grade2Links

=Helpful Resources by Unit - Grade 2=

My Classroom

 * Suggested projects:**
 * My Classroom map in MS Paint or Classroom Architect ( http://classroom.4teachers.org/ )
 * Students could design their ideal classroom using TuxPaint.

[|Classroom Architect] - create a classroom map
 * Resources:**

[|The Magic Key Adventures] - This site (created by the BBC) offers nine interactive language arts activities. //HMS Sweet Tooth// discusses "full stops" also known as the ends of sentences. //Lug and the Giant Storks// talks about capital letters, and there are several other topics. Once you click on the activity you wish to teach, you are presented with a choice of "Game, Worksheet, or Teachers Resources." The //Teachers Resources// include detailed lesson plans with standards (matched to UK standards), extension activities, and other classroom ideas.

Weather

 * Suggested projects:**
 * Students could make a weather journal, writing and illustrating the weather for a week
 * Could also use the “Room with a View” collaborative project - http://aroomwithaview.pbwiki.com/INTRODUCTION
 * Students could use Graph Club to make a chart of the changes in temperature.
 * Students could play some weather games online, such as the weather tools game on Britannica, Wild Weather Adventure, Weather Maker, or Predict the Weather (from EdHeads)

[|BBC WeatherWise] - BBC's weather website for kids; includes games, descriptions of how weather works, experiments and projects, and weather photos. Students can also create their own virtual Weather Station.
 * Resources:**

[|Discover Primary Science] - Come to this site to view animation videos, practice online science activities, and learn about science at this interesting site. The videos bring many important science topics alive, including the physics of motion, structures, and more. Examples of movies include "Cleaning Dirty Water," "Exploring Lungs," or "Bouncy Custard Balls." Topics vary from pollution to the human body to levers to making homemade bouncy balls!

E-learning for Kids - Check out this site offering free learning courses to students in science, language arts, English language, math, health and life skills, and computer skills. Choose from a wide variety of different learning experiences in the subject areas for earning in a fun and engaging way. Each subject area has countless interactives ready to go! Detailed instructions are provided for each activity. **Available in English, Spanish and French.**

[|Geography at the Movies] - This website contains videos about geography, sorted by topic (such as [|Climate Change], [|Enivronment], [|Industry] and [|Weather]). There is also a large section of links to other interesting websites about Geography.

[|Latest Earthquakes in the World] - shows where the latest earthquakes happened in the world, over the past 7 days, and provides detailed information about the earthquake

[|Interactive Weather Maker]

[|Les saisons: The Seasons] - a song (mp3 format) that teaches the names of the seasons in **French and English**.

[|The Space Place: Wild Weather Adventure] - a challenging and fun weather game, where students answer weather questions to travel around the game board

[|The Weather Channel for Kids] - This site contains multiple resources for elementary learning about weather. Check out the daily forecast, the current temperatures, information about weather emergencies, weather games (interactive and printables), resources on careers in meteorology, a lesson plan bank (including science, math, language arts, and social studies), a weather encyclopedia, a glossary, weather preparation guides, and plenty of video clips illustrating weather phenomena.

[|Water Cycle] - Follow the parts of the water cycle and interactivity with living things, the earth, and the processes that occur in the water cycle. Through the interactive information, students learn the vocabulary and interrelatedness of the water cycle on the Earth.

[|Weather Games] - games for students involving weather; includes a Word Search, Coloring Book pages, and a Crossword Puzzle

[|Weather Terms: Hangman] - a Hangman game where students have to enter the correct weather terms in Spanish. **Only available in Spanish.**

[|What's That Tool Do?] - a game on Encyclopedia Britannica where students have to match the weather tool to what it measures

[|Weather Unit] - This site provides a ready-to-go unit all about weather. There are six major topics: Wind, Temperature, Humidity, Hurricanes, Tornadoes, and Lightning. Each topic provides several sub-topics, pictures, diagrams, maps, definitions, unit quizzes, and more. Each paragraph of reference information includes a //read// button to hear an audio version of the information (great for non-readers, ESL, and ELL students).

When Weather Changed History - Weather's impact on the course of history sometimes goes unnoticed. A heat wave brings about public policy change; a hurricane alerts the public to the need for better planning and an improved safety net; a father of our country dies due to extreme weather. This collection of full episodes and shorter (2 minute) clips from the Weather Channel's regular series is ideal for use in the classroom to help students make connections between climate, geography, and history.

