Permanent sites for Internet Project in the primary grades are beginning
to appear on the Internet. One of the many great project locations is The Mind’s Eye Monster Exchange Project .
Another permanent project location on the Internet is Monarch Watch. If you wish to plan
a project around this beautiful species of butterfly, this is the place
for you.
There are several locations where teachers post projects and invite others
to join them. Most allow you to search by age level, grade level,
project type, content area, or theme. They include:
• The Global SchoolNet Projects
Registry
• SchoolNet’s
Grassroots Collaborative Learning Projects Gallery
• Oz Projects
• KIDPROJ
Examples of projects you may wish to consider joining or developing for
primary grade students include:
• The Eric Carle Book Club Invite other classes to read works
by Eric Carle (or another popular author). Then, using writing process activities,
share children’s written responses to these works with each classroom. Send
the results of your work to the author and see if he/she responds. The Eric Carle Homepage has a link
to his email address. An example of this type of activity can be found at
The Eric Carle Project
.
• Kindergarten
Potluck Project After reading the children’s book Potluck with her
students, Mrs. Neuman was inspired to make an “online recipe book” by kindergarten
students, for kindergarten students. Your students can simply explore
this online resource, or better still, it can serve as an inspiration for
your own Internet project. With an email connection and a few basic web
design skills, you can quickly be on your way to creating a similar project
with your own primary school children!
• Playground Chants Around the World Playground chants are
part of every child’s culture no matter where they go to school. Have your
students write these down carefully and exchange them with classes at other
locations around the world. This is a wonderful way to support reading
and writing in your primary grade classroom and to discover important aspects
of other cultures. To get you started, listen to some hilarious examples
from Playground
Chants from the United Kingdom or read others available from Streetplay.com’s
Jumprope Rhymes.
• My Town is Important
Students in kindergarten through fourth grade join forces in this telecollaborative
project to write and illustrate individual poems about their town using
the format of Margaret Brown’s The Important Book. This project fits well
with a unit on communities, neighborhoods, or even poetry writing.
•Wright On!
Primary school students celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’
flight by joining this collaborative research project. Students’ showcase
what they learned through bar graphs, concept maps, poetry, original stories,
P.E. activities, and much, much more!
• Flat
Gingerbread Project Students are asked to decorate flat “gingerbread”
boys or girls to depict the state that they live in and then mail them to
be displayed on a common Web site. Students may use this resource to access
the bears and compare/contrast facts, weather, customs, and more about each
state.
•Teddy Bears Travel the World. Purchase a small teddy bear and
send it to one of the other participating classrooms. The teddy goes home
with a different child each night. Each child writes a description of the
what they did, where they went, and what it was like at their location.
Each day, these messages go out to each participating class to be read by
the students. A map can be marked to show where each Teddy is in the world.
You may join a huge project with over 2600 classes from around the world
at I-EARN’s Teddy Bear Project Exchange
or view a much smallerscaled project between two primary classes at The Teddy Bear Project.
WebQuests are especially important to evaluate in the primary grades since
some of your students will be less independent at reading directions and
less familiar with navigating the Internet effectively.
An exceptional source for primary grade webquest may be found at The Webquest Portal. To locate examples
of what are considered top or middle level WebQuests, select “Top” or “Middle”
from the left menu and then choose from the K–2 subject area links in the
Webquest Matrix.
Other WebQuests may be located by using a search engine—simply visit Google , type in: your topic +Webquest +grade level
You’ll be on your way!
Here are examples of some of the fine activities available for you to use
in your classroom:
• The Animals
are Lost: Help Bring Them Home A perfect introduction to webquests for
young children. After learning about animals that live on the farm and those
that live in the zoo through images, sound, and small bits of text, children
are tasked with returning each animal to its proper home. Easy for beginning
readers to navigate and understand.
• I Like
Books In this webquest for Kindergarten and first grade, students read
this work by Mark Browne and then complete several activities, helping them
to identify their favorite genre, and then write a story themselves.
• Konnichiwa:
Welcome to My World Students work together to write a book to help
a new student from Japan feel welcome at your school. They read and research
comparisons between life in the United States and in Japan and then each
student creates one page to be included in a class book for the new student.
• Meeting in the
Mitten After reading The Mitten by Jan Brett, children explore selected
links while learning more about the author, characters, and setting of the
story. Their quest culminates when the class uses what they learn to perform
a play based on the story.
