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Education World | Connecting educators to what works

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Education World, connecting educators to what works. K-12 education resources, lessons and news. Classroom strategies and innovation for teachers all over the world

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World's most popular online marketplace for original educational resources with more than four million resources available for use today.

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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Discovery Education | Your Daily Learning Platform

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Discovery Education inspires educators to go beyond traditional learning with award-winning digital content and professional development. Learn more today!

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ClassDojo helps teachers, parents, and students build amazing classroom communities.

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Science & Social Studies Mini-Lessons & Informational Texts | DK Instant Expert

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Become an instant expert on science and social studies topics featured in DK's award-winning reference series. Find whiteboard compatible mini-lessons and the reference material you need to reinforce key concepts.

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Instantly access over 40,000 of the best books & videos for kids on Epic

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It's time to improve literacy skills during social studies instruction and ensure that readers of all abilities have what they need to access grade-level social studies concepts.

Join us on Thursday, December 7 for a look at scaffolded materials that provide extra literacy support while building key social studies concepts and skills.

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Newsela | Content and assessment platform

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Content Aligned To National & State Standard, Flexible To Support Relevant Curriculum. Find the Perfect Piece Of Content For Lessons. Go beyond the book.

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Teachers' #1 Choice for Current, On-Level Nonfiction

Over 6 million students read Scholastic News every week! See why so many teachers rely on this exceptional magazine to engage their students, build nonfiction-reading skills, and increase content-area knowledge.

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Teach current events in your elementary classroom, grades 1-6.

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We have launched the new ReadWriteThink.org and we would love to get your feedback: Give Feedback

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Spellzone - the online English spelling resource

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The Spellzone resource is for students aged six to adult in school, at work and at home. It is also suitable for students learning English as a foreign language and for those with dyslexia. The Spelling Ability Test provides all students with a baseline score and a personalised ‘Course Pathway’. This includes teaching, tests and activities from the Spellzone Starter and Main Courses.

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Upgrade From VocabularySpellingCity to Vocabulary A-Z | Learning A-Z

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Vocabulary A-Z offers everything millions of teachers and students love about VocabularySpellingCity, plus so much more!

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Find online activities to learn and practice English. Download a printable version [PDF] of this resource list.

Free ESOL Websites
These general ESOL websites offer many types of activities (grammar, listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, reading, etc.) for language learners of all levels.
Activities for ESL Students Thousands of quizzes, exercises and puzzles for English language learners of all levels. Provided by the Internet TESL Journal.

ManyThings.org Find quizzes, word games, word puzzles, proverbs, slang expressions, vocabulary study, pronunciation practice, listening practice and many other activities for learners of all levels. Check the Daily Page for links to new activities each day.

Dave's ESL Café - Stuff for Students Lessons and quizzes to practice grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, idioms, and slang. Communicate with English language students and teachers around the world using the Help Center and Student Forums.

BBC Learning English Activities using videos, music, news vocabulary and more. Listening, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary practice. Includes a special section for Business English. Note: This is a British English site.

engVid Free English video lessons on many topics, including grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, writing, business English, and more. Some lessons include quizzes.

Englishtown Free English lessons and study tips for beginner to intermediate level learners.

Social Networking

Livemocha Basic English courses - levels 101 to 202 - include listening, speaking, reading and writing practice. Practice with native English speakers and offer help to others learning your language. Registration with an email address is required.

Yappr.com Improve your English with videos and word games, practice pronunciation, and chat with other English language learners around the world. Many activities are free, but some videos and learning tools are only available to paying members.

Dictionaries

Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary An online American English dictionary for English language learners. Find definitions and example sentences and hear the correct pronunciation of a word. Try some of the vocabulary and pronunciation exercises.

The Internet Picture Dictionary Look up a word or browse by category (animals, colors, kitchen, etc.) in this basic picture dictionary. Use the activities list to play spelling games and review words.

Cambridge Dictionaries Online Search the Learner's, Advanced Learner's, American English, Idioms, and Phrasal Verbs Dictionaries from Cambridge University Press. The Advanced Learner's Dictionary includes audio pronunciations in American and British English.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online Find definitions and sample sentences. Follow the word of the day and browse word families to increase your vocabulary.

Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Contains over 6,000 images. Look up a word alphabetically or browse by theme (e.g. earth, house, society).

Grammar & Writing

About.com Basic English 25 lessons on essential English grammar points.

About.com > English as 2nd Language Lessons and advice for all levels of English language learners. The Browse Topic list on the left side of the page is a good place to start.

Englishpage.com Free grammar lessons and interactive exercises. Lots of practice with verb tenses and prepositions.

ESL Blues Grammar lessons and quizzes for pre-intermediate to high-intermediate language learners. You can take a quiz to identify your errors and identify what you need to practice.

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University Click on General Writing to find general information on the writing process and academic writing samples. See the OWL Exercises for practice with grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure.

Eslbee.com This advanced composition site for non-native speakers of English offers model essays, practice organizing ideas, and grammar exercises.

Edufind English Grammar Free grammar lessons and quizes with examples for practice.

Listening Practice

Voice of America Special English News stories written for non-native speakers of English, including current world news and feature stories on education, health, and other topics. Read along with the text of the story while you listen or watch video news stories with English subtitles.

Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab Listening practice and quizzes for all levels of English language learners. Listen to everyday conversations or practice listening for academic purposes / TOEFL with lectures and interviews.

Real English Short video lessons using interviews with real people filmed on the streets of New York, Miami Beach, and Seattle. There are lessons for English learners at different levels. Exercises let you record your voice and compare your English to the native speakers in the videos or to the teacher.

ESL Bits Listen to audiobooks, news stories, short stories, songs and radio dramas. Choose between faster or slower listening speeds and read along with the texts of the stories and songs. For intermediate and advanced learners.

English Central Practice sounds by watching videos and recording videos of your own voice.

Pronunciation Practice

English Pronunciation Practice (ManyThings.org) Practice sounds with the minimal pair quizzes and sentence rhythm and intonation with the Listen & Repeat Machine.

Eva Easton's Authentic American Pronunciation Lessons on sounds, word and sentence stress, linking, contractions and other pronunciation topics.

Perfect Pronunciation Exercises Practice sounds, syllable stress, and sentence intonation with the exercises on the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary website.

Sounds of English Lessons and exercises on sounds and word and sentence stress.

Reading

California Distance Learning Project - Adult Learning Activities Read and listen to news stories about family, school, health, and other topics. Vocabulary and reading comprehension activities are included for each story.

English Learning Centre Study Zone (University of Victoria) Interactive reading and grammar activities for upper-beginner to advanced level English language learners.

An online magazine for English language learners. Articles are written by English learners from around the world.

Literacy Net Story Archives Read news stories adapted for new readers and English language learners. There are stories and reading and vocabulary exercises on many topics, but no new stories have been added since 2005.

TOEFL

TOEFL at ETS.org The official source for information about the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Register for the test, download sample test questions and tip sheets for the TOEFL iBT.

English-Test.net Many free interactive TOEFL listening tests and vocabulary exercises are available if you ignore the advertisements.

There are also TOEFL preparation courses and practice tests available in the Learning Express Library database. With a valid NYPL library card number, you can use these courses and tests from home.

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Find online activities to learn and practice English.

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Congratulations to the National Winners!

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Council for Exceptional Children | The premier association for special education professionals

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Council for Exceptional Children | The premier association for special education professionals

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The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of children and youth with disabilities and/or gifts and talents.

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The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

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Index - National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

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National Council for the Social Studies is pleased to offer a limited number of registration scholarships to educators who have never been able to attend the NCSS Annual Conference in the past for lack of financial support. Teachers from across the United States and its territories are welcome to apply.

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National Education Association's Read Across America is a time to celebrate a nation of diverse readers. I love celebrating Read Across America with my students and promoting my love for reading. Whether it's listening to a read aloud, listening to...

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Live Love and Teach is a blog by a new teacher offering student-teaching tips, seeking advice from others, sharing Classroom Cricut projects, lessons, and more!

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Are STEAM Challenges really worth the time?

Are STEAM Challenges really worth the time?

