Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

The Plagiarism Game from Lycoming College's Snowden Library is an interactive online tool designed to educate students about academic integrity and proper source citation. Through engaging scenarios and quizzes, students confront "plagiarism goblins" aiming to undermine academic honesty. This game helps students understand the importance of citing sources, recognizing common knowledge, and paraphrasing correctly, thereby reinforcing essential research and writing skills.

tag(s): evaluating sources (30), plagiarism (34)

PBS Kids Design Squad features four activities: Design, Build, Watch, and Games. In the Design section, you can draw scenes of the outdoors, fashion, sports, food, animals, and more. In the Building section, you can create buildings, machines, toys, and vehicles. The Watch section features videos on learning with the Design Squad, do-it-yourself, and clips. The fidget games from the Games section include learning about electricity, farm life, natural disasters, and floods.

tag(s): crafts (76), design (79), engineering (137), game based learning (206), machines (17), musical instruments (54)

Sesame Street Career Exploration Games is an interactive site that visits different careers. The first interactive activity features neighborhood jobs with Elmo and Abby. The highlighted jobs include scientists, firefighters, architects, musicians, delivery persons, and veterinarians. Other games include Elmo and Grover visiting a farm, Cookie Monster's Foodie Truck Game allowing for following a recipe, and Bert and Ernie's Super Salad for finishing food orders.

tag(s): careers (182), preK (289)

The YouTube Kids platform provides teachers a safe, engaging tool to incorporate kid-friendly video content into the classroom. The site offers a simplified and safer experience for children exploring videos, with customizable parental controls and personalized student profiles. There is also a free app available. Teachers can tailor content to specific age groups (4 and under, 5-8, or 9-12), ensuring that videos align with students' developmental levels. The platform also allows educators to share relevant content directly with students, manage screen time, and block inappropriate videos when necessary. With its smaller, curated content library and protections like automated filters and human reviews, YouTube Kids offers a secure way to enrich lessons with videos while fostering responsible media consumption habits in students.
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tag(s): enrichment (13), internet safety (116), personalized learning (10), playlists (8), video (267)

PBS Kids Work it Out Wombats contains games, videos, activities, and podcasts. One game featured, titled Road Repair, is an interactive game in which you repair a road with shapes. The other game, Story Emporium, allows you to create a story to read. The story asks you to select a who, what, and where. The Toy Maker enables the creation of a toy. The site also features the Wombats video series, printable activities, and podcasts. The podcasts run about eleven minutes long and include topics like campout playdates, detective playdates, snout party playdates, and cloud ship playdates. English and Spanish are available for both the games and activities.

tag(s): game based learning (206), interactive stories (22), podcasts (117), video (267)

Remini AI is a photo and video enhancement tool that uses advanced AI technology to restore old or blurry images, sharpen details, and improve resolution. The website offers a free version where you can enhance photos by watching ads, making it accessible for occasional use or small projects. This platform can be a useful resource for educational projects involving historical photos or creative presentations.
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tag(s): artificial intelligence (187), photography (131), Teacher Utilities (202)

Genially's Escape Room Game Templates provide educators with interactive and customizable digital escape room experiences. These templates allow teachers to create engaging, gamified learning activities where students solve puzzles, answer questions, and unlock clues to progress. The platform supports multimedia elements such as images, animations, and clickable objects, making lessons more immersive. Teachers can use these escape rooms for review sessions, team-building exercises, or subject-specific challenges across various grade levels.

tag(s): digital escapes (17), game based learning (206), gamification (86), puzzles (149)

Explore this valuable tool for educators; it offers curated collections of primary sources, historical documents, and research materials across a wide range of subjects. These guides help teachers incorporate authentic historical artifacts, government records, and literary works into their lessons, enhancing students' critical thinking and research skills. With ready-to-use teaching resources, topic guides, and bibliographies, this site supports interdisciplinary learning and provides rich content for inquiry-based projects in history, literature, civics, and more.

tag(s): african american (119), architecture (84), black history (135), branches of government (64), civil rights (219), civil war (141), conservation (101), energy (133), engineering (137), environment (251), foreign policy (13), hispanic (46), industrialization (12), jews (52), latin (23), literature (221), middle east (50), native americans (116), nutrition (140), photography (131), politics (118), population (52), religions (114), Research (88), sports (85), statistics (121), Teacher Utilities (202), women (154), womenchangemaker (39), womens suffrage (52)

NPR (National Public Radio) is a valuable resource for educators, offering high-quality news, podcasts, and articles on current events, culture, science, and history. The site features engaging audio stories, in-depth journalism, and educational content that can enhance classroom discussions and critical thinking skills. Teachers can use NPR's stories to connect lessons to real-world events, introduce students to diverse perspectives, and encourage media literacy. Additionally, NPR's student-friendly resources, such as NPR Ed and Student Podcast Challenge, provide interactive and project-based learning opportunities.

tag(s): civil rights (219), cultures (226), journalism (74), news (226), podcasts (117), scientists (71), space (220)

