|
|
 |
|
If you know of a good site go
to the "Add A Link" page and add it!
CRAFT THINGS
Remember the play dough recipe the preschool teacher gave you? When you've got to have it, but can no longer find it, just log in to Arts and Crafts. Here you'll find simple recipes for play dough, silly putty, salt clay and finger paint.
Aunt Annie is the benchmark against which all other craft pages are measured. She has over fifty projects with an emphasis on learning, creativity, and problem-solving. All of her crafts have illustrated easy-to-follow instructions and many include patterns to download and print.
Although its projects lack illustration, Crafts For Little Hands fills a niche for younger artists. Highlights include clever projects like spin art using paper plates on record players and painting the sidewalk and exterior walls with water. Whether you're a parent or a teacher, I'm sure you'll find a new idea for your preschooler here.
Recipes sidewalk chalk and 3 recipes classified as Gooey Stuff. Crafts and games too.
Sponsored by the craft store of the same name, Michaels Kids Club has an extensive and varied list of crafts. Each project includes a detailed supplies list (often using specialized items not usually found around the house on rainy days) and illustrated directions. Patterns are available for printing from your Internet browser, or can be picked up in the retail stores. Visit the bimonthly Kids Club newsletter for a story with related crafts. This month's edition features flying machines with a short history of human flight, a recipe for Flying Taco Cheese Boys and instructions for party favors with a flying theme.
Free on line models for airplanes, animals, buildings, castle, culture, education, origami, ships and vehicles. Some free, some cost.
DAILY WORDS
"The music and magic of words that's what A.Word.A.Day is all about." Words are usually selected around a weekly theme, and emailed free (with definitions) to over 93,000 subscribers. You can view today's and yesterday's word at the Web site
This page features a daily expression from the Cobuild Dictionary of Idioms. Today's entry was "to the marrow." "If you say that you are chilled to the marrow or frozen to the marrow, you are emphasizing that you are very cold." It can also be used to emphasize the intensity of someone's beliefs, such as "communist to the marrow." The entries can be difficult to read because of errors in spacing between words, but exploring idioms is a fun way to deepen one's understanding of our language.
Quotes of the Day provides four daily quotations from an eclectic collection both contemporary (Steven Wright: "There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.") and historic (Tolstoy: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.") This daily dose is but one part of a large quotations site with a search engine. You can also access random quotes from a variety of collections
Got two minutes? These daily puzzles for high-schoolers and adults come in five formats, playing with definitions, synonyms, antonyms, word ladder transformations, slang, even some history and geography. The games require a Java-enabled browser and are based on reference material from Merriam-Webster. Some are a little slow to load, but the game play is very quick and very addictive. Visit the two-month archive at the bottom of the page to play previous games.
GAMES
homeschooled brothers (both Oregon state chess champions) created this award-winning ThinkQuest Jr. site in 1999. If you are a beginner, start with their How to Play section, and then proceed to Basic Strategies. If you are already playing chess, take a look at Advanced Tactics, Opening Book, and the twelve Chess Puzzles. If you are considering entering a tournament, and are wondering just what to expect, be sure to read Tournament Play for an explanation of chess etiquette and the difference between Quads and Swiss tournaments.
ChessKIDS Academy is my pick of the day for parents, educators and students interested in chess for beginners. Kids enroll in the virtual academy by simply entering their name (real or otherwise) and then viewing the slide show chess instructions, and playing the online games, which include two versions of chess as well as other strategy games such Battleship and Tetris. Teachers will find resources to help them start a school chess club, and parents will find recommendations on chess software and books. A site with something for everyone!
"An hour to learn, a lifetime to master." Learn2 is a nicely organized introduction to chess. In just eight steps, the tutorial takes you from setting up the board to checkmate. If you want to print the tutorial, skip to the last step and click on "All steps at once." Now with a single print command, you'll get all eight steps. Learn2 hosts hundreds of other tutorials as well. From the chess page, you'll find links to the checkers and poker tutorials. A drop-down directory of other "2torial" topics is in the upper right-hand corner of each page.
This is your chance to play against Chinook, the award-winning checkers program that defeated the masters. Chinook began in 1988 and quickly became a worthy opponent for the world's best checker players. By 1992 it had defeated all of the world's top human players, except Dr. Marion Tinsley, the world champion. The story of Chinook and the battle between man and machine is fascinating. You'll be pleased to know you can adjust Chinook's playing level to Novice, Amateur or Intermediate.
