Michelle Gentile
SLM521
June 2002
Bibliography
of Weblinks for a First Grade Computer Center
Summary and Purpose:
The following bibliography contains links to some
of the more educational and fun websites for first graders to visit during center
work. I have divided the list into
curriculum areas: I.L.A., Math, Social
Studies, Science, Health, and Extras. I
have given a brief description of each site for the teacher/parent volunteer. I recommend that you go over each site
briefly with your students so they understand what they are supposed to
do. I tried to choose sites that were
self-explanatory but a little review never hurts!
I.L.A. 
The following sites contain a variety of
activities using integrated language arts. As you will see, each site has some type of reading component and
some have writing components. These
sites are excellent opportunities for students to practice their reading
strategies while working independently and using a different media.
For Arthur fans everywhere! This
site is maintained by PBS. It features
games and children’s art. Some of the games include Binky's Story Scrambler and
the Un-Matching Game. Children can also
write letters to Arthur and visit Arthur's friends. This is a great site for children who love the character created
by author Marc Brown.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/arthur/ Date visited: 6/12/02
This is the official Berenstain
Bears website. It includes an
activities section where children can read from an interactive storybook. There is also Sister Bear's New Mystery
Message and the Berenstain Bears slider puzzle. In the Post Office, children can send an email to their favorite
bear and also send e-cards. There is
also the Barn Theater where children can watch Berenstain Bear videos. This is a great site for young fans of the
Berenstain Bears!
http://www.berenstainbears.com Date visited: 6/12/02
This site allows children to read
a lot of exciting stories like “Round Bird Can’t Fly,” “Sniffy and Fluffy have
an Adventure," Kitty Wants a Box,” "The Counting Story," and
"Alphabet" online! The site
is broken into categories: Younger
Children, Older Children, and Young Adults.
There are also sounds, riddles, mazes, and a coloring book.
http://www.magickeys.com/books/ Date visited:
6/13/02
This is a great site for fans of
Eric Hill's Spot books. Children will
enjoy playing games and reading the animated versions of some of these
books. Upon entering the site you can
choose from a variety of activities.
Spots Bookshelf allows children to play a short Spot story online (by
clicking on the book), enjoy a new video clip (by clicking on the tape), and
play a Spot CD-Rom demo (by clicking on the CD-Rom).
http://www.funwithspot.com/ Date visited: 6/13/02
This is a cool site that has six
games from which to choose. The games
include finding the letter that comes before, finding the matching letter,
finding the missing letter, finding the letter that comes after, a random
selection of the above 4 games, and matching uppercase and lowercase
letters. The website says for Pre-K but
I feel this would be an appropriate review for 1st grade as well (especially at
the beginning of the year).
http://www.educ4kids.com/alpha/ Date visited:
6/13/02
Math 
The following sites contain a variety of activities for practicing
math skills. Each site allows students
to work independently to practice math facts and other concepts learned in
Math.
This site is a very basic site
(not very many graphics) that could be used to practice basic facts up to
20. Since this site is for students K-8
there are several categories to choose from.
You would need to review this page with the children before using so
they receive the full benefit.
http://www.edu4kids.com/cgi-bin/uncgi.cgi/math/math1.tcl Date visited: 6/13/02
This is
a very addicting site that contains a lot of great math games and trivia for
kids of all ages. Under the "Math
Games" category, first graders would enjoy The Number Monster - practice
the basic facts to 20 and ArthmaAttack - timed practice of the basic
facts to 20. Under the "Ages
3-5" category, first graders would enjoy Concentration - matching numbers,
shapes, and patterns, The Number Monster (same as previously mentioned), and
Simon Says. Teachers, be sure to try
the alphabet soup brain bender - it stumped me!
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/ Date visited:
6/14/02
First
graders will enjoy playing baseball while answering math problems. In this game, the computer gives you a math
problem, you enter your answer and hit the swing button, and if you answer
correctly you get a hit. A single, double, triple, or home run depends on the
difficulty of the question. There is also a two-player version. This is a fun math site!
http://www.funbrain.com/math/ Date visited: 6/14/02
This
site contains pages that teach addition operations covered in K-8 math. Each
page has an explanation, interactive practice and challenge games about addition. First graders would most benefit from adding
objects, adding numbers, adding using words, addition facts 0 - 10, adding
10's, and adding 2-digit numbers without renaming. The graphics are not eye-popping but the activities are
good.
