Miscellaneous Sites - a part of Good Sites for Kids!

Good Sites for Kids has education sites for children, students, kids, parents, teachers, homeschool, and schools.

Miscellaneous Education Sites

General Interest Potpourri of Specialty Sites

This page is one small part of Good Sites for Kids!

Check these sites out! They may not fit elsewhere, but they are well worth looking over. Many have games, activities, lesson plans, etc.

4Kids Games Various good math and language arts games. "4Kids is teaming with Arcademic Skill Builders, who develop online games that offer a fun approach to learning math, language arts, vocabulary and thinking skills. " We found these to be loud, fast, and good.

Alfy.com is a commercial site with good ed games and activities, as well as fun timewaster games for when you need to do that. Well known and used by kids and teachers for years.

Apples4theteacher.com - A Primary Website " We are adding more educational resources for teachers and kids (preK-grade 6) every day. Excuse our 'dust' as we move into high gear! Our site includes interactive learning games, quizzes, and worksheet generator tools by subject (creative arts, foreign languages, language arts, math, science, social studies), articles, literacy coloring pages and more."

Arbor Day Foundation Youth Education Learn about trees here! Lesson plans, activities to download, online games for older kids, lots more.

Athropolis Facts and stories about the Arctic in a very colorful format! The Arctic Library has hundreds of facts about the Arctic. ICEBERG is a kid text adventure set on an iceberg with people living on it who don't get along. Plenty more on this site, too.

BBC Skillwise "Improve your English and maths with Skillswise. Factsheets, worksheets, quizzes and games to help improve your skills." From one central location, you can access all the BBC Schools quizzes! Also has a Tutor Center with lesson plans, tracking sheets, and more. Links to a Games page with 50 MORE math(s) and literacy activities. Thank you, BBC.

BornThinker Neat activities, especially Smiley Clock! Uses Shockwave. Scroll down to the bottom to see the games.

BrainCake Welcome to the Girls' Math & Science Partnership, a program of Carnegie Science Center. Based in Pittsburgh, "BrainCake is an online sisterhood for girls 11 – 17 and stakeholders focused on girls’ inclusion in the areas of math, science, technology, and engineering. BrainCake.org features forums, programs, scholarships, virtual mentoring, girl blogs, podcasts, homework help, research and resources in a framework that integrates pop culture, science, and learning."

Brain Workshop "What if a simple mental exercise could improve your memory and intelligence? A recent study published in PNAS, an important scientific journal, shows that a particular memory task called Dual N-Back may actually improve working memory (short term memory) and fluid intelligence. This finding is important because fluid intelligence was previously thought to be unchangeable. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the dual n-back task also enhances focus and attention and may help improve the symptoms of ADHD/ADD. The game involves remembering a sequence of spoken letters and a sequence of positions of a square at the same time. Brain Workshop is a free open-source version of the Dual N-Back mental exercise. Easy download, easy install. Another SourceForge discovery.

Buffalo (Bison) Education from the InterTribal Bison Cooperative. From the original people of the bison comes this excellent educational resource. Learn the Traditional Uses of the Buffalo with a comprehensive printable .pdf chart. Learn why Buffalo Are Sacred. Learn buffalo facts and the Historical and Cultural Connection to the Buffalo. Find out about buffalo Meat & Nutrition. Play the Buffalo Brain Busters game.

Chess For Kids - from ThinkQuest. " Chess for Kids is a resource for chess players of all skill levels, from beginners to advanced tournament players. We provide tutorials to improve your strength, as well as chess puzzles to practice on and learn from."

ChessKid Lets kids play chess with kids around the world in a safe environment. Lots of chess info; sections for kids, parents, coaches; tutorials, more.

Children's Compass British Museum online for kids. Not dry at all, the Tours section is especially good, even has a section for primary grades. Art projects, too. Ask an Expert lets kids ask questions of, well, experts in everything.

Cool School Free from Curriki - a site you need to see! "Part computer game, part educational classroom tool, COOL SCHOOL: Where Peace Rules! is a whimsical interactive game where children, ages five to seven (grades K-2), journey to the fanciful world of Cool School, where everything -- from erasers to desks to books to basketballs -- are alive and full of personality. Here, in a vibrant and fun setting, children are taught invaluable social, communication, and problem-solving skills that promote conflict resolution through negotiation, compromise, cooperation, and reconciliation." Lots more at their web page. We played this and it was great. It's a BIG download.

