Dr. Seuss Seussville

During a student's elementary school career, Dr. Seuss will be introduced to them in some way.  Seussville is a website that introduces new characters, as well as characters that your child may have already seen, in a fun and interactive way.  This website has games, information about Dr. Seuss, books, videos, character pages, news, and information for educators.  This website would not be a resource to improve a students reading level, but it would be an outstanding source to get students more engaged and interested in reading Dr. Seuss books. 

Spelling Bee Games

Spelling Bee Games is a site that provides a different source of resources for students.  Many schools have their students participate in spelling bees during the year.  This website gives students a new way to practice their spelling words and their typing skills.  This website is helpful for improving reading skills because students are introduced to new words and their definitions.  This exposure to more difficult worlds makes reading a book less intimidating because students have already been exposed to the difficult words.  Also, by learning how to spell students are improving their knowledge of the sounds that letters make as well as what sounds are needed to make up a word.

Starfall

Starfall is a site that focuses on helping students learn to read.  The website is organized into four categories: ABCs, Learn to Read, It's Fun to Read, and I'm Reading.  There are many games for different age levels within each of those four categories.  Some of the games focus on the sounds letters make and other games focus on developing words.  In the more advanced categories, children can read stories online where there is an option for them to listen to the story if they are struggling.  The best resource that this site provides are the games that help students to hear the different sounds that letters make.  This is an important skill for students of all ages to have, especially when reading.  I would use this website in my classroom for students to work on individually as well as a whole class on the interactive white board. 

Search LIT

Search LIT is a different type of resource than what has been discussed below.  This source provides eBooks for students grades first through 12th.  This website provides an extensive online database of eBooks as well as a variety of different lesson plans for teachers.  Students who are struggling to read or follow along in a book can use these eBooks to spark an interest in reading.  There are many eBooks available that students will be required to read in school.  This will be helpful for students to use to ensure that they are not behind in the class reading.  Finally, this resource provides a link for parents to access more educational games, reading skill pages, and general information for parents. 

Scholastic Inc.

Scholastic, Inc. is a wonderful website that offers a number of fun, interactive activities that promote student interest in reading.  These games assist in teaching students more about the characters in their favorite books, and knowledge of characters is very important when keeping students interested in reading.  There are also a number of resources that will assist parents in knowing what their children should be learning in their reading classes.  By informing the parents of this information, parents can ensure that their children are on track to be successful readers.

Random House Kids

Random House Kids is an interactive website made by the book publisher, Random House.  This website provides games, information about authors and illustrators, and books designed for your child's specific website. One of my favorite tools that this website offers is a book finder tool.  This book finder allows you to select an age of the child and a category of stories, and it will provide for you a number of different books that your child could be interested in reading.  This is a child safe website that you could trust with your child alone.  I would absolutely encourage this website for helping your students to become excited about reading and learn of new books that they would enjoy reading.

The Magic Tree House

Students of all ages love the Magic Tree House series and this website offers even more enjoyment for these wonderful stories.  The Magic Tree House website offers students an introduction to different time periods and cultures.  The site also has non-fiction companions for learners to want to read more about a specific topic. The site gives students quizzes to test their reading comprehension, and then leads readers into interactive adventures with the main characters, Jack and Annie.  For students, it provides a fun way to deepen their knowledge of the books and the culture while encouraging them to read.  The site isn't only helpful for students.  For teachers, the site provides resources and worksheets to help develop lessons into which the books can be tied.  Overall, this is a wonderful and fun source for both students and teachers!  

Gamequarium

Gamequarium, although not the most visually appealing site, is a wonderful source for students looking for extra help with reading.  The most helpful tool that I found on this website was the link for young readers.  This page offered interactive short stories, word families, and a place where children can listen to stories being read to them.  The site also offered many tools for more experienced readers including book talks, book web sties, and author sites.  The only thing that I was disappointed with for this particular site was the layout for the website.  If I were to come across this website on my own I would likely look past it simply due to the way it looks, but I encourage you to use this useful resource!

e-Learning for Kids

e-Learning for Kids is a website that is helpful for all grades.  This website provides different games that will give students extra help with synonyms, capitalization, figurative language, word recognition, and reading comprehension.  My main focus with this would be reading comprehension.  The website gives students different books to read with the computer or alone, and at the end of the book there are a few different multiple choice questions that would help the student see what was most important in the book.  This would be a very helpful tool to use at home with your child!  I will use it in my classroom both as a reward for students when they finish their work as well as a way to interact together as a class. This is one resource that we would use the smart board with.  To elaborate on that, I will give all students an opportunity to come up to the smart board and complete part of one of the many different activities that this source offers.  Overall, I see e-Learning for Kids to be a very helpful source for you, your child, and the rest of my classroom!

Free Reading

Free Reading is a wonderful website for both teachers and students.  For teachers, the website provides lesson plans that go hand in hand with specific children's books.  For example, look at the 20 minute lesson plan for A Pocket for Corduroy. This source would be incredibly helpful for teachers who were looking to fit in a short read aloud for his or her students at the end of the day. It would also be helpful if there was a substitute teacher in the classroom and a last minute lesson plan was needed.  For the student, this website has many resources that will help with their comprehension, spelling, vocabulary, phonics, and word recognition.  These are not games, but they are very helpful activities for students who may be struggling in specific areas of reading education.  I would use this as a source in my classroom, but I do not see this as being a type of reinforcement for my students who finish their work on time like some other educational websites could be.  

What's This Blog All About?

Hello, and welcome to my blog!  The purpose of this blog is to provide you, the reader, with many different online resources that will help children improve their reading abilities.  I would like to collect these sources and provide a small description of what the website offers for you and your child or students.  I also find this to be incredibly helpful for my future classroom, and I plan on offering links to these sites on the desktop of all the computers in my classrooms.  I hope that you find this blog to be very helpful! Thank you for learning with me through this blog!