http://www.aaamath.com/add.html Date
visited: 6/14/02
Houghton Mifflin Education
Place
This is
the kid's page for the Houghton Mifflin math program. I chose this site because I feel it is a good way to provide
additional, independent practice on current math lessons. This site will require weekly maintenance by
the teacher. The teacher will have to
give directions on how to use and which lessons the children will be allowed to
explore. It requires extra work but I
feel the benefits pay off. There are
three main sections: Test Prep
Practice, Test Quest - Be a Better Test Taker, and Brain Teasers. The children just click on their grade level
and are a taken to a comprehensive list of lessons. Most of the questions are in words so reading levels may be an
issue. It may be helpful to pair up
high and low readers when working on this site.
http://www.eduplace.com/kids/mhm/index.html Date visited: 6/14/02
Social
Studies 
The following sites contain a variety of activities to explore
some of the social studies units we cover in first grade. Each site allows students to expand their
knowledge of the world around us.
This site is filled with
interesting, kid-friendly information.
It contains features such as the Creature Feature, Amazing Facts, Road
Trip (a national parks game), The Cartoon Factory, Geobee Challenge and Quick
Flick (this month the video is a about safety in the sun). This is a safe site for kids to explore
independently.
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/kids/ Date visited: 6/14/02
Geography
Action! America's Backyard
This is a site that specifically
focuses on public land. Geography Action! America’s
Backyard is a public
awareness conservation program that focuses on one of our greatest national
treasures—our public lands. The program
is run by the National Geographic Society Education Foundation. The site contains features such as Take
Action! (conservation activities), Games and Activities, Photography, and
Journey, Summer 2002 (follow a team as they journey across the US). Another cool, safe site for kids to explore!
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geographyaction/backyard/ Date visited: 6/14/02
Ben's
Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
This site is a true find! Benjamin Franklin is
your guide to the US government. This site provides official Web sites written
especially for kids. It is broken down
into grade levels so you are able to click on the K-2 kite. Once you choose your level, you can click on
one of the following areas: Our Nation,
Our Government, Your Neighborhood, Ben's ABC's, Symbols of US Government, Games
and Activities, and US Government Web Sites for Kids. This site has wonderful graphics and while having an adult sit
with the child could be beneficial they are not needed for this site.
http://bensguide.gpo.gov/ Date
visited: 6/15/02
This site was created by the
Presidency of the Republic of Mexico.
It has wonderful graphics and is kid-friendly. However, due to a more difficult readability level, it would be
beneficial if a parent volunteer or other adult could help students read each
page. This site contains a lot of
information and is broken down into the following categories: History, Government, Explore, Biodiversity,
Games and About Mexico.
http://www.elbalero.gob.mx/index_kids.html Date
visited: 6/15/02
Join Time for Kids and take a
virtual journey through Mexico. This
site includes a photo timeline, currency converter, interactive quiz, audio
language guides, and ways to interact with kids in Mexico. Again,
the readability would be difficult for first graders so a parent volunteer or
other adult would be beneficial.
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/specials/0,6709,176195,00.html Date visited: 6/15/02
Kids Web
Japan is a site that is on the Japan Information Network and is managed by the
Japan Center for Intercultural Communications.
It is designed to introduce students of other countries to Japan. It is broken down into the following
categories: Basic Facts, Japanese
Culture, Kid's Life, Explore Japan, and Homework Help. The creators of this website wanted to
deepen the understanding about Japan and tried to present the information with
many photographs and graphics. Again,
the readability would be difficult for first graders so a parent volunteer or
other adult would be beneficial.
http://jin.jcic.or.jp/kidsweb/ Date
visited: 6/15/02
This is another website to explore
Japan. This site focuses more on
traveling to Japan. It gives topics
such as: Etiquette, Getting Around,
Food & Drink, and News & Weather.
It also contains links to other websites and very nice photographs of
different places in Japan. Again, the
readability would be difficult for first graders so a parent volunteer or other
adult would be beneficial.
http://www.geocities.com/traveljapaneasily/jpkid.html Date
visited: 6/15/02
Science 
The following sites contain a variety of activities to explore
some of the science units we cover in first grade. Each site allows students to expand their knowledge of the
science world around us.
This site was created by the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute. It
contains both online and offline science activities for children of all
ages. This site's readability will not
be easy for first grade. It would be an
appropriate site if a child has a parent volunteer to help them read each
page. This site also contains good
science ideas for teachers!
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/ Date
visited: 6/14/02
This is an online story of Dotty's
Garden. The story begins with planting
seeds and ends with beautiful flowers.
This story is a good review of seeds and how they grow. This story could be read by your higher
readers. You may want to pair higher
readers with lower readers so everyone gets a chance to read this story.
http://www.primarygames.com/storybooks/plant/start.htm Date
visited: 6/15/02
This site is a nice supplement to
the animal tracks science unit.
