Differentiate by Interest

Literacy

Into the Book

Half of this site is designed to help students understand the reading comprehension strategies. This site is under development but the initial activities for “visualization” makes it worth checking back for new additions. Students choose to read a fiction or nonfiction book OR listen to a music selection to visualize. Students create their pictures in a graphics window that can be saved and viewed again.

Author Webcasts

An alternative to researching about an author, students can view the webcast of a favorite author from the annual National Book Festival. Children's authors include Patricia Reilly Giff, Mary Pope Osborne, R. L. Stine, Sharon Creech, and Jerry Pickney.

Book Adventure

Kids search for book titles based on grade level and topics.

Creating R.A.F.T. Prompts

R.A.F.T.s are writing prompts fostering creative and critical thinking in all subject areas. This R.A.F.T. generator allows you to create writing prompts for science topics. See also links to create social studies and math writing prompts.

Science

HowStuffWorks Webquests

Webquests are investigations focused on a theme. Students usually do a combination of on-line and off-line work to complete a webquest. The HowStuffWorks webquests include a range of topics such as volcanoes, rainforests, and Olympic scoring. Students can choose a webquest topic based on their own interest.

All Subject Areas

Brainpop Jr.

Designed for young elementary school students, this cool site plays movies to explain topics commonly studied in the classroom including reading, math, social studies, and science. Students who benefit from auditory, visual, or both types of instruction will be drawn to these engaging animated movies. Brainpop, the older sibling of BrainpopJr., is equally fantastic but has become a subscription-based site. You can check it out for the few free movies it features.