, which makes more fully featured accessibility software and utilities for people with disabilities

VoiceThread

K. Haugen — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:23:02 +0000

VoiceThread is an awesome tool for creating and sharing annotated online slideshows that you have to experience for yourself. Make your own slideshows or browse what others have done.

You can interact by recording or typing comments directly in others’ slide shows and then listen or read what others have said, which creates a non-linear conversation in which anyone can participate.

It’s also possible to doodle on your slideshows, and the doodles fade away (or stick, if you tell them to).

There are numerous examples of how one could use VoiceThread in the classroom.

BookShare.org

K. Haugen — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 21:04:34 +0000

Bookshare.org gives print disabled people in the United States legal access to over 34,500 books and 150 periodicals that are converted to Braille, large print or text to speech audio files.