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SecretBuilders is a virtual world for children 5 to 14 years old powered by a web 2.0 community of children, parents, educators, writers, artists and game developers. On SecretBuilders, children will explore virtual lands, undertake quests, play games, maintain a home, nurture a pet, and interact with their friends. Three features which form the backdrop for SecretBuilders distinguish it from other online worlds: * Children learn through immersing themselves in the stories, themes, and concepts from the best in literature, arts and humanities. They will interact with famous historical and fictional figures and be introduced to content and characters from world civilization and the great thoughts and ideas of human creativity. * Children will create this site, not just consume it. They are directly involved in creating this world with their ideas, critiques and contributions on virtually every aspect of the site and many of their ideas will be implemented! * Children publish their works - writings, art, videos - making SecretBuilders their own personal store of creativity. They can invite friends and family to view their works, and comment upon them. Seeing their works published and enjoyed by others instills tremendous for self-confidence as well as motivation to do more.

"Established in late 2004, e-Learning for Kids is a global, nonprofit foundation dedicated to fun and free learning on the Internet for children ages 5 - 12. We offer free, best-in-class courseware in math, science, reading and keyboarding; and we're building a community for parents and educators to share innovations and insights in childhood education. E-learning for Kids isn't only for kids, though; it's also a site where: * Parents get more engaged in their kids' education * Educators and experts champion e-learning and contribute their knowledge on how kids can learn better. * Commercial education and game developers contribute to the next generation. * Corporations and associations channel their social responsibility efforts. * People with a passion for childhood education make a difference. "

Words their Way

"Book Adventure is a FREE reading motivation program for children in grades K-8. Children create their own book lists from over 7,000 recommended titles, take multiple choice quizzes on the books they've read, and earn points and prizes for their literary successes. "

"Children of all ages draw pets and animals and play with them as they pop to life online. Shidonni is a virtual world that promoted creativity and imagination with kids 4 and up. Shidonni supports Children's sense of responsibility as they grow and care for their own doodles and creations. Shidonni gives a set of drawing tools and cool effects, so kids can explore their imagination fully. "

"Words Their Way is a word study program in which students learn by sorting words into categories. The links provide Powerpoints that can be used by teachers to model the word sorts or have individual students access the sorts on the computer. "

"Ready for use in elementary classrooms with any type of interactive whiteboard, these high-quality virtual manipulative tools help teachers connect students with great ways to make sense of math. Use these tools to create an environment for students to explain, discuss, and defend their mathematical thinking."

"MyKidsBank artificial banks are used to assist in the education of personal money management. Each artificial online bank operates similar to a real online bank through a web browser on the internet. The person who signs up for a virtual bank has full control and becomes the banker. Classroom teachers use the service to assist in their classroom economy."

More than 50 cross-platform games designed to help children ages 2-8 develop their math skills.

"Into the Book is a multimedia package designed to improve students' reading comprehension, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum. Based on current research, the project focuses on eight learning strategies: * Using prior knowledge * Making connections * Questioning * Visualizing * Inferring * Summarizing * Evaluating * Synthesizing Into the Book includes: * student Web site featuring interactive reading comprehension activities * teacher Web site featuring music, video clips, classroom design ideas, posters, teacher guides, lesson plans and lots more * Into the Book video series: nine 15-minute classroom videos teaching children how to be strategic readers"

"The map features the five major biomes and their most important sub-categories. "

Kidsreads is the best place on the web for kids to find info about their favorite books, series and authors. Reviews of the newest titles, interviews with the coolest authors and special features on great books are our specialties. And for even more reading fun we have trivia games, word scrambles and awesome contests!

"A "Hot Dog" is chosen each week from every class. This person get their picture taken in the "Hot Dog Hat," helps check the class out and is awarded with an extra book checkout. They then reviews that book for our "Hot Dog Review" page."

"This Kidspiration template was designed for Kindergarten students. They can decorate the snowman and finish the sentence to tell about their snowman."

"The site is home to a package of interactive games, stories and resources that have been developed to help emerging readers learn to read. The site can be used at school or at home. It's one of the most comprehensive interactive literacy resources on the net that is freely accessible... no area of the site is password protected. RTZ also aims to make life easier for educators who teach reading skills. We hope you enjoy the site's simplicity, fun characters and logical structure. You'll never be more than 3 clicks (...if that!) away from what you need. Recently over 360 educators assessed the effectiveness of the resources on www.roythezebra.com - 100% of the respondents agreed that RTZ had helped their pupils become better readers, 100% agreed that the site made reading fun and 100% said that they would use RTZ in the future."

The Save-Ums are a group of six anthropomorphic characters of various designs, who help various creatures when they run into difficulty. A typical episode begins with a call on the "adventure screen" (essentially a videophone) from an inhabitant of the world in which the Save-Ums live. The caller describes the difficulty that needs to be solved, and then selected Save-Ums travel to the scene of the problem. If you have Discovery Streaming in your district, the Save-ums episodes may be included in your subscription! The Save-Ums then assist in solving the problem. Each episode ends with the problem being solved and the Save-Ums returning to their headquarters ("Save-Um Central").

Educators are being challenged to use Lego kits' contents to develop a hands-on activity for their students. This can range from a simple build to a more advanced mathematical problem. You're the creator, so let your imagination lead you!

The Super3 is a simplified version of the Big6. Based on the original six steps, the Super3 uses Plan-Do-Review, three main steps, to help very young children think about what they need to do in an assignment, how they'll do the work, and finally to reflect on their work. The Super3 is a practical method to integrate information literacy standards into a primary school teaching environment.

Make new animals by switching their parts.There are 142 species in Switch Zoo, and the site features animal games, music performed using animal voices, a reference section about all of the animals in Switch Zoo, lesson plans, and poetry, stories and artwork created by students and visitors.