Britannica's main website is a comprehensive and reliable resource for teachers seeking accurate, well-researched information across a wide range of subjects. It offers encyclopedia articles, biographies, timelines, images, videos, and primary sources, making it a valuable tool for classroom instruction and student research. The site includes Britannica School, which provides leveled content for different grade levels, and Britannica Kids, designed for younger learners. With its fact-checked, up-to-date content, Britannica helps educators enhance lessons, support inquiry-based learning, and promote critical thinking skills.

tag(s): biographies (94), primary sources (118), Research (88), resources (83), timelines (57)

The Do Now Activity Generator uses AI to create five-minute activities that engage students of any grade or content area. After selecting to start, enter the learning objective and grade level to generate activities. The Do Now generator provides students with questions based on a possible scenario. Make changes and find additional ideas by selecting the Request Change button and providing details on changes.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (187), assessment (146), classroom management (118), Formative Assessment (73), questioning (36), Teacher Utilities (202), teaching strategies (52), thinking skills (17)

The "Ancient Roman Myths" page on Mr. Donn's website provides a collection of Roman myths and legends tailored for classroom use. It includes engaging retellings of popular stories, such as the founding of Rome by Romulus and Remus, and myths about Roman gods and goddesses. The site also offers teaching resources, activities, and links to explore how Roman mythology influenced Roman culture, religion, and daily life. This webpage is perfect for upper elementary and middle school students and is ideal for integrating mythology into social studies, language arts, or cross-curricular lessons. It's an excellent tool to help students explore the storytelling traditions of Ancient Rome while making connections to broader historical themes.

tag(s): italy (30), myths and legends (42), romans (52), rome (37)

The Nearpod blog post "How to Make a Digital Escape Room for the Classroom" provides educators with a step-by-step guide to creating engaging and interactive digital escape rooms. Learn how these activities can enhance critical thinking, collaboration, and problem-solving skills while making learning more immersive. The guide walks teachers through backward design planning, setting learning objectives, crafting clues and puzzles, and using digital tools like Google Forms, reviewed here and Nearpod, reviewed here to create an interactive experience. By following these strategies, teachers can design customized digital escape rooms that align with their curriculum and keep students actively engaged.

tag(s): collaboration (94), digital escapes (17), game based learning (206), problem solving (234), puzzles (149)

The Festisite Rebus Generator is an online tool that enables educators to transform text into engaging rebus puzzles, where words or phrases are represented through images and letters. This interactive resource supports multiple languages, including English, German, Danish, and Dutch, allowing diverse classroom applications. Teachers can input text, and the generator instantly creates a rebus puzzle, which can be customized further by using emoji characters or adding hints. Print the generated puzzles or share digitally, making them versatile for various educational activities, including digital escape rooms. Incorporating rebus puzzles into lessons can enhance students' problem-solving skills, reinforce vocabulary, and add fun to language learning.

tag(s): digital escapes (17), game based learning (206), puzzles (149)

View this cool tool that offers educators a suite of free tools to enhance classroom engagement through virtual escape rooms. These tools include a customizable Virtual Escape Room Timer for tracking game progress, a Random Group Generator to facilitate team assignments, a Team Name Generator to inspire creative team identities, and a Secret Agent Name Generator to add an element of intrigue to activities. Additionally, the site provides an Emoji Secret Message Maker and a Caesar Cipher Creator, enabling teachers to incorporate coded messages and puzzles into their lessons. These resources are designed to integrate seamlessly with existing curricula, fostering problem-solving skills and student collaborative learning.

tag(s): collaboration (94), digital escapes (17), game based learning (206), problem solving (234), puzzles (149)

The Getty website "Gods, Heroes, and Monsters: Mythology in European Art" is designed to help explore the intersection of mythology and art with their students. This resource includes detailed lesson plans that guide students in analyzing artworks inspired by Greek, Roman, and other cultural myths. Lessons cover topics such as identifying mythological characters, interpreting stories depicted in art, and understanding the cultural significance of myths. The curriculum features engaging activities like comparing myths across cultures, creating visual representations of mythological tales, and exploring the symbolism in famous artworks. With printable resources, discussion prompts, and project ideas, this curriculum supports teachers in fostering a deeper appreciation of mythology and its influence on art.

tag(s): europe (84), greek (47), myths and legends (42), romans (52)

This Getty website offers a curriculum, Expressing Emotions Through Art, designed to help primary teachers integrate art into their classrooms. This resource provides engaging lesson plans that teach students to identify, understand, and express emotions using visual art as a medium. Activities include analyzing famous artworks, creating their own art pieces, and discussing how emotions are conveyed through colors, shapes, and composition. The curriculum consists of printable materials, interactive exercises, and clear learning objectives, making it an excellent tool for fostering emotional literacy and creativity in young learners.

tag(s): art history (108), emotions (53), social and emotional learning (110)

The Getty Education website offers extensive curricula and classroom resources designed to integrate art into various subjects. Teachers can explore ready-to-use lesson plans, activities, and multimedia content tailored for diverse grade levels and subjects, such as history, language arts, and visual arts. The resources emphasize critical thinking, creativity, and cultural understanding, featuring topics like ancient civilizations, photography, and visual storytelling. These materials align with academic standards and include educator guides, worksheets, and interactive experiences, making them an invaluable tool for enriching classroom instruction through the power of art. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

tag(s): critical thinking (137), interactive stories (22), multimedia (55), photography (131), stories and storytelling (63)