Here is a great song that I taught to my students and that we do as a break in between lessons. It is song to the melody of farajaqua. There are also hand movements:
North America: lift your right arm up
South America: right arm down below the waist
Africa: arms rocking back and forth across your midsection
Europe: lift your left arm up
Asia: keep your left arm up high, and move it to the left
Australia: bring your left arm down below the waist
Antarctica: waddle like a penguin (they can also turn around as they waddle)
This song really is great for play breaks, and when we are done, students are more focused. We sing it four times: First is in a medium voice, second in a low voice, third whispering, and fourth silent, just hand movements.
Reading A-to-Z is a popular and effective reading resource. Not only are the texts leveled, but each text includes an extensive lesson plan, teaching strategies, and extension activities. OVerall, a total winner!
A complete reading program with affordable books, lesson plans, worksheets and assessments to teach leveled reading, phonics, phonemic awareness, alphabet, vocabulary, and comprehension to K-5.
I've used it mainly for the reader's theater for a club I am running. There is a small fee to use the resource, but if you contact me, I can give you my login!
I use this as a great resources to get some really challenging activities to help with critical thinking and problem solving skills. Caution: They are really addicting if you like challenging puzzles!
I love love love both the NYTimes educational supplementary materials and the fact that they exist. Recently I tweaked a Times lesson plan on writing your own obituary to help the students set goals. As we move toward the Core Standards, it's more important than ever for kids to read non-fiction and journalism.
Standards based links and our grade level "Skillbuilders" to help students practice, either at home or in the classroom, what they have been taught. Several large collections of links for PreK-12 teachers, students and parents.
This document provideds simple, practical ways to implement brain based learning strategies in your classroom. It offers you something different for each letter of the alphabet.
I love how this website provides lessons that make math more relevant to our students. I haven't used any of the lessons from start to finish, but I've used bits and pieces of each lesson and love the ideas I get from this website.
This is a great resource for teachers studying Explorers. Its an interactive map that actually shows all of the routes taken by European explorers during the Age of Exploration.
This resource is great for any teacher teaching phonics! There are free printables, vowel and consonant rules, worksheets, and lessons that will help your students succeed with phonics instruction. I use this often in my classroom and with my students. I find it very helpful in giving me a good resource and worksheet to use as well as sound phonics rules to help with instruction.
This website is a great resource for Spanish teachers of all grade levels. There are lesson plans, games, activities, and helpful insight on how to incorporate literature and culture into the World Language classroom. I have also found the resources targeted for new teachers very helpful. There are also resources and posts for veteran teachers. I appreciate that this site also provides teachers with motivation and encouragement.
"This I Believe is an international organization engaging people in writing and sharing essays describing the core values that guide their daily lives. Some 100,000 of these essays, written by people from all walks of life, are archived here on our website, heard on public radio, chronicled through our books, and featured in weekly podcasts." I use this site for writing exercises in my reading class, and they are great to spark discussion and open my kids' eyes to events around the world. If you're having trouble getting your kids to write, try this!