Web Sites
Sometimes it is difficult to figure out what web site to utilize, or where to search for early childhood education or elementary education links on the internet. This page is designed to help educators, parents, children, or any person interested in early childhood education and elementary education to find great web sites. It will help you search in a timely and easy manner. On this page you will find many sites that will break down the confusion of misled early childhood and educational sites that redirect you or mislead you. These links are meant to make your search easier and more convenient. Each site is broken down into simple explanations so you can click on the link and be exactly where you want to be. If for some reason you have difficulties pulling up a site please feel free to let me know via email at MrsMilesMiddleMitten@excite.com. I will do my best to correct the problem. Good luck in your search and thank you for trusting me to help you with your trip accross the educational world wide net.
Sites for Educational GLCEs, Lesson Planning, Worksheets, Rubrics
Michigan Department Of Education
http://www.michigan.gov/mde - Michigan Department of Education web site. Gives lists of GLCE's, benchmarks, current topics, educatioanal resources, parent and family information, assessments and accountability, Library of Michigan, grants, curriculum and instruction, and news with publications.
The National Association For The Education Of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/ - The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8. NAEYC is committed to becoming an increasingly high performing and inclusive organization. Founded in 1926, NAEYC is the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 90,000 members, a national network of over 300 local, state, and regional Affiliates, and a growing global alliance of like-minded organizations. Membership is open to all individuals who share a desire to serve and act on behalf of the needs and rights of all young children.
Rubistar
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php - Want to make exemplary rubrics in a short amount of time? Try RubiStar out! Registered users can save and edit rubrics online. You can access them from home, school, or on the road. Use of this tool is free, so click the link to get started now. This tool is to help teachers create quality rubrics easily.
TeachersFirst.com
http://www.teachersfirst.com/index.cfm - TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. Ths site offers professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using the subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus.
Teachers.Net
http://teachers.net/lessons/ - Now featuring 4355 Free Lesson Plans! 
Teachers.Net features over 4000 lesson plans and classroom ideas submitted by teachers just like you. Browse lesson plans by category, grade level, or search by keyword, and discover how the Teachers.Net community can make your planning easier and more rewarding.
Thinking Fountain
http://www.thinkingfountain.org/top.html - A science learning network source. This site has ideas generated by teachers relating to science. It works with a variety of techniques including mind maps and theme clusters. Great for teaching science and coming up with ideas.
US Department Of Education
http://www.ed.gov/ - Policies, funding, research, news, and blogs. The mission of the Department of Education is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
Sites for Learning Games
ABC Toon Center
http://www.abctooncenter.com/ - The ABC Toon Center is an Internet Theme Park for kids of all ages, with safe, interactive, fun activities, original comics, cartoons and music. The site has educational activities to help children learn such things as letter printing, letter recognition, telling time, learning numbers and word searches. They are committed to being a fun and safe family destination site. They do not give out the e-mail address of anyone who writes to them under any circumstances, nor, do they use e-mail addresses to send out any unsolicited messages. Theis site carefully select links which are safe for family viewing and partner with only the most reputable advertisers. The site is not affiliated with ABC TV, Walt Disney or any other entertainment company.
ABCya
http://www.abcya.com/index.htm - ABCya! is the leader in free educational kids computer games and activities for elementary students to learn on the web. All children's educational computer games and activities were created or approved by certified teachers. ABCya! educational games are free and are modeled from primary grade lessons and enhanced to provide an interactive way for children to learn. ABCya! games and activities incorporate content areas such as math and reading while introducing basic computer skills. Many of the kindergarten and first grade games are equipped with sound to enhance understanding. Great kids Holiday games and activities are available in grade level sections!Count Us In
http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/default.htm - Games designed to help children understand basic number concepts. All of these games require the Flash 5 Player or higher to work online.
FunBrain.com
http://www.funbrain.com/ - A fun site for kids kindergarten through eighth grade. Kids can explore with games and learning. Parents and teachers can use this site to help children with math, reading, and grammar. It has an interactive playground, web stories, homework help, parenting advice, and teacher resources.
Fun School
http://funschool.kaboose.com/index.html - This site offers fun games by grade level with many, many different kinds of learning games. It has a kaboose search for crafts of all grade levels. The site aslo has a parent and teacher button that gives advice about school and family. A great site to visit and explore.
NicoLand
http://www.nicoland.co.uk/en/intro_content.html - Games designed for children 6 years and older. This site has math games, history and geography games, science and discovery games, and spelling and grammar games, and learning french games. The site has some great graphics.
YahooKids
http://kids.yahoo.com/ - site that has games, music, movies, jokes, sports, study zone, and for parents button that includes on-line safety and frequently asked questions.
Sites for Everything Sites, Assorted Links and Helpful Advice
Crayola
http://www.crayola.com/ - Crayola Creativity Center has a variety of games, crafts, coloring pages and more.
Education Creation
http://www.educationcreation.com/default.aspx - Play educational games and activites by clicking on an icon within the site. You can also browse through by category using the links at the top of the page. The game and actvity sections are great for entertaining and educating kids. The flashcard and worksheet sections contain printable flashcards and worksheets that are perfect for printing and using offline. All content on this site are free. This site also has links for teachers and parents to tons of other educational sites.
