I cannot imagine what teaching would have been like before the internet came about. Searching through books, filing cabinets, and colleagues treasures to find that perfect activity or worksheet. Now it is so easy to find many (sometimes too many) activities, worksheets, and games for ANY topic in school. I decided that I would give you a list of the 20 websites I cannot live without. Some are directly related to teaching and others are for my enjoyment:)
1. PE Central is a website dedicated to physical education and getting students moving. There is a bank of over 2000 lesson ideas and much. much more!
2.National Library of Virtual Manipulatives is a math website where students in Grades K-12 can use virtual manipulatives to learn or review math concepts. Concepts covered are number & operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis, and probability.
3. IXL Math is another math related website but on this one students can earn awards for completing skills. IXL provides students with grade level questions to practice on specific topics. This website is for students in Pre-K to Grade 9. Students progress can be tracked and printout of their progress can be made.
4. Raz-Kids provides leveled readers to students. Students can record their voice and listen to see if they are a fluent reader. As students read books and take comprehension quizzes they will earn stars that they can later use to build their Raz-Rocket! My students love the space theme of this website.
5. Spelling City is where students can go to practice their spelling words. Without paying the membership fees students are limited to what activities they can do. I don't pay and my students still have fun and get the practice they need. Students use their own spelling words for all activities by quickly typing in their list words before they start any activities.
6. Starfall.com helps students with their reading and phonics skills. This website is perfect for students in Pre-K to Grade 2. It has great graphics and students love all the sound features.
7. TumbleBooks provides students with animated, talking picture books. This site has hundreds of books to choose from. This site will have your students asking to read books online.
8. Primary Games Arena is full of educational games for your students. Almost any school subject you can think of is covered with fun, exciting games. Students in any grade up to Grade 6 can spend time practicing needed skills.
9. Funology.com is what its name says...fun. The site is full of "weird science" that students will love. Also included on the site are jokes, facts, games and boredom busters. This site is a must for science!
10. Learning Page is free to join!!!! The site is full of themed worksheets and lesson plans that are useful to any teacher. On this site you will also find the popular Tommy Tales which my students love.
11. Scholastic I am sure I don't have to tell most of you about this website but it is one of my favorites. You can find lesson plans, books, forums, and more all directly related to teaching here.
12. Discovery Education Puzzle Maker is my favorite site for making word searches, crossword puzzle, and other educational puzzles. You put your own words or clues in so that the puzzles are connected to the topic you are teaching in class. You can take the puzzles and put them in a Word Doc. if you want to add graphics or customize the page.
13. The Canadian Teacher This one is for all my fellow Canadian teachers. This website has a ton of free items, teacher tools. forums, and articles related to teaching (of course)!
14. Ebay Okay this one is for my personal pleasure! I LOVE shoes and on ebay you can get them for unbelievable prices. I am addicted to buying things on ebay. I wonder if there is a support group for this:)
16. Amazon Books Enough said :)
17. Teachers Pay Teachers I am not putting this on my list just because I sell teacher resources here (shameless plug...lol) but because of the enormous number of free items. If you have never checked out TpT you should.
Right now there are 12872 free items and this number grows every minute.
18. iCLIPART This is where I get a lot of my clipart. It is all royalty free and there are over 7.8 MILLION clipart images on the site! This site is well worth the yearly subscription.
19. Lettering Delights Is my newest graphics obsession. I love this site for graphics, fonts, and alphabets. This site is a must when making worksheets, classroom signs, or pictures for my blog. Oh yeah and every time you buy something you get a code for a discount off your next purchase.
20. 1001 Free Fonts If you love cook fonts as much as I do you will love this website. It is exactly what the title says.... 1001 free fonts.
I hope you found some useful websites here. If you have any other sites that you cannot live without, please leave a comment and share with all of us.