WebQuest

I have just recently published a WebQuest regarding the exploration of the new world.  It is for fifth grade and a wonderful resource to use in your classroom. I hope you enjoy!

WebQuest Link: https://files.oakland.edu/users/smraffa/web/index.html

Fun Fonix

Need help devising a worksheet for a phonics lesson? Well Fun Fonix does just that! With such ease any educator is able to make up their own personal phonics worksheet for their students. You are able to pick the layout, the type of puzzles involved, the pictures, and most importantly the content of your worksheet. There are also several games on the website for students to play in order to strengthen their reading, spelling, and phonics skills.

Looking Into the Past

The Library of Congress is full of historical documents for educators to use when devising a Social Studies unit or lesson. There are prints and photographs, historic newspapers, maps, manuscripts, films, sound recordings, and more to be explored on this site. This website is also a great resource to students who are conducting research for a Social Studies paper. Students will be able to explore moments of history and learn more about the world around them.

Discovery Education

Looking to start a new unit in Social Studies but don’t know where to begin? Well Discovery Education is the website for you! Here, there are many resources for educators to use. There are lesson plans, worksheets, brain boosters and more! Teachers can also develop their own puzzle worksheets for their students to study from. Educators are not the only ones who would benefit from using this website; administrators, teachers, and students all have specific resources ministered to them. Other materials found on this website include curricular resources, digital textbooks, assessment services, and professional development.

Thinkfinity

Thinkfinity is a place where educators can get together and share their knowledge with each other. It is an online professional learning community that is free for anyone to use. This website is home to 60,000 educators and experts in curriculum enrichment with hundreds of resources for grades K-12. All of these resources are coordinated to fit the common core and state standards. Blogs, discussions, and groups are available for educators to connect and collaborate with one another. Learning is endless through this website. 

PBS Learning Media

PBS Learning Media is a great resource for educators to use. This website has science, mathematics, English language arts, literacy, art, health and physical education, social studies, world languages, and professional development resources for educators to use at the click of a button. Underneath each of these subjects are arrays of videos, webpages, galleries, audios, interactives, and documents that have specific grade levels they cater towards. If you are looking for a specific topic you can easily type in the keyword into the search bar and endless amounts of resources will come into view. PBS Learning Media is definitely a website that should be a go to when developing ideas and content for a lesson plan.

Cents of Color

Who knew painting could be so educational! Cents of Color is a website where students can learn about our nations' currency and the history behind our 50 states. On this website, you can pick any of the 50 state quarters to color and learn about.

There are other games and activities that students can do on this website that are related to coins and the history they have with the United States of America.

Spelling Made Fun!

Spelling doesn't have to be rigorous or boring for your students, with Spelling City.com your students can learn their spelling words in a fun and engaging way. There are free activities for children to take part in where they learn words through reading, writing, and spelling games. Spelling City not only has resources for children, but there are also great resources for teachers and parents.

Free Printables for Reading Comprehension

Graphic organizers are a great way for students to stay organized and construct meaning to what they are reading. At Scholastic.com there are endless amounts of resources for educators to use regarding reading comprehension. There are, reading comprehension,organizer patterns, character analysis and setting, and  plot and sequence worksheets for students to use while they are reading. Also available on the website are reading records, checklists for students to use before reading, while reading, and after reading, and teacher-student reading conference forms. The best thing is that all of these resources are FREE!!

The International Reading Association Presents: Read, Write, Think

Read Write Think is a wonderful resource for parents and educators to use for language arts and reading instruction. This website offers free classroom resources including lesson plans, calendar activities, student interactives, printouts, and mobile apps. There are plentiful professional development resources to be found as well as parent and after-school resources. 



While on this website, I stumbled upon a great activity called "A Gem of a Poem." The activity involves students writing diamante poems:
Line 1 is a noun
Line 2 has two adjectives describing the noun in Line 1
Line 3 has three verbs related to the noun in Line 1
Line 4 has four nouns: two relating to Line 1 and two relating to Line 7 
Line 5 has three verbs related to the noun in Line 7 
Line 6 has two adjectives describing the noun in Line 7
Line 7 is a noun opposite to Line 1

Example:   
                                                   Dog
                                              Playful cute
                                      digging chasing hiding
                                  Dig chasing eating sleeping
                                       Licking eating playing
                                              Sleepy lazy
                                                    Cat

This poem is a great way for students to be creative while they practice using the correct parts of speech in their writing. 









                            

Turtle Diary: Re-Imagination of Learning

I have recently stumbled upon this great educational website, turtlediary.com. This website is full of educational games, stories, videos, pictures, crafts and worksheets for students and teachers to use. The website caters to preschool through fifth grade students and provides fun and easy ways for children to learn. Turtle Diary's mission is to help kids develop a comprehensive understanding of concepts in Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Creativity and Logic, and Science. There are puzzle games, building games, animated lesson plans, interactive storybooks, printable worksheets, and many arts and craft activities for children to make. There is a great section of this website titled "Biographies" where students can read about historical figures and their impact on the world. This portion of the website is a great way for students to learn more about history in a fun and engaging way. Turtle Diary is a wonderful resource for elementary educators to use.




I hope you'll check this website out soon!