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If your students can’t get out to the country, here’s a way to experience farm life – actually six different types of farms. Suitable for elementary students, there are images, simple text, and a few animations and other illustrations of aspects of each type of farm – everything from fish to cattle and chickens. Primary students could use this one with some teacher assistance. Created by Virginia Tech University.

The National Weather Service’s pdf includes an illustrated picture book approach to an elementary school visit to the NWS. All technical vocabulary is defined pictorially with weather symbols, drawings of equipment, and weather-appropriate clothing sketches. May be slow to open as it opens Acrobat Reader. You MUST have Acrobat Reader to open this pdf file. Get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page

This description takes you through a full day in the desert on a guided trip as promoted by a travel site. You click to go through each portion of the day, described in detail. This site is a web resource for the TeachersFirst interactive Biomes of the World Unit.

Try the TeachersFirst interactive Biomes of the World Unit to get your students involved and engaged with their own research. Have them work alone or with a partner on laptops or in a lab.

Help your elementary and middle school students learn about water quality and conservation -- and what human behaviors affect them. Explore run-off, home and garden habits, aquatic life, terminology, and more in these simple interactive pages. If it's about water, you can find it here, along with lesson plans or activities to help your students understand. One link require purchase of a CD, but there is plenty to do without spending money! Middle school activities include the activity sheets in both Word and Acrobat formats.

Share these activities as part of your Earth Day plans or whenever you study about water and pollution. Be sure to include the link on your teacher web page so students can share the ideas at home, as well.

If you are a fan of "Mythbusters," you will love this one. This visually-drab site is a treasury of trickery included in K-6 science textbooks and popular culture. The text-only site is created and maintained by a self-described research engineer, "HV/Electrostatics specialist, Lecturer, Sci. Exhibit Designer, Textbook Consultant, Amateur Physicist" on the staff of the University of Washington Dept of Chemistry. There are some ads on the site, but they are not distracting. The various links tell of misconceptions by science category (electricity, physics, etc)and are not searchable. Start with BAD PHYSICS AND BAD ELECTRICITY. There are also links to others' articles on misconceptions in science.

If you teach science (and even if you only TOOK science), you owe it to yourself to read through this site, at least long enough to find the topics that YOU teach and be sure that your materials are accurate. The best way to find information is probably to browse for the topics you teach and use Ctrl-F on your keyboard to FIND key terms in the text. Of course, if you believe the same misconceptions that our texts have told us for years, you won't know what terms to FIND...You might want to make this a professional learning "game" at an inservice day: find a misconception and debunk it for the rest of the elementary science team. You might want to gently point out the problems to your principal or curriculum director.

Share this site with very bright students to explore and report back to you. Need a challenge for the gifted? Have the students select a misconception and create a CORRECT illustration of the concept in multimedia form. If you give them a wiki space to use for their presentation, you can even submit the link to Mr. Beaty. Now that's authentic assessment!

Introduce the earth's different biomes with this unit, created by . Biomes include coniferous forest, deciduous forest, tropical rainforest, tundra, ocean, fresh water, desert, and the savannah. Each link includes information and pictures. Students can complete an on-line research project on a biome of their choice, using selected web resources, or they can learn the basics of biomes with the information provided in the unit. There are links to the introduction, to learn more about the project, and even a teachers link (with a TON of class activity ideas). This site does require Adobe Acrobat. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

Have students work in cooperative learning groups to explore this site. Challenge students to create multimedia presentations about the biomes. How about a Powerpoint? Or have students narrate a photo of the biome using a site such as VoiceThread (reviewed here). Other options include creating a wiki, blog, or video.

Signs in Stitches and Song is a multi-lesson, interdisciplinary unit about the Underground Railroad for primary students. Concentrating on the codes and signal systems by which escaping slaves found their way northward, the unit includes language arts, science, music, geography and math components. The various elements can be used individually, or in combination. There are extensive illustrations, printable handouts, optional Flash animations, and suggestions for further study.

