Africa
PBS Kids Africa A game that explores interesting places and emphasizes the diversity of Africa.
A South African private school's homesite
African Animals From the African Wildlife Association. An alphabetical list of animals, pictures, some sounds - excellent information.
Page of Links
Animals
Sea World - Busch Gardens Go to Animal Info, than Animal bytes
Australian Animals
Bats
Bat Printouts - EnchantedLearning.com For some of this you will need to be a subscriber. See librarian if you need something from the subscriber section. Lots of free information as well.
bats4kids

Set up to teach kids about bats, this site has good information for all ages. Learn where and how bats live, how they help people, what myths about them are untrue, and much more. You can also play a bat game, take a bat quiz, and visit a bat cave.
http://www.io.com/house/bats.html 
Story about Austin's Bat Bridge These three sites about the Mexican free-tail bats' nesting site in Austin, Texas.
Picture of Austin's Bat Bridge
Biomes
What's It Like Where You Live? From the Missouri Botanical Garden, this is an excellent site featuring six biomes around the world as well as information about fresh water and marine ecosystems and a new section about plant biology.
Desert Pictures

No explanations other than identification but a good source of images.
Antarctica This is an Australian government site about their work there - very well done and extensive. There is a Classroom on the navigation bar on the right. The kids activities are very interesting.
Birthstones
About Birthstones Gives lots of information about each month's stones. On the navigation bar at the left, it gives a link  that shows daily gemstones. At the bottom of that page is a calculator that will show you what day of the week you were born on. Now you can check out the nursery rhyme that gives personality traits for each day.
Gemstone Legends Interesting stories associated with birthstones.
Bugs
IWhat's that Bug? This site began by accepting pictures and will identify the bug though it is usually too busy now to take submissions. However, there are good pictures here and some information about a lot of common insects.
 

 
 
   
 
Chinese New Year
Family Culture The information about the date and sign is old. However, the rest of the information is relevant. It is relatively easy to read. There are links at both the right hand side of the page (to the zodiac signs) and at the bottom. Again, some of the bottom links did not work but you could click on the re-directed link and get there. Worth the effort.
Asia for Kids This is a commercial site, but does have some links including 10 ideas for celebrating the lunar new year. 

 
Chinese New Year Lots of information, including crafts and recipes.
Crafts for Chinese New Year Typical activity site, but some interesting offering.
Colonial America
Archiving Early America Lots of primary source material from 18th century America. There are also video clips of George Washington, Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, Benedict Arnold, Molly Pitcher, and the American Revolution. You can get the downloaded version for $3.99 but stream for free; quality is pretty good.  However, not everything is free on the site and there are lots of distracting ads.
Colonial Williamsburg Lots of excellent material.
Countries
CIA Fact Book
BBC Country Profiles
NationMaster
Dinosaur Pictures
  Prehistorics Illustrated The dinosaurs are listed down the left-hand side of the page. Click on yours, and you will see the pictures from which you have to choose. Whenever you use pictures, make sure that you click on it first to see if it will open bigger. 
Dinosaur Illustrations Alphabetized list of artist's renderings. Almost every dinosaur here. Great site!
Dino Directory from the London Museum of Natural History Great pictures and information. Easy  to navigate.
Dinosaur 
  Smithsonian Dig Learn about how fossils are found and prepared.
Discovery Channel Videos Very interesting! Use the search bar and type in "dinosaur."
Jack Horner, Dinosaur Hunter   Small video of the scientist featured in videos above
Geography
Mr. Dowling Mr. Dowling is  sixth-grade teacher who has done an excellent job of providing information about countries of the world.
Mr. Sheppard Learning through games - great fun. Also tidbits of information with links to more in depth articles.
Harry Houdini
American Treasures From the Library of Congress (LOC), an overview with a few of the best pictures.

