A to Z Teacher Stuff

This is an amazing resource for teachers. A to Z Teacher Stuff features lesson plans and lesson plan resources, thematic units, themes, classroom activities, teacher tips, web projects, discussions, educational ideas and great links to other websites for teachers.

abcteach.com

abcteach.com is an outstanding site which provides busy elementary teachers with all kinds of printable forms for their thematic units. See the wonderful September themes. Especially interesting for ESL teachers are the flashcards, flags, maps and handwriting samples.

American Rhetoric

Ask Jeeves

Teachers and parents can research all kinds of questions and compile web resource2s for students at this invaluable site. There is also an AskJeeves for Kids where students can do their own research.

Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids

This informative site has a wide range of useful information for teaching students in Grades K-12. Listen to Yankee Doodle Dandy and learn the background to this famous American song which dates from before the Revolutionary War. A community map with a post office, police station, and hospital is an excellent teaching resource for students in K-1. Access quick facts about Washington D.C. for students in grades 2-4. Try the games and puzzles about U.S. presidents for grades 5-8.

Betsy Ross Homepage

Take a virtual tour of the Betsy Ross House, read the story of her life. See flags from various times in American history, and learn some flag trivia.

Biomes of the World

This website takes students into the different biomes of the world. Explore rainforest, temperate dediduous forests, tundras, grasslands and taigas. Investigate freshwater and marine ecosystems. This site makes a good addition to science units on these topics.

Boggle's World

Boogles' World is back!! This is a great resource for ESL and EFL teachers who teach ELLs Grade 5 through adult. There are a wide variety of activities that include flashcards, worksheets, wordsearches, songs, and role plays.

Christmas.com

A website for all things Christmas. In their own words : "Christmas.com is here to help you share your personal Christmas experience with family, friends, co-workers and others worldwide." A special 'Worldview' page has information on how the Christmas holiday is celebrated in over 200 countries worldwide.

CREATE

CREATE, the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners, conducts research designed to address challenges in the education of ELLsin the middle grades. CREATE is investigating the features of instruction and text modifications that facilitate learning for ELLs and delivering professional development that helps teachers implement effective classroom practices to help ELLs achieve high standards.

CREATE

CREATE is the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners (CREATE) that conducts research designed to address challenges in the education of English language learners (ELLs) in the middle grades (Grades 4-8). CREATE is investigating the features of instruction and text modifications that facilitate learning for ELLs (e.g., traditional instruction v. ESL-enhanced instruction, teacher guided instruction v. group work, traditional text v. modified text), designing, testing, and delivering professional development that helps teachers implement effective classroom practices to help ELLs achieve high standards, and disseminating information on the research to a broad audience using a variety of methods.

CREATE

CREATE, the Center for Research on the Educational Achievement and Teaching of English Language Learners, conducts research designed to address challenges in the education of ELLsin the middle grades. CREATE is investigating the features of instruction and text modifications that facilitate learning for ELLs, designing, testing, and delivering professional development that helps teachers implement effective classroom practices to help ELLs achieve high standards.

CultureGrams 2001

CultureGrams (formerly Culturgrams) have been around for over 25 years and remain a reliable source for information about people from 177 countries. The individual texts are written by professional degree-holding natives or long time residents of the various countries. CultureGrams can be ordered individually or in area sets. There is a 30% educational discount. Also available: A CD ROM of 177 countries for $119.00

Dave's Snowflake Page

Use this creative resource2 for winter activites with students of all ages. There is a special section just for kids with snowflake patterns and easy-to- follow directions.

Discovery School.com Lesson Plan Library

Find hundreds of original lesson plans, all written by teachers for teachers, at this terrific website. Easy to use pull-down menus help you to browse by subject, grade, or both. .

Dr. Jean's Songs and Activities for Young Children

Dr. Jean's is one of the best free websites for Preschool Teachers. Look for lessons, teaching ideas, themes and resources. Her "Links" page will take you to many other excellent sites.

Education World

This dynamic site is a must for all teachers. It provides an educational search engine for the World Wide Web, lesson plans and curriculum, education news, and a set of detailed links on topics relevant to education.

Enchanted Learning

Enchanted Learning is a children's educational web site which is designed to capture the imagination while maximizing creativity, learning, and enjoyment. This website contains a wealth of pictures, information, and charts for science and social studies. Until recently everything on the site was free to teachers. Now many of the thematic units are only available to members. Membership is $25.00 and well worth the cost.