• Snakes Alive
In this webquest, students assume the role of Junior Herpetologists, using
the Internet and other sources to gather information about snakes (e.g., habitat,
life cycles, eating habits) in order to construct a snake exhibit that shares
their learning with others.
• Digging
Up Dinosaurs Webquest After reading several dinosaur books written by
Aliki, students are invited to become a member of a well-respected dinosaur
expert team. Each team, consisting of a worker, paleontologist, draftsman,
and photographer, is asked to go on a dig in a location believed to have
many remains of dinosaur teeth . In the end, they present what they have
learned to the museum’s board.
• In
Search of Stellaluna’s Family This webquest is based on the book Stellaluna
by Janell Cannon. Students are asked to teach Stellaluna, a baby bat, more
about being a bat after she realizes she is not a baby bird like her friends.
They explore sites with breathtaking photos of bats, learning about how
they behave, what they eat and how they communicate using echolocation.
After becoming a bat expert, there are plenty of games, quizzes, and extension
activities.
New Literacies for Young Children
In the activity Be
a Web-Site Sleuth, first and second grade children pair up as detective
partners. Students act like their favorite book characters Cam Jansen
and Nate the Great and set out to explore great book and author websites.
Students ultimately vote on their favorite using a simple rating sheet,
and construct a bar graph that communicates their results to others.
Instructional Resources on the Internet
for Young Children
A World of Kindergartens
From here, you can quickly locate ideas for books, Web sites, songs
and poems, recipes, and student activities related to almost any kindergarten
theme imaginable. Much of the information here is compiled from ideas and
resources shared through educational listservs for Kindergarten teachers.
Ben’s Guide to U.S. Government
for Grades K-2 Features simple descriptions of information and colorful
images related to our nation, our government, local communities, and U.S.
symbols. It also includes a hyperlinked alphabet book, a multi-leveled interactive
map game, and an online coloring book. A great addition to your social studies
curriculum!
BIG Ideas in Beginning Reading This site focuses on providing teachers
and parents with research-based information on how to teach and assess the
five “Big Ideas” of early literacy: phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle,
fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. You’ll find a link to the research-based
standardized assessment called the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy
Skills (DIBELS).
Billy Bear’s Internet
Post Office Young children love to send letters to their friends, their
teachers and their family! From this site, they can safely select from a
wide range of traditional greeting cards or age-appropriate thematic e-cards,
add their own music, message, and stamp and then email them off to their
favorite person. A great writing activity to introduce students to electronic
forms of communication.
Children’s Books
Online: The Rosetta Project A unique collection of over 300 antique
children’s books published in the early nineteenth and twentieth century.
Many texts have been translated into several world languages, providing
a special opportunity for young children to access a wide range of children’s
titles.
CIERA The Center for the Improvement
of Early Reading Achievement is a federally funded effort to study and improve
early reading. This location has many important resources for any primary
grade educator interested in early literacy.
Chucky’s Concentration
A memory game for young children based on the classic Concentration game.
Uses Shockwave. Rich in sound and animations.
Draw and Color with Uncle Fred
These simple step-by-step lessons from cartoonist Fred Laswell can boost
children’s confidence in drawing and coloring while also teaching them about
cartoon drawing techniques.
Early Childhood
Technology Literacy Project The Montgomery County Public Schools in
Rockville, Maryland developed this comprehensive resource to share information
about how to integrate technology into instruction and increase early childhood
students’ skills in reading and writing.
Early Connections:
Technology in Early Childhood Education From here, you can learn
about the five dimensions of early development and learning from birth to
third grade and how technology connects to each of those essential learning
skills.
Family Literacy
Backpack Project Provides everything teachers need to work with library
media specialists to create theme-based backpacks filled with materials
and activities for use at home. Downloadable teaching materials and related
Web site accompany each backpack theme. A great way to involve families!
Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) Games for Kids These quizzes, puzzles, and games about
hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning storms, earthquakes, and other weather emergencies
would go along perfectly with a unit on weather or to stimulate interesting
discussions about what to do in an emergency.
Fred
Penner’s Jukebox Very fast-loading, full-length popular songs for kids
sung by Fred Penner, all accessible through an online interactive jukebox.
Great for building oral language skills and listening for enjoyment!