Computer Lab Favorites from Scholastic.com! "Here are all the quick, compelling one-session activities you need to incorporate interactive learning and technology into your curriculum. Each activity requires no prep and can be completed in 15-30 minutes... Use these 50+ activities in the computer lab." The ones we played are good! Tabbed by subject!

DNA Interactive Amazing! Stupendous! Colossal! And other wow-type adjectives! This site for secondary and up students and teachers covers everything about DNA. Many videos, animations, and interactive games to play. There are 15 lesson plans ready for download, too. Really, this site could be used to help teach classes in genetics and human origins. Then there's the opportunity for educators to join the site community and create their own lessons and web pages for teaching the material.

Discovery Education from the Discovery Channel. Featuring Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators, Puzzlemaker for printable crossword puzzles, clip art, Lesson Plan Library, Brain Boosters, Learning Adventures, Science Fair Central, lots more! You need to visit this site if you haven't already.

e-Learning for Kids This is wonderful! "e-Learning for Kids is a global nonprofit foundation dedicated to free and fun online learning for kids of all ages. (math, science, reading, health and life skills and computers, )... Children from 5-12 build and improve basic skills with the best quality e-learning courseware. Parents and educators have a pre-screened source of articles, research, and related links. People in the business of education contribute their expertise." Dozens of online learning games in math, language arts, science, computer, health & life skills (lots), and learning English. Found this at The Bishops School hotlist site.

Early Learning "This page features early learning websites for young toddlers and pre-schoolers. Fun ways to introduce your toddler to their abc, 123, shapes and colours with great games, downloads and flash cards." Also sites for older children. There are some wonderful things on here, many of which were new to us! Part of allkids, a fine learning & shopping site from the UK.

Educational Freeware (Online section) Here you will find pages of good educational sites for all grades and ages. Everything from quiz makers and quizzes on all subjects, to chemistry and music. Includes some we already link to, and we'll add some of these, too. Their Download section has some good freeware for you to install.

GCompris Our first app from France! Available in over 40 languages (see their main page for a list). "GCompris is an educational software suite comprising of numerous activities for children aged 2 to 10...Currently GCompris offers in excess of 80 activities and more are being developed. GCompris is free software, that means that you can adapt it to your own needs, improve it and, most importantly, share it with children everywhere." Computer discovery, color, sounds, memory, experiential, amusement, reading, mathematics, puzzles,telling time, money, and strategy games like macala. Some of these will really make a child think! Another SourceForge find.

Games for Kids in the Stacks from Scholastic lets kids play arcade games related to some of their favorite books! Partial list of books/series with games in this site: 39 Clues, Bone, Deltora, Dinosaur Cove, Goosebumps, Holes, and Captain Underpants.

Hoagies' Gifted Education Page The "all things gifted" page. This jewel of a site is trying to pull together all sorts of activities, ideas, and resources for gifted kids, parents, and teachers. As we all know, public schools always cut gifted funding first, so a site like this one can help a lot. They've tried to post something for every gifted kid, so there's a huge variety here.

KidPort "Kidport is an Internet-based educational service designed to help K-8 students excel in school. It provides a unique, multi-step program to create empowered learners, not simply good students." Kids click on a remote that sends them to Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Creative Arts, and Reference Library. From there they can go to grade appropriate online lessons. This is an excellent resource.

(Lessons In) Electric Circuits "A free series of textbooks on the subjects of electricity and electronics." Excellent free learning, just bring a brain and the ability to think and read. Consists of six online books: DC, AC, Semiconductors, Digital, Reference, and Experiments. Volume I starts with static electricitry and ends with explanations of capacitors and inductors. It's free, it's good, and it's on the web.

Enchanted Learning (the Zoom sites) Stop looking around and go to this site now! Everything your kids will ever want to know about astronomy, birds, butterflies, dinosaurs, whales, sharks, dozens of other topics. This site is crammed with facts, pictures, and activities. Their Little Explorers section alone makes this a world-class learning site. Well worth a visit and a donation/membership.

Fact Monster Those who have never used this big, fact-filled site are in for a treat. Can be used for computer lab sessions or workstations. Sections on world facts, US facts, people (biographical) facts, word facts (grammar, reading, mythology, more), science facts, math facts, sports, "cool stuff," games & quizzes, and a homework center! All sections have activities. Oh, just go there and check it out.