This is a question I've asked when I see a STEAM activity or challenge. I'll be honest. I've heard of them and the activities look fun but how am I supposed to do that and teach my curriculum? Am I right?

Let's take a look at a simple STEAM Challenge that most of us have seen before:

Use foil to make a boat that can hold money.

It seems a little pointless right? Like, okay-neat, then what? In a nutshell, here's why it's actually a really purposeful activity to use in the classroom.

To begin an activity like this, you start by first doing a see, think and wonder.

Students should look at the boat and tell what they see. For example, they see it has sides and a floor.

Students should think about why the boat has these parts.

Then, they can begin to wonder about things like why does a boat have these parts and how does it help the boat?

This skill is an important skill to develop critical thinking. We ask kids to critically think about the text they read and the math problems they solve all of the time. It's a muscle that needs strengthened and this is a fun way to engage them in that act.

A see, think, wonder can be completed as an individual task first and then students can share their thoughts as a small or large group. You can also do think, see, wonders using only conversation and no individual think time.

After students practice developing their critical thinking skills you can give them their materials and their challenge -or- you can model how to create the boat using foil. I think all of this depends on the age and abilities of the kids you're teaching.

Once, students create their boat then they get to test it out! This is where a little Growth Mindset Practice comes in! I like to start having these conversations at the beginning of the school year but you can start ANYTIME!

As students create their boat, they will get the opportunity to TEST it out. They will identify if their design works or not. Chances are it will have a flaw, which is great! Kids can then look at it and think things like, "What isn't working? What do I need to add?" More practice with those critical thinking skills.

If students get it right away, great! Now, let's add a little weight. Give students coins or another manipulative to set inside their boat. How much weight can their boat hold? Does it sink when weight is added? Why? If it works again, amazing! Now let's see if we can design a boat that's in a different shape. Will the boat still float? Will it be better?

The thought processes that are involved in STEM Challenges are invaluable.

To incorporate content into this challenge students can:

Read a book about how boats work

Write about their stem process (How to writing)

Write a story about someone who spent a day in their boat.

Weigh the items in their boat

Compare the number of items in classmates boats

Identify a problem they were having and how they found a solution - or tried to find a solution

Draw a picture and label

Hey, Little Ant! Letter A Activities

I wanted to pop in to share a fun activity with you that I made for my children (ages 4 and 2). We began doing a little more intentional learning each day with a learning board that I put in their playroom. Then, each day we do some sort of math or letter activity.

During letter A week, we read the book "Hey, Little Ant!"

My son was super interested in this story. It made him think hard about squishing those ants. :)

The first activity is the letter a squish activity. All you need to do is print off the shoes that you see above and cut them out. When cutting them out you will want to leave strips of paper on each side. You'll wrap them around to create a place for kids to place their fingers. They wear the shoes on their hands like you see in my photo below.

Once the shoes are created, you'll cut out the letter cards to create little tents. Then, it's time to squish! I told Ezra (my son) just to squish the letter A. He had a blast! He wanted more! :)

When the letter squishing was finished, the kids did activities using dabbers.

My two year old did the dabber activity with the large letter A. My four year old did the activity with multiple ants. He squished only the ones with the letter A.

This activity was one we did at the end of the week.

On the first day that we learned about the letter A, the kids worked on their coloring with an ant.

On a different day they also did a ripped paper apple. The kids were given a red piece of construction paper and they ripped it into small pieces. They glued the ripped pieces of paper inside the apple.

Our last letter A activity that I did with the kids was an astronaut craft. You can find the astronaut pieces that you need here: Glued to My Crafts

We used popsicle sticks to make the letter a. Then, the kids colored and cut out their astronaut helmet. I cut out little gloves and boots for their astronauts. They glued these on too. Afterwards, they wanted to do more. We made "space." We used foil for stars!

If you're interested in grabbing these letter A activities, you can get them by clicking the picture below!

If you're looking for more letter practice, check out the blog post below.

