Primary Internet Guide
The ABC's of Using the Internet in Grades PreK-3
Compiled by Julie Coiro, Software and Curriculum Specialist
A
Ask Jeeves for Kids
A
search engine designed for kids to use by asking questions in complete
sentences. It helps them narrow down the topic with more fine-tuned questions
and guarantees website results that are safe for children.
http://ajkids.com/
Almanac from Infoplease.com Kids Almanac
Access great maps, statistics and
almanac type facts through this page designed for kids. The reading is a little
harder but the information is appropriate, if you're searching for this type of
stuff.
http://kids.infoplease.com/
Alfy in the Classroom
Good site for Kindergarten and first grade skills. ALFY's
games, stories, and activities are grouped according to conceptual themes of
ABC's, 123's, Animals and there are dozens of ideas for web-linked classroom
activities based on these themes and added lesson plans that were gathered from
all over the Internet.
http://www.alfy.com/Teachers/Classroom/classroom.htm
B
Billy Bear's Playground
Home of lots of great clip art, fun little
games for young children, and holiday activities. Beware of The Chicken Dance!
http://216.90.96.108/
C
Classroom Connect:
One of the most well known resources for teachers using the Internet. Includes links to
Classroom Today (weekly themed activities) and Connected toTeachers (lessons,
discussion groups)
http://www.classroom.net/home.asp
Craft's From Aunt Annie
Includes tons of crafts, with highlights being a
Craft Exchange, over 100 folktale puppets, 40 games from around the world,
flowers, seasonal craft ideas and much more.
http://www.auntannie.com/
CyberSurfari:
An interactive online adventure for K-12 students. This year's adventure runs from October
21-March 15. Play with your whole class, students can play at home with parents,
or students can play in teams.
http://www.cybersurfari.org/
D
Discovery Kids
Incredible, online interactive adventures handpicked by each individual child depending on
self-described interests and hobbies.
http://www.discoverykids.com/KIDS/
E
Enchanted Learning for Little Explorers
Very kid friendly website designed for little
ones. Fact and fictional information can be found here as well as links to
online games and computer
software. Includes talking dictionary, Zoom
School, and much more.
http://www.littleexplorers.com/
F
Fun with Math Stories:
Over 2,000 math word problems at many grade levels. Also links to math stories that
coorelate with primary elementary children's literature.
http://WWW.Mathstories.com/
G
Global Schoolhouse Online Project Index
The first place to go when looking to get your class
involved in an online project. Join ones already created or develop your own and
post it online for others to join. Can search by grade level or topic.
http://www.gsn.org/project/index.html
H
The Holiday Zone
Links to crafts, games, language activities, poems, coloring pages, songs and rhymes
about many of the major holidays celebrated in the United States.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/9087/
Homework Helper by B.J. Pinchbeck
Not just for elementary school
students, but you'll be able to access sites that may help enhance certain
units, help keep your brighter students challenged, or help you brush up on your
own knowledge on certain topics.
http://www.bjpinchbeck.com/
I
Index to Children's Authors and Illustrators:
An extensive list of
links to author and illustrator homepages, teaching units and biographies,
listed in alphabetical order.
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/biochildhome.htm
J
Java
Applets for Kids: Fun little games you
don't need to download to play. Some may require the Shockwave plug-in to play.
Sanford Online Art Adventures:
Includes Leonardo's Workshop, Color Theory and Portraits from the Past
http://www.sanford- artedventures.com/play/play.html
Java Jigsaws
(Scramble photos), Trading Ones & Tens, Math
Facts, Publishing Writing, and more.
http://www.edbydesign.com/scr_kids.html
Rainy Day Playhouse
Create and send really cool electronic post cards and play online games.
http://www.pen-web.com/rainyday/
K
KidzSing Garden of Songs
Bring along your singing voice to sing along to instruments that play many
popular children's songs and include the lyrics. The sound files require
RealPlayer, but run very quickly.
http://members.home.com/veeceet/index.html
L
Literature Lessons with SCORE
An awesome and very user friendly list of teacher lesson plans tied to state
standards, involving the Internet, and revolving around popular literature
titles on most schools' list of books to read.
