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Look no further for holiday activities for your ESL and ELL students (or for reading/listening comprehension activities you can use with all learners! This site lists conventional and unusual holidays by month. Click the holiday you would like to feature to find a complete lesson including a tape script, an oral recording of the script, and a variety of review exercises. The printable activities include matching, several varieties of fill-in-the-blank, word choices, spelling, reordering events and sentences from the holiday information, and writing activities. An online clickable reading activity presents parts of sentences, so students must select which sentence part comes first. The screen changes when the correct part comes up, and students select the next part.
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Teacher's First Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users and their students. Students and teachers can write their own original books, add your own images and artwork as illustrations, and read your published books in interactive, online form. For a fee, you can also have printed copies made, but there is no fee for the online publication and sharing. This is the ultimate in "digital storytelling." Here is an example of a book created by the TeachersFirst Edge editors. Once you set up free membership in this site, students (or teachers) can select to create from a blank start or using templates provided. You can also create a book starter of your own as an example so students can follow the prompts you have created. The book creator allows you to upload your own images and to create books from a Word document or PowerPoint file you have already made. There is no provision for multiple users to collaborate on the same book.

After you save and publish the work, share the URL so people can read the entire thing online, either among an audience of “just my friends” or publicly. They also offer the embed code to place your books in a class or school web page, wiki, or blog, but at the time of this review, this code was not working properly. The BEST option is to copy the address of the new window displaying the interactive book. There is an option to have the book printed for a fee, but this is not required. You can also read books created by others (if they make them public). Use the fully-public option to create learning materials for classes to access year to year for at-home review or reading practice.