Free Rice "For each word you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the United Nations to help end world hunger." Over two BILLION grains donated so far (Nov 15, 2007.) Improves vocabulary! Have one student with a dictionary while another plays.

FunBrain Neat kid games practice math and grammar! Sections for parents, too. Classic Funbrain lists the games we've grown to love in elementary computer class.

FunSchool Many online educational games at this large site. Click here for an alternate game listing.

Gardening - Classroom Projects from Kids Gardening. Here are 26 gardening projects for school kids, with lesson layouts and notes. Nice for cross-curriculum springtime activities.

Gardening - Thematic Explorations Library from Kids Gardening. Here are 26 thematic units, most with Lessons & Activities and Resources sections. There is a lot of good resources and planning material in here.

Horazio's freeware Here is a real potpourri of good free download ed games, by a guy from Venice, Italy named Horazio. Among them is TurboFarm, for 5 - 7 year olds, which is an animal names matching game. There are also some excellent interactive map games to help kids learn the names of states or regions. Examples are Liberty Map to teach the names of US states, another for Greater London, one for Italy, etc. There are also games to learn Japanese characters, vector math plotters, calorie counters, and more. Your choice of English, Italian, and Spanish (one game also has Korean.) "Grazie Horazio"

Kids Activities from allkids. This is allkids' big listing of kid sites by categories. This page features Early Learning, free colouring pages, Nursery Rhymes, Online Stories, Boredom Busters, Outdoor Activities & Games, Childrens Hobbies & Interests, Childrens Free Fun Sites, TV and Book Characters links, Kids TV show links, Kids Movies links with critiques and schedules (UK). Someone worked long and hard to bring this to fruition.

Kids Domain is a huge kid site, many activities and links.

Kids Gamer section of KidsKnowIt "KidsGamer.com is the safe place for kids of all ages to play online games. Brought to you by the KidsKnowIt Network, this website is provided in order to offer children a safe way to spend a portion of their free / reward time. "

Kids-Space Art, music, and creative writing, all blended together at one site!

Jan Brett Site The legendary childrens' author, Jan Brett, has her own awesome site! Huge menu with activities, games, printable calendars, tons more!

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators "Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning." Subject access, Teacher Helpers, lists of kids sites, more.

KidsClick! Web Search A great web search engine for kids, from UC Berkeley.

Language Guide Want to learn alphabets and vocabulary words from other languages? "LanguageGuide.org offers free sound integrated resources for learning languages." The site features pictures of various things with written and spoken names in several languages. Words are pronounced by volunteer native speakers. Current languages are English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese. Sponsored by Language Guide, a registered non-profit organization, the site is free to use but they do ask for donations. Uses QuickTime.

Launch Pad: "Where Young Authors and Illustrators Take Off! is a new literary & arts magazine devoted to publishing fiction, nonfiction, poetry, book reviews and artwork by children ages 6-12." This looks pretty good. A place where young artists and writers can show off their work!

Learning Strategies: Maximizing Your Academic Experience from Dartmouth. Evidently to help their new undergrads learn how to study, Timeless techniques well presented here. "The following pages provide a variety of suggestions and resources for maximizing your academic experience. View an on-line video, read about helpful strategies, or download a handout."

Little Animals Activity Centre (BBC) NEW URL For younger kids. Beginning math and reading activities and read-aloud stories. Very engaging.

Miss O and Friends "By girls...for girls." Advice, discussions, interviews, activities, music and more for tween and young teen girls. There's a lot in this site, the more you explore, the more you find!

MrDonn.org "Free Lesson Plans & Activities for K-12 teachers & students." Includes ready-made lesson plans for Ancient History, Myths and Folktales, Language Arts, PowerPoints on the same subjects, lesson plans for modern history, American Civil War, the Depression, Civil Rights, Great Barrier Reef, Holidays, and free clip art! BIG Ancient History for Kids section including Ancient China and Native American history! We are happy to see Mr. Donn's up and running at their own web address.

Mrs. Wilkie's Websites "Click on one of the links to the left to access the web sites that you wish to use." Do it! This is a HUGE, HUMONGOUS collection of education sites, indexed by subject. A big vertical list sits on the left side of an otherwise nondescript page. Do not be fooled! This is one of the best! It's also a good introduction to wikis.

