Free Sites That Teach Literacy

These sites are great practice for students learning how to read.

Starfall’s Learn to Read Site   (K – 1^st grade)

http://www.starfall.com/

This site contains an easy way to access letters and letter sounds by moving the cursor over the block.  There are 4 different activities listed on the left hand side of the page with music and/or sound.  A number of other activities or videos are available on the right hand side of the page and include these concepts:  calendar, 100^th day, and holidays.

Gameaquarium   (K– 4^th grade)

http://www.gamequarium.com/

http://www.gamequarium.org/dir/Gamequarium_Junior/Beginning_Sounds/

There are many games on Gameaquarium that are educational.  The second web address listed is helps with beginning sounds of letters.

Family Learning (K-2nd grade)

http://www.familylearning.org.uk/phonics_games.html

This site contains many games that give students a place to practice phonics.  They tend to be at a medium level or higher.

Soft Schools  (K-8th grade)

http://www.softschools.com/language_arts/phonics/

This site has no sound.  It contains many games that include spelling.  There are grammar games for older students.

Game Goo Learning That Sticks  (K-4th grade)

http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

A more advanced game for alphabetizing the alphabet and such.

Between the Lions (K-2nd grade)

http://pbskids.org/lions/games/

http://pbskids.org/lions/stories/

Good for practicing phonics, can be used with the younger kids.

Synthetic Phonics (K-3rd grade)

http://genkienglish.net/phonics.htm

There are two free sites that can be reached from the blue box in the top section of the page.  At this time only the first site is available.  The letters are listed as well as different vowel sounds.  If you move the cursor over the letter then you hear the phonemic sound of that letter. 

Sesame Street (K-2grade)

http://www.sesamestreet.org/

Red Clover Award Nominees for 2011 - 2012

Each year a committee comprised of teachers, librarians and sponsers choose 10 nominees for the Red Clover Award Program from both fiction and non-fiction picture books published in the previous year.  More information about the program can be found at Red Clover Program website,
http://www.mothergooseprograms.org/lit_red_clover_overview.php

This year's nominees are as follows:

A Pig Parade Is a Terrible Idea

Michael Ian Black

 

 

Art & Max

David Wiesner

Bink & Gollie

Kate DiCammillo and Alison McGhee

Born Yesterday:  The Diary of a Young Journalist

James Solheim

I Know Here

Laurel Crozea

                                                                                                                                                 

Mirror, Mirror

Marilyn Singer

Nabeel’s New Pants: An Eid Tale

Fawzia Gilani-Williams

Stand Straight Ella Kate

Kate Klise

Who Stole Mona Lisa?

Ruthie  Knapp     

Wonder Horse

Emily Arnold McCully,

                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

DCF Books 2001 - 2012

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Nominees
A list of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Nominees with summaries of each book can be found at
http://www.dcfaward.org/lists/dcfmasterlist11-12.pdf.

More information about the DCF Award as well as previous winners and nominees can be seen at the Dorothy Canfield Fisher site located at http://www.dcfaward.org/.

Here are the Dorothy Canfield Fisher 2011 - 2012 DCF nominees:

AUTHOR	TITLE	PUBLISHER	GRADE
Angleberger, Tom	The Strange Case of Origami Yoda	Amulet	4 up
Balliett, Blue	The Danger Box	Scholastic	5 up
Conly, Jane	Murder Afloat	Hyperion	5 up
Couloumbis, Audrey	Jake	Random House	4 up
Draper, Sharon M.	Out of My Mind	Atheneum	5 up
Erskine, Kathryn	Mockingbird	Philomel	5 up
Falls, Kat	Dark Life	Scholastic	6 up
Gibbs, Stuart	Belly Up	S & S	5 up
Henson, Heather	Dream of Night	Atheneum	6 up
Holm, Jennifer	Turtle in Paradise	Random House	5 up
Kimmel, Elizabeth Cody	The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt	Dial	5 up
Klass, David	Stuck on Earth	FSG	7 up
Klise, Kate	Grounded	Feiwel & Friends	6 up
Levy, Debbie	The Year of Goodbyes	Hyperion	6 up
Lord, Cynthia	Touch Blue	Scholastic	5 up
Lupica, Mike	Hero	Philomel	5 up
McMullan, Margaret	Sources of Light	Houghton Harcourt	7 up
Messner, Kate	Sugar and Ice	Walker	5 up
Mitchell, Don	Driven: A Photobiography of Henry Ford	National Geographic	5 up
Montgomery, Sy	Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot	Houghton Harcourt	5 up
O’Connor, Barbara	The Fantastic Secret of Owen Jester	FSG	4 up
Oppel, Kenneth	Half Brother	Scholastic	7 up
Resau, Laura	Star in the Forest	Delacorte	4 up
Rhodes, Jewell Parker	Ninth Ward	Little, Brown	4 up
Shulman, Polly	The Grimm Legacy	Putnam	7 up
Silberberg, Alan	Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze	Aladdin	5 up
Sonnenblick, Jordan	After Ever After	Scholastic	6 up
Telgemeier, Raina	Smile	Graphix	5 up
Williams-Garcia, Rita	One Crazy Summer	Amistad	5 up
Zafon, Carlos Ruiz	The Prince of Mist	Little, Brown	7 up

Media Literacy Games

There are a number of online games that are fun and teach media literacy - online safety, false advertising and cyberbulling.

Games for older students:
Media Awarness Network Games
http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/games/index.cfm

On Guard Online
http://onguardonline.gov/media

A collection of games for students of all ages.
Google's Cybersafety Games
http://sites.google.com/site/cybersafetygames/

From the Open Directory Project
http://www.dmoz.org/Kids_and_Teens/Computers/Internet/Safety/

Online Safety for Younger Students
Bad Guy Patrol
http://www.badguypatrol.ca/

Benson Village School also has a publication from On Guard Online titled
Net Cetera:  Chatting with Kids About Being Online which 7th and 8th grade students have been reading.

Analyzing a Website for Research

CARS Checklist (from Evaluating Internet Research Sources by

Robert Harris       (CARS = Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support)

*Credibility	·  Is an author listed? What are the author's credentials? Can the author be reached for questions or comments? ·  Is there evidence of positive peer evaluation? ·  Has the author taken care to check for misspelling, poor grammar, etc.?
*Accuracy	·  Is the date of the site current? ·  Is the information complete and not too vague? ·  Does the author acknowledge all views?
*Reasonableness	·  Is the author fair and objective? ·  Is the author concerned with the truth?
*Support	·  Does the author provide support for the information? ·  Are the sources listed? ·  Are there other resources with similar information?
The following may also be considered when evaluating websites.
Design & Technology	·  Are the pictures relevant and clear? ·  Are the pages easy to maneuver? ·  Have the colors been chosen well? ·  Do the links work? ·  Does the page load relatively quickly?

Which website is fake and which is real?  
Use the CARS checklist to evaluate the websites.
Write your answers on a Microsoft Word document and print out at library printer.
Hand in your answer sheet to me when you are finished.
Be prepared to defend your choice.


http://www.buydehydratedwater.com/

http://www.exploratorium.edu/

http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/museumkids.asp

http://www.ansp.org/

http://www.dhmo.org/

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/Page.aspx?pid=1478

http://www.pbs.org/

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/

http://www.returntofreedom.org/kids/wild_horses.html

http://www.rythospital.com/2011/