Websites+&+Apps

Beneficial Websites and Apps for the Class: __** Websites: **__

1) Reading Eggs: [] Reading Eggs is a site that allows for students to learn reading with fun games and activities. The way the lessons are set up, students go through one-on-one lessons so they can progress at their own speeds. There is an app for Reading Eggs on the iPad which allows for it to be used in the classroom. Reading Eggs is a great site and app to use in the classroom to provide a fun way for students to learn to read.

2) Starfall: [] Starfall is a site that focuses on aiding children with learning to read with phonics. The site includes activities for common core of different grades, learning letters to aid in preparing to read, phonemic awareness, and learning to read with phonics. The site is great for students from kindergarten to second grade as well as students in special education as it teaches them the foundations, such as letters and phonics, which are used when reading.

3) Vocabulary Spelling City: [] Spelling City allows for students to learn vocabulary, spelling, writing, and language arts through activities and games. The site also has a section where students can type their spelling words in and then use these words either in a game, flashcards, vocabulary test, or spelling test. Vocabulary Spelling City gives teachers a resource to use with students to practice spelling and vocabulary words in a fun way.

4) Reading Rockets: [] Reading Rockets is a useful site with resources for parents, teachers, principals, librarians, and other professionals. There are different articles and information about teaching reading, how to help struggling readers, and classroom strategies which make the source an informative source for teachers to use to better learn how to teach their students.

5) Funenglishgames.com: [] The source focuses on aiding students with practicing grammar through games, activities, worksheets, quizzes, videos, fun stuff, and topics. Teachers would find the site helpful to use with students to allow them to have various forms of practice with grammar. 6) PBS Kids- Raising Readers: [] PBS Kids- Raising Readers strives to improve students’ phonemic awareness skills. The site has five different games for students to play which the teacher could use in the classroom to allow students to learn and practice their phonemic awareness skills.

7) Professor Garfield: [] The Professor Garfield site has six games for students to play to work on word skills while playing games that has familiar characters such as Garfield and Orson the pig. Students could use the site in the class to learn more about words including rhyming, blending, phoneme manipulation, and phoneme blending.

8) Read Write Think: [] Read Write Think is a site that provides free resources for teachers to use with reading and language arts. When searching for a desired resource, the search can be narrowed down by grade level, student interactive type, learning objective, and theme. The site is beneficial for teachers to use when teaching reading or language arts because they can search for specific resources they need and can use in the class with students.

9) Sweet Search: [] Sweet Search is a resource that has links to other sites that may be useful to use in the classroom. The site specifically has links for some links for English classes as well as language and literacy links for first through fourth grades. A teacher could use the site to find different links to use with students when teaching language arts.

10) ABCya.com: [] The website contains games for students from kindergarten to fifth grade to play to learn concepts in different areas such as math and language arts. The level of the game changes based on the grade level the game is designed for. The site provides another site for teachers to use with students so they can learn while playing. 11) Have Fun Teaching: [] Have Fun Teaching creates videos for teachers to use to help students learn different letters of the alphabet. Each letter song includes what the letter is, if the letter is a vowel or consonant, how the letter sounds, words that start with the letter, and how to write an upper-case and lower-case version of the letter. The videos are repetitive and great tools to use when teaching kindergarteners the different letters of the alphabet.

12) K12 Reader: [] K12 Reader contains numerous worksheets that teachers can use in the classroom as well as topics to use when creating lessons with resources such as writing prompts and rubrics. Teachers would find that the resource enhances the types and amount of worksheets they have available to use with students.

13) Mrs. Maiolo’s Learning Site- Growing Learners and Leaders: [|http://www.maiolo.org/mrsmaiolo/literacy/daily5/#.UoQ6r2Ao7IW] The resource is a site created by a teacher. She has various resources, her lesson plans, links to graphic organizers, fluency passages, and vocabulary practice for CAFE on the site. The site contains lists of children’s books, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as lesson plans for specific books that teachers can use in their classrooms. Teachers can use the site to expand the number or resources and lesson plans they have available to them to use in the classroom.

14) Teaching Resources: [] Teaching resources is another teacher site in which the teacher has posted numerous free printables as well as her lessons for others to use. The files in her file cabinet contain corresponding resources within them and the file folders she has are literacy, math, science, health, social studies, odds and ends, seasonal activities, and information for teachers. Within the literacy file, there are other file folders consisting of literacy printables, CCSS ELA resources, writing, language arts, poetry, graphic organizers, and literacy mini packs for literacy teachers to benefit from using.

