April 2001
General | Grades K-2 | Grades 3-5 | Grades 6-8
General
Certificate of the Month
Give your class a certificate for completing the unit of study presented monthly centered around a national theme, topic, or event. Certificate and lesson plans are included.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=MonthCertArchive
Composting for Kids
An excellent slide show describing how to make a compost pile in your school or backyard.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/sustainable/slidesets/kidscompost/cover.html
Earth Day Cyberhunt
Discover the answers to questions surrounding Earth Day. Find out about projects you can get involved in.
http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/RO/teachers/appert/earthcyberhunt.htm
Earth Day Network
Find out what people in your neighborhood are doing for Earth Day 2001. What was done last year? How can you get involved?
Explore DC
Explorations offered by PBS for America's capital, Washington, DC. Includes timelines, lesson plans, primary sources, links to info about U.S. Presidents, local history, African Americans, and local tourist attractions.
http://www.exploredc.org/index.php
Explore Science
The Learning Network and Teacher Vision have a list of resources for Earth Day celebrations.
http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6612.html
Fit For Life: Online resources for teaching physical fitness
Check out the classroom teacher lesson ideas, or look at the nontraditional gymnastics. Find out ways to help motivate your students to become more physically fit.
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr138.shtml
Gardening Books for Children
Here is a list of literary titles compiled by Amanda Vanhoosier.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/kinder/coolbks.html
Gardens: Activities in the Four Seasons
Here is a seasonal guide to keeping your school garden going year-round with seed catalogs, and other resources.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/garden/seasons/
Gems from the Garden
Education World offers lesson plans for all ages for gardening in the classroom and starting your own fantasy farm.
http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson167.shtml
Grammar Blast
Grammar Blast gives practice tests on various facets of English grammar divided into grade levels, from grade 2 through grade 8.
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/quizzes/index.htm?x=64&y=15
Great American Cleanup
From mid- March through mid-May communities around the U.S. will be participating in an effort to clean up the environment in the "Extreme Clean Challenge", this year's theme sponsored by Keep America Beautiful. Help your students join in the effort to clean up their school and community.
http://www.kab.org/gacnews1.cfm#top
The Growing Classroom
Here are many free resources to help you get a garden growing.
http://www.letsgetgrowing.com/growing_class.html
Kids' Castle
Smithsonian Magazine hosts this site which is full of great photos and facts in many different areas including science, animals, sports, the arts, personalities, history, geography, air, and space.
Kids Food CyberClub
Great interactive games and projects for students to learn all about nutrition complete with teacher's guide and suggested lesson plans.
Kids Gardening
Many schools showcase excellent school garden experiences here at this site. Learn about successes and challenges faced by other schools and learn from their expertise.
Kids 'N Fitness
This spring event promises to get kids exercising their minds and bodies. The event has two online and 13 offline projects. Students can create a virtual athlete by determining what makes an athlete great. Or, students can work as a class team and compete with classes all over the world to increase their physical activity for the week of April 25-May 4, 2001. The project runs from March 15, 2001 - May 4, 2001 for Grades K-12.
http://exchange.co-nect.net/Teleprojects/project/Fitness
Let's Get Growing
"Our kids learn from the ground up" is their motto. There are extensive resources on composting, creating a greenhouse, growing an indoor classroom garden, and links to bats, worms, ants, and butterflies.
http://www.letsgetgrowing.com/
MathStories.com
Over 4,000 math word problems for students, organized by grade level, one through eight.
MyGradeBook
Here's is a free grade book service for teachers to communicate with parents from any internet connection anywhere. Register for free and receive a password for yourself and for students so they can access assignments and progress at any time.
http://www.mygradebook.com/default.cfm?
National Gardening Site
Great gardening tips with regional specialties and newsletter articles. Their goals include helping gardeners and helping people through gardening.
http://www.nationalgardening.com/
The National Math Trail
Help your students discover math in the world around them by creating math problems about what they see and what they want to know. This K-12 national math project is funded by STAR Schools, SERC, and Texas Instruments.
http://www.nationalmathtrail.org/
National Wildlife Week (4/16- 22)
Ideas for projects and activities to learn more about the theme of exploring nature in your neighborhood from the National Wildlife Federation.
http://www.nwf.org/nationalwildlifeweek/index.html
Paul Revere Biography
Learn about the life and times of Paul Revere, his silver shop, the famous midnight ride, his foundry and copper mill, and more.