 
Announcement of the Houdini Collection at the LOC A longer, explanation of his life.
Picture Collection  

The Harry Houdini Homepage from the Library of Congress. The "Browse" option is a good way to search and on the next page be sure you click "Galler View." That way you will see thumbnails instead of a list of verbal descriptions.
History
Civil War Photographs From New York State Archives photography collection, few but well-selected photographs.
The Digital History Project A great page of links developed by the Chicago Historical Society, The National Park Service, and others. 
Inventions
My page of links
Interactive Whiteboard
Page under Construction
Library
How to search a Library Catalog An explanation of Author, Title, Subject, Keyword
The Boolean Machine How Boolean logic works
Maps
Satellite picture of your street Put in your address and you can usually find a satellite picture of your neighborhood. Sometimes you can see your very house.
MapQuest Get a map of your neighborhood (or anyone else's) or driving directions between two points.
  Google Maps Put in address, out comes a map of your street.
  United States Geological Survey Site: Maps and Images This is part of a huge government-operated site of earth science. .Lots of maps and links to maps. To see even more resources from this site, click here.
Moon
Moon Phase Calculator Calculator that lets you put in any month and year and see a calendar of the phases of the moon for the whole month.
  Single Day Moon Phase Calculator I like the first calculator because you see the bigger picture. However, it did not go far enough back for my birthday.
  U.S. Naval Observatory This site has all kinds of information including a beautiful picture of what the moon looks like today. The section Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day lets you find information for any day, such as your birthday and will even give you a map of the area.
Names
Behind the name What first names mean and where they came from
First names: their meaning and origin Fairly commercial, but easy to search
Name Statistics This is a great site! Not only will it tell you how popular your name is (both first and last), but it will tell you how many seconds old you are! (I assume the information is fairly accurate. I'm certainly not going to figure it out myself. To find this feature, look up your name and you will see a line that says "Birthday facts for "___"; that is the link that takes you to the counter.)
Birthday statistics This is a direct link to the site used above that will tell you how old you are in days, minutes, etc. plus a lot of other information about your birthday.
NameVoyager A fascinating, interactive site that shows you the popularity of a name through the years. You can type letter by letter and see similar names and popularity.
Nutrition
MyPyramid Game An interactive computer game where kids can reach Planet Power by fueling their rocket with food and physical activity. “Fuel” tanks for each food group help students keep track of how their choices fit into MyPyramid.
Oceanography
Radio Expeditions from National Geographic To hear Songs of the Humpback Whales, click on "Symphony of the Deep" in lower right hand corner
Phillip Colla Photography Beautiful pictures of ocean life with captions but can only be viewed on site because of copyright
Lesson Plan on Humpback Whales Describes how children could act out the feeding process
Grey Whales Great information on this species.
    Sea World - Busch Gardens A section on fish and another on invertebrates..
   The Splendors of the Sea This is open to the page of corals and anemones, but there is a lot more available through the navigation bar.
        Reef  Relief Lots of information. I have opened to the section I like best. It is The Coral Reef Ecosystem (see the navigation bar on left). In that section you will find pictures of healthy corals, diseased corals, and Florida reef fish. In another section, Children, you will find pictures to print and color.
Penguins
My page of links
Poetry and Figurative Language
The Simile Satellite Written by the BBC, this is a great site! There is a definition, poetry containing similes, and prompts to help you write your own simile-containing poem.
Brain Pop Definition of Similes and Metaphors (Movie and Quiz) Usual brain pop fare - competent.
Simile definition A quiz that you can fill in and the results are sent to your e-mail address within 24 hours. Even if you do not take the quiz, the similes are very creative.
Metaphor 1. Here students add words and, the "poetry machine" arranges them into a poem. There is a short metaphor poem, a poem based on Emily Dickinson's "Hope is", and a found poem.
2. A lesson explaining metaphor. At the bottom, there is an analysis of Carl Sandburg's "Fog."
Poetry This is primarily a teacher site. It is FULL of poetry lesson plans. Lots of good definitions of poetry, simile, metaphor, personification, etc. 
Definitions of Poetry 1. BBC
2. This site talks about poetry all around us, mentions purpose, mood, form and theme in relation to poetry.
3. Poetry is ... ; also what it is not and how poets work
Line Break Explorer A terrific interactive illustrating the importance of line breaks to a poem.
Giggle Poetry A fun site! Funny poems to read, poems to perform, writing help, a contest - lots of good stuff.
Links to Other Poetry Resources For teachers. A ReadWriteThink compilation of poetry resources. Most of the above links are on this list.
Shape Poems From this page is a link to a ReadWriteThink interactive that will make a shape poem. Also on this page, links to a diamante lesson.
Listening to Poetry Sixth grader reading "Casey at the Bat."
Fifth grader reading "The Sloth."
Polar Animals
A Think Quest Resource This has some fairly easy-to-read information about Arctic Animals. It is in question/answer form. There are also pictures.
Arctic Study Center This is a Smithsonian site and it is excellent. There is not a lot of text but it is small. There are also pictures.

