Useful+Websites


 * < **//Websites from STRT//** //**-** **Enjoy**//


 * Website URL** || == ==
 * Reason for their use**

**Also try Web 2.0 Sites**
|| http://www.copacabana-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/Get_Smart_Pages/Get_Smart.htm || I source most of my MYCLASSES tasks from this website. The topic in maths we are covering is researched here for good games and activities to support the students learning from class lessons. I then copy the URL and have it on my Bulletin board for students to access. They can then use their MY JOURNAL to record their attempts. ||
 * < **From: Deb Cairns**
 * < http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/index.asp || I have started using this for my CATCH A FALLING STAR KIDS There are tutorials for writing in a variety of styles. Yesterday we did postcards and the students were having a great time and learning.

The activities are simple to follow and gives good structure for the students to achieve results to be proud of. ||
 * < http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/toys.html || This is a weird one. I think it is from India! It is about making science and Maths ...stuff out of a NO BUDGET. I really like the idea explained of making a protractor out of a large kinda square. In a word OBSCURE. ||
 * < **From: Kellie Symons** ||  ||
 * < http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/ || Awesome site more for teachers than students. It has HEAPS of free printable teacher resources to download and use in the classroom. It also has a photo gallery with examples of displays for junior class rooms. Great for printing out letters and charts for the start of the year to get your room looking brilliant and save you heaps of time. ||
 * < http://www.ictgames.com || I love this site for using with the students. I show them the games on the smartboard, then they go off and have a go for themselves. Lots of aspects of literacy and numeracy are covered. It is listed in themes so its easy to navigate the subject area that you would like to reinforce. Designed for lower primary. ||
 * < http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/interactive/index.htm || Great interactive teaching games and activities. Used for Junior primary. I like doing some of these games to reinforce something I am doing in literacy, using the smartboard. ||
 * < **From: Ann-Margaret Carroll** ||  ||
 * < http://animoto.com || Animoto produces videos using your uploaded photos and a song of your choice. It is an innovative alternative to slideshows.

At a school level I have used it to present photos of school events. My students have produced Creation video's in RE and camp videos. We have uploaded videos onto our class blog as well as downloaded full length videos.

It is important to get a Classroom Code so students can receive an All-Access pass to enable them to make full length videos without paying a registration fee. Dummy email accounts are needed for 13 and unders. ||
 * < http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/Comix/ || Students make their own comic strips by choosing different characters, manipulating scale and position and adding speech bubbles. I have used this site with students with special needs to focus on reading emotions by observing the faces of the different characters selected for the cartoons. It may also be used to create social stories. ||
 * < Boggle Online http://www.hasbro.com/games/adult-games/scrabble/home.cfm?page=Entertainment/Games/boggle

Maths Magician http://oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/maths1.html

Writing Fun http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/writingfun/writingfun.html || Maths and literacy games for children to play and learn.

Writing Fun is excellent for teaching writing genres. ||
 * < **From: Loretta Phelan** ||  ||
 * < http://www.ictgames.com || Good interactive activities for lower and middle primary both maths and literacy. ||
 * < http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/ || Lots of Maths and Literacy interactive activities for the smart board. Good for lower maybe middle primary. ||
 * < **From: Brayden Stone** ||  ||
 * < http://www.edmodo.com/ || Edmodo provides a way for teachers and students to share notes, links, and files. Teachers have the ability to send alerts, events, and assignments to students. Edmodo also has a public component which allows teachers to post any privately shared item to a public timeline and RSS feed. ||
 * < http://www.glogster.com/edu/ || A web 2.0 platform that easily allows users to upload photos, videos, text, audio and more to create a unique online, interactive poster. ||
 * < http://www.ted.com/ || This site is more designed for us the teachers however I have used this with some of our secondary students.