http://www.paulreverehouse.org/paul.html
Physical Education Lesson Plans
Lesson ideas for PE including health, dance, integration of classroom holidays and other curricular subjects, and ideas for having a field day.
http://www.pecentral.org/lessonideas/pelessonplans.html
School Gardens
Includes an introduction to school gardens, benefits and nutrition, how to get started, and how to make a presentation about school gardens.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/nutrition/schoolgardens/schgard.html
Science Net Links
Comprehensive science links for K-12 from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/index.html
Seaworld Adventure Parks
Teacher guides are available online for the following titles: animals abound, diversity of life, flight for survival, ocean olympians, ocean friends, orcas, seals, sea lions and walruses, saving our seas, seaworld physics, whales, and water.
http://www.seaworld.org/teacherguides/index.html
Seeds of Change Garden
Help your students learn about history and diversity by planting a garden.
Spring
The cultural and scientific background of the season with links to many curricular areas including art, language arts and literature, mathematics, and science.
http://www.teachervision.com/lesson-plans/lesson-6665.phtml
Step by Step Guide to Starting a School Garden
Here is a list of tips compiled by Texas A & M University's horticulture program.
http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr063.shtml
World-wide Historic Events and Birthdays
Find out what happened today (or any other day) in history from Scope Systems.
http://www.scopesys.com/today/
Grades K-2
The Adventures of Herman
Learn all about worms from your friendly host, Squirmin' Herman, the worm. Find out about a worm's history, anatomy, life habits, etc. along with lots of links for more info.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/worms/index.html
Change: Life Cycles
How do butterflies, frogs, chickens, and horses change as they get older? Click on the underlined words to see more fun pictures of each animal.
http://www.midcoast.com.au/~ttc/Change.html
Easter is Approaching
Easter crafts and activities including bunny ears, paper mache eggs, eggshell mosaic, bunnies, ducks, and baskets.
http://www.ok.bc.ca/TEN/easter/easter.html
Gryphon House Early Childhood
This site for early childhood educators and parents contains many lesson plans and activities for using literature with children. There are booktalks and story stretchers, teaching strategies, and circle time ideas.
http://www.ghbooks.com/subjects.cfm?code=TEACHSTR
Pattern Builder
Play a pattern on a keyboard and listen to what you have created through the sounds of a bell, a dog or a frog!
http://www.harcourtschool.com/activity/pattern/pattern.html
Project Primary
Lessons for primary students designed to teach science through hands-on activities from science professors at Wesleyan University. Topics include botany, chemistry, children's literature, constructivism, geology, physics, and zoology.
http://www.owu.edu/~mggrote/pp/index.html
Reading and Writing At Home
Here are some fun activities to get students reading and writing more at home.
http://familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,22-2510,00.html
Teaching Ideas for Primary Grades
Originating in the United Kingdom this site has all subject areas listed with curriculum ideas galore. Check out the "Time-fillers" and the "Book Corner".
http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/
Using Live Insects in Elementary Classrooms
Facts and information including 20 lesson plans to help you introduce health topics to children. Rearing insects information will help you care for insects in your classroom as students are learning about health-related issues.
http://insected.arizona.edu/uli.htm
Your First Grader
Give parents some ideas of things they can do at home to help their first grader.
http://familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,21-2303,00.html
Your Kindergartner
Here are some ideas to share with parents for family activities with a Kindergartner.
http://familyeducation.com/topic/front/0,1156,21-2247,00.html
Grades 3-5
Absolutely Hootie
Stories to grow by with teaching materials, writing assignments, and games. Students can send in illustrations to the stories to be printed online.
http://hazel.forest.net/whootie/default.html
Grade Five Word Problems
Many practice word problems from past Canadian Math Competitions.
http://www.stfx.ca/special/mathproblems/grade5.html
A Guide to Getting Along
Students learn to choose from among three choices in this conflict resolution lesson geared for 3rd and 4th graders.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/conflict/index.html
Cuisenaire Rods Online
Great for teaching metrics, fractions, integers, ratios, etc.
http://www.best.com/~ejad/java/integers/integers.html
The Great Plant Escape
Introduce 4th and 5th grade students to plant science and increase student understanding of how plants grow through six lessons complete with teacher guides, student projects and activities.
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/gpe/index.html
KidsAstronomy.com
Explore the universe and see how the sky will look tonight.
