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a game designed for K and 1 students to practice early literacy and phonemic awareness skills. Students drag letters into a sequence to make the word featured on the screen. There are two levels, beginner and advanced. With the beginner level, students have less choices and with the advanced level students have the entire alphabet from which to choose. 

Guest post from Karen Schwietzer about the top 10 educational sites for kids.

Common Sense Media has launched a new version of its free digital citizenship curriculum, Digital Literacy and Citizenship in a Connected Culture. The new version adds student, teacher, and parent resources, including comprehensive lessons on cyber bullying, for fourth and fifth graders. The program, which empowers students to think critically and make informed choices about how they live and treat others in today's digital media world, covers topics from internet safety and security to privacy, with a deep focus on cyber bullying and responsible digital behavior. Recent stories of the tragic consequences of cyber bullying highlight the need to teach kids how to prevent and respond to digital harassment, beginning at a young age, Common Sense Media says. The curriculum, which is based on the digital ethics research of Howard Gardner and the GoodPlay Project at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, uses content that ranges from print and video materials to interactive components and real-life student stories to inspire kids to be responsible digital citizens.

BASF Corporation has partnered with Kids X-Press to present a new twist in science literacy for children-a fun-to-read quarterly magazine about science that is written by kids. Combining articles, poems, illustrations and games, this new 32-page multilingual publication presents the world of science from a kid's point of view with many interesting results. Anyone between the ages of 6 and 18 can submit material to Kids X-Press, which is accepting submissions for the next science edition focusing on the International Year of Chemistry and the importance of water as a major global resource. The Kids X-Press Web site provides information on how to submit work to the magazine. 

Free Phonics books

SEN Teacher is a web site that provides free teaching and learning resources for students with special needs and learning disabilities. Resources for K-12 and college-level students are available, as well as at-home activities and free downloads. The site's Printables Page has customizable handouts and teaching aids. SEN Teacher links to other web sites that are carefully chosen and that provide additional free resources and helpful links. The Files Page lists free educational software, and custom Google search engines make it easier to locate resources for special needs students.

a game and curriculum designed to educate preteen students about the forms and methods of advertising. Admongo's primary feature is a game in which students earn points by collecting advertisements as they move through a fictional city. As they advance through the game, students will see short videos that explain the type of advertisements they see and how those advertisements attempt to get them to take an action. Watch the video below to learn more. Applications for Education Admongo provides a curriculum for teachers to use with 5th and 6th grade students. The curriculum is designed to complement the lessons students learn by playing the game. On the Admongo curriculum page teachers will find posters, handouts, quizzes and other printable materials to use in their classrooms.

Links to some high quality sites for helping kids with writing.

a handy site for teachers who are looking for some lesson plan ideas to go along with children's books. The library features picture books, books for early readers, and books for young adults. Each book is linked to a list of activities that could be done either while reading the book or after reading the book. The books themselves are not free (you can buy them online or find them locally) but the listed activities are free for your viewing. Teaching Library is supported through Amazon Affiliate sales so if you purchase a book through their site you will be supporting them.  Applications for Education Teaching Library could be a good resource for teachers struggling to develop a new lesson idea. If you're looking for some new books to add to you classroom, but you're not sure which ones you want, take a look at Teaching Library's suggestions.

 free children's ebooks that you can view online and or download to your local computer. As Children's Books Forever points out, the books are suitable for use on SmartBoards. There are books available in twelve languages including English, Spanish, German, and Japanese.  Applications for Education This is usually where I would write a suggestion or two for using Children's Books Forever in your classroom. But Kelly actually was an elementary school teacher (I've been in secondary ed my entire career) so I recommend reading Kelly's suggestions for using Children's Books Forever in your classroom.

Make a comic strip of your story.  ToonDoo has wonderful backgrounds and images to choose from!