Jenna Gabel
Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
"Love - Sign" by Cindy Andrie is liscensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Top 10 Links for Parents
I know that it can be extremely difficult to sift through the wide variety of websites that are out there to try and find appropriate sites for elementary aged children. Therefore, I have tried to take some of the guesswork out this task by creating a top ten list of my favorite free educational websites. Please feel free to explore, and share in the comment box below if there are educational websites that are not listed which you and your children enjoy. We can come up with a great list of resources if we all share our favorite resources!
1. ASL Pro
Learning signs can be difficult, especially when you are learning them right along with your child. ASL Pro is the most comprehensive American Sign Language video dictionary that I have found to date. You can use it to look up almost any sign you can imagine. I would highly recommend using it!
2. Hands and Voices
This website is a great resource for parents. Hands and Voices is a non-profit, parent run organization that seeks to connect parents of children who are deaf and hard of hearing with other parents who are, or have been, in a similar parenting situation. This organization supports children who use all communiction methods and provides a wide variety of resources to educate parents about how hearing loss effects their child. Also, the Iowa Hands and Voices Chapter plans gatherings for deaf and hard of hearing children and their families in Iowa.
3. Pawstown Weather Station
This is a fantastic signing science website for children. Paws the dog teaches children about clouds, wind, and temperature. There are experiments to try, games to play, facts to learn, and new science terms to explore. This is great for students who use American Sign Language and want to learn more about science topics.
4. Bedtime Math
Does your child want a little extra math practice? This website is an excellent resource for improving childrens mathematical and problem solving skills. Each day, a new story problem is posted related to a topic that is of high interest to children. It is a fun chance for children to practice doing mental math that is truly applicable to their own lives. There are three levels of story problems available: wee ones (pre-k), little kids (grades k-2) and big kids (grade 2 and onward). There are also fun math videos that children can watch, and as an added perk, Bedtime Math is available as an app.
5. We Give Books
This is a great website for students to be able to read their favorite books online. There is a large selection of picture books (along with a few chapter books) that children can read, and as an extra bonus, each time that your child reads a book, the Pearson Foundation dontates a book to a child who doesn't have access to books in their home.
6. Starfall
This website has exciting math and literacy activities for preschool through first grade. Students can learn to count, add, tell time, differentiate colors, identify letters and letter sounds, explore phonics, listen to songs, read basic texts, sound out words, and much more. There are many activities that are available for free, but there are also many more activities if you wish to upgrade for a small yearly fee. The free activities that are offered are definitely worthwile.
7. Teach Your Monster To Read
This website is designed as a series of games that are so fun, your child won't even know they are learning. Teach Your Monster to Read is especially helpful for children in preschool through second grade who are learning and practicing their letter sounds and phonics patterns.
8. Clifford Interactive Storybooks
Does your child love Clifford the big red dog? If so, then this website is for you! Children can read interactive Clifford books, where they are determining the story based upon the words that they choose as they are reading. There are four Clifford stories included, and each story has an phonics game that goes along with it. The games range from concentration, to making words, to letter and sound matching. This is a great website for students in early grades.
9. ScootPad
Scootpad is a website where students are solving problems across all areas of math and English language arts. The questions that students are asked are all aligned to the common core, and this website is available for kindergarten through 8th grade. For added fun, Scootpad is available as an app for tablets as well.
10. National Geographic Young Explorer
This is a wonderful website to utilize in order to help students to get their hands on nonfiction text. The most recent National Geographic Young Explorer magazines are all available for students to read online. They cover a wide range of topics including (but not limited to) forests, astronauts, explorers, animals, and wildlife. These are great informative magazines that are geared towards kindergarten and first grade students. Young children can read the magazines themselves or listen to them being read.