What makes a planet a planet…and how many are there…really? This series of entertaining videos takes a look at a fascinating discovery at the far end of our solar system and raises some interesting astronomical questions.

These videos provide a great opportunity for incorporating writing and reflecting into your science curriculum. After viewing the presentations, ask students to summarize what they have learned and generate one additional question they would like to ask of the scientists.

This site was created for first grade students (and their teachers) and truly has something for every classroom. The site offers links to activities in math, science, social studies, language arts, creative arts, and a reference library. Some of the subject areas only offer one or two activities, while others offer countless topics (see math and language arts - wow)! The topics vary greatly and include a poem creator, letter blends, alphabet, shapes, short and tall, matching words with numbers, place value, number recognition, number sentences, money, time, the sea, animal habitats, maps, signs, U.S. presidents, flags of the world, continents, and more! Some links are highly interactive, while others are simply an online quiz.

This site does have some advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

Visit the Language Arts or Math pages to get an idea of the multitude of interactives and lessons available at this site. Use the activities at this site as an anticipatory activity for a new topic, or review prior to the big quiz. The site's activities would work well on an interactive whiteboard or projector. List this site in your class newsletter and on your class website for students to use for additional practice at home.

This site was created for second grade students. It offers links to activities in math, science, social studies, language arts, creative arts, and a reference library. Some of the subject areas only offer one or two activities, while others offer several topics. The topics vary greatly and include addition, subtraction, multiplication, dinosaurs, Earth, the solar system, continents, oceans, compound words, contractions, and more! Much of the site consists of interactive quiz style questions (rather than background information). But this site does have a little bit of everything.

Although some of the activities are not highly interactive, they are well done and could be very useful in the classroom. Some of the pages do have advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

Use the activities at this site as an anticipatory activity for a new topic, or review prior to the big quiz. The site's activities would work well on an interactive whiteboard or projector. List this site in your class newsletter and on your class website for students to use for additional practice at home.

Make landforms and geology REAL to your students. This site offers a rich collection of 3D photography and tours of the geology of U.S. National Parks. Use these activities with a variety of ages of students. Choose National Parks to view or print pictures. Pictures (anaglyphs) are best viewed with cheap 3D glasses (just like the movies!) Non 3D images are also found on the site. Pictures are not copyrighted and can be used for any presentation or format as long as you give credit to the site and the USGS. The site includes a tutorial on making anaglyphs. Each National Park has a link to the 3D image, regular image, link to the park website, and a link to other information that includes stratigraphy, virtual tours, or other links. Click "Suggestions for Teachers and Students" for ideas at different grade levels.

Students can look at pictures and decide upon common features they see. Display images side by side on your interactive whiteboard and note the features using the pen tools. Research or explanations about the features can lead to additional research into the natural processes that created them. Students can write “what is it?” clues to identify specific National Parks for others to identify. Share them on your class wiki for others to solve. Since the images are in the public domain, students can download them to include on the “answers” page of the wiki! Create class anaglyphs with pictures and Adobe Photoshop (if available), using the directions provided on the site.

This site, created for third grade students, offers links to activities in math, science, social studies, language arts, creative arts, and a reference library. Some of the subject areas only offer one or two activities, while others offer several topics. The topics vary greatly and include famous U.S. monuments, place value, energy, light, contractions, antonyms, synonyms, multiplications, drawing, matter, structure of the U.S. government, famous Americans, compound words, and countless others.

Although some of the activities are not highly interactive, they are well done and could be very useful in the classroom. Some of the pages do have advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

If you teach third grade (or are looking for some enrichment for gifted younger students), visit this interactive and eclectic website. Nearly all of these activities are ideal for an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use the activities to create learning centers or for research. List this site in your class newsletter and on your class website for students to use for additional practice at home.

This website was developed by the University of Nebraska to teach students all about the hatching of chicks. Specific topics include incubation, candling and information for teachers. The website also provides interesting movie clips of the candling, breaking out of the chicks and more! Flash is required.

