Students play hangman. They can play the game using different holidays as a theme (Fourth of July to St. Patrick's Day). It gives students the opportunity to use letters and sound relationships, and they have to figure out what words can be made by the letters chosen (or not). The students have to learn to look at the entire word in order to see what would make sense. It helps that the word they are trying to figure out corresponds with the holiday chosen.

This website was designed by the United States of Agriculture. This particular activity teaches the importance of getting a variety of food from the food pyramid and the serving size of such in a rocket ship format. Students can reach Planet Power by fueling their rocket with food and physical activity. "Fuel" tanks for each food group help students keep track of how their choices fit into MyPyramid. Students will understand the food pyramid better and have fun while learning about it!

This interactive website teaches students how the Pilgrims lived to celebrate The First Thanksgiving. It gives a real life look at the Mayflower and what life was like aboard the ship (far from a cruise ship), what life was like once the Pilgrims arrived in America, and how the Indians helped the Pilgrims survive. This has great information and activities. I use it every year in my classroom. It has different grade levels of information (PK-12).

This website is a great tool for reinforcing and explaining regrouping addition. It takes the students through the process step-by-step. The website uses great graphics and makes the problem seem like a game. My students that struggle with this concept have great success with this website. I post it to my port-a-portal, so students can have access to it anytime.

This website takes regular photos and turns them into a piece of art. A normal photograph could be turned into an oil painting, a modern design (Andy Warhol, etc.), or you can even have a photo put on canvas. This isn't free, but it would be great to use for a photography club. It could also be used as an art lesson. A class could have a photo contest and the winner could get the photo made onto a canvas. The possibilities are endless. A great website (and tool) to know about!

Picnik makes your photos unique with easy to use yet powerful editing tools. Tweak to your heart's content and get creative with effects, fonts, shapes, and frames. The regular service is free or you could upgrade for a fee. This could be a great tool for teaching a digital camera lesson. It is important to teach students about backing up work and pictures are no exception!

ReadWriteThink is a collection of lesson plans and interactive student tools that support K-12 literacy learning. These resources are a fantastic opportunity for students to use technology as a tool to learn. These are great activities for students to use as Reading Responses. If you have one or two computers in your classroom, use one of the activities as a Center and rotate students. If you have access to a mobile lab or computer lab, each student can spend more time with the activities.

A VoiceThread is a free collaborative multimedia slideshow that can contain images, documents, and videos. Viewers can leave comments via voice, text, audio file, or video. There are many ways to use this site: post a picture and have students record their thoughts; create a digital story with images, text, and voice; upload pictures of American Revolutionary heroes and have students record their research.

This interactive web site combines Google Search with Google Maps to create truly interest-grabbing Scavenger Hunts called TerraClues. You can access lots of already-made hunts that involve your current curriculum, or you have the ability to create your own TerraClues to fit your particular classroom needs. Students learn about maps, curriculum content, and how to use a search engine.

This web 2.0 tools allows a person to design their own comic strip. It can be used for language arts. This would also be a great tool for incorporating language arts into other areas of curriculum. This could be something that a student could get on by his self and work on individually. It could then be shared by the entire class by viewing it on the SmartBoard.

This is a library of virtual math manipulatives. They are broken up into categories: PK-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12. On the PK-2 category you will find manipulatives for a bar graph, place value, etc. A version can also be downloaded to the desktop. It would be a great thing to use for the SmartBoard as well as individual instruction.

Students of all levels would be able to navigate this tool. This could easily be used as whole group or individual instruction!

Create flow-charts, diagrams, even floor plans! This tool makes it very easy to create great looking diagrams. In the classroom the students could design K-W-L charts and all types of graphic organizers. This could be added to a blog and look really professional. This tool could be used in a whole group or individual manner! Only negative is you can only have a free 30 day trial and then you have to pay a fee!