National Girls Collaborative Project "The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) maximizes access to shared resources within projects and with public and private sector organizations and institutions interested in expanding girls’ participation in science, technology, engineering, and math. One of the valuable NGCP resources is the free, online Program Directory. The Program Directory lists programs and resources that encourage girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The purpose of the directory is to help organizations and individuals network, share resources, and collaborate on STEM-related projects for girls. The directory contains: Program descriptions with Web site links and contact information; Program resources available; Program needs; Potential collaboration opportunities.

National Geographic Kids This is Nat Geo Kids site map page. It lists all their goodies for kids: Animals, Games, Stories, Activities, People & Places, Photos, and even Videos! A ton of resources!

teaching children what to watch out for online with fun, interactive games and activities. Fun safe internet links for kids to Learn about Wizzywigs, Webville outlaws, and internet safety rules.

NewzMash "Providing young minds with today's headline news." Kid safe news in an attractive format. "Our site contains global news that is interesting, informative, and is "completely" free of any news that we, as parents or adults, would not be comfortable exposing to our kids...We created this site as a safe haven for our children, and children of other parents who have the same safety concerns as we do. This site allows pre-teens and young adults view current news and information, without parents worrying about their safety on the internet." There has long been a need for a site like this.

Oh, Brother! "We’ve just started an all-new website for kids that has comics, games and activities." From King Features Syndicate. Looks like fun and we really liked the section where kids can post art and photos of their pets!

Owl & Mouse Educational Software Great phonics software that reminds us of the old MECC Apple games of the 1980s. Free software for you to download and install, or play online. Their plug: "Help your child learn with games, software and educational activities from Owl & Mouse Educational Software. Early reading software, phonics software, alphabet games, and Dolch sight words in a fairy tale story. All of it FREE! Free online USA maps, world maps, map of Europe, map puzzles of the US, Europe, Africa, Asia, and many more. You can build your own castle and coat of arms—free downloads."

Panwapa - Where Kids Shape the World. "Panwapa is an imaginary floating island with characters, stories, and global explorations for kids ages 5-9. Panwapa characters introduce kids to concepts of learning about and accepting other cultures. Educators who use Panwapa can create a group on Curriki to extend and comment on the curricular questions which go along with the Panwapa videos, playalong games, and lessons." This site is great! Talking animated characters engage kids and help them choose from a variety of wonderful things to do. You have to check it out, it is great! From the Sesame Street people.

Pete's PowerPoint Station ("FREE Presentations in PowerPoint format & Free Interactive Activities for Kids") looks like a little homemade site for kids but it's HUGE inside! This site is set up with a model railroad theme. Pete's Presentations (Themes and Topics is the page title) lists 838 (yes, eight hundred thirty-eight) education topics, from ABC's to Zoo! Each Topic has links to that subject area, sometimes dozens of links. Not only PowerPoints (lots of them) but games and links to "good sites." Greta's Games has mostly academic games organized by subject. Often a dozen or more links per subject. Hannah's Homework Help Station has PowerPoints about doing research, and links to various research sites. You could spend a week looking in here! Anything you need for K-8, and some for higher schooling as well.

Poisson Rouge A delightful hands-on exploration site from France, just one site of many brought to you by Kids Activities from allkids, a fine learning site from the UK. Just all sorts of fun things to click on here.

PrimaryGames.com - The Fun Place to Learn! Very good online learning games, especially for K-3.

Scavenger Hunts for Kids "Free, printable treasure hunts, scavenger hunts, and fun
games for children." These are in Word format (.doc), not pdf. The ones we looked at were nice printable sheets with instructions. These are all downloads, nothing interactive or online.

Seussville! The official Dr. Seuss site! Many activities!

Social Skills for Middle School Students Yes, the site you have dreamed about really exists. With four main sections and several sub-sections, this site offers lesson plans, activities, role playing, whatever it takes to instill social skills through practice! We did up a set of questions to go with "American Table Manners" and had middle-schoolers engaged! You need to use this site!

Study Guides and Strategies (Tons of them!) We wish we could copy some quotes about these guys so we needn't try to describe this site - there is just SO MUCH going on! How to study, how to listen, how to meet challenges, managing time, how to learn (!), how to think, memorize, manage projects, how to write well, vocabulary, how to take a test, math science, etc! This site has it all! You really must look at it!

Waterford Games & Activities "Download hundreds of free games, activities, and quizzes from our website! Subject areas include animals, plants, weather, astronomy, geology, and miscellany... Simply copy materials to your desktop and print out as needed. It's that easy!"

Miscellaneous dogs!

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