Learning the Compass
Introduction to geographical cardinal directions on a compass rose.
http://www.angelfire.com/fl/compless/index.html
Pioneer Games
This student's project describes some of the games that were popular among pioneer children. She compares them to games that children play today.
http://www.prairie.district96.k12.il.us/Museum/games.html
Pioneer Games, Toys, and Songs
Here are simple pioneer games and toys from Thinkquest with instructions so you can make them too. Listen to songs typically sung during the pioneer era.
http://prince.thinkquest.org/6400/toys.htm
The Romans Home
Discover the world of ancient Rome, with its extensive empire. Investigate day to day life for children and their families, the architecture and technology of the era, the army, how they dealt with rebellions and invasions, politics, and religion, as well as links to what remains of the empire today.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/
The Teacher's Desk
This site caters to teachers of fifth and sixth graders and includes fun games and activities in language arts, holidays, math, science, social studies, and classroom management.
http://knownet.net/users/Ackley/
Grades 6-8
About Rainbows
Discover how to explain the formation of rainbows.
http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/blynds/rnbw.html
Absolutely Not!
Practice adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing integers following written instructions or using manipulatives. Practice drills are included for squaring and cubing integers as well.
http://www.mathnstuff.com/math/spoken/here/2class/130/c13pg00.htm
Academy Curricular Exchange- Mathematics
13 Lesson plans geared for middle school mathematics.
http://ofcn.org/cyber.serv/academy/ace/math/inter.html
Algebra Worksheet Generator
Create worksheets for one or two-step equations, distributive property, quadratic equations practice, and more.
http://www.math.com/students/worksheet/algebra_sp.htm
Are You a Math Teacher Like Me?
Ms. Lindquist tutorial for algebra story problems.
http://www.algebratutor.org/areyouateacher.html
Daily Life in Ancient Rome
What did the ancient Romans eat? What did the children do all day? What were their homes like? They invented more games than any other culture. Find out more at this site.
http://members.aol.com/Donnclass/Romelife.html
Equations with Two or More Operations
Solving equations using two or more operations from edHelper.com
http://www.edhelper.com/algebra.htm#S4
Explore Math.com
Investigate math concepts through these highly interactive projects.
Floating Log Activity
Set the mass, density, radius, and length of a floating log, see how much mass you can add and still stay afloat.
http://www.explorescience.com/classic/floatlog.htm
Grade Six Word Problems
Many practice word problems from past Canadian Math Competitions.
http://www.stfx.ca/special/mathproblems/grade6.html
Grade Seven Word Problems
Many practice word problems from past Canadian Math Competitions.
http://www.stfx.ca/special/mathproblems/grade7.html
Grade Eight Word Problems
Many practice word problems from past Canadian Math Competitions.
http://www.stfx.ca/special/mathproblems/grade8.html
Integers: Exercises with Signed Numbers
Practice problems from Amby.
http://amby.com/educate/math/integ_x1.html
Integers from NCTM
Includes numerous investigations, some quite challenging, involving integers.
http://128.192.17.216/interMath/MainInterMath/Strands/WorkshopHTMLs/integers/integers.html
Middle School Art Lessons
32 Art lessons for middle school students from The Incredible Art Department.
http://www.artswire.org/kenroar/lessons/middle/middlelessons.html
Open-ended Math Problems
Designed to help middle school students prepare for standardized testing. Monthly problems in the areas of number theory, measurement, geometry, patterns, algebra, and functions, and data, statistics, and probability.
http://sln.fi.edu/school/math2/index.html
Polygon Creator
Create numerous polygons simply by giving the directions for the number of steps forward, the degrees of the angle , and the number to be repeated.
http://www.ies.co.jp/math/java/geo/logo/logo.html
Positive-Negative Charge Model for Integers
This lesson shows how to use colored chips as positive and negative charges and a container to determine solutions when adding or subtracting integers.
http://www.iit.edu/~smile/ma8718.html
Quest for a Cubicle
Fulfill your dream of being promoted to receive your very own cubicle after completing tasks involving integer problems. This interactive game provides lots of practice solving integer problems.
http://www.learningwave.com/chapters/integers/games/graphics/main_lobby.html
Rules for Integers: Operations with Signed Numbers
Basic introduction to performing basic operations with integers along with practice exercises from Amby Duncan-Carr.
http://amby.com/educate/math/integer.html
Teenage Health Interaction Network (THINK)
Help teenage students learn to maintain a balance between their physical, social, and emotional well-being to maintain good health.
http://library.thinkquest.org/29500/
Visualize Science
Interactive activities help teachers and students more clearly understand mathematical formulas by doing science experiments involving harmonic motion, terminal velocity, inertia, density, inclined planes, and more.
http://www.explorescience.com/classic/
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