If you are unable to hatch your own chicks, rent a projection screen and teach your students about the embryology of chicks via this website. The resources page provides lesson plans, standards and more for teachers.

This site, created by Kidport for fourth grade students, offers links to lessons and activities in math, science, social studies, language arts, creative arts, and a reference library. Some of the subject areas only offer one or two activities, while others offer several. The topics include California Missions, arithmetic practice, the food chain, animal comparisons, U.S. presidents, Mexican American War, California Gold Rush, homophones, and other grammar activities.

Although some of the activities are not highly interactive, they are well done and could be very useful in the classroom. Some of the pages do have advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

Check out the unique mix available at this website. Share it with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site for enrichment, learning stations, or indoor recess options. List this site in your class newsletter and on your class website for students to use for additional practice at home.

This site, created by Kidport for fifth grade students, offers links to lessons and activities in math, science, social studies, language arts, creative arts, and a reference library. Some of the subject areas only offer one or two activities, while others offer several. Some examples of math topics include measuring angles, adding and subtracting decimals, and measuring distance. Language arts topics include contractions, antonyms, synonyms, compound words, and homophones. Science topics vary greatly and include the heart, human body, bones, muscles, the animal kingdom and more! Social studies lessons focus on the pilgrims, U.S. states and capitals, and the American Revolution.

This site offers a variety of interactive elements (online quizzes, interactive maps and diagrams, and other learning exercises). Some of the pages do have advertisements, but they are not distractive. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

Share this site with your families by listing it on your class website for additional at-home practice and enrichment. Use this site with younger gifted students. Share the site with your students on an interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site for learning stations, or indoor recess options.

Created for an Illinois elementary school, this award-winning site shows young children lots of different aspects of butterflies. There are also lesson ideas, links to science standards, and a number of illustrations. This site is both a good elementary science tool and a great illustration of what creative teachers can do in packaging instructional material for the web.

Turn the excitement of the Olympics into a meaningful writing assignment. This lesson plan asks students to explore the aesthetic characteristic of athletics, drawing from their own experiences as well as examples in popular media. Thoughts and impressions are recorded in a reflective journal. Using the data as a foundation, students conduct Internet research, view short informative video clips, take digital photographs, and synthesize all of the information into an original cinquain poem. The lesson plan includes IRA/NCTE standards.

Get your students excited about poetry, by using the momentum of sports and the Olympics. Share the video clips on your interactive whiteboard or projector. Use this site to integrate science, sports, and research into your language arts class.

Here's a short lesson on water and hydroelectric power generation that also gets into the concept that building dams isn't always a good thing to do. The lesson highlights some of the practical things that engineers do while describing the importance of energy transfer and hydroelectric power.

This interactive activity helps students classify plants and animals into a variety of categories: things with webbed feet, fish that lay eggs, mammals, animals, etc. Students must click on creatures that belong to the category displayed at the top of the grid, then check their work by summoning the help of a virtual spaceship. Visit the "Learn more" link to discover some interesting facts about the organisms in each of the categories. This activity is aligned to Benchmarks for Science Literacy.

Take these interactive "walks" in a virtual temperate forest of Virginia to learn about biodiversity, soil study, tree identification, seasonal change, forest mapping, amphibians, and more. The walks are part of a larger set of modules on Conservation done by the National Zoo. Each "walk" is available with or without narration. The download is quite lengthy for the narrated version during peak time periods, even over a broadband connection, but weaker readers can more easily understand this spoken version. The small links to each option are below the clip art icons with the descriptions. There are also Acrobat Reader files of teacher materials. Correlation to Virginia science standards is available.

Assign the students to take the "walks" to learn specific terms and concepts. You may want to start by modeling one of them on a projector. Note: If the download time is a problem, do them as a whole-class activity on a projector or interactive whiteboard. Once you have downloaded the "walk," it will run smoothly. Peak traffic on the site is likely between 11 am and 2 pm Eastern time due to traffic from throughout the U.S.