Fun Stuff for Elementary Students

18 Jan 2010

From the OSR Blog

The Internet offers a whole new world in teaching. There are hundreds of websites geared toward learning the basics such as math, history, language arts and many others. There are also exciting and intriguing ways to learn through Webquests or virtual field trips — take your students on a Webquest to Egypt or a virtual field trip to the land of the dinosaurs. Games teach shapes, spelling and the alphabet. Money matters are learned through group or individual lesson plans. Add the Internet as one of your teaching tools, and you’ll be amazed at how excited your students will be about learning.

Shapes

  • Concentration: Circles, triangles, rectangles and squares—lots to learn about shapes. If kids master concentration, they’ll be able to identify and match them.
  • Games for Learning: Oochy’s cube Adventure, Fun with Shapes and Oochina’s Doughnut Dilemma help students learn about shapes and how they fit into other shapes.
  • Learning is Fun: Shapes and more make learning fun. Squares fit into Squarebot and circles find their place in Circle Bear.
  • Shapes Cluster for K-2: Shapes, shapes and more shapes mean more learning.

Spelling & Alphabet

  • Fun with Letters: Students will learn all about individual letters, even serifs and letter personalities.
  • Spelling Game: Spin to spell words by picking from categories like what we wear & what we eat.
  • Spelling for Kids: There are lots of misspelled words around. Students drag letters around to find the correct spelling.
  • Spanish Alphabet: Students can learn the Spanish alphabet and how to pronounce letters and in words containing the letters.
  • Spelling Activities for Kids: Practice! Practice! Practice! It’s all about spelling with Jumbled Word, Spelling Plus and more.
  • Back to School Alphabet: A game to identify letters, both upper and lower case. Students are asked verbally to select a certain letter from four possibilities.
  • The A to Z Highway Game: Students identify trucks and drag them to the right letters scattered around the city.

Reading, Writing & Grammar

  • Reading Games: Made for kids learning about words and reading. With names like Hopposites, Chicken Stacker, Beeswax, and It’s a Big World, who can resist these reading games?
  • The Rosetta Project: Love illustrated online books? Love antique books? This site combines the two. Antique books for all ages to browse online or download.
  • About Edgar A. Poe: Students get to know the Edgar Allen Poe as person and writer. Images, sounds, words and video bring this American writer to life.
  • Wacky Web Tales: Young writers fill in words based on parts of speech or special instructions, then view the wacky tale they’ve created. Aspiring writers can have fun while they learn with these stories.
  • Learning to Read: Children find out that reading is fun.

Math & Money

  • Poptropica: Learning math here is fun, with math baseball, Bumble Numbers, Moon Rocks and more. The Math Arcade and Math Car Racing offer interesting possibilities for numbers.
  • Business Pundit: Need help with everyday math calculations? A great online tool with everyday math related calculators in one place.
  • H.I.P. pocket change: It’s all about money here. Students will learn all about the U.S. Mint. Try the Quarter Explorer to teach your students all about state quarters.
  • Welcome to Fedville: Learning can be found all around Fedville. This town is a place to learn all about money.
  • Fraction Games: Grampy and Grammy help students learn about fractions. It’s fun to learn how we use fractions all the time.
  • Ed’s Bank: Kids can play this game to learn about saving and spending. Ed needs help saving money so he can make a trip to the store.
  • Hands on Banking for Kids: Students find out about money—budgeting, earning and saving. In-depth lessons with lots of information, but presented in a kid-friendly way that makes learning fun.
  • Mr. Martini’s Classroom: Online flashcards provide a fun interactive approach to learning math.
  • Count Us In: Kids learn basic concepts in math with 15 games. Lots of fun and learning can be found here.
  • Math Cats: Learn everything about numbers from Math Cats is great fun. Learning activities include Long Line o’ Math Cats, Scaredy Cats, 3D Tic Tac Toe, Old Egyptian Math Cats Fraction and many, many more.

The United States

  • On the Trail of Captain John Smith: Younger students should enjoy this interactive history adventure. Should he build a fort or not? Kids can make decisions like this one and see the results of their choices.
  • Monticello Explorer: Students will take a tour of Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia. The house, plantation and life at Monticello can all be explored.
  • The Lincoln Memorial: Visitors make an interactive journey through panoramas of the Lincoln Memorial. By clicking on the Reflections button, they can also listen to six national park rangers tell about the Memorial.
  • Mount Vernon 3-D Tour: Visitors can take a tour of the home of George Washington, the first president of the United States.
  • America on the Move: It’s fun to drive through time, find out where everyone’s going or figure out which vehicle to use in your new movie.
  • All About Inventing: What makes an inventor? Kids can learn about the history of invention through inventors’ stories, then practice the thinking and doing skills of great inventors.

Science

  • The Wild Experience: Virtual travelers can join in field trips around the world. From the Elephants of Cameroon, peregrine falcons in the U.S. Midwest or Atlantic sea turtles, trips to see these animals and more are just a click away.
  • Hubble Space Telescope: Students can study cool pictures taken by the telescope or watch a comic collision. Way Out, a cosmic trivia game, tests space smarts.
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: Here kids will find Virtual Tours of the museum. They can choose from a self-guided walking tour of the entire museum or panoramas of individual rooms.
  • The Paleontology Portal: Students will find lots of paleo resources to explore. Time and Space presents links that lead to information about North American paleo places.
  • Cool Science for Curious Kids: Biology can be cool. Kids build a salad with plant parts, meet some dust and find out why butterflies don’t look like caterpillars and much more.

Art & Music

  • American Masters Music: Inquiring minds can choose biographies, interviews and more about the musicians who have contributed to the growth of America’s music. Lots of interesting materials are available here.
  • Discover Artists and their Work: Students will find all the information they need to write a research paper about their favorite artist. From photos of paintings to art styles and movements, and even artists’ signatures, it’s all here.
  • Cartoon Master: This is the place to learn how to make animations. Kids can become cartoon masters.
  • Cool Kids Play Music: Visitors to the orchestra can expect to see and hear a lot. Take a seat with the orchestra, learn about the instruments and make music.

Geography

  • Explore the States: A clickable map to explore each state in the U.S. From nicknames to size, students learn all sorts of interesting facts and fun things about the United States.
  • Kids Page: CIA kid’s page has super games. Students can learn about the CIA Seal K-9 Corps and the department’s history.
  • Geography for Kids: Physical geography is on the agenda. Students learn how it’s different from other kinds of geography. Junior geographers can explore in-depth information with quizzes to test their knowledge.
  • Geography Games: Students can go for a round of Quiz Your Noodle or give Brainteaser Grand Canyon a try, all the time learning geography. Lots of great videos are just waiting to be explored.

Nutrition

  • All About Milk: How much milk does a cow produce in a day? Does pasteurized refer to milk that started out in a pasture? Students can choose MooMilk Quiz from the fun menu on bottom right side of page and find out.
  • Kid’s Nutrition Games: Young cooks can learn about nutrition with MYPyramid Match game. Making a pizza and healthy breakfasts are on the game menu.
  • Fruit & Veggie Color Champions: Good eating games and activities teach good nutrition. Lots of fun and learning found here including games, activities, artwork and recipes.
  • The Game Closet: Mission Nutrition game helps students learn how to make wise food choices.