These SUMMER SPARKLERS are some additional websites that I have previewed that might interest your child this summer Some of the sites do have advertisements, but I felt the value of the site outweighed the distractions. All children have had age appropriate instruction in the computer lab regarding Internet use and safety. That being said, I would strongly recommend that you preview the site and share its proper use with your child before allowing them to use it independently. I hope all of our Pinewood children have a safe and happy summer break and come back in August ready to continue their classroom learning journeys. ~ Mrs. Cerveny Note: I have used TeachersFirst.com as the primary resource for these sites and descriptions. Suggested grade levels are K-2.

Duckie Deck: Find and play many interactives for preschoolers and younger elementary students at Duckie Deck. There is a

dump truck to fill with dirt (if you can line up the crane correctly). Visit the coloring sites. Learn about health and hygiene, seriation skills, sharing, basic geometric figures, counting, and more. Explore the eery Halloween games (dress up a silly skeleton). Practice sorting, matching, memory games, and countless other topics. Scroll over the icons to view the name of each game, then click to play. Choose the i icon located within each game to view information about the game's content, playing directions, and to view similar games. Adults should make the games more meaningful with children be reading the information and talking together as they play. There is a

lot here to explore! Hint: use the back arrow to return to the main page. The games do not open in a new window.

http://duckiedeck.com/

Kitten Hop Dolch Words: Test your Dolch sight word reading speed with this interactive! You can play in a public

game with unknown competitors or a private game. To start, select your own kitten color. The site allows competitors on up to 4 computers to play at the same time. You will hear a word from the Dolch sight word reading list. Click on it as quickly as possible. Your kitten will jump to the correct ball of yarn. The faster you respond, the quicker your kitten jumps from ball to ball. This interactive measures each player's reading speed as well as pits them against the other players whose kittens appear on the board. This site is helpful for any beginning readers including ELL/ESL students and learning support students.

http://media.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/kitten-hop/kitten-hop.swf

Smarty Games offers educational games for pre-kindergarten and elementary students on a variety of topics. Topics include

math, reading, coloring, dress-up, and puzzles. Some specific topics include counting, time, money, mazes, sudoku, and several others. Choose a topic to begin. Choose your specific activity within that topic (most have varied levels for differentiation). Each option includes a short description of the game and content included. Some options-- such as the dot to dot games --offer the option of printing.

http://www.smartygames.com/

Coconut Vowels: Finish words on coconuts before the coconuts get to the ground! A rocket holds vowels missing from

one of four coconut words that are falling down the screen. Move the rocket with the left and right arrows so the rocket is under the

correct coconut to finish spelling the word. Three levels of difficulty and three coconut falling speeds make this game adaptable for a variety of learning levels. When the activity finishes, the coconut falling rate appears as well as the accuracy rate. A graph on the following page shows the number of hits and misses in all the games. Printing the graph for future reference and a sense of accomplishment is easy! Try to advance to the next level with each new game.

http://media.arcademicskillbuilders.com/games/coconuts/coconuts.swf

Clifford: Every child loves the popular Clifford books by Norman Birdwell. Explore over 75 books in your classroom to get ready

for the concepts and ideas presented on this website. Here, you will find games, printables, and information about the traveling Clifford presentation. Exploring the "Backstage" tab will allow you to see video clips of the cast of characters and the studio where they film the

program.

http://www.pbskids.org/clifford/index-brd-flash.html

Puzzle Me Words: Snap puzzle piece letters to spell a word (illustrated by an image). Be sure your sound is turned on.

Begin by typing a user name. Choose beginner or advanced. After viewing the image and hearing the word to spell, click and drag letters to spell the word. Hear immediate feedback as play continues. Save work and finish later (if desired). Simply write down the short code provided. This code will allow you to return to your game within 30 days

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/puzzlemewords/puzzlemewords.swf

Calliou: Join PBS kids and Calliou, the curious preschooler, from the book series by Christine L'Heureuxz and illustrator Helene

Desputeaux. Calliou explores the world while using his imagination on many different adventures. Activities, printables, songs, and goodies such as screensavers feature Calliou and his curiosity. The activities feature school readiness skills involving spatial awareness, memory, puzzles, matching letters, and following musical melodies. Advertisements are only for Calliou products. This site includes advertising.

http://www.pbskids.org/caillou/

Soccer Phonics:Try your soccer skills with phonics! In this simple