This site requires a simple registration. Members must be at least 13 years old. Teachers using this tool with younger students should use a whole-class account WITH parent permission and in accordance with school policies. See more detailed suggestions “In the Classroom” below and in our sample book!
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Although some of the printables are available to members only, this site does includes some excellent FREE information on the history of the Olympics, maps, flags, Greek alphabet, writing activities, graphic organizers, "Invent a New Olympic Sport" challenge, and more. If nothing else, the printables offer some great ideas to implement in your classroom (for example, "Write a Sentence for Each Sports-Related Word").
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Teachers can paste the text of any words or paragraph into the Word Magnet box and the program will scramble the words. You can choose how you want the background to display (there are boxes, Venn diagrams, triangles, columns, and more). You can also choose the color of the background for each word that you “click and drag,” Select the magnet size to emphasize certain words. Students practice word order, diction, and creativity by rearranging the words. For a demonstration of how to use this feature, see this blog post by Nik Peachy. Students can color the text boxes to indicate parts of speech, singular and plural, etc. Students can also add words and delete words if they choose. There is a brief advertisement at the beginning of the site. Click “next” to move on to the actual site.
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This site offers "ready to read" fractured fairy tales and a tool to write your own fractured fairy tales. Students can write a fractured version of Jack in the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, or The Princess and the Pea. This site prompts students to choose names for characters, the setting of the story, point of view, the problem, and ending of the story. You type up your own story and you are able to print the finished story.
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Find free interactives in Math, Logic, and Language Arts using this colorful site. Choose your grade level (K-6) and then your specific topic. Some examples of topics include: Time and Money, Problem Solving, Reading and Comprehension, Range, Mean, Median, and Mode, Grammar, Literature, and countless others. Find help in the homework help section along the right side of the site. You may also do a more generalized search by using the links for “Popular,” “Math,” or “Language Arts.” Many of the activities have been created by other sites or educators (you may even notice some familiar characters, such as Big Bird). Some activities may have ads appearing beside them. Students should be advised to ignore these ads.
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This collection of pdf lesson plans centers around 3 main topics: how we get our food, what the Fair Trade movement is doing for farmers and eaters, and what coops are. The complete curriculum is downloadable and printable, and the daily lessons at this site offer support and extra activities. One lesson, translated for Spanish teachers, offers students an activity so they can understand "What's Fair?" One of the most exciting parts of the website is a collection of videos of Dominican children talking in Spanish about cocoa production! The lesson plans include a variety of activities for students and include projects in math, writing, civics, research, geography, art, music, and international culture.
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Pick your subject for Keystage 3, roughly equivalent to grades 6-8 in the U.S. (English, Math, or Science anyone?) Find interactive activities and lessons in a variety of topics in each subject area. At the end of each lesson is a review that recaps the main points. In the English section you will find Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Shakespeare. The Math section features Numbers (basic arithmetic), Algebra, Handling Data, Measurement, Shapes, and Space. Science includes Organisms, Behavior, Health, Chemical and Material Behavior, Energy, Electricity, Force, The Universe, Environment, and Earth. Within each area there are interactives, tests, and review (referred to as revise at this site, created in the UK). There are also specific activities within each of the categories, educational "games," and message boards. Use of the message boards requires registration but it is not required to use the other materials.
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Kids Open Dictionary allows your students to ‘use’ this free dictionary, and it encourages your students to ‘write’ definitions as well. This wiki site invites you to edit and create the dictionary. You may also use the Glossary tool to customize your terms for specific purposes. Choose multi-presentation modes for presenting your glossary. It’s for kids, so it’s safe. Their editors approve all postings before they go online. The sign up is quick. Check your school’s acceptable use policy on student usage of internet sites that require a login. Registration does require an email. Rather than using your personal email, create a free Gmail account to use for memberships. If you plan to have students register individually, you may want to create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students (by code name or number) within your classes. Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service.
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The title graphic on this site tells it all: "Your writing partner, helping you write a story from beginning to The End." Intended for young writers to be able to use on their own, this site includes ideas and exercises to find story ideas, develop the story, improve it, finish it, and share it in writing contests or publications. The notebook paper "look" adds appeal to pages that might otherwise be text-heavy, and the tone is supportive but not condescending. There are teacher resources, including printables for writing exercises, and extensive links and ideas for the classroom. Don't miss the writing prompts in the teaching resource area under "Dozens of writing ideas for the classroom." You can also find tips on setting up writing centers in your classroom and lesson plans for teaching story writing. The quick links in the footer of the home page provide a good overview of the site's extensive topics. Note: the site does have a small book sales area and links to both Twitter and Facebook. These are likely to be blocked by your school web filter and are not essential for use of the site. If students use the site from home, their use of these social tools to learn more about writing and writers should be in accordance with their parents' permission and the tools' age policies.
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This site contains a plethora of user-generated poems, tools for making poetry writing simple, opportunities to make comments on the poetry of others and also to submit one's own poetry. Students and teachers can search for poems by looking at those that have come in most recently, or by searching by categories, called "Tags." To search using this option, you must click on the “poems” tab at the top of the site. Be sure to know your school's policy on having students submit their work before allowing your students to share their poetry. Avid poetry lovers can also subscribe to poetry feeds using this site.
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Not sure what sites exist for your topic? Start here and find sites listed by icon for Art, Encyclopedia, History, Languages, Science, Writing skills, Music, and numerous other topics. Whether you are searching for research information, enrichment, or tutorials – check out this site. Notice that TeachersFirst is among the “faves” for teaching!
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Need a rhyming word for those lyrics or poems? Simply type in your poem at this site. When a rhyme is needed, hold the Alt or Option (MAC) key over the word and click on the specific word that you want to rhyme, and a window of rhyme possibilities appears. Students may print their poetry, or, they may opt to save their typed creations to their own Word files. The site is simple, but it sure beats digging through a rhyming dictionary. Some of the words are difficult to read due to the background graphics.
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So you’re going to make books for the creative writing projects your class has been working on? You need a quick format that looks amazing. Try this Foldables site. Here you will find a variety of book formats, including an accordion style, lapbooking, door folds, shutters, and many more. Because each foldable is in .pdf format, having a fast internet connection is advantageous. Be patient waiting for downloads! Once the foldable is downloaded, you will find directions and samples from which to make your own. This site requires Adobe Acrobat Get it here: TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
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Do you have trouble finding suitable sites to teach state history for YOUR state? This site includes more than 130 "ready to go" lesson plans organized by state. You can also view the collection by states, social studies standards, U.S. History standards, specific skills, time period, or topic. This resource was pulled together by the National Park service. The specific topics vary from America’s Space Program to Skagway: Gateway to the Klondike to Brown v. Board of Education to The Trail of Tears to Pearl Harbor to Lewis and Clark to the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal and countless others. Check out what it highlights for your state.
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HAPPY NEW YEAR! Come to this site to find some word puzzles, writing exercises, a wordbank with 20+ words, class activities, and more. Several of the puzzles are printable. This site does have some minor advertisements.
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TeachersFirst Edge Review: for slightly adventurous technology users. ePals, a global community, offers students the chance to connect with other students around the world (200+ countries). The free student email feature is one of the most useful features of ePals, since complete teacher moderation is available. You may be able to convince a more conservative school administration to permit student email using this tool. This site is the largest worldwide community for global collaboration. Don't worry about the language barrier, there is built-in language translation! This content-rich site also offers lessons, interactives, printables, and more. The "Focus Areas" include Biodiversity, Black History, Election/Inauguration, Geography Central, and Human Rights. In addition, you can click on the "Projects" link to find several ready to use projects (Habitats, Maps, Natural Disasters, Water, and others). Click on "ePals Tour" to view an informative video clip about the site, downloadable brochures, and more. This site requires Flash and Adobe Acrobat. Get both from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
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Adorable is the only way to describe this educational site filled with amazing photos of newborn animals born in various zoos around the world. Students have the opportunity to see baby animals and read snippets of information that they may not have had the opportunity to experience outside the classroom. Sort through the photos by specific animal or by zoo name. Some animals are also shown on video!

This site allows users to “Twit This!,” “Share on Facebook,” “Email This,” “Stumble It!,” and “Digg This!”. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
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This site walks you through the easy steps for creating your own story and posting it to this site! A companion site to Myths and Legends (reviewed here), this walks you through the easy steps for creating your own story and posting it to this site. Story Creator provides templates for backgrounds and characters, or you can upload your own. Follow the easy steps to upload and record voice for your story. Unlimited storyboard frames are available. Be sure to visit the “Teachers” link for lesson ideas, “how to,” and more.

Registering at this site is required in order to use its features. In order for your class to upload stories, you must register at the site. Registration does require an email address, and setting up a school account may take a few days. Rather than using personal email accounts for students, consider creating a teacher Gmail account and set up subaccounts for up to 20 students to register (by code name or number). Here is a blog post that tells how to set up GMail subaccounts to use for any online membership service. You must have a microphone to record voices. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.
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Teacher's First Edge Review: For slightly adventurous technology users. Create a fictional portion of a web page easily by entering a fictional Newspaper, Title of article, Date, and body of article. Final image will be downloaded and not retained on any website except ones that you publish to. Note: Model ethical behavior: Do not plagiarize or use real names of newspapers or people.

There are also links at the top of the page to create: a newspaper, ninja text, wizard text, talking flowers, talking tomatoes, talking owls, a wanted poster, talking cats, a cigarette packet, talking squirrels, and a clapper board. Be aware: this site does include some minor advertisements.
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