Cyber shopper

Teaching Pre K-8, May 2000

The educational publishing field has really worked at making its websites extra helpful to teachers who visit to browse or buy. This month, we've combined the Teaching Talks column and our three Technology columns (Blue Ribbon Software, Hot Websites, How To...) to highlight lots of items...ALL of which can be found on the web. Over the summer these sites will provide information for you and for those parents who might ask you for cyberspace directions. We had great fun organizing these reviews. We hope you enjoy your visits to the sites; we did! Linda, Allen, Pat

Alfy: What's It All About?

Here is a website for parents to use with their children over the summer months! Designed for kids 3-10, this bright, colorful, fully multimedia website draws kids, parents and teachers into its graphic, icon-based approach to edutainment resources! Audio makes it easy for non-readers, and an option for Spanish helps ESL students read English. Kids love the interactive "Brain Train" games, "Storyville" tales, "Arcade" activities and "Create" virtual art studios that make learning fun.

An Educational Value pop-up screen identifies national standards for every activity.

Teachers will find a Lesson Builder for writing their own lessons or integrating thematic lessons, a Home Page Builder and Award Maker. This is truly a kids' portal playground for fun while learning!

www.alfy.com

Attention Early Childhood

Teachers...

A new CD, "Here Is Thumbkin!" provides action songs for every month of the year. And, these wonderful songs are from Kimbo Educational: the people who certainly know what they're doing around kids and music.

From "This Old Man" through "A Tisket, A Tasket" and "Baby Bumblebee," this co has them all. Visit the website for this and other goodies.

www.kimboed.com

Searchopolis (and it's FREE)

You'll love this fast, free, efficient, safe search engine resource for K12! Search the Internet for more than 100 million web pages, using N2H2 filtering software to find educational resources most appropriate to the K-12 classroom curriculum. Searches are quick and the list of search results include title, URL, brief annotation, site size and date of last update. The size and date features are exceptional for students doing research.

A Reference feature provides instant access to common reference tools: dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, maps and calculators. A Today fink features news, sports, weather, and

www.searchopolis.com

Teacher's Friend Publications is surely your friend...

You'll love the Math Wall Sets from this great company. We love Word Walls, and these Math Walls iust make the whole classroom better.

There are all sorts of variations: Addition/ Subtraction, Multiplication/ Division, Addition Only (1-- 12), and so on. 144 cards in each set and just $10.95 per set. Visit their website for lots more wonderful stuff.

www.teachersfriend.com

Pioneer's Tools for Teachers Pioneer Multimedia Technologies has created a wonderful website for teachers. Tools4Teachers.com is a laser-disc/DVD resource for K-12 lesson plans that integrates multimedia technology into the curriculum. The website is divided into core content areas with lessons available in pdf format. Each printable pdf lesson contains multimedia resources and barcodes to make the integration easy.

Lessons require the use of a laserdisc or DVD player, a barcode reader and access to the multimedia programs.

Team Up to Win! Register a team of four teachers online for a chance to win a $1,000 Pioneer ovo bundle for your school. Last drawing is May 31, 2000. Be sure to visit the program and the link for artitiles and guides on using multimedia in the classroom.

www.tools4teachers.com

How Pleasant It Is!...

Pleasant Company, creators of the wonderful dolls and stories is continuing the wonderful tradition. AmericanGirl books are simply terrific.

There are no dolls to go with these titles: they make it on their own, and make it they do. The Mystery of the Dark Tower is from the History Mysteries series and well worth your time. We read it in the hotel just after receiving it at a conference. It's the story of a family who moves from the South to Harlem in 1928. Harlem is beautifully evoked and the characters are well defined and true to life. $5.95.

We think you're bound to love these newest AmericanGirl titles. Read all about them at

www.americangirl.com

TopTutors.com

A creative use of Internet resources, TopTutors offers one-to-one tutoring over the Internet. Using headphones provided free by TopTutors, students work with a personal tutor online to practice skills in math and/or language arts. Multimedia lessons are presented using an interactive whiteboard with tools for the teacher and student to use during a scheduled tutoring session. Students get feedback and earn points they can spend at the "Prize Gallery" for prizes mailed by TopTutors. At the end of each session, an e-mail update from the teacher is sent to parents with snapshots and audio recording of the session. Current tutoring covers grades 2-6, but sessions will be available for K-12 by summer 2000. Visit the website for a free trial!