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
(Visit the Homepage of San Diego County of Education to find similar SCORE links and other great Internet resources for all other content areas)
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/resources/resframe.html
M
My Weekly Reader
Home of many things related to My Weekly Reader, including an interactive writing
project that prompts individuals or classes to write in and post their
responses to typical age-appropriate problems.
http://www.weeklyreader.com/
N
NetMom
This website is created by the authors of The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages. Great kid
safe links and surfing tips for families with young children.
http://www.netmom.com/
O
Kiddyhouse.com
Links to lessons and
activities about lots of animals, various childhood thematic units and resources
for parents and teachers.
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/
Homework Central Lesson Plans for Teachers
http://www.homeworkcentral.com/teachers/vsl_index.htp
P
Poetry Pals Collaborative Writing:
Students in grades K-12 are given monthly poetry
genres to write about. Post, revise, and reflect with others around the world.
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/5165/index1.html
Q
Question of the Day / Week:
Guided Classroom Inquiry:
Have children drop questions into a box; pull one once a week, search and explore together and
record findings to compile into a class book of Things We Learned Using the Internet
Math Problem of the Week
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/pow/
Word of the Day from Merrium Webster:
Also a great resource for word meanings and word experiments.
http://www.wordcentral.com/
R
RebusRhymes from Enchanted Learning
You'll never be at a loss for rhymes to share during Circle Time or at a learning center.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com
S
Scholastic Newszone
A friendly, interactive means of enriching the Scholastic weekly flyers that many
teachers already subscribe for your class. Lots of fun if you don't have access to the offline texts too!
http://teacher.scholastic.com/newszone/index.asp
Search Engines for Kids
Explore the Internet safely with your children by your side. Learn more by visiting this
site.
http://www.learn.k12.ct.us/julie/kidsearch.htm
T
Titanic Photos
Teacher Listservs / Discussion Lists
Link to many different listservs for teachers from this main page.
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/comatt/nwsgrps.html
Teachersweb.com
A place for K-12 teachers to collaborate, learn and explore the resources of the
Internet for their students.
http://www.teachersweb.com/
Teachers.net
More online chats, live chats with nationally known experts, mailrings, and even a place to create
your own class website.
http://www.teachers.net/
A World of Kindergartens
Early childhood teachers from around the world have joined together to provide
curriculum support to each other and anyone who needs ideas. The
information found at this site has come from a discussion list composed of
kindergarten, pher and record findings to compile into a class book of Things We
Learned Using the Internet
Trackstar
Here's a real easy way to compile all your links about a topic or access the links that
another teacher located.
http://scrtec.org/track/
U
Universe Exploration
with StarChild and NASA Interactive Activities for Kids
http://www.nasa.gov/cool.html (scroll down this NASA page until you find
StarChild under Educational and Interactive Sites)
V
Venturing Into Unknown Worlds with
Yahooligans Kids Almanac
http://www.yahooligans.com/content/ka/index.html
W
Web Pages from Elementary Classes
Pocantico Hills School in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Includes very informative and well designed web pages
created by 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade classes. Great reading material for you
students or ideas for inspiring you to create your own class web page and
publish what they've learned on the Internet.
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/pocantic.html
Where on the Globe is Roger?
Travel around the world with Roger and his wife and experience
the people and culture of many lands through their interactive journal entries
and photographs. The site has been successful for a number of years.
http://www.gsn.org/roger/index.html
WebQuests for Students in Grades K-3
The famous WebQuest, originally designed by Bernie Dodge, has many online projects designed for
primary students.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/K-3matrix.html
X
Pitsco's Ask an eXpert
Send students here to find answers to hundreds of questions kids their own age ask
about many school age topics. If the answer is nowhere to be found, then
student's can type in their question for a particular expert and receive an answer back.
http://askanexpert.com
Y
Yahooligans
A spin off of the search engine Yahoo.com designed for younger children. Sites listed are safe
and appropriate for chidlren and there's some neat ideas for teachers here too.
http://www.yahooligans.com/
Yuckiest Site on the Internet
For all those kids who love bugs, science, or really gross things, they'll really love this site!
http://www.yucky.com/
Z
Zoo Animal Picture Archive
Includes an easy search engine and a link to the Electronic Zoo Animal Image
Collection. Just type in any kind of animal you can think of and immediately
have access to beautiful up-close, full color photographs that your students can view.
http://www.best5.net/animal/
Animal Encyclopedia
Sponsored by the Lycos search engine, this great animal database search by index, habitats, continents
and classes.