Also from this site, there is an interactive concentration game with the arctic animals - fun.
Enchanted Learning Has a diagram of animal as well as information.
  Polar Bears A National Geographic for Kids feature. There is a neat little video.
Virtual World Arctic This is also National Geographic. The interactive feature works as if a camera was placed on a bearded seal. You see how the world looks from a seal's point of view and look for seven other arctic animals.
Looking for Pictures This is my page of links for children needing pictures of polar animals. 
Presidents
POTUS: Presidents of the United States From the Internet Public Library. Has basic information, members of the cabinet, etc. and human interest tidbits as well. Lots of links including historical documents. Good starting place.
Biographies complied on the White House site In the upper right hand corner is a link to a kid-friendly page with less information, a picture drawn by a child, and facts often required in school reports. 
Portraits of the Presidents and First Ladies From the Library of Congress, American Memory Collection. Excellent pictures!
Rocks and Minerals
Mineral Information Institute An excellent site! Beautiful pictures with lots of information including sources of the mineral and uses.
Mineral Information Institute The role of elements in life processes.
Mineralogy for Kids The Mineralogical Society of America's kids site. Lots of information, some games, recipes for growing your own crystals, etc.
Simple Machines
My page of links
Space and Space Travel
New York Public Library An excellent column of links.
Sports
New York Public Library An excellent column of links.
Storytelling
Spinning Stories, Telling Tales In this ARTSEDGE "Look-Listen-Learn" feature, discover the who, what, when, where, and why of storytelling through interactive games, media galleries, lesson plans, and more.
Bodies tell stories Interactive feature in which master uses gesture and movement to create vivid pictures for his listeners. A series of video clips of the African-American storyteller demonstrate how movements can convey emotions followed by a quiz.
United States
Explore the States A Library of Congress site with lots of interesting and historical information about each state. This is from America's Story and meant to appeal to kids. 
Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids An excellent site explaining everything from symbols like the flag and Liberty Bell to complicated Supreme Court decisions. A grade level index is along the bottom. Games and Activities are available - placing the States where they belong is really fun. A good activity to follow the book, Scrambled States of America.
  World Almanac States LOTS of information, but organized in an outline so you can pick what you want. Also a handy table for quick facts (flower, tree, etc.).
This Day in History Tells what famous happenings occurred on this day in history. Look for the hyperlink "archives". Here there are three ways to search. The second one lets you search a specific month and day. 
The History Channel's This Day in History This gives lots of stories and is easy to search specific days and months. If you click on "more stories", at the bottom of that page, you will find a link to biography.com that will tell you of famous people born on that day. 
StateMaster This will open the index page. Scroll down to the middle of the page where you see the green map. Click on that and go from there.
Games A Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert level to games about States, Capitals, and Landscapes. Educational fun.
Water
Water Quiz From the United Nations CyberSchool bus, an interactive picture and quiz. Move the cursor over parts of the picture, read the small information pieces, and try the quiz. Interesting.
Pumped for Peace This is a CyberSchool bus project that can involve helping a rain forest community. There is an interesting, informative slide show about the contamination of the water supply and how the problem is being addressed. There are links to other water web sites and UN resources.
International Year of Fresh Water slide show for kids Nane Annan narrates this excellent introductory slide show about the availability world-wide of potable water.
International Year of Fresh Water Home Page Lots of information. Good pictures. Suggestions for what all of us can do to preserve water.
Popular Planet's Water Issue A PDF document with information about water and great suggestions for other sites.
Westward Expansion
Animated Atlas: Growth of a Nation Ten minute movie which depicts the geographic history of the United States from the beginning of the nation to fifty states. Geographic elements are interactive, as is the timeline.
1810-1862 Web Quest This page is part of a WebQuest developed for 5th grade. To view the entire unit, see navigation bar at the bottom of the page.
Women's History
My page of links
 

Last updated March 19, 2007