Students can choose from Games, Cool Tours, Outdoor Stuff, and Reader's
Corner. On each Cool Tour you have to
"follow the tracks" to get to the next page. The graphics are great and the format is
kid-friendly. This is a site where
adult help is not needed but could be beneficial.
http://www.nwf.org/kids/ Date visited: 6/15/02
This is a virtual field trip. Click on an animal and you will get a very
nice photograph and information about that animal. Some animals even have a map of where they live, their tracks
displayed and an audio clip of the sounds they make. Very cool supplement to the animal tracks unit! Children would benefit from having adult
help (for reading) but would be fine with the pictures and tracks if on their
own.
http://www.naturalia.org/ZOO/indexing.htm Date
visited: 6/15/02
This is a fun website from the San
Diego Zoo. It contains different games
that have to do with zoo animals. The
games change periodically. I was looking
for an animal tracks game but that is no longer available. They have replaced that game with the
following: Build a Beast - mix and
match the pieces from six different animals from two different habitats; Jungle
Bridge - Transport the animals from the rainforest into the animal reserve, and
earn money for future conservation projects; and Untamed Trivia - Tourists will
approach you at the Zoo's visitor information booth with questions about
animals and plants. This is a fun way
for children to expand their knowledge of zoo animals before our first grade
field trip to the Baltimore Zoo!
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wildideas/kids/games/index.html Date
visited: 6/15/02
This is
another site from the San Diego Zoo.
This page lists 23 different animals, gives a description of each, shows
a picture, and, the best part, plays an audio clip of the sound they make. First graders will not be able to read the
descriptions but they will see the name and picture and hear the sound of each
animal. Parent volunteers could also
read some of the descriptions if time permits.
However, it is still a valuable website without the descriptions being
read.
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wildideas/animal/ Date
visited: 6/15/02
Health 
The following sites contain a variety of activities to explore some
of the health units we cover in first grade.
Each site allows students to expand their knowledge of health
issues.
This site contains many different
types of safety such as: 911 Safety,
Farm Safety, Kid's Fire Safety, Kid's Lightning Information and Safety, Science
Safety and Smokey the Bear. Most of
these pages have a lot of graphics and present the information in a fun,
kid-friendly manner.
http://scienceforfamilies.allinfo-about.com/subjects/safety.html Date visited: 6/14/02
Another wonderful site! This site is by Dole Food Company, Inc. and
is absolutely great for young kids. It
is animated, has wonderful graphics and a lot of music and audio features. The site is broken down into the following
categories: Friends - Meet your 5 A Day
Friends (each fruit or vegetable introduces him/herself), Facts - What is 5 A
Day Anyway, Fun - Be a 5 A Day Kid. It
also has "Jammin' 5 A Day Songs," "Awesome 5 A Day Games,"
and "5 A Day Music Videos."
http://www.dole5aday.com/Kids/K_Index.html Date
visited: 6/15/02
Colgate Bright Smiles,
Bright Futures
This is a great site for dental
health. It was created by
Colgate-Palmolive and is broken down into grade levels. Once you click on your grade you are taken
to Dr. Rabbit's Bright Smiles Forest.
You are able to tour the forest by clicking on one of the
following: Smart Snack Orchard,
Toothbrush Patch, Dental Office Treehouse, Attack of the Plaque Monsters,
Toothpaste Tower, Lost Tooth Corner or Brush Champion. This site has wonderful graphics and audio
throughout the site. It will definitely
keep first grader's attention during center time!
http://www.colgatebsbf.com/kids/kid_k1_main.asp Date
visited: 6/15/02
Extras 
The following sites are labeled "extras" because they
are just that. These are extra sites
that allow additional practice on using the computer and the many components
that go along with it. The purpose of
each site is stated under the title.
This site provides educational clipart
that could be used on a variety of projects and reports. Clipart categories
include geography, people, science, transportation, dinosaurs, animals, and
weather.
http://classroomclipart.com/ Date visited: 6/12/02
This site is an excellent
opportunity for students to practice using the computer while having fun. There are a variety of games that require
using different components of the computer (the arrows, mouse, etc.) Students can play games, chat with the Cat
in the Hat, find out about new Dr. Seuss books and CD-ROMs, and much more. Most children are very familiar with The Cat
in the Hat, Sam-I-Am, Horton and the Whos, and the rest of the Seuss characters
who will welcome them to Seussville, Dr. Seuss’s playground in cyberspace!
http://www.randomhouse.com/seussville/ Date visited: 6/13/02