http://versaware.animalszone.lycos.com/
http://www.lite.iwarp.com/abclinks.htm
Create a free website with Weebly
The ABC's of Using the Internet in Grades PreK-3
Compiled by Julie Coiro, Software and Curriculum Specialist
A
Ask Jeeves for Kids
A
search engine designed for kids to use by asking questions in complete
sentences. It helps them narrow down the topic with more fine-tuned questions
and guarantees website results that are safe for children.
http://ajkids.com/
Almanac from Infoplease.com Kids Almanac
Access great maps, statistics and
almanac type facts through this page designed for kids. The reading is a little
harder but the information is appropriate, if you're searching for this type of
stuff.
http://kids.infoplease.com/
Alfy in the Classroom
Good site for Kindergarten and first grade skills. ALFY's
games, stories, and activities are grouped according to conceptual themes of
ABC's, 123's, Animals and there are dozens of ideas for web-linked classroom
activities based on these themes and added lesson plans that were gathered from
all over the Internet.
http://www.alfy.com/Teachers/Classroom/classroom.htm
B
Billy Bear's Playground
Home of lots of great clip art, fun little
games for young children, and holiday activities. Beware of The Chicken Dance!
http://216.90.96.108/
C
Classroom Connect:
One of the most well known resources for teachers using the Internet. Includes links to
Classroom Today (weekly themed activities) and Connected toTeachers (lessons,
discussion groups)
http://www.classroom.net/home.asp
Craft's From Aunt Annie
Includes tons of crafts, with highlights being a
Craft Exchange, over 100 folktale puppets, 40 games from around the world,
flowers, seasonal craft ideas and much more.
http://www.auntannie.com/
CyberSurfari:
An interactive online adventure for K-12 students. This year's adventure runs from October
21-March 15. Play with your whole class, students can play at home with parents,
or students can play in teams.
http://www.cybersurfari.org/
D
Discovery Kids
Incredible, online interactive adventures handpicked by each individual child depending on
self-described interests and hobbies.
http://www.discoverykids.com/KIDS/
E
Enchanted Learning for Little Explorers
Very kid friendly website designed for little
ones. Fact and fictional information can be found here as well as links to
online games and computer
software. Includes talking dictionary, Zoom
School, and much more.
http://www.littleexplorers.com/
F
Fun with Math Stories:
Over 2,000 math word problems at many grade levels. Also links to math stories that
coorelate with primary elementary children's literature.
http://WWW.Mathstories.com/
G
Global Schoolhouse Online Project Index
The first place to go when looking to get your class
involved in an online project. Join ones already created or develop your own and
post it online for others to join. Can search by grade level or topic.
http://www.gsn.org/project/index.html
H
The Holiday Zone
Links to crafts, games, language activities, poems, coloring pages, songs and rhymes
about many of the major holidays celebrated in the United States.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/9087/
Homework Helper by B.J. Pinchbeck
Not just for elementary school
students, but you'll be able to access sites that may help enhance certain
units, help keep your brighter students challenged, or help you brush up on your
own knowledge on certain topics.
http://www.bjpinchbeck.com/
I
Index to Children's Authors and Illustrators:
An extensive list of
links to author and illustrator homepages, teaching units and biographies,
listed in alphabetical order.
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/biochildhome.htm
J
Java
Applets for Kids: Fun little games you
don't need to download to play. Some may require the Shockwave plug-in to play.
Sanford Online Art Adventures:
Includes Leonardo's Workshop, Color Theory and Portraits from the Past
http://www.sanford- artedventures.com/play/play.html
Java Jigsaws
(Scramble photos), Trading Ones & Tens, Math
Facts, Publishing Writing, and more.
http://www.edbydesign.com/scr_kids.html
Rainy Day Playhouse
Create and send really cool electronic post cards and play online games.
http://www.pen-web.com/rainyday/
K
KidzSing Garden of Songs
Bring along your singing voice to sing along to instruments that play many
popular children's songs and include the lyrics. The sound files require
RealPlayer, but run very quickly.
http://members.home.com/veeceet/index.html
L
Literature Lessons with SCORE
An awesome and very user friendly list of teacher lesson plans tied to state
standards, involving the Internet, and revolving around popular literature
titles on most schools' list of books to read.
