Fun Educational Websites!

Below is an article that I wrote for Healthy Valley Magazine's April 2012 issue. It's a compilation and descriptions of some awesome websites that parents and students can take advantage of, and all of the sites are FREE!

Kids Know It is “the Internet's most popular educational website since 1998.” Children can find educational activities, products, movies, music, games, articles, text books, learning programs and worksheets. There are even posters and podcasts available. http://www.kidsknowit.com/

"FunBrain is the #1 site for online educational games for kids of all ages.” It offers games, books, comics and the lost art of Mad Libs. The site helps students improve their math, grammar, science, spelling and history knowledge in fun, versatile ways that keep kids wanting to play, without realizing that they are improving their academic skills. http://www.funbrain.com/

Starfall is a wonderful site dedicated to literacy that teaches children to read with phonics. Its systematic approach and phonemic awareness practice are perfect for preschool through second grade students as well as those in special education and English language development programs. Starfall keeps literacy fun and motivating, so it is a site that also appeals to struggling readers. http://www.starfall.com/

Jefferson Lab, also known as JLab, comes from a world-class research facility in Virginia, and is considered a highly valued partner by the local, regional and national education community. JLab focuses specifically on science and math through a collection of science videos (produced by Jefferson Lab Science) and recorded lectures, both via the Science Cinema portal. Students can learn math and science through games and test their knowledge and receive specific feedback through the SOL Tests section. http://education.jlab.org/

Smithsonian Education offers to students so much knowledge about just about everything. Unlike most educational sites, this site does not focus solely on academic knowledge; although there is plenty of it. It invites exploration because it is full of cool stuff that kids are unlikely to discover and experience without traveling around the globe. http://smithsonianeducation.org

Coolmath-games is all about math. As the names suggests, many cool math games can be found here, but not only that. There are math lessons from basic arithmetic to pre-calculus that are simple to understand and that go step by step. The lessons are short, so students have to spend a lot of time to be successful. The three sites that make up Coolmath are http:/coolmath.com/, http://coolmath4kids.com/, http://coolmath-games.com/.

Signed,
Lora the Stucy Coach