Let's Be Friends

 * Suggested projects:**
 * Students could create friendship cards in Publisher and then exchange them at the culminating event for the unit.
 * Students could write about a friend in Word. Alternatively, students could create a poem about the qualities they most want in a friend, also using Word.
 * Students could draw and label parts of an “ideal friend” in TuxPaint – for example, drawing a big heart for someone who loves you.

[|The Friendship Page]
 * Resources:**

[|Owen & Mzee] - This colorful and creative website shares the beautiful true story of the friendship between Owen and Mzee (a young hippo and a 130-year old tortoise). The resources available at this website are truly amazing. The sound clips alone are guaranteed to delight your students. Teachers will find several interdisciplinary lesson plans, documentary videos, a detailed teachers' guide, a "picture pond" slide show of the area of Kenya where Owen and Mzee reside, interactive activities to learn Swahili, and more. The beauty of this website (and story) is its ability to teach acceptance, resilience, diversity, African culture, and more in a fun and engaging style.

Which Founder Are You? - This website offers an eleven question quiz about which founding father you are most like. Much like personality quizzes in pre-teen and teen magazines, this site will appeal to students. It is a different take on history and the men who formed our country's foundation. This is a great site to demonstrate qualities found in true leaders.

My Family on the Map

 * Suggested projects:**
 * Students could explore Google Earth ; they could explore where they live currently and where their relatives are from or live now.
 * Students could talk with a class in another country (using Skype). Students could then draw a chart or a Venn diagram pointing out the similarities and differences between their countries.
 * Students can explore online map puzzles, to practice identifying other countries.
 * Students could create a map of their bedroom, using TuxPaint.
 * Students could create a map of their ideal bedroom using TuxPaint, including a compass rose and appropriate labels.

[|BeelineTV] - This online TV resource offers instant streaming of TV news, sports, music, and cultural programs from **up to 400 different countries in many languages**. With a Windows Media Player or other player (downloading directions given at the site), teachers can have television on classroom computers instantly. Foreign language teachers can show programs featuring their language group. English language TV comes from the U.S. and the U.K. Some examples of “TV” places include Dubai, France, Jordan, Kuwait, Japan, Korea, China, Poland, Denmark, Russia, and countless others.
 * Resources:**

[|Geni: Everyone's Related] - This tool allows you to create an interactive family tree. Once you are registered, you can easily create a family tree. You are able to include family member's birth-dates, death-dates, email addresses, pictures, video clips, and more. This site also has the capacity to create timelines for births, deaths, weddings, divorces, education, occupation, and other important events and information. Tip: If you plan to have student's register individually, you may want to [|create your own Gmail account with up to 20 subaccounts for each group of students].

[|Google Earth] - **available in Spanish, French, English and Dutch**

[|Interactive Online Maps] - includes map puzzles as well as maps of the world and individual countries

[|Kidlandia Maps]

[|Make Your Own Flag] - T his site tickles students' creativity by having them create flags all about themselves. Students choose colors, hobbies, pets, sports, climate and/or location, letters, and numbers to represent their personality and life. Once the flag is completed, students are able to print the flag, start over, or send to a friend.

Migration Stories -

[|National Geographic World Atlas for Young Explorers] - activities that go along with the print atlas of the same name

[|Smithsonian Images] - This website contains a huge collection of images from the Smithsonian, from such categories as [|Air and Space], [|Art], [|Cultural History], [|Technology History], [|Military History], [|Natural Science], [|Political History], and photographs on [|the National Mall].

Life Cycles

 * Suggested projects:**
 * Students could play interactive games online about life cycles and habitats.
 * Students could use PowerPoint to make a slideshow of the life cycle they are studying.
 * Students could make an illustrated story of a life cycle of an animal, using Word or EasyBook Deluxe. These stories could be read to the 1st graders.
 * Students could create a performance piece (for example, a skit, song, or dance) about their life cycle. These pieces could be presented to the parents at the culminating event for the unit.