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/cyberguide.html
(Visit the Homepage of San Diego County of Education to find similar SCORE links and other great Internet resources for all other content areas)
http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/resources/resframe.html
M
My Weekly Reader
Home of many things related to My Weekly Reader, including an interactive writing
project that prompts individuals or classes to write in and post their
responses to typical age-appropriate problems.
http://www.weeklyreader.com/
N
NetMom
This website is created by the authors of The Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages. Great kid
safe links and surfing tips for families with young children.
http://www.netmom.com/
O
Kiddyhouse.com
Links to lessons and
activities about lots of animals, various childhood thematic units and resources
for parents and teachers.
http://www.kiddyhouse.com/
Homework Central Lesson Plans for Teachers
http://www.homeworkcentral.com/teachers/vsl_index.htp
P
Poetry Pals Collaborative Writing:
Students in grades K-12 are given monthly poetry
genres to write about. Post, revise, and reflect with others around the world.
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/5165/index1.html
Q
Question of the Day / Week:
Guided Classroom Inquiry:
Have children drop questions into a box; pull one once a week, search and explore together and
record findings to compile into a class book of Things We Learned Using the Internet
Math Problem of the Week
http://forum.swarthmore.edu/pow/
Word of the Day from Merrium Webster:
Also a great resource for word meanings and word experiments.
http://www.wordcentral.com/
R
RebusRhymes from Enchanted Learning
You'll never be at a loss for rhymes to share during Circle Time or at a learning center.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com
S
Scholastic Newszone
A friendly, interactive means of enriching the Scholastic weekly flyers that many
teachers already subscribe for your class. Lots of fun if you don't have access to the offline texts too!
http://teacher.scholastic.com/newszone/index.asp
Search Engines for Kids
Explore the Internet safely with your children by your side. Learn more by visiting this
site.
http://www.learn.k12.ct.us/julie/kidsearch.htm
T
Titanic Photos
Teacher Listservs / Discussion Lists
Link to many different listservs for teachers from this main page.
http://www.indiana.edu/~eric_rec/comatt/nwsgrps.html
Teachersweb.com
A place for K-12 teachers to collaborate, learn and explore the resources of the
Internet for their students.
http://www.teachersweb.com/
Teachers.net
More online chats, live chats with nationally known experts, mailrings, and even a place to create
your own class website.
http://www.teachers.net/
A World of Kindergartens
Early childhood teachers from around the world have joined together to provide
curriculum support to each other and anyone who needs ideas. The
information found at this site has come from a discussion list composed of
kindergarten, pher and record findings to compile into a class book of Things We
Learned Using the Internet
Trackstar
Here's a real easy way to compile all your links about a topic or access the links that
another teacher located.
http://scrtec.org/track/
U
Universe Exploration
with StarChild and NASA Interactive Activities for Kids
http://www.nasa.gov/cool.html (scroll down this NASA page until you find
StarChild under Educational and Interactive Sites)
V
Venturing Into Unknown Worlds with
Yahooligans Kids Almanac
http://www.yahooligans.com/content/ka/index.html
W
Web Pages from Elementary Classes
Pocantico Hills School in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Includes very informative and well designed web pages
created by 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade classes. Great reading material for you
students or ideas for inspiring you to create your own class web page and
publish what they've learned on the Internet.
http://www2.lhric.org/pocantico/pocantic.html
Where on the Globe is Roger?
Travel around the world with Roger and his wife and experience
the people and culture of many lands through their interactive journal entries
and photographs. The site has been successful for a number of years.
http://www.gsn.org/roger/index.html
WebQuests for Students in Grades K-3
The famous WebQuest, originally designed by Bernie Dodge, has many online projects designed for
primary students.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/webquest/K-3matrix.html
X
Pitsco's Ask an eXpert
Send students here to find answers to hundreds of questions kids their own age ask
about many school age topics. If the answer is nowhere to be found, then
student's can type in their question for a particular expert and receive an answer back.
http://askanexpert.com
Y
Yahooligans
A spin off of the search engine Yahoo.com designed for younger children. Sites listed are safe
and appropriate for chidlren and there's some neat ideas for teachers here too.
http://www.yahooligans.com/
Yuckiest Site on the Internet
For all those kids who love bugs, science, or really gross things, they'll really love this site!
http://www.yucky.com/
Z
Zoo Animal Picture Archive
Includes an easy search engine and a link to the Electronic Zoo Animal Image
Collection. Just type in any kind of animal you can think of and immediately
have access to beautiful up-close, full color photographs that your students can view.
http://www.best5.net/animal/
Animal Encyclopedia
Sponsored by the Lycos search engine, this great animal database search by index, habitats, continents
and classes.
http://versaware.animalszone.lycos.com/
http://www.lite.iwarp.com/abclinks.htm
Create a free website with Weebly