A great website in which people from all over the world to talk about important / relevant issues that makes us often think outside the square. || http://www.poetrypicture.com/compose_dragdrop.aspx
 * < **From: Wendy Darveniza** ||  ||
 * < http://www.kididdles.com/ || Useful for prep teachers with nursery rhymes, singing along, highlighting rhyming words etc. ||
 * < http://www.kidscom.com/ || Use this one for reading groups or theme based work such as finding out about animals and then taking a quiz. Need to be a bit careful here because you can sign on and chat to others online - need to talk to kids about internet safety. ||
 * < http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/ || Use this one in reading groups and also in ICT lessons looking at blogs, web page design... Also used a lot to see what stories and ideas other children around the world have in regards to sustainability. ||
 * < **From: Brendan Gallagher** ||  ||
 * < http://phrontistery.info/index.html || The Phrontistery is a collection of english words that would help to build vocabulary. It is especially good for the excellent spellers who need a bit extra. It delves into the origin of words and has some very obscure and rare words which can be a lot of fun to use with your class. ||
 * < http://www.gieson.com/Library/projects/utilities/tuner/ || This is an online tuner for guitar. I use it all the time. It will enable you to play with other chromatically tuned instruments without retuning. ||
 * < http://www.christnotes.org/dbv.php || This site gives you a random verse from the bible to read and discuss with your class during prayer times. I use this one every day too! ||
 * < http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/bydate.asp || This site gives you catholic saints for every day of the year. Particularly useful if you have a Confirmation Class. The children can see which saint shares their birthday or any other day. ||
 * < http://www.odysseyofthemind.com/curriculum.php || This site is a lot of fun for your science classes. It has lots of experiments, science topics and other fun stuff to do with Science. Sponsored by NASA. ||
 * < http://jc-schools.net/index.html || The Jefferson County Schools site it packed with useful files for your whiteboard. Loads of PowerPoint files and Whiteboard files to download and adapt for you classroom on every year level and subject. ||
 * < **From: Ann McDonald** ||  ||
 * < PicLits