Games for Children Ages
1 to 5 Visit this site to see the wonderful THINKING activities for
young children. The use of a Shockwave plug-in provides new levels of sound
and animation in these very creative thinking activities for young children.
Games for Children Ages
6 to 9 More great thinking activities and games for your students using
a Shockwave plug-in.
GeoQuiz
Students can test their geography knowledge using this interactive quiz that
gives three tries before it provides an answer. The maps are easy to read
and, by clicking on help, children have access to a “cheat’” sheet that
could be printed out.
Giggle Poetry Kids of all ages
can read funny poems, enter a poetry contest, perform poetry plays, answer
rhyme-time riddles, and learn how to write funny poems with tips from popular
children’s poet Bruce Lansky.
Hatching Emus
This picture gallery was designed by second graders in Indiana as they incubated
four emu eggs in their classroom. Fun for kids to explore and a great model
of how you can use digital photographs to record and share special events
in your classroom.
Jigzone.com Any photo can be uploaded
and transformed into a online interactive puzzle ranging from 6 to 240 pieces!
Kids will love the opportunity to email their photograph puzzles home or
to a favorite relative to share an event that perhaps happened at school
that day. Great fun!
Just for Kids from
University of Illinois Extension Informational resources about insects,
plants, trees, gardening, and good health, each is available in both English
and Spanish. The potential for fostering background knowledge about
science topics for younger students was too much to pass up.
Kaboose Network’s Shockwave
Games You should screen these to select ones that actually lead to supporting
your classroom program but many are quite useful. With this resource;
you may want to set your browser to block pop-up ads.
Karaoke
Song Corner for Kids Hundreds of children’s songs with lyrics and fast
loading. Some favorites include Drunken Sailor, Never Smile at a Crocodile,
and Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Print out the lyrics and even use them as
part of your guided reading group!
Little Fingers
Shockwave Parlor Index Activities to practice important early learning
skills including alphabet name knowledge, telling time, counting numbers,
counting change, and much more. Uses Shockwave.
Hunkin’s Experiments
Safe cartoon experiments for kids with food, light, sounds, clothes, and
more. May need an adult to help read the directions.
Minutes from ME Margaret
Ennis, who is a fellow at the Franklin Museum, shares her articles containing
great ideas for working with very young children on the computer. Very practical
ideas to use immediately in your classroom. A newer section discusses issues
related to young readers and the World Wide Web.
National Wildlife Federation KidZone
For kids interested in animals and the environment. It contains interactive
games, riddles and jokes, and even articles from past issues of Ranger Rick
and Backyard Buddies. Many articles also appear in Spanish. A nice location
during units on animals and the environment. Set a bookmark!
NASA For
Kids Young science buffs will love to explore the interactive simulations,
games, space stories, and much more. This is a great way to build background
knowledge about space in a fun, engaging manner. A super idea for Internet
Workshop within a space unit.
Online
Autumn If you are doing work on seasonal change in the fall with
your primary grade classroom you simply must visit this location. Susan
Silverman has acquired an international reputation for her outstanding work.
It contains links from around the world to projects by other classrooms
where children wrote poetry, stories, and art about autumn. Set a bookmark!
Outline Maps from Education Place Good for a quick map to highlight
the setting of a book or a current news event. This site provides
one click access to clear, black and white downloadable maps of all the major
countries as well as regions in the United States. Great for coloring and
labeling.
PBS Between the Lions Grounded
in a research-based comprehensive literacy framework, this companion Web
site to PBS’ television series for children ages 4–7 is a wonderful multimedia
addition to your early literacy curriculum. The site features interactive
games, printable games and coloring sheets, video clips, songs, a 200-word
illustrated speaking glossary, and 70 online stories, each paired with a
set five other books with similar themes.
Pocantico Hills School This school features one of our very favorite
compilations of primary classroom Web-based projects for you to explore.
From the homepage, select ‘Class Pages’ from the left menu and save plenty
of time to peruse through each teacher’s classroom Web page in kindergarten
through third grade.
Pook in the
World Join Pook, a small character who wants to save the world,
in an animated learning adventure for children ages 6 and up developed by
the United Nations CyberSchoolbus. Each mission introduces young children
to a different global issue through colorful characters and animation. Flash
is required for this site.
