Educators/Parents: Reading Rockets

http://www.readingrockets.org/ This site is for educators and parents who wish to help children learn to read, and for those with children struggling to read. There are good articles that could be used for a Family Literacy discussion group, as well as some things to assist parents with their search for reading activites for children, such as:

Summer Reading Tips and Resources: You'll find terrific tips, amazing activities, and important information in our newly updated Summer Reading section. There's even a free webcast from the Center for Summer Learning on what to do to keep kids reading this summer.
This site is part of the PBS TV show Reading Rockets, and if the shows are not available in your area, some are available online. I especially liked:

Al Roker of NBC's The Today Show, hosts Empowering Parents, http://www.readingrockets.org/tv/empower.php a primer for parents whose child is struggling to read. The 30-minute program, the seventh episode of the award-winning PBS series Launching Young Readers, airs on public television stations across the country beginning April 2005. An online version of the program is available from this site, and it can also be downloaded for future use. It also promises a free downloadable parent guide coming soon.

Rita Moreno also has a PBS program (http://www.readingrockets.org/tv/bilingual.php#clips called Becoming Bilingual, also available online and downloadable. Each year, schools across the country welcome large numbers of students who don't speak English. Find out what it takes to teach six-year-olds whose primary language is Spanish, Russian, or Hmong how to read in English.

One last section of this site that I liked was the Spanish/English site for bilingual readers called Colorin Colorado http://www.colorincolorado.org/ . This site has information, activities and advice for Spanish-speaking parents and educators of English language learners.

Reading: Storybooks Online

http://www.magickeys.com/books/ The title is 'Children's Storybooks Online' but some of the stories could work with low reading level adults as well. Some stories are read aloud, and can be read word by word. This is another site that you need to spend some time looking at to determine its best use, but there are some real gems in here. These are complete children's books. In a group setting with an LCD projector, this could be a fun day of reading for a Family Literacy program.

Math Challenges for Families

http://www.figurethis.org/challenges/challenge_index.htm requires an Acrobat PDF reader (free download) From figurethis.org. These are fun challenges for families that can be downloaded and printed. The challenges can be used by families with children at all skill levels. This is also available in Spanish.

Grades 1-6: Houghton Miflin Mathemetics

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mhm/ Kid's Place Mathematics from Houghton Miflin gives students the choice of a topic: test prep, test quest and brain teasers, and then the correct grade level from 1-6. The brain teasers are word and critical thinking problems, and include directions, questions, hints and a solution. The test prep checks the answers and gives points for initial correct answers and lesser points for subsequent correct answers. Test Quest gives the children strategies for better test taking and then gives examples of the strategy. This is an audio aid (needs shockwave plugin) and is an animated teacher explaining the skills, such as ruling out the wrong answers. The sound and animation are both good, and clearly explain how the strategy works. Even though this is a site that supports the HM texts, it is also good as a stand alone site that can be used for reinforcing skills and self practice.

All Ages: Mathematics and Literature Connections

http://illuminations.nctm.org/index_o.aspx?id=83 Sponsored by the National Association of Teachers of Mathematics, this is another site that focuses on the connection between mathematichs and children's literature. There are lessons from pre-K through grade 8, including an excellent unit on algebra foundation skills for pre-K through grade 2.

Lesson 1: Buttons! Buttons!
In the following lesson, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children's literature.
Lesson 2: Shapes Art
In the following lesson, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children's literature.
Lesson 3: Getting the Facts
In the following lesson, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children's literature.
Lesson 4: Can It Be?
In the following lesson, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children's literature.
Lesson 5: Making Beds
In the following lesson, students participate in activities in which they focus on connections between mathematics and children's literature.
Algebra for Grades Pre-K-2
sort, classify, and order objects by size, number, and other properties.
recognize, describe, and extend patterns such as sequences of sounds and shapes or simple numeric patterns and translate from one representation to another.
analyze how both repeating and growing patterns are generated.
Data Analysis & Probability for Grades 6-8
find, use, and interpret measures of center and spread, including mean and interquartile range.
use observations about differences between two or more samples to make conjectures about the populations from which the samples were taken.
Geometry for Grades 3-5
identify, compare, and analyze attributes of two- and three-dimensional shapes and develop vocabulary to describe the attributes.
Measurement for Grades 3-5
understand that measurements are approximations and how differences in units affect precision.
explore what happens to measurements of a two-dimensional shape such as its perimeter and area when the shape is changed in some way.
Measurement for Grades 6-8
use common benchmarks to select appropriate methods for estimating measurements.
solve problems involving scale factors, using ratio and proportion.
solve simple problems involving rates and derived measurements for such attributes as velocity and density.

All Ages: Mathematics

http://math.about.com/ Yet another About.Com site. This one deals with mathematics, and offers things such as:

Early Numeracy: Want to give your pre-school an early start to math? Here are a few great strategies and activities you can do at home to get your child thinking mathematically and prepare them for success. This site has sample word problems for grades 1-6. It's interesting how you can create the foundation for word problems with children as young as first graders.

