Hot Websites

Teaching Pre K-8, Apr 2004 by Lindroth, Linda

Get in touch with the great outdoors this Earth Day - regardless of the weather or your field trip budget - with these sites

With warmer weather approaching, you may be thinking about taking your students on field trips and outdoor observations. Here are some websites to supplement your sojourns.

Virtual Field Trips

www.field-trips.org/sci/ bake/index.htm

This website offers online trips for all the content areas. Just in time for Earth Day are field trips on Endangered Species, Rainforests, Salt Marshes and Volcanoes. Each field trip includes Teacher's Resources with national standards, objectives, activities for follow-up, study topics and vocabulary.

TourMaker software allows students to travel from site to site to learn about the topic. Use the ready-made tours at this site, or download a trial version of TourMaker to create your own virtual tours. A single license for TourMaker is only $25.

My students did the Baking Bread field trip, and they loved learning about nutrition and the grain group this way. I created a Treasure Hunt to use with the field trip. You can download the PDF at www.TeachingK-8.com

Best Animal Sites

www.kbears.com

This wonderful resource is helpful in many content areas. The site does have a pop-up advertisement, but since the exceptional content outweighs this negative aspect, I just ask my students to avoid clicking on the advertisement.

Animal World is a colorful alphabet book with photos of animals that begin with each letter. At the Fun Farm, kids click on animals to hear the sounds they make, see information slides and link to websites about each animal.

Geo World lets kids print maps and research different countries. At Climates of the World, click a world map to see a slideshow about a certain climate. Sci World offers NASA slideshows about the planets. There's also a "Connect the Stars" activity and directions for building a hot air balloon. At Music World, use the computer keyboard to hear notes, listen to familiar tunes and create some of your own.

Teaching Youth About Trees

www.arborday.org/programs/ TeachingYouth.html

This site, sponsored by the National Arbor Day Foundation, links to games and activities about trees and forests. "Mystery Tree Challenge" is an 83-page downloadable PDF about tree identification. Play "Who Wants to be a TREEllionare" to answer questions about trees, or use the "Majestic Trees of America Timeline" to help you create your own timeline about trees that had an impact on American history.

Be sure to check out the free classroom materials and order a free "Celebrate Arbor Day" guidebook. Don't forget to find out when Arbor Day is celebrated in your state. Most states celebrate the last of April or the first of May. It's a great companion celebration to Earth Day on April 22nd.

www. TeachingK-8.com

For a downloadable PDF of Linda's bread-related Treasure Hunt, visit www.Teaching K-8.com