Assignment #2-Age/Subject Resources

I made five categories of resources for elementary school teachers, particularly 3rd grade teachers. I believe that each of the categories are important for a 3rd grade classroom.

One of the categories is Health and Fitness for Elementary Students. I believe that children need to be taught appropriate nutrition in the early elementary years. Obesity is rising among young children and inactivity and poor nutrition are to blame. Healthy eating is essential for learning. Children will focus better and achieve better grades if their bodies are healthy. Fast food and other fatty foods have been proven to make children tired and contribute to poor concentration. I found some great websites on nutrition that are kid friendly. One of them is My Pyramid. My Pyramid is great for kids to learn about nutrition and play games online. I would have the students spend about ten minutes each to learn about nutrition in a fun and exciting way. Another website that is just as good is Homework Spot. There are several links to fun interactive games and resources that would interest children. One of the links is Healthy Fridge. Kids can click on the fridge and choose the healthy foods. Nutrition and health are usually taught in P.E, but I think that teachers should include it into lessons.

Another category I have is for Pen Pals. I think that children should have access to Pen Pal websites so that their world is not limited to the U.S. It would be fun to let the students talk to their pen pals over a webcam. They could learn so much through this activity. It is important to make sure that the pen pal websites are safe, but easy to use. I found a couple, but most of them require a registration. The teacher needs to set it up, but once set up it will be easy for the students to learn. One of my favorite websites is Students of the World. Children can e-mail their pen pal, have a chat, and even do a web cam chat. They can choose from all over the world. Another of my favorite is Amazing Kids. You have to register, but it seems to be the most reputable website. Parents and teachers can register for their children and students. Teachers could use this to teach geography, writing, communication, and language.

My favorite category would be Educational Games for Kids. I believe that kids, especially students in the 3rd grade can gain a lot of knowledge from computer games. It might be fun to reward students with ten minutes of computer time for good behavior. Math, Science, Reading, Writing and other subjects can be learned from these games. One of my favorite websites is FunBrain. There are several different games that the student can choose from, but they are all educational. Students can play math arcades and not even know that they are learning. Another fun website is Primary Games. This website is for younger elementary grades, but is still very useful. Learning can be done online, and games are a great way for students to learn. I hope to use a lot of games in my classroom. They will learn and have fun while doing it. There is no reason that students shouldn't have fun while learning.

A category that I find most useful for myself is the category of Elementary School Lesson Ideas. I think that lesson ideas should be easily accessible. Since most people have access to computers I believe that it would be easier to go to a computer than the library. Although both are good options, I feel that I would personally use the computer more. One of the websites that has a lot of great lesson plans is the Discovery Chanel website for teachers. A teacher can choose a subject and age. I chose 3rd grade science and had plenty of lessons to choose from. I think that this is a great way for teachers to save time. Another website that is interesting is Proteacher. Not only are there great lesson plans, but there are other great resources for teachers such as classroom management and behavioral modification. I like the idea of have a lot resources available at the click of a mouse.

The last category is Kid Friendly Search Engines. The internet is a great resource for gaining information, but it 90 percent of it is for pornography. This is why it's very important for children to have access to safe internet surfing. The websites that I found carefully monitor the selections that come. Just like Google, they search over the internet, but are limited to what is safe for kids. My favorite would have to be Family Friendly Search. This website searches for information from all the safe search engines. Another website is Kids Click. Unlike the other website, this one has categories for the students to choose such as "natural disasters".

There are many different resources available to teachers over the internet. Sometimes there may be too much, but the idea is for teachers to have access to information that can help them in their career. I hope to take advantage of this.