2nd Grade Adding Worksheets Are you helping your children with math this summer? You'll find a wealth of information here. 2nd Grade Addition Worksheets in PDF. This is another resource listing for students specifically at the 2nd grade level.

Telling Time - Young ChildrenAre you helping with your children with math concepts over the summer holidays? Here's a few tips and worksheets to teach 'telling time' concepts to children in the first, second and third grades. There are worksheets that allow you or the student to fill in the hands for the correct times.

Beauty and Geometry?What does math have to do with beauty? In ancient Egypt, individuals had discovered the mystical properties of the divine proportion - the Golden Ratio. Find out why phi = 1.618 is important to beauty! This is one of those unique approaches to mathematics skills that would appeal to perhaps middle high students who have become bored with regular mathematics work. It deals with ranges and proportions and ratios and other concepts taught in a way to keep a student interested.

Summer Review: 1st-6th GradesKeep those pencils and minds sharp over the summer. Here's some word problems that 1st -6th graders should be able to solve. Problems are subdivided into the math sub-topics.

Children's Literature and Math Resources

http://users.anderson.edu/~roebuck/childlit.html This is a tool for instructors that gives a resource list of books relating to math and literature for children. There is also a fairly comprehensive listing entitled " Selected Books for Integrating Children's Literature & Mathematics". Good resource data.

Live Cams: Animal Planet Live!

http://animal.discovery.com/cams/pandavidr.html This is a new site from the Animal Planet that shows baby pandas born 7/9/05. With nothing more than RealPlayer installed (get it free from this site) you can watch live images of Mei Xiang, a giant panda, and her newborn cub at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The cub was born at 3:41 a.m. on Saturday, July 9. Mother and cub appear to be doing just fine. Zoo keepers were happy to see Mei Xiang cradling and cuddling her cub only two minutes after its birth.
While the subjects may change, this site often has live cams from various places. Kids can get a virtual sense of the world around them, unscripted and unedited. It's a fun activity for ages 3 and up.

Reading: Learn to Read

http://www.starfall.com/ The Starfall learn-to-read website is offered free as a public service. Very well done and visual, with good sound quality. I really liked the ABC's introduction to letter sounds (see below). I tried the Learn to Read section (below) with my 4 year old grandson who loves reading, and he would not stop playing it. I may have to give him his own computer so that I can snag mine back!

ABC's
Let's get ready to read
Introduction to Letter Sounds

Learn to Read
Zac the Rat and other tales
Early Beginning Reader

It's Fun to Read
About Me, Art Gallery, Magic + more!
Intermediate Beginning Reader

I'm Reading

Reading: Printable Stories

http://unmuseum.mus.pa.us/crr/
Welcome to the Children's Reading Room at the Museum of Unnatural Mystery. Here you'll find a selection of stories you can print out and read to your children over and over again. Some of the characters have put their own homepage up on the web here for you to visit too!

These are characters created for this museum, but since many of the stories are short, they can be easily printed and used in groups.

Reading: Children's Literature Site

http://www.carolhurst.com/ This is a collection of reviews of great books for kids, ideas of ways to use them in the classroom and collections of books and activities about particular subjects, curriculum areas, themes and professional topics.

Check out:
Reading
Reading Aloud grades PreK - 9
Emergent Readers
Guided Reading and Good Literature
Looking Critically at Picture Books with Students.
Parallel Reading, Adults and Students.

Also includes topics such as:
Math
US History
World History
Social Studies, Geography & Cultures
Biographies and Memoirs
Families
Work and Careers
Native Americans
Appalachia
Martin Luther King Day
Oceans
Rivers
States
Cities and Towns
Science
Flight
Nutrition Book Hunt
Oceans
Time
Weather
Wind
Art
Architecture and Buildings

Reading: Children's Literature Web Guide

http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/index.html Internet resources related to books for children and young adults. Very comprehensive, and loaded with excellent resources for parents and teachers. Especially good is the 'Resources for Storytellers' (see below) section for those who want to read with panache...

Features
What's New! What We're Reading: Commentary on Children's Books Web-Traveller's Toolkit: Essential Kid Lit Websites
Discussion Boards
Readers Helping ReadersConference Bulletin Board
Quick Reference
Children's Book Awards The Year's Best BooksChildren's Bestsellers The Doucette Index: Teaching Ideas for Children's Books
More Links
Authors on the Web Stories on the Web Readers' Theatre Lots of Lists: Recommended BooksJournals and Book Reviews Resources for Teachers Resources for Parents Resources for Storytellers Resources for Writers and Illustrators Digging Deeper: Research Guides and Indexes Internet Book Discussion Groups Children's Literature Organizations on the Internet Children's Publishers and Booksellers on the Internet