Play against human opponents at this Java game site with chat. Playsite includes rooms for checkers, chess, backgammon, and more. You can play as a guest, but registered users (registration is free) get a rating that increases or decreases with play. After logging on, go to the Checkers room to find a match. Remember, the games includes chat, so appropriate parent supervision is recommended.
Play checkers against the computer at this visually-appealing Java checkers game by Cafesoft. You can set the level of difficulty by deciding how many moves (from one to ten) the computer can think ahead. You can also choose who plays first. Other Java games at this site include Connect4 and Blocks (a version of Tetris).
Money/Finance Games
Gazillionaire is a terrific find! It is a Windows-based science-fiction fantasy game to download and play. Each player runs a trading company in outer space, racing from planet to planet, buying and selling a variety of commodities (such as jelly beans and lava lamps.) Along the way you'll learn about overhead costs, profit margins, capitalization and other business concepts. This free version is yours to enjoy, but if you get hooked, you can buy the Deluxe CD-ROM version with even more features. Be sure to start with the excellent tutorial. The difficulty level can be adjusted for students from elementary age to college.
Lemonade Stand is an engaging and addictive web game that teaches basic business math (sales minus expenses equals profits). The object of the game is to make as much money as possible in twenty-five rounds. Before each round starts, you review the weather forecast. Then you decide how many cups of lemonade to make and how much to spend on advertising. At the end of each round, you receive a summary of how many cups sold and how much profit was made.
Online Monopoly is a marvelous implementation of a classic that has endured to captivate another generation of players. Before you join a game, take a moment to watch an existing game. Online Monopoly moves much faster than the board game because the computer moves your pieces and handles the bank. All you need to do is click on the dice to roll, and decide which properties to buy or trade. Since these realtime games allow chatting, parent supervision is recommended. Other games to play include Scrabble, Backgammon, Checkers and Chess and LOTS more
PUZZLES
Puzzles developed for Cub Scouts at den meetings introducing and/or reinforcing information that is presented. Print only. Word searches also available. Whole slew of puzzles!
A child's crossword that can be printed or solved onscreen.
Each of these educational puzzles for the elementary-school crowd covers a different subject. January's assortment of nine puzzles includes Martin Luther King, Airplanes, Multiplication, and Punctuation. Most of these puzzles are crosswords, but some are connect-the-dots and word searches. All are designed to be printed out and completed on paper. Don't miss their extensive archive of past puzzles. Also in Espanol.
Jigzone is the grand daddy of online jigsaw puzzle sites. They have a huge inventory of Java puzzles at all levels of difficulty, feature a new picture daily, and allow you to email puzzles to friends. But what I liked best was being able to control both the number of pieces and their shape. For example, start with their puzzle of the day. Is the sixty-seven piece classic a tad too difficult or perhaps too easy? Click on Shapes and choose your own level of difficulty from among thirty-three choices, ranging from a six-piece classic (preschool easy) to 240 square pieces (for serious puzzle enthusiasts only!) One of my favorites/Jean
This collection of colorful children's Java jigsaws is arranged into twelve topics (such as Aliens, Pet Parade and Big Sports.) Many of the puzzle illustrations were created by other MaMaMedia kids. You can submit your own computer-created drawing via email too, as long as you register first. All of the puzzles are a twelve-piece design, and you can choose among four different shapes by clicking Change Shapes. If you need a bit of help, click Hint to get the puzzles pieces outlined on the puzzle board.
Puzzles for 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders that are based on children's picturebooks and reinforce spelling/phonics skills. Print.
These original interactive puzzles were created to showcase the talents of a team of three puzzle experts (including the crossword editor of The Wall Street Journal.) "We like to point out three ingredients you'll find in our puzzles: 1) A puzzle that is left unsolved is basically a failure. Puzzles are made to be solved. 2) Puzzles are not tests. They're entertainment. 3) A good puzzle is a bit like a joke. The unsolved components are a set-up, and the solution is the punch line."
Scrambler is a Java tiled-jigsaw that is fun for the whole family because you are timed as you play at one of three levels of difficulty. Easy divides the picture into nine tiles, medium into twelve, and hard into sixteen tiles. Little ones will need help choosing a picture, then pressing "Load" and "Scramble". But as soon as they see the scrambled tiles, they will understand what to do next. Can you beat your preschooler? Those little mouse clickers can be fast! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