Everything Preschool
http://www.everythingpreschool.com/ - At Everything Preschool their philosophy revolves around the concept that Children learn through Doing. This site contains Over 30,000 Preschool Education Activities Seperated into over 100 Themes, 26 Alphabet Areas, & Lesson Plans. Whether you are a parent or teacher I encourage you to adapt these activites to your specific challenges and challenge you to never Stop Learning.
The Four Blocks Literacy Model
http://www.wfu.edu/education/fourblocks/index.html - This site offers valuable information about the Four-Blocks® framework and how it was developed by teachers who believed that to be successful in teaching ALL children to read and write, we were going to have to do it ALL! Doing it all meant incorporating on a daily basis the different approaches to beginning reading. The Four-Blocks®--Guided Reading, Self Selected Reading, Writing and Words--represent four different approaches to teaching children to read. Daily instruction in all Four-Blocks® provides numerous and varied opportunities for all children to learn to read and write. Doing all Four-Blocks® acknowledges that children do not all learn in the same way and provides substantial instruction to support whatever learning personality a child comes with. There is research and valuable information for teachers interested in finding out more about Four Blocks.
Homework Spot
http://www.homeworkspot.com/ - Rather than housing the information for students, the aptly named HomeworkSpot serves as a springboard to hundreds of hand-picked destinations on the Internet, divided into elementary, middle, and high-school categories. Each of the three main sections begins with a "homeroom" of hot links to general sites and timely information, while the rest is divided into subjects, such as English, fine arts, foreign languages, and technology.
Michigan Electronic Library
http://mel.org/SPT--BrowseResourcesNewMeL.php - Read full text articles from magazines and newspapers; find current reference sources; use advanced search functions, order books, audio books, music, movies and other materials delivered to your participating library, and Michigan Online Resources for Educators: helps you find lesson plans and curriculum aids searchable by subject or state standard, includes info on broadband activities in Michigan and other evolving topics of statewide and national interest. Explore Michigan's heritage through photographs, diaries, oral histories, local records and historical data. Plenty of ways to search for what you need.
National Wildlife Federation
http://www.nwf.org/Kids.aspx - A great site for children, parents and people of all ages. This site has a number of different options to click on including kids pages with games. But thats not all. This site has a button about global warming, newsletters, and other issues about wildlive. A must see site.
Rhyming Dictionary
http://www.rhymer.com/RhymingDictionary/cat.html - Find rhymes to any word you need by simply typing the word in and searching. Quick and easy to use. Great site.
SoYouWantToTeach.com
http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/ - HOPE for educators. Educational blogs and posts are either academic blogs full of banal research findings and written in teacherese, or else they are cathartic blogs full of rants and complaints. This blog site is different. It strives to keep a personal atmosphere and writing style, while freely transferring practical information in meaningful and positive ways. A quest for educational excellence is the mission of this web site.
The Special Education Home Page
http://specialed.freeyellow.com/ - Often times, Special Education students and their parents are at a disadvantage since there are not enough resources available in their immediate residential areas. However, since the infusion of the Internet into the American Society during the mid to late 1990s, more information is available to parents than ever before. Unfortunately, many special education sites and government agencies are spread out vastly all throughout the Internet. The Special Education Home Page neatly organizes a wide variety of resources and web pages into one, condensed site that is very easy to manage. With the ease of maneuverability and a place to call home, students and parents are likely to stay more informed increasing their knowledge in all areas having to do with disabilities and education. As parents and children become more knowledgeable, this will provide a tremendous advantage for the progress of our Special Education student population.
Teacher Links
http://www.msjensenclass.com/Teacher_Resources/teacher_links.htm - A collection of useful websites organized by topic and subject. Great site for students, parents and teachers to get classroom management links, lesson plan links, reading/literacy ideas, interactive educational web sites for students, custom worksheet generators, general have it all web sites, arts and crafts, math, science, special education, behavior management, social studies, ESL, graphic organizers, printables, miscellaneous.
Thinkfinity
http://www.thinkfinity.org/home.aspx - Thinkfinity is the cornerstone of Verizon Foundation's literacy, education and technology initiatives. Their goal is to improve student achievement in traditional classroom settings and beyond by providing high-quality content and extensive professional development training. This free, comprehensive digital learning platform is built upon the merger of two acclaimed programs Verizon MarcoPolo and the Thinkfinity Literacy Network. Thinkfinity makes it easy for educators to enhance their classroom instruction with lesson plans, interactive activities and other online resources. Thinkfinity also provides a wealth of educational and literacy resources for students, parents and after-school programs.
Time For Kids
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK - TIME For Kids is a weekly classroom news magazine that motivates kids to read! Issues cover a wide range of real-world topics kids love to learn about - and it's the best nonfiction text you'll find! A powerful teaching tool, TIME For Kids builds reading and writing skills and is easily integrated across your curriculum, including social studies, science and math.
You Can Handle Them All
http://www.disciplinehelp.com/ - A site that helps parents and teachers handle behaviors and discipline problems at home and in the classroom. Advice on over 117 misbehaviors. Labels the behaviors not the children.
YourDictionary.com
http://www.yourdictionary.com/ - Your Dictionary allows you to get free instant access to word definitions, thesaurus entries, word usage examples, foreign language on line dictioanaries, word games and more. Great site for teachers, students, and parents.