15) SEN Teacher: [] SEN Teacher has free learning materials for teachers to use in the classroom with literacy printables and links to other resources for teaching literacy, literacy games, the literacy teacher, and kids handwriting. Teachers may find the site to be useful especially with the worksheets it has for students to practice their handwriting with. 16) Teach Thought: [] Teach Thought gives teachers twenty-one different resources they can use to incorporate technology in their literature classes. The site would be a useful one for teachers to use in order to allow for them to modernize their classes and use technology with their teaching.

17) RIF: Reading Planet: [] This is a great place for students to go for games, activities, reading, and expressing themselves. For a sneak peak, some of the games and activities include illustrating a story, playing basketball, memory games, finishing a story, and building words. There are opportunities for kids with learning disabilities and without learning disabilities to use their imaginations to learn new things or to catch up on things that they might be struggling with in school.

18) The Reading Planet: [] Although this website may sound similar to “Reading Planet” from the “Reading is Fundamental” website, it is quite different! This is a great resource for kids to find the letters and sounds that they make. There are many activities that address rhyming, matching words that start with certain letters, and handwriting skills. Students who struggle in any of those areas would benefit from these activities.

19) Play Kids Games: [] This website provides many types of games, including math, alphabet, memory, vocabulary, and geography. There are several games to choose from under each category, so a child who has trouble with spelling, comprehension, math problems, or hand-eye coordination will stay entertained, while learning something they did not previously understand.

20) Learning Problems: [] This is an excellent website that provides students with the information they need to know about their own disability or other students’ disabilities. This page is a child-friendly page, which means there is easy to understand terminology and facts are presented in an unintimidating fashion.

__** Apps: **__

21) Google Chrome Apps Site: The site has numerous apps from Google Chrome that can be used in the classroom with different subject areas in school. Teachers can search for specific apps they are looking for or look for apps in the educational area of the apps to use in the classroom. Other apps can be found in the iTunes store for Apple. 22) Aurasma: The app has various uses including being able to be used in a scavenger hunt around the school in which when students find a target with the camera, the app pops up with a specified photo or video. The photo or video that pops up is chosen beforehand by the teacher so that students can learn interactively without the teacher needing to stop their progress.

23) Barefoot Atlas: The app is similar to a Google Earth for little kids. It contains numerous features on the world that students can look at with information about each location as well as current pictures of each feature. When students select a specific country, the app provides numerous types of information about the country to the students.

24) Wings: Wings is an app that focuses on motion math. Wings has numerous different islands and areas with each area containing a different concept for the students to learn. The app is able to see how a student is doing and then customize future activities/questions to the student based on how the student is doing; in other words, it gives the student new problems based on how he or she did with the previous problem.

25) Blend Space: One can create a lesson in which they drag and drop resources that are specific to the topic. The lesson can then be embedded on the class website for students to view and interact with. Teachers have the ability to include websites, documents, photos, and videos in the lessons.

26) Bugs and Buttons: A game that allows for students to practice concepts such as patterns, counting, sorting, and other games.

27) Stack the States: The game sets new bars for students to reach to pass the level. In order to reach the bar, students must stack states until they pass the bar. To stack a state, students are asked questions about different states and when the student answers the question correctly then a state is stacked towards the goal.

28) Brain Pop: The app provides students with a fun way to learn different concepts. Students can learn the concepts through videos, games, and activities on the app.

29) Toontastic: Allows for students to practice the aspects of a story (setting, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) in a fun way. The app is a storytelling animation app where students can create a cartoon that tells the story. Students can choose the setting and characters as well as verbally tell the parts of the story and choose what mood music to use with the story.

30) Sphere: With Sphere, the student chooses a specific location that he or she desires to observe. As the student turns or moves the iPad, he or she sees different parts of the actual area. The app is a great way to view different areas of the world in an interactive way.

31) iBooks: The app contains different textbooks that students can use in place of paperback textbooks. The textbooks include videos and quizzes that are embedded in the book for students to interact with as they reach the different areas in the textbook. 32) Smule AutoRap: Students speak words into the mic and the app then turns the words into a fun rap. The class can use it to present information they learn in a fun way to the class.

33) Google Art Project: The app allows one to view museums all over the world and see pieces within each museum. A student or teacher can search different pieces or subjects and then find different pieces of art that relate to the search. The app is a unique way to incorporate art into the classroom.

34) Scribblenauts Remix: The app sets up a problem for the student to solve. The student can type whatever he or she desires to that he or she thinks may solve the problem. The request pops up and the student can see if it is a solution to the problem or not. The student can continue to type in different ideas to use for a solution until the problem is solved. The app is a great one to use with students for inquiry based learning. 35) Hungry Fish: Math app that gives students practice with addition. On each level a fish with a specific number is displayed. A student adds up numbers that appear around the fish to find the sum for the number on the main fish. As students do well with addition, they progress to higher levels with bigger numbers to solve for.