WEB LINKS

Section 5: Creative Activities in Other Curricular Areas

Dramatic Play and Puppetry

Puppets from Everyday Materials

http://www.enchangedlearning.com/crafts/puppets/

This Web site presents puppet projects for preschool, kindergarten, and elementary

school children. The puppets are made from everyday materials, like egg cartons,

cardboard, paper, boxes, string, crayons, paint, glue, etc.

Legends & Lore.com—It’s All about Puppets

http://www.legendsandlore.com/puppet-resource.html

This Web site has lots of information on puppets: Teacher Resource Pages, Puppet Hints,

Puppet Scripts, instructions on making sock and sack puppets, as well as craft recipes for

paint, clay, bubbles, chalk, and papier mâché. Legends & Lore is dedicated to sharing

puppet tips, tricks, and stories.

Movement

KidsKorner

http://www.kidskorner.net/

Movement activities are provided for preschool through elementary levels.

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Perpetual Preschool—Music and Movement Area

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/music.html

This Web site contains songs, finger plays, movement activities, and music for preschool

children.

Teaching Strategies.com

http://www.teachingstrategies.com/

An early childhood site for teachers and parents of children from birth through grade 3.

Movement activities are found in Educator’s and Parent’s Web pages.

Music

Children’s Music Web

http://www.childrensmusic.org

Children’s Music Web is a non-profit organization dedicated to music for kids. It has

Web pages for kids, parents, educators, and musicians. Also included are radio lists,

links, discussion groups, and a message board.

Kiddidles

http://www.kididdles.com/

This is not your average kids’ site. Here you will find a Musical Museum, loaded to the

brim with almost 2,000 kids’ song lyrics, organized alphabetically, and by category with

a search engine. Visit Loopity Lee’s fun and games, send a Kiddidles Kard, share your

songs, stories, jokes, and pictures with other teachers (and students).

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Kindermusik.com

http://www.kindermusik.com

This site includes resources for parents, educators, and children. Musical activities

designed for newborns through age 7 are presented here.

Music for Young Children (MYC)

http://www.myc.com

MYC was established in 1980, created by a music teacher who is also an early childhood

and remedial specialist.

MuSICA, the Music & Science Information Computer Archive

http://www.musica.uci.edu/

This Web site presents research on music as related to behavior, the brain, and allied

fields.

Why Is the Mona Lisa Smiling?

http://library.thinkquest.org/13681/data/davin2.shtml

This Internet site was created by high school students on a Think Quest team. It is filled

with interactive learning opportunities for kids to discover DaVinci and listen to his

music, create multilingual musical postcards in one of 16 languages, take an online quiz,

or create one.

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Creating Music

http://www.creatingmusic.com

In this creative online environment, children of all ages can play with virtual musical

instruments as well as enjoy games and puzzles. This site strives to help children

compose music with the same joy and ease they experience while they’re engaged in

other creative activities, such as drawing or playing with blocks.

The National Association for Music Education

http://www.menc.org/

This national site for music educators offers standards for music education as well as

links to music education resources. Advocates for the importance of the arts in education

will find help here. The site also includes sections on Early Childhood and Teacher

Education (under the “Channels” heading).

The Classical Archives

http://www.classicalarchives.com/index.html

With tens of thousands of full-length recordings, the Classical Archives is an important

stop for students or teachers who are interested in classical music. The Features section

contains a collection of MP3s by well-known orchestras and instrumental soloists. Visit

the Archives to find biographies of thousands of composers, along with examples of their

music. You may find the Learning section useful as it is filled with tips on how to have

more fun with music.

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Science

Insectlore

http://www.insectlore.com/

This creative site includes science units for K–3 teachers. You can order live butterfly,

ladybug, worm and silkworm, and other insect kits for education and home use.

National Science Education Standards

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/4962.html

Sponsored by the National Academies Press, this site gives you access to all of the

National Science Standards.

Science Kids

http://www.sciencekids.com/

This Web site provides information on books that present the complete content of the

National Science Standards. It also has activities for children on the site.

BrainPOP.com—Activities Relating to National Standards

http://www.brainpop.com

BrainPOP.com is a Web site that features Math, English, Science, Social Studies, Health,

and Technology topics for grades K–8. Developed according to national standards

(NCTM, NSES & NCTE), BrainPOP’s hundreds of topics present students with an

engaging, enlightening, and entertaining view of a given subject.

