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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Free Teacher Resource Websites (part 2)



While just about everyone of you has returned to work from your holiday break, I remain one of the few still on vacation and I won't return until Friday. Why?
Furlough days that were given as a result of California's fiscal mess. On the plus side, it is the reason I have time to outline these websites for you. This is a big job, so I hope you have found something useful for you. 
Here are the last 4.....


Crafts, crafts, crafts. These crafts are organized by age level, holiday, season, or theme.  This site has a different selection of craft ideas including printable paper crafts and dioramas. There is a section of art recipes for making your own art materials. Each craft idea has layed out step by step instructions. Also, included templates for those of us who cannot draw!

8)DLTK
This was the first site I began using when I went back to teaching Kindergarten again.  The author gives permission to copy her activities for classroom use. She has educational focused materials, crafts, and coloring pages.  This is another enormous site that will warrant some exploration. I recommend checking out her nursery rhyme section. She has sister sites KidZone.ws and Coloring.ws that have even more resources available.  I like the itsy bitsy books available at KidZone.

This site “features free fun preschool lesson plans, educational early childhood activities, printable crafts, worksheets, calendar of events and other resources for children of preschool age.” (First School)
Believe it or not, this is another sister site of DLTK. The activities are definitely more appropriate for preschooler. The worksheets have larger pictures and fonts and much of the curriculum is alphabet and number based.

This last one is a big one.......................


If you are not familiar with or using WBT then you need to visit this site! You begin by signing up for a free account this will allow you to access the free resources. There are videos, web-seminars, and ebooks available.  These will teach you the basic components of implementing WBT in your classroom.  I started implementation of the classroom management techniques this year.  I can’t impress upon you how much this has helped me deal with problem students.  You should go to “first steps” to begin. I was very, very fortunate that I was able to attend a free training seminar.  (I live in southern California and conferences are regularly held in this area.)  I was trained in the first steps in a day.  If you are in this area, select “calendar” and look under “upcoming events”.  You will have to sacrifice your Saturday, but it is well worth it!

The ebooks are free to download but have a caveat.  You must promise to submit evidence (by email) of sharing the WBT website with 10 people.

After you have implemented the classroom management you will want to get the free ebook entitled “Practice Cards.” This is a free resource that you will want to help you with WBT classroom management. 

There are other ebooks that I recommend for a kindergarten teacher.

Biffytoons Manual
This manual instructs you on how to teach sight words WBT style and includes posters for each word.

Kindergarten Power Pix:  Math and Language Arts
These manuals give lessons for teaching core concepts in Language Arts and Math.  They include posters for those concepts.   You will need to select the posters and lessons that are relevant to your standards.  When this resource was created, they were aligned with the old California Content standards.  We are now transitioning into Common Core.  I actually downloaded the “First Grade Power Pix” because I found that some of those old California standards are now to be addressed in Kindergarten under Common Core.


Here’s a tip:  Keep your poster and the lesson together in a plastic sleeve. Put the poster on the front  and glue the lesson to the back.  You can teach your lesson, hang your poster, and put it safely in a binder to use again next year.

I know I haven't even scratched the surface...

If you have a website you love that isn't listed,  please share it by leaving a comment.  


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