Need to set up an account before you can save, send it via email or embed it on a blog. || Basic fun with words: Drag-n-Drop a noun and a verb onto the photograph. Add other words that seem to fit with that noun and that verb. Write a simple caption: A caption is a title or description that accompanies a picture. You can play around with Drag-n-Drop to write your own caption about any of the images on the site. It is a fast, fun, and imaginative way to play with words and share ideas. || http://www.buildyourwildself.com/ || Create your wild self easily by adding body components. Could use for creative writing activities. I like to use wild self pictures as student avatars for blogs or voicethread. || http://connections.smsd.org/robots/pringles project.htm || Project details and samples of lessons and criteria are posted on the website. Project can be easily adapted to Australia. If on twitter there are usually a few schools asking to partner other schools in the pringles project. I haven't done the project with my class yet but am looking forward to doing it in terms 3 or 4. Project outline: Students will design and test a container for shipping a single Pringles potato chip, via the US Postal Service. You will exchange packages with a partner school somewhere in the United States. Upon arrival the packages will be evaluated and scored using the format found in the scoring section. || http://www.aniboom.com/ShapeshifterAnimachine.aspx || Make 2D animations that can be saved as gif's. || http://www.factmonster.com/ || A search engine for kids. Finds sites that are easier to read for primary school students. (A bit American, though!) || http://www.anzacday.org.au/ || ANZAC day information and activities. Rouse and Last post mp3 || But wildscape is worth the effort if you are doing sustainability. Working on a solution to this. Will change this text when I have found it. || Have a tutorial on how to get them onto a classpage. Can email it if you like them. Send me a message. ||
 * < Build your wild self
 * < Pringles Project
 * < **From: Mel Field** ||  ||
 * < http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ || These sites are those........"activity/game sites." I am not a big advocate for children using technology in this way however, these sites were a great way for the children in the younger grades to explore using a computer. It allowed them to use a mouse, keyboard etc in a fun way and they were still learning literacy or maths skills etc. ||
 * < http://www.starfall.com/ || These sites are those........"activity/game sites." I am not a big advocate for children using technology in this way however, these sites were a great way for the children in the younger grades to explore using a computer. It allowed them to use a mouse, keyboard etc in a fun way and they were still learning literacy or maths skills etc. ||
 * < http://www.rainforestmaths.com/ || Again another activity site. The children love to use rainforest maths during maths centres. It is easy to navigate. Particularly great for children who are struggling as it goes through the concepts in a simple way. ||
 * < **From: Sandra Hall** ||  ||
 * < www.bobthebuilder.com.au || A site dedicated to all things Bob the Builder. It has games, activities, videos and online buying. As a grade 1 class, we use the website to learn mouse and keyboard skills. Using the program on the Internet teachers use skills of the Internet such as the back button when we accidentally click on things we shouldn't (that make our page disappear). It is high interest, the instructions for the activities are spoken to the children so it caters for both those who can and cannot read. ||
 * < http://www.manythings.org/e/easy.html || This site is for ESL students. We go directly to the part for beginners. We use the spelling games - such as typing the alphabet in order, naming the days of the week and months of the year in order, it looks at numbers to 10, spelling lists. It has a variety of games that are well suited to the junior area of a school. ||
 * < http://www.scholastic.com.au/schools/index.asp || Scholastic website - more for teacher use. Go to "teacher Toolkit" and download teacher notes on books and blackline masters for activities using your bookclub ID. ||
 * < **From: Margaret Hand** ||  ||
 * < Animations:
 * < Animations:
 * < Children's search engine:
 * < http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/ || State Library of Victoria A fantastic portal into information. The 'ergo' link takes you to an excellent page to help teach Research and Study skills. ||
 * < **From: Kimberley McSweeney** ||  ||
 * < http://www.animationfactory.com/en/ || For animations in powerpoints ||
 * < http://www.primaryresources.co.uk/ || Great resources for all Domains. Always a great starting point. ||
 * < http://www.awm.gov.au/
 * < **From: Damian Kerrins** ||  ||
 * < http://www.apple.com/support/ilife/tutorials/imovie/index.html || iLfe tutorials here. Click on the icons on the top right to see different parts of iLife. ||
 * < http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/ || Flickr advanced search. Tick ' Only search within **Creative Commons**-licensed content' to be able to use the images, but read the Licence ||
 * < http://bubbl.us/ || Inspiration on the web. Really useful. ||
 * < http://www.arkive.org/ || Great database for endangered species. All images and clips //**can**// be used for educational purposes. Clips can be downloaded for iMovie presentations. ||
 * < http://pbskids.org/ || For the little kids. Cookie monster is my favourite. ||
 * < http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/drilldown/stories/3/4/1/ || BBC for kids, literacy section. Good for junior literacy. ||
 * < http://freeplaymusic.com/ || Royalty free music. Always click on the MP3, not the preview. You must check the licencing on individual tracks to see if you can use them, they all differ. But has links to other CC music sites. ||
 * < http://www.freesound.org/index.php || Creative Commons sound effects. Teacher's only. Student's ask me to find a sound, I search for it on here. Too many inappropriate titles and sounds for them to access directly. ||
 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/ || Too much to mention here. Use the links for create or games. Fantastic site! Very useful for juniors. ||
 * http://www.sesamestreet.org/home || The website for the show. Lots of counting and letter recognition. Great interactive site. Designed for little kids, but any adult who grew up with the show will have a ball. ||
 * http://www.pictureaustralia.org/ || Photos of Australia from a number of archives all collated under one search engine. Can be used for educational purposes but you need permission to use them online. Always read the licence on these sites. ||
 * http://www.kilbreda.vic.edu.au/library/Year%208%20Author%20list.htm#l || Links to many authors' websites. Very useful. One of my students used a link here to email Libby Gleeson. They were excited when they got a very quick and detailed reply. ||
 * http://www.teachers.ash.org.au/jeather/maths/dictionary.html || Maths dictionary for students. Ever wondered what the name of the line in a fraction is? It's here, under 'V.' Really easy to follow. Another Jenny Eather site. ||
 * http://flickrvision.com/maps/show_3d || A site that combines Flickr and Google maps to make a real time display of photos being uploaded to Flickr. I have used it to show inequality in the world. Let the students watch for a while, then asked "How come hardly any from Africa?" Was thought provoking. ||
 * http://www.wildscape.com.au || Great for biodiversity. Put in the postcode or town name, will list the plants needed to be planted that are indigenous to that area and which animals, invertebrates and birds they will attract. Just one problem, the people who made it optimised it for Internet Explorer. Remember that? Doesn't work in Firefox or Safari. You could download the old Mac version of Explorer at http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Internet-Utilities/Internet-Explorer.shtml. Then you have to install and setup proxies.
 * http://www.learningplanet.com/act/mayhem/index.asp || Maths mayhem. Students who don't like learning number facts? Here is the place. They compete online at number facts. My students love it. ||
 * http://www.acmi.net.au/video_kids.htm || ACMI by kids. ACMI is the Australian Centre for Moving Images. This has movies made by students. If you are doing iMovie or claymation, visit here. It is one of my favourite sites. ||
 * http://pbskids.org/go/ || PBS kids again. Huge amount of material here. ||
 * http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/default.asp || Catholic Ed. is licenced to use these activities. Have a look at the catalogues first. I always have a few links up on my classpage to activities. Probably the best resource I know of. If nothing else, get into these.
 * http://www.primaryschool.com.au/ || Lots of categorised links to curriculum areas. Getting a bit old and getting a few blind links, but still useful. ||
 * http://www.writeboard.com/ || Set up an account, setup the students. Bit of effort, but allows students to work collaboratively on a document. Only one user at a time though. But allows you to see the contributions individual students have made. I used it last year to allow the students to write a play they were performing at the ClockTower Theatre. It is worth the effort to setup. ||