Reading A-Z
If you’re in need of a few leveled fiction and non-fiction books that children
can take home and share with their families (without the fear of losing
them), then you’ll love this site. Although most of the resources are reserved
for paying members, from this page you can download up to 30 free books,
in English or Spanish, at different levels, as well as activity sheets that
accompany each title.
Scholastic’s
Games and Quizzes Here you’ll find a series of interactive educational
games that changes weekly. Choose from learning games like Write the Caption,
Build Your Own Caterpillar, Construct a Food Web, Interactive Weather Maker,
Mapman, and Hangman.
Smokey Bear’s Official Home Page
A great location for an Internet activity during Fire Safety Week. Kids
can play several games about fire safety, take a quiz and see how they do,
and even email Smokey. Set a bookmark! Sponsored by the USDA Forest service.
Stage
Hands Puppets Activity Page If you are interested in using puppets in
your classroom here is a site for you! Puppet activities are a wonderful
way to support language development in the primary grades.
Starfall Early
Reading Games Your emergent readers will love to explore the online
storybooks here, each with animation, audio, sound effects, and more, and
all focused on building beginning reading skills. These activities would
make great center activities. Be sure to have headphones available
for your little ones!
Technology and
Young Children’s Interest Forum This forum is sponsored by the National
Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC). It shares research
findings, demonstrates best practices, and fosters collaboration among those
using technology with children aged birth through eight years.
The Future of Children Provides
research and analysis to promote effective policies and programs for children.
It features a seasonal journal and interactive conversations about current
issues. Check out the Fall/Winter issue on Children and Computer Technology.
The White
House for Kids Have your children take a tour of the White House.
Your students can even write a letter to the president. Set a bookmark!
Webbing Into
Literacy A great collection of activities for supporting early literacy
instruction in your classroom. A number of nice ideas for assessment of
emergent literacy.
Weekly Reader
Sponsored by the creators of Weekly Reader magazine, this Web site features
interactive contest, games, and activities at each grade level. Grades 2
and up include a section on fantastic facts, a writing corner and a weekly
online poll.
Online Communities for the Primary Grades
ECENET-L “The place where parents, teachers, representatives of
professional associations and government agencies, faculty and researchers,
students and teachers, librarians, and anyone else interested in early childhood
education come together to share ideas, resources, problems, and solutions.”
Subscription address: listserv@listserv.uiuc.edu
Homepage: http://ecap.crc.uiuc.edu/listserv/ecenet-l.html
Archives: http://ecap-sun.crc.uiuc.edu/listarchives/ecenet/old/
ECEOL-LEarly Childhood Education On-Line mailing list. Hosted by
the University of Maine.
Subscription address: listserv@lists.maine.edu
Homepage: http://www.ume.maine.edu/ECEOL-L/
Archives: http://lists.maine.edu/archives/eceol-l.html
ECL-DL This low-volume listserv exchanges related to the research,
development, and implementation of early childhood literacy programs.
Subscription procedures: http://www.topica.com/lists/earlyliteracy/
Archives: http://www.topica.com/lists/earlyliteracy/read
EC-PEN Members share information about a child’s early years of life
sponsored by the Early Childhood Public Education Network in Alaska.
Subscription procedures: http://www.alaskafamily.org/blurbs/01/04/
09/2313210.shtml
European Council of International Schools (ECIS) Early Childhood List
This group is sponsored by the United Kingdom but has members all over the
world.
Subscription: listserv@listserv.ecis.org
Homepage: http://www.ecis.org/Committees/early.htm
Archives: http://listserv.ecis.org/archives/early.html
P3—Preschool to Year 3 Education Queensland (Australia)
Mailing Lists
Subscription: http://education.qld.gov.au/listserv/subscribe.html
Homepage: http://education.qld.gov.au/listserv/
Archives: http://education.qld.gov.au/archives/p3.html
PROJECTS-L A group interested in using a project approach in early
childhood education.
Subscription address: listserv@listserv.uiuc.edu
Homepage: http://ecap.crc.uiuc.edu/listserv/projec-l.html
RTEACHER A discussion group to support literacy learning in the
elementary classroom sponsored by The Reading Teacher, a journal of the
International Reading Association.
Subscription address: listserv@bookmark.reading.org
Home page: http://www.reading.org/virtual/rt_listserv.html
Archives: http://www.reading.org/archives/rteacher.html
TEACHING TIP
INTERNET FAQ