Golden Legacy Homepage

This site is an excellent resource for students in grades 4-12. There are illustrated history magazines about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Frederick Douglass and inventors Latimer & Woods. The comic book style is very appealing to middle and high school students. You need to be patient while the site is loading, however.

groundhog.org

This is the official site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. Take your K-4 students to discover the history of Groundhog Day and meet Punxsutawney Phil. Your young ESL students will love hearing the Punxsutawney crowd shouting,"Phil, Phil." See Phil's predictions for the last 100 years.

History Wiz.com

History Wiz.com comprises a huge number of resources for students. Enhance your lessons with this impressive site .

Humanising Language Teaching

"Humanising Language Teaching" is a free downloadable magazine for Secondary and Adult ESL/EFL teachers. It is published by Durham University in the U.K. This magazine is full of interesting articles for all ESL/EFL teachers. Check it out!

Interactive Unit Planner

Go to English Online and click on the interactive unit planner. The unit planner provides an online template, prompts, and resources to help you plan your thematic units. The best news is that its free!

Jamestown Online For Kids

Have your class go online to participate in a virtual Jamestown adventure. They will become Jamestown colonists and use resources to make decisions. Will they fare better than the original Jamestown colonists?

Jan Brett's Homepage

Created by children's author Jan Brett, this website contains outstanding activities and materials to use with her books. The wonderful illustrations make it a very special place for teachers of students in grades K-2. I was so inspired by the materials, I created a new thematic unit to go with "The Mitten."

Josie's Poetry

Josie's Poetry has a wealth of material for your ESL classes of all ages. There are hundreds of original poems with voice recordings, the work of poet Josie Whitehead.

Journey North

Engage students in the exciting study of wildlife migration. Students from all over the United States and Canada join this journey and take part in the actual data collection.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

Kathy Schrock’s guide for educators is part of DiscoverySchool.com This preeminant site contains an amazing 1600 carefully selected resources for teachers. Also included are Puzzlemaker.com, Science Fair Central, Quiz Center, and Dictionary Plus.

Kids Domain

Kids Domain has a great number of wonderful resource2s for teachers of children from pre-K to 12. Many are sponsored by a commercial enterprise but they are worth looking at. I really like some of the free government booklets for kids such as the Bicycle Helmet safety book put out by the NJ Dept of Ed. There are also some great games for kids.

Liberty's Kids

PBS: Liberty's Kids contains ideas on how to make life in Colonial America relevant to youth today and key reasons for the War of Independence. It introduces your students to famous Americans of the times and helps them compare life in the 1800s with life in 21st century.

makebeliefscomix.com

Encourage your English language learners to write. Visit makebeliefscomix.com and have your students create their own comic strips. It's a wonderful resource to spur students of all ages to read,write,and communicate their ideas and to practice English.

Many Roads to Japan

This exciting book by Robert W. Norris can be downloaded in PDF or HTML form. It is aimed at low intermediate (or above) high school or adult ESL students. There are over 50 links, several pictures, comprehension and discussion/essay questions and Norris' reading of the answers to the questions at the end of each chapter. Check out this innovative project.

Mars Student Imaging Program

This site is sponsored by NASA. It contains a great deal of information and materials for students and teachers, including a 131-page book of activities. Students can work from their classrooms to help characterize different aspects of Mars. This information is good for students in grades 5-12.

Midnight Rider: Paul Revere Virtual Museum

This informative site is comprised of 5 Exhibit Halls including the real story of Paul Revere's Ride, the Longfellow poem, information on Colonial Boston and music from the Revolutionary War.

Mother's Day Activities

Mother's Day is on the second Sunday in May in most of the countries that celebrate this day. Look at these activities provided by hotchalk.com

National Geographic

This site not only provides you with geographic and historical concepts, issues and events but it also links to countless other web sites.

National Geographic's Eye in the Sky

If want want to teach your students about the natural disasters that have occurred in the U.S. over the past year, go the Eye in the Sky. Hurricanes, wildfires, volcanoes, earthquakes are featured in this section of National Geographic's excellent site.

NBC Archives

Listen to John F. Kennedy speak from the Berlin Wall, watch Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Teachers should take advantage of the rich resources offered by NBC News.

Online Science Fair Handbook

Created by River Edge, N.J. teacher Sandy Lautz, this outstanding online Science Fair Handbook is designed to help teachers, parents and students prepare for a school Science Fair. From picking a topic to conducting an experiment, this comprehensive guide is a must for holding a successful Science Fair.

Plimouth Plantation

This site is a must when teaching a unit about Thanksgiving. Take a virtual tour to this re-creation of a 1627 Pilgrim Village. Find yourself immersed in the life and culture of the Pilgrims and of the Indigenous Wampanoag. ELLs will love comparing the life of a Pilgrim and Wampanoag children.