Letter Review and Handwriting Practice

The beginning of first grade is so special. It's also a time when we have to get the ball rolling. There is so much to teach in first grade, but there is a lot to review too! At the beginning of first grade, I always notice that there are students that need a little refresher on a few important skills:

1. Letter formation

2. Letter identification

3. Letter sounds

4. Simple sentence structure

5.... building stamina

6. Finger SPACES!

I created a handwriting journal that covers all 6 of those concepts. In about 25 minutes a day, for 26 days, you are able to hit multiple areas with the ideas I am going to outline below.

I created the Handwriting Practice journal to have students practice their handwriting. I added sentences to it to learn about sentence structure too.  When I began using this resource in my classroom, it quickly dawned on me that I can use this precious time to review letter identification and letter sounds. I used the Handwriting Practice journal to do all of that.

I wanted to give you a glimpse into how I cover all 5 concepts in just 20 minutes. Here is how my lessons go:

1. Introduce the letter for the day. I write the letter in the middle of a blank piece of colorful paper. We review the sound. Then, we come up with words that begin with that letter. I write the words on the paper. We try to take up as much space as possible. This pages are hung up on our classroom walls and stay there for the year. The students refer to them ALL of the time. Student made word walls for the win!

2. I model the formation of the letter using a dry erase sleeve and the traceable a large letter that is included in the product. After I model it, a student comes up and does it in front of the class. They LOVE this.

3. I present 4-5 scrambled words that when unscrambled create a sentence. We identify the word that begins with a capital and we identify the punctuation in the sentence. We place those words in their correct spots. We read the words and then place the other scrambled words in their correct places. The students read the sentence.

4. We discuss the meaning of the sentence (simple comprehension). We draw a picture on the whiteboard of the sentence trying to include a setting and the characters. I model & eventually just remind how to write the sentence using finger spaces. I also tell students that when they are practicing their letters, to also use finger spaces. Then, I don't have to give them a certain "number" of letters to write.

4. We review what we just learned and then students begin to independently work on their handwriting page. I set my timer for 15 minutes and encourage them to work the whole time. This is where students work on their working stamina. At the beginning, 15 minutes is a little long, so we take brain breaks after about 5-7 minutes.

That's how simple it is to fit ALL of those concepts in, in about 20-25 minutes. Each day is predictable and effective. This is one of my favorite things to use at the beginning of the year. All of these skills need repetition and this is SO practical and effective.

If you're interested in this file, click below!

If you want FREE word wall printables with pictures to use to review letter sounds with your students, click the picture below!

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The Teacher Talk • Teaching blog by Jessica Hursh

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TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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edshelf - A socially-curated discovery engine of websites, mobile apps, desktop programs, and electronic products for teaching and learning.

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A socially-curated discovery engine of websites, mobile apps, desktop programs, and electronic products for teaching and learning. First time here?

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Many books do not share diversity like many schools do. This book shares an important part of African American culture. I am going to try to fill up my classroom library with diverse books of all kinds.

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Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing By: Judy Blume

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Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing By: Judy Blume

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This was a book I read over and over as a kid. I absolutely loved reading this story (and was jealous that the main character got a turtle).

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This book is a staple in most classrooms now. It follows a special boy that is a little different than most and eventually he finds his confidence and voice. This can speak to so many students in a positive way and influence them to embrace what makes them different as well as accepting others.

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This is a book containing diversity. It follows a boy from India and his transition to living in America. In the classroom I was student teaching in, they read this book and the students loved it!

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This is a book follows a student that just moved from Korea. She wants to use a typical American name, so she chooses her own name. Eventually, she uses her real name and the other students think it is super cool. I want my students to always feel like they can be themselves in my classroom. I hope this book can show the students that no matter what, they can be authentic and we will all accept them.

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Nurture a Love of Reading and Learning

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Kids explore their interests in a fun, safe, kid-friendly environment

See what your kids are reading and learning on Epic!

"All my favorite books!" ~ Emily, Age 8

Epic! is Free for Elementary School Teachers and Librarians!

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online access fun thousands children great kids ebooks books

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Instantly access 35,000 high-quality books for kids

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The leading digital library for kids offering unlimited access to 35,000 of the best children's books of all time. Sign up for a free 30 day trial to instantly access high-quality online books for kids, ebooks, audio books, quizzes, videos, and more.