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Websites on Spelling, Grammar, & Literature
Reading/Phonics
http://www.storylineonline.net/Storyline Online offers free read-along stories. The stories are read by Screen Actors Guild members using flash
movies to display the books as they are read. There are also fun activities and lesson ideas to go along with each book. This
site looks like a great site for the little ones that can’t read yet plus for the older ones that still like to be read
to.
Literature
http://www.janbrett.com/
Tons of Activities from Children's Author Jan Brett
4,010 pages of free activities,
coloring pages, and projects
Activities Pages, Games, Coloring Pages, Email Postcard, On Screen Computer Games and more.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Project Gutenberg is a collection of FREE educational ebooks. These books can be printed out if need be for
lessons. These books are high school & college level.
http://www.longlongtimeago.com/
Age Range: 6-11
This is an interesting website from children's book author Rohini Chowdhury.
She has collected,
retold, and placed online for you and your children to
read for free a limited selection of stories that include:
-Fables
-Folktales
-Fairytales
-Myths
-Festival
Stories
-Tales from History
-Classics
-Science Fiction & Fantasy
-Stories Behind Great Discoveries
-Tales
of Today
When you get to the site you will see the menu. Click on any item and a new page opens with a brief
historical introduction, and a very short menu of stories in that tradition. Most are retold by Chowdhury, unless otherwise
indicated. The stories are presented in plain text, and a few of the stories are accompanied by colorful illustrations.
http://www.antistudy.com/title.php
Book Notes and Cliff Notes
“This site has TONS of Free cliff notes, book notes and book summaries. You can search
by title, author or even subject. A wonderful resource for anyone who needs to do a book report or term paper.”
http://robertfrostoutloud.com/index.html
March 26, 1874 was Robert Frost’s birth date. Robert Frost was best known for his poetry and his quotes. My favorite
poem by him is call, “The Road Not Taken”. On this site, Frost Read Out Loud website, you can hear this poem as
well as other poems written by Frost read out loud. Some of the poems were even read by Robert Frost himself. So, check this
site out, and see what you think of his poetry.
http://www.randomhouse.com/teachers/magicth/guides/
Does you child read the “Magic Tree House” Series? If so, this will be perfect for you. Random house has printable
teaching guides for this book series. So, you child can read what s/he likes plus learn in the process.
http://www.mayaangelou.com/
Maya Angelou is a remarkable Renaissance woman who is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary literature.
As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she
continues to travel the world, spreading her legendary wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose
lies Angelou's unique power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race and Angelou captivates audiences through
the vigor and sheer beauty of her words and lyrics.
The paragraph above is what is stated when you first get onto the Maya
Angelou website. However, my first memory of this author is when I was in High School, and I read " I Know Why the Caged
Bird Sings". The story is about an African-American Girl living in Alabama when prejudice was still very much alive in Southern
Alabama. Civil-rights issues can be had to rely to someone, especially for a child that did not live during those times. However,
this story allows the reader to know what it was like, because the girl tells the reader about her experiences, memories,
and feelings. Maya Angelou has done numerous works for children for as long as I remember. This is a woman worth learning
about, and if you haven’t read the story, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", read it for yourself & see what
you think of it.
Spelling
Grammar
http://www.schoolhistory.co.uk/
Website with Grammar lessons, quizzes, & games for all ages
http://www.answers.com/main/research_center.jsp
Free Guides & Worksheets on how to research
http://www.mla.org/map_main
The MLA Language Map is intended for use by students, teachers, and anyone interested in learning about the linguistic
and cultural composition of the United States. The MLA Language Map uses data from the 2000 United States census to display
the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages and three groups of less commonly spoken languages in the United
States. The census data are based on responses to the question, "Does this person speak a language other than English at home?"
The Language Map illustrates the concentration of language speakers in zip codes and counties. The Data Center provides census
data about over three hundred languages spoken in the United States, including actual numbers and percentages of speakers.
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/
Grammar for high school & college levels
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/sentencebasics/whatisasentence/index.shtml
This BBC website
offers a fun tutorial on how to make simple sentences. When you get to the site you will see an icon menu that includes:
*Factsheet
- Print out and review the rules for making simple sentences.
*Games - Play three different interactive games
that will help you practice
making simple sentences. 1) Determine if a group of words is a sentence by answering a True/False
quiz. 2) Figure out if a group of words is a sentence by determining if it makes sense. 3) Turn on your speakers and follow
along as the narrator reads text. Place punctuation marks to put the text into sentences.
*Quiz - Test your
sentence skills with a three-level quiz. If you pass, you can print out a certificate. If not, you can read explanations for
why the answers you chose, were incorrect.
*Worksheets - Print out free worksheets to practice your sentence
skills offline. Includes punctuation, fill in the missing words, jumbled sentences and more!
http://www.suzyred.com/music.html
Auditory learners will love the catchy songs about grammar rules, math rules and even science topics found at this fun
site. Click on a title and you'll find the words and the tune to use. For
instance, you can sing about adverbs, to the
tune "You Are My Sun-shine". Some songs even have an accompanying worksheet to reinforce the topic.
http://www.itsamadlibsworld.com/
Welcome to It's A Mad Libs World!
Mad libs are word games that create a new story by changing a few selected words
in the story. Your children and students will be laughing as they learn a few concepts at the same time.
For years, parents,
teachers, and homeschoolers have used these fun word games to teach children grammar, sentence structure, parts of speech,
and even vocabulary! Mad Libs word games make learning more fun!
http://www.teachersdesk.org/writing_plans.html
This website offers all kinds of free writing lesson plans for classroom teachers. I was surprised at some of the innovative
suggestions for how to engage kids in learning composition skills. Most of the activities can be tweaked for use in the homeschool
environment. When you get to the site,
you'll see a menu of lesson plans that include:
*Paragraph a Week -
Get a year's worth of suggestions for inspiring kids to
write a paragraph a week.
*Stories in the Round - Find ideas
for impromptu writing and story
structure.
*Stories in a Box - A fun way to select a topic to write about.
*Soapy
Writing - Use soap as a writing composition starter.
*Cereal Box Activities - Use cereal to spark the imagination of the
writer
within.
*Tales of the Talking Toothbrush - A creative writing exercise.
*It's in the Can - Fun story starters
themed around humor, mystery, and
sports.
-And many more!
Click on any title and a new page opens with
instructions on how to carry out the lesson plan. Even if you're not into these particular "lessons" -the ideas presented
may inspire you and your kids to create some fun writing activities of your own.
http://www.tustin.k12.ca.us/cyberseminar/paragraph.htm
CyberSeminar: How To Write A Basic Sentence and Paragraph Website
This site is more designed for the Elementary age
group, and looks cute to me. It really breaks down for the child that is having difficulty with sentence and paragraphs. When
you get to the site, just scroll down the page and follow the very easy step-by-step instructions on how to write a basic
sentence and how to write a basic paragraph or if you prefer to work with a hard copy, print it out and use it that way.
http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/storymap/index.html
Story Mapping
This student interactive, used in several ReadWriteThink lessons, provides a set of graphic
organizers to assist teachers and students in prewriting and postreading activities. The organizers are intended to focus
on the key elements of a story which include character, conflict, resolution and setting. Click "Display Full Record" and
see the Relation field for a link to an annotated list of lessons this interactive supports
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