[|Butterfly and Moth Life Cycle] - a website that shows the life cycles of the butterfly and the moth; it also includes coloring pages. **Available in English, Spanish, French and Dutch.**
 * Resources:**

[|Critter Cam] - A field trip to the reefs off Belize? A chilly trip to see polar bears? Grizzlies? This may seem far-fetched, but these trips are only a few clicks away on your computer. This site, created and maintained by National Geographic takes students to LIVE video of many animals and places throughout the world. 24-hours a day and year-round, you can watch the “WildCam Africa.” The “Wildcam Belize Reef” and “Wildcam Kakadu are both available year-round, but only during daylight hours (where the camera is located). There are also seasonal cameras LIVE showing Polar Bears, Seals, Cranes, and Grizzlies!

[|Grow Up] - This interactive learning adventure challenges students to create pictures displaying four different stages of an animal's life-cycle. Students can choose the habitat that the animals come from. Habitats include gardens, cliffs, ponds, and hedgerows.

[|Journey North for Kids] - stories, pictures, and videos for kids involving plants and animals; focusing on migration

[|Live Monarch Funding] - get funding for the Live Monarch program to bring live Monarch butterflies into the classroom

[|Monarch Picture Story] - a website that shows the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly. The best thing about this website is the stunning photos!

[|Something Froggy] - this website shows the life cycle of a frog

Cultures Alive!

 * Suggested projects:**
 * Students could explore story telling websites, listening to and watching videos of storytellers.
 * Students could create and illustrate their own folktale or tall tale (use either EasyBook or online Illustory)
 * Students could act out their own folktale. These performances could be videotaped and given to parents or hosted online.

[|1000 Images on the Tip of My Tongue] - This website presents idioms organized in categories in **English, French and Spanish**. After choosing a category, students see a list of matching expressions. They can hear the idioms pronounced and used in sentences. This site offers a new and different feature than most idiom sites: a link to an equivalent idiom in French or Spanish! The only idioms here are idioms with similar expressions in the three languages, though they are not directly translated. By clicking on Activities, students can see selected idioms in animated cartoons with sound.
 * Resources:**

[|American Folklore] - This is an interesting compilation of American folktales, each retold by the author. The tales are sorted into thematic groups - states, tall tales, ethnic tales, etc. There is also an alphabetical index of stories. [|Andersen Fairy Tales] - Introduce your students - even non-readers - to the classic fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen with this charming multimedia resource. Students can listen to three narrated and cleverly animated tales, play some interactive games, and learn about Andersen's life. The main site also includes the [|Grimm Fairy Tales]. **In English and French.**

[|Bunyips] - This entrancing graphic site portrays the cultural and literary history of the fictional Australian characters, the Bunyips. Students and teachers will enjoy learning about all the manifestations of its appearance on stamps, in books, and in folk lore. There are links for Education, Aboriginal Stories, Imagination, Evidence, and Fun & Games.

[|International Children's Digital Library: A Library for the World's Children] - The ICDL is a rich resource which can be used in a wonderfully wide range of situations by children, parents, teachers, librarians and others from all walks of life. Children can expand upon the stories to create games; parents can extract themes to help explain important lessons; teachers can utilize the multicultural nature of the collection to teach languages; librarians can enrich community outreach programs with tales from around the world and; of course, anyone can just open a book to read for pleasure. **In English and Spanish.** [|Myths and Legends] - Most stories are spoken in English (British and Gaelic). Not only can you listen and read myths and legends from countries around the world, but you can also record your own. In order for your class to upload myths and legends, you must do a quick registry at the site. Registration does require an email address.

[|Speakaboos] - //Speakaboos// provides an abundance of animated stories read aloud by famous people. Some are read in song! Whoever thought that “Old McDonald” could be heard as a rap song? The genres include fairy tales, fables, multicultural and holiday stories, nursery rhymes, lullabies, and children's favorites. There is also a link to //Play//. Here you will find a few links to games, printables, e-cards, and more. Registration is required to join the site, but there is no fee to join. You do not need to register to listen to the stories.

[|Stories of the Dreaming] - This beautiful site was created by an Australian consortium to catalog and retell aboriginal stories, myths, and folks tales. The site offers text, audio, and video versions of most of these, and in a layout which reinforces the subject matter. [|The main site] also includes many resources for students, such as facts about Indigenous Australia including Cultural Heritage, Spirituality, Family, Land, Social Justice.

[|The Big Myth] - Experience myths from cultures throughout the world with this impressive site that provides multimedia renditions of world creation stories. Each of the nine myths includes an overview of the culture that produced it, suggested class activities, and discussion questions. You'll need headphones for this one! **In English and Dutch.**