Popcorn History

Read about the history of popcorn which includes a myriad of popcorn trivia as well as the original 1908 cylinder recording of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

Rainbow Magic Fourth of July

Young English Language Learners can experience 4th of July on the internet through this delightful site. Read a story, play flag-related game, listen to an American song, watch fireworks, link to other sites and send a 4th of July card to a friend.

Reading Rockets: Tips for Parents of Preschoolers

Reading Rockets advises parents to read early and read often. They have a huge amount of materials for Spanish-speaking parents of English language learners. Now they have begun to branch out and offer "Tips for Parents of Preschoolers" in 9 different languages. These tips are general ideas to guide parents on how to read with their preschoolers. Let's encourage them to offer more of their excellent materials for parents in other languages.

Red Rover Goes to Mars

Have students simulate driving a Rover on Mars at the Carl Sagan Memorial Mars Station. Help your students experience the thrill of experiencing a virtual drive on Mars. You can make advance arrangements for this drive. Students can also study the surface of the planet. This Planetary Society was founded by Carl Sagan. Their Mars Station Project is sponsored by the LEGO Company.

Sounds of the world's animals

Enrich any lesson on animals with this Georgetown University site. Your students can hear the sounds of 36 animals in 34 different languages.

Starfall.com

This wonderful website is worth a visit if your students are just beginning to learn to read. Activities include alphabet letters and sounds for beginning readers to books for intermediate readers. Great graphics and sound.

Storyline Online

Storyline Online is sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild and features celebrities reading children's books. Lou Diamond Phillips, Melissa Gilbert, Jason Alexander and Al Gore are among the SAG members who read.

Symbols of U.S. Government

This compelling site is part of the Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids. It contains a picture and text about seven symbols of the United States as well as pictures and a short text about numerous monuments. There are also recordings of eight patriotic songs.

T.H.E. Journal

Read an article about Judie Haynes' views on using technology to teach ESL.

Teach-nology.com

This site features free web tools for educators. Try the graphic organizer, puzzle or classroom materials generator.

TeachersFirst.Com

This site contains an outstanding collection of lesson plans and web resource2s for teachers and students. All materials are identified as to subject and grade level making the site very easy to use.

The New York Times Learning Network

This site is an incredible resource2 for teachers and older students. There is a "Word of the Day", a "Quote of the Day," daily lesson plans and a chance for students to communicate with NY Times reporters.

The Space Place

The Space Place is dynamic website from NASA that provides children an opportunity to learn about space sciences. See the outstanding teacher section. Information is also translated into Spanish.

The United Nations CyberSchoolBus

The United Nations CyberSchoolBus offers a wealth of projects, activities and teaching resources designed to engage as well as inform, providing teachers and students with the materials they need to learn about world wide concerns. The CyberSchoolBus offers online education from a truly global point of view and is available in three languages.

Virtual Wall: Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The Virtual Wall provides a web site for memorials to those 58,249 women and men who are named on "The Wall", the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, USA; those military persons who gave the "ultimate sacrifice" for their country. Visitors may leave tributes, letters, poems, photos, and other memorials to someone named on The Wall for other visitors to view. The goal is to provide an environment like The Wall itself, with the dignity and respect those named on The Wall have earned.

wNetSchool

wNetSchool, Thirteen/WNET's practical service for K-12 educators, is designed by teachers for teachers. The site, which requires registration, is updated monthly and offers original Web-based lesson plans, in-depth Web site reviews, software samples, and additional resource2s designed to foster an online education-based community.

Wyandot Popcorn Museum

This website features video tours of the world's largest collection of popcorn poppers including two that are more than 100 years old. It also gives information about the Marion, Ohio Popcorn Festival which takes place in September of every year.

Yahooligans

The kids' version of the popular search engine and website directory, Yahoo!. Features clubs, games, downloads, news, net events, as well as teacher's and parent's guides. There is a terrific culture section.

Zozanga.com

Check this site out. It has lists such as the 500 most frequent words in English or the 100 most commonly misspelled words. There are links to radio stations to improve listening skills and to major newspapers. There are games, puzzles and brain teasers. Although the lessons are grammar based, Zozanga.com merits a look.

ˇColorín Colorado!

ˇColorín Colorado! ˇColorín Colorado! is a wealth of information for all educators of ELLs. It also provides information, activities, and advice for Spanish-speaking parents of ELLs. Teachers are invited to print and distribute the information on this site. Check it out. It's worth the visit.

© 1998-2008 Judie Haynes, www.everythingESL.net