Many of the Web tools out there are restricted to users 13 and over. To save others at school some time,John Pearce has compiled a list of popular/well known Web tools that can and can't be used by children under 13 -
1), so we are legally covered in what we are allowing our students to use and
2), so they know what is available. Please note that generally the sites that allow for under 13s still ask for parental permission ( even Edmodo if you haven't read the Terms of Use) so a solid school user agreement is needed to use these tools. Some of the sites are not US based so are not bound by COPPA and CIPA regulations. It still requires schools to carefully check out what can be viewed on these sites to ensure they are appropriate to access."
If you want your students to use the internet for research, but find that sites such as Wikipedia can overwhelm students and contain too much information - then you might like to take a look at the Simple English Wikipedia.
The Simple English Wikipedia uses simple English words and grammar to explain topics.
There are 70,000 articles on the site, a fraction of the 3 million articles that are on the main wikipedia page, but enough for most students. Check before you send kids towards the site that it contains the topics you want them to research. If it doesn't you could always create a page and add the information yourself - or make it a goal for the research project to write a page!
This site too is linked to Brainpop jr, but it is for older students. Again excellent site (but costs) click on the 'free stuff' icon to see what you can use for free. Very suitable for Stage 2 to Stage 3, perhaps even Stage 4
This American ESL Teacher has created a list of re best sites for learning about the Australian floods. The list will be updated as he finds new resources and articles, and may be useful for your class?
With so much of the Northeastern Australian floods dominating the news at present- this site would be great for you to share with students when you begin the school year- some fantastic images to generating discussions around such a hot topic,
although this site is off line at present due to thigh traffic to the site- it is fantastic for those with smartboards. Keep your eye out for it, hopefully it will be up and running soon!
Exploratree is a great site for educators to use for creating mind maps or brainstorming. This is an easy site to use that allows for group collaboration and comments as well. Best of all, Exploratree has a number of different templates to choose from to find the right "mind map" for you.
A sensational site from the person who makes http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ - covers resources/websites available for all areas of web2.0 - a great resource if you're running PD in this area!