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Teacher-Created Stuff

http://www.teachercreated.com/free

Teacher-Created Materials, an educational publishing company founded by teachers,

publishes supplementary resource materials with an emphasis on technology. The

company’s Web site features free lesson plans and activities for primary, intermediate,

and upper elementary students that include worksheets and Internet links. Also available

are seasonal art and activities, “brain teasers,” and a teaching tip of the month.

TeAchnology

http://www.teach-nology.com/

This site offers teachers free access to 19,000 lesson plans, 5,600 printable worksheets,

and over 200,000 reviewed Web sites, 50+ teaching articles, 60 teaching themes,

educational games, teaching tips, advice from experts, current educational news, teacher

downloads, Web quests, and teacher tools for creating exciting classroom instruction.

Clean Sweep U.S.A.

http://www.kab.org/site/PageServer?pagename=kids_zone

Enter the world of waste management at Clean Sweep U.S.A. There are six solid-waste

topics for students to explore. Garbage Pizza looks at what makes up our garbage and lets

students create their own “pizza graph” of everyday trash and then print the masterpiece.

The detailed lesson plans focus on web-based research and classroom activities for the

“Keep America Beautiful” campaign. Click on the “educators” icon in the upper-right

corner and go to “teacher background information” for teaching tools, resources and

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ideas related to garbage, source reduction, composting, recycling, waste-to-energy, and

landfills.

Windows to the Universe

http://www.windows.ucar.edu

The Windows to the Universe Web site includes images, movies, animations, and data

sets that explore Earth and space sciences and the historical and cultural ties among

science, exploration, and the human experience. Teachers can register as Windows to the

Universe Educators to receive a monthly newsletter highlighting aspects of the Web site,

new resources, upcoming professional development opportunities, and curriculum

activities.

Geography Zone

http://www.geographyzone.com

Geography Zone is a Web site designed to enhance the geography learning experience.

This Web site hosts The Geography Challenge, the world’s largest online geography

contest, as well as several other geography tools and facts to help make students enjoy

geography. The latest addition to Geography Zone’s series of educational tools is a new

online tool—an interactive global Internet classroom for all educators to use free of

charge. Teachers can apply this tool to their classroom with friendly student competitions

or geographic lesson plans.

Why Earth Science?

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http://www.agiweb.org/education/teachers/online_resources.html

The Why Earth Science? American Geological Institute publication, now available in

Spanish, promotes the importance of Earth science in K–12 education. The free

publication is designed to help teachers, parents, industry leaders, and geoscience

advocates explain the importance of Earth sciences in today’s educational environment.

Both the English and Spanish versions are available online.

SCIENCE WEB SITES FOR BUSY TEACHERS

Environmental Protection Agency Kid’s Site

http://www.epa.gov/kids

Is it garbage or recycling? This site offers activities and lesson plans on a variety of

environmental issues.

Great Science Sites for Children

http://www.ala.org/parentspage/greatsites/

This site offers windows to science experiences compiled by the Children and

Technology Committee of the association for Library Service to Children, a division of

the American Library Association.

National Wildlife Federation Kidzone

http://www.nwf.org/kids

This site provides a nice collection of activities that can help you bring the outdoors

inside your classroom.

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Online Metamorphosis

http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/jackhulland/projects/butterflies

Watch an online metamorphosis and learn about the life-cycle of the Painted Lady

Butterfly as it transforms from larva to caterpillar to adult butterfly.

Language Arts

Between the Lions: Get Wild about Reading

http://www.pbskids.org/lions/

Produced by WGBH and Sirius Thinking for PBD Kids, Between the Lions is funded in

part by a Ready to Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education through the

Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Lesson PlansPage.com

http://www.lessonplanspage.com

This Web site offers over 3,500 free lesson plans in language arts.

Writing.com

http://www.writing.com/

Stories.com has a multitude of user-created interactive stories. Read and add to any

number of the stories. You can even create your own story.

The Lion and the Unicorn

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http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/

This site presents a theme and genre-centered journal of international scope that offers a

serious discussion of literature for children. It has become noted for its informative

interviews with authors, editors, and other prominent figures in the field of children’s

literature.

Author & Title Resources for Teachers

http://www.teachersfirst.com/read-sel.html

TeachersFirst site offers great reading suggestions for students from preschool through

high school. The site also includes title and author resources for many of the most

popular children’s books. You can find lesson plans, author information, and title

resources for many of the books on your syllabus.

