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This app allows you to record yourself reading a story aloud that others can then listen to. Your recording shows up as a video in the upper corner of the page. The app offers 3 free books and subscription options for parents, schools, and librarians. They are offering free subscriptions for deployed military parents so be sure to share if you know someone who could benefit!

Sixteen games containing characters from the show Martha Speaks that introduce new vocabulary through play, presenting words in proper context and providing definitions. Parents and teachers can print a list of the vocabulary words used in each game for further discussion.

"Welcome to Peoria Public Library's Tumblebooks. By clicking the link you will be able to use the Tumblebook Library, a collection of animated books. Children can use this service by themselves or with a parent, reading tutor or teacher. Teachers may project Tumblebooks and let the entire class enjoy a story together. You will also find games and puzzles at Tumblebooks and can save favorites, read in other languages and set the controls for your own needs. Explore it for yourself now!"

"Parents often ask us to suggest good books for their kids -- ones that will engage, entertain, and maybe even enlighten them. So we've scoured our recommendation lists and consulted with teachers, librarians, and book critics to assemble what we consider essential titles for your home bookshelves or to download to your ereader, smartphone, or tablet. From the classics to more recent must-reads, fantasy to funny, we have more than 150 great book suggestions for your kids and teens, from bedtime stories to chapter books to true literature, and more. Just search our themed categories, and you'll find all of our picks arranged by age groups."

Katie, who runs the site is one of the most helpful people I know. Titkatok is constantly offering free services to help teachers use their site and make it managable in the classroom. It is one of my favorite sites to recommend to elementary teachers for writing.

This is a great site for online writing/publishing of stories. The books created here cannot be printed out, but can be shared online.

Tikatok is a site where students can create their own books complete with illustrations. They can collaborate with other students while writing and editing and published their finished books on the web as well as sharing them with others. Parents who are interested can purchased printed books.

"Our mission is to transform boys into lifelong readers. We are an organization of parents, educators, librarians, mentors, authors, and booksellers. Periodically, we will feature an Extraordinary Author on our home page. Below is information about an incredible writer who has published several compelling and gripping novels that boys love. "

The award-winning Random House Children's Books Web site, kids@random, offers an array of materials and activities free of charge for children, teens, parents, and educators. The innovative teachers@random Web site features many teaching tools and classroom activities, including title-specific teachers' guides developed by leading educators, biographies of authors and illustrators, and podcasts. The Magic Tree House, Junie B. Jones, and Andrew Lost online classroom clubs provide innovative curriculum tie-ins and interdisciplinary connections for teachers during the school year. Random House is also the proud host of the award-winning www.seussville.com, Dr. Seuss's home on the Internet.

"Educators and parents all agree that reading is one of the best ways for students to build their vocabulary. Reading has been addressed by many traditional schools with giving suggested book lists to their students at the end of each school year. Not all schools, though, participate in this practice."

In this online activity, children first select one of nine word endings. They then begin making words by choosing beginnings, including single letters of the alphabet and letter blends like cl-. When children form a word, they get the satisfaction of seeing it deposited into the word bank. When they're finished, they can print their word bank. Adobe Flash is required. (Grade 1)

Letter P.A.L.S. is a school-based National Reading Project focused on helping students strengthen their reading skills through weekly, engaging practice! The project is facilitated via dynamic, high-interest, online interactive reading adventures, where the content is delivered in letterform from age-specific, theme-related, fictitious pen pals. Thus, drawing the reader into the world of the writer and providing a one-of-a-kind engaging, motivating reading practice session. Each letter is personalized with the student's name, 3-4 pages in length, professionally written, beautifully illustrated, tells a complete story, and reviewed by reading specialists for age appropriateness. The Letter P.A.L.S. reading experience is further enhanced by the addition of supplemental activities, such as word searches, crossword puzzles, etc., and extra peripheral components, such as 3D glasses, magnifying glasses, puzzle pieces, etc., to bring maximum engagement and the most meaning out of each theme-related reading experience.

"I've been working hard to give kids and teachers activities to use to help with creative writing. If you've been to one of my workshops, you know creativity is fantastic fun! So, here is a line-up of fun things on my site. I'm up to over 300 pages, and adding more all the time. You'll find plenty of free activities and information on all kinds of things that are meant to get creative juices flowing. I'm now also starting to offer additional creative writing helps that can be purchased. Enjoy the site! And feel free to email me with your comments!"

"With this interactive tool, teens can create printed social networking or magazine/newspaper profiles for themselves, peers or family members whom they have interviewed, or fictional characters from books they have read. Featuring components of popular online social networking applications, this tool engages teens and provides a means for adults to talk about safe, responsible online behavior, such as having an awareness of who could be seeing online profiles and limiting highly personal information."