Setting up a Language Arts Program for Special Ed Students (Grades 1–8)

http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/SpecialEducation.html

Practical ideas to keep in mind when working with special ed students in the language

arts area.

Current Research on Language Development

http://www.childdevelopmentinfo.com

Click on Development, then on “Language Research.” This page lists short summaries

and Web links for many current research articles on language development.

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Reading Aloud

http://www.bookpals.net/cgi-bin/bookfinder/index.pl?page=dosndonts

An excellent site for suggestions on read-aloud techniques provided by the Screen Actors

Guild. Included are tips such as “Preview the book by reading it to yourself first…. Such

advance reading allows you to spot material you may wish to shorten, elaborate on, or

eliminate.”

Creative Language Arts Resources

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/

Literature-based theme unit ideas for preschool to 1st grade. Includes multi-sensory,

hands-on learning activities that use active involvement to meet individual learning

styles.

Scholastic Teacher Web Site

http://teacher.scholastic.com

This site contains online activities, lesson plans, and teaching strategies for Pre–K to

Grade 2, Grades 3–5 by subject area.

Learning Braille for teachers and parents

Braille Through Remote Learning: http://www.brl.org/

Hadley School for the Blind: http://www.hadley-school.org

American Foundation for the Blind: http://www.afb.org

American Printing House for the Blind: http://www.aph.org

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Mathematics

Association for Women in Mathematics (AWM)

http://www.awm-math.org

This Web site is sponsored by the AWM, a non-profit organization dedicated to

encouraging women in mathematical sciences.

Figure This! Math Challenges for Families

http://www.figurethis.org

This Web site is funded by the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of

Education, and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Activities and information

are related to the national standards. The site is suitable for grades K–12.

Math-Kitecture

http://www.math-kitecture.com/

Activities using architecture to do math. Apply scale to a class floor plan, analyze the

geometry of famous buildings, complete ratio and proportion activities with lesson plans.

Online Math Applications

http://library.thinkquest.org/4116/

Investigate real-world situations with a stock market simulation, musical math, the

contributions of famous mathematicians, and the cost of planning a trip.

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Math in Daily Life

http://www.learner.org/exhibits/dailymath/

Everyday math activities with teacher’s guide from Annenberg/CPB. Explore probability,

population growth, savings, and more. The Related Resources are a must-visit.

National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics

http://www.ncsmonline.org

This Web site, hosted by the Math Forum at Swarthmore College, is designed for those

interested in leadership in mathematics. It provides a listserv for exchanging ideas with

other teachers, a section on “What’s new in math education,” and links to other related

mathematics sites.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)

http://www.nctm.org

This is the Web site of the NCTM, the largest non-profit professional association of

mathematics educators in the world. The Web site offers information on NCTM, as well

as complete documentation of the national standards and related activities for each.

Show-me Center

http://www.showmecenter.missouri.edu/

This Web site is designed to support the national standards in mathematics. It has lesson

plans and activities for grades K–12.

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The Math Forum

http://mathforum.org/

Presented by WebCt.com, the e-learning Hub, a provider of e-learning systems, this Web

site contains a Student Center, Teacher’s Place, Research Division, and Parents and

Citizens section. Other sections include Math Resources by subject, Innovations in Math

Education, and Key Issues in Math.

What Good is Math?

http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/math/index.htm

Here’s a great resource from Math Alive for helping students understand “real-world”

math. Follow the strategies to calculate your grades (and predict grades, too), calculate

the sales on a shopping spree, plan a trip (maybe figure costs for that end-of-the-year

trip!), practice your fractions with recipes for a school party, and build your economics

IQ with checking and savings account activities.

Cool Math 4 Kids

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

Cool really is the word for this Web site! “The Amusement Park of Math and More”

section includes “Lemonade Stand,” which is a challenging simulation where students

have full control of decision-making, and dozens of Brain Benders to exercise math skills

with topics ranging from alphabet soup to geometry and math games to challenge

students preschool to adult. Every teacher will want to explore the Calculators activities

in the Amusement Park. There’s even a CoolMath Algebra area.

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U.S. Treasury—Kids

http://www.treas.gov/kids/

Here’s a true treasure of math resources for the classroom, and all of them are free links

to government Web sites designed especially for kids. The links of interest to the math

curriculum are the U.S. Mint, FirstGov, and Savings Bonds.

U.S. Mint—Hip Pocket Change will have your students investigating facts as they

study the Fifty States Quarters from the U.S. Mint. Lesson plans, interactive games, and a

Time machine of U.S. history make this a must-visit for K–12 classrooms.

FirstGov—This extensive Web resource links to specially designed kids’ sites for

dozens of government agencies and other organizations. Use the WebQuest to guide

student exploration of these informational Web sites.

Savings Bonds—Money Math: Lessons for Life is an interesting curriculum unit

on savings and bonds that is sure to inspire your students to explore the U.S. economy.

Math and Reading

http://www.education-world.com/a_books/books132.shtml/

Great books that can help reinforce math concepts for elementary students. Check out the

links at the end of each article for even more math stories.

Math and Children’s Literature

http://www.carolhurst.com/subjects/math/math.html

Articles, lessons, and book lists to link math and reading.

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Ask Dr. Math

http://mathforum.org/dr.math

Ask Dr. Math is a question and answer service for math students and their teachers. A

searchable archive is available by level and topic, as well as summaries of frequently

asked questions. This site is designed for K–12 students.

All Math.Com

http://www.allmath.com

Have some fun with math on this site. Here you will find fun and games, kid references,

kid resources, math articles, math help, math humor, teacher references, and resources.

K–5 Math Challenges—National Math Principles & Standards

http://auntymath.com

This kid-friendly site from the DuPage Children’s Museum consists of math problems,

written as stories about Aunt Mathilda. Students can post solutions and receive a reply

from Aunty Math about their solution strategy. Based on the NCTM Principles and

Standards for School Mathematics, the site has modifications and information about the

math involved in each problem for parents and teachers.

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics

http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/index.html

Web links sec5-16

Sponsored by Utah State University, this site offers virtual manipulative activities related

to the NCTM Standards for grades PreK–2, Grades 3–5, Grades 6–8 and 9–12. Activities

are related to the following standard areas: number and operations, algebra, geometry,

measurement, and data analysis and probability. It is supported by a three-year National

Science Foundation grant to develop a library of uniquely interactive, Web-based virtual

manipulatives or concept-tutorials for mathematics instruction with a K–8 emphasis.

Social Studies

KidInfo

http://www.kidinfo.com

This Web site has a student index, a section for young children, and a teacher index—all

good sources of social studies activities.

National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)

http://www.socialstudies.org/standards/

This Web site contains the complete manuscript of the National Social Studies Standards.

SocioSite

http://www.sociosite.net/index.php

Sociological information system based at the University of Amsterdam. This is the Web’s

reference for researching any subject in society.

U.S. Census Bureau Home Page

Web links sec5-17

http://www.census.gov/

A wealth of information on the U.S. can be found here. A great place for both teachers

and students to visit.

Education World—Activities for Social Studies Standards

http://www.education-world.com

Scroll down to “Reference Center” and click on “Education Standards.” Then, click on

“Social Studies Standards.” Under this section you will find activities for the following

social studies subjects: civics, economics, geography, U.S. history, or World history.

Topics are arranged by grade level under each subject.

Social Studies Lesson Plans and Teaching Strategies

http://www.csun.edu/~hcedu013/plans.html

This site contains 50 lesson plans for primary grade students (K–5). Click on “Lesson

Plans to Teachers” for teacher-written and classroom-tested lesson plans.

Lesson Planet

http://www.lessonplanet.com

On this site you can search from over 130,000 lesson plans by keyword and grade level.

From the home page in the Lesson Plans Directory, click on Social Studies. You can

choose from many lesson plan subcategories including Pre-K Resources, Lesson plans for

K–2 and 3–5, as well as specific lesson topics.

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Teachers.Net Lesson Bank

http://teachers.net/lessons/

This site, offered by the University of Phoenix Online contains teacher-submitted ideas

and lesson plans. The lesson plans are by grade levels as well as by subject area.

National Geographic Education

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/education

The National Geographic Education site has hundreds of lessons, activities, and resources

to support your study of world cultures and a class study of the diverse cultures in your

students’ community.

Health, Safety, and Nutrition

Children’s Defense Fund

http://www.childrensdefense.org/

The mission of the Children’s Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind® and to ensure

every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in

life, and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and

communities.

Healthy People 2010

http://www.healthypeople.gov/

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office of Public Health and

Science, Office of the Secretary, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Web links sec5-19

work to strengthen the disease prevention and health promotion priorities of the

department within the collaborative framework of the HHS agencies.

National Center for Health Statistics

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

NCHS is the federal government’s principal vital and health statistics agency. Since

1960, when the National Office of Vital Statistics and the National Health Survey merged

to form NCHS, the agency has provided a wide variety of data to monitor the nation’s

health.

National Network for Child Care—Good Times with Snacks

http://www.nncc.org/

Click on Early Childhood, then on Food, Nutrition and Health. Presented by Human

Development and Family Studies of Colorado State University Cooperative Extension,

this site is full of information on nutrition and food activities for teachers.

National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education

http://nrc.uchsc.edu/

National Health and Safety Performance Standards: Guidelines for out-of-home care

providers can be accessed at this site.

American Academy of Pediatrics

http://www.aap.org/

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This site of the American Academy of Pediatrics includes sections on Parenting, Health

Topics, and Professional Education Resources as well as many other topics.

Head Start Information and Publication Center

http://www.headstartinfo.org

Click on Information Center, then on Health Services, then on Health and Safety. On this

site you will find a list of over thirty sites which present health guidelines, information on

safety in child care, medical, healthcare and pharmaceutical information, parenting,

disease prevention, nutrition, and safety.

Clean Hands. Good Health.

http://www.nasn.org

http://soahec-nm.org/DownWithGerms.pdf

To learn more about hand hygiene and improving the health of students in your school

visit these two sites. Important facts about clean hands and good health, and ideas to

implement healthy practices can be found on these sites.

Bilingual Health Information

http://www.ncfh.org/pateduc.htm

The information on this site was originally developed for limited literacy Spanish- and

English-speaking patients. It offers basic health, nutrition, and lifestyles information in a

context which may be suitable for either students or parents in certain specific settings.

Lots of illustrations and minimal use of text help make these resources easy to use.

Web links sec5-21

National Network for Child Care

http://www.nncc.org

Childcare information is provided on this site by a host of government and education

agencies. It includes dozens of links, a specialist forum, and an event list.

Environmental Health Center—National Safety Council

http://www.nsc.org/ehc/links/kidslink.htm

This page presents Web links to many sites providing health and safety information,

activities, and research on health and safety.

Consumer Product Safety Commission

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/chldcare.html

Child Care Safety Checklist for Child Care Providers.

SafeUSA

http://www.safeusa.org/

Resources for reducing injury and deaths from accidents for youth in various settings.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

http://www.nichd.nih.gov

Health and human development information and latest clinical studies sponsored by the

NICHD.

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Puppets

http://family.go.com/tagsearch/puppets/

This site has a great variety of ideas that any teacher, whether a beginner or experienced,

could find very useful.

http://www.puppetools.com/index.php

A wonderful guide to making puppets and using them in your work, including ideas for

use in the curriculum, special education, and special projects.

http://www.puppeteers.org

The Puppeteers of America Web site

http://www.unima-usa.org

UNIMA-USA—The American chapter of Union Internationale de la Marionette, which

promotes international friendship through puppetry.

Healthful Web Sites

USDA National Nutrient Database

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search

This site is designed for people who want to track the calories, fat, cholesterol,

carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and about a dozen other nutrition variables in their

diets. The search function is organized by key word ingredients and food groups. Be

prepared to be specific in your search requests. For example, searching for apples in all

food groups yields 41 different products.

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Diabetic Lifestyle

http://www.diabetic-lifestyle.com

Health updates, recipes, menus, and practical information on living with diabetes are

provided on this site. Visitors also can find informative articles in the “What’s Hot”

section on topics such as how to control diabetes while in the hospital, tips for people

who are newly diagnosed, diabetic meal plans, and how to handle stressful holiday

seasons.

Change One Diet.com

http://www.changeone.com

This interactive site supports the Reader’s Digest ChangeOne Diet and Fitness Plan and

includes a wealth of tools, inspirational stories, and suggestions to help visitors attain and

maintain a healthy weight. Unregistered visitors can calculate their BMI’s and daily

calorie burns and read articles on health, fitness and motivation. Registered members

receive weekly meal plans, healthful recipes, and physical activity guides.

American Academy of Dermatology

http://www.aad.org

The Public Resource Center section of this site provides information on skin, hair, and

nail care and conditions. Visitors can learn about acne treatments, tanning dangers,

cosmetic surgery, skin cancer, rashes, psoriasis, warts, and anti-aging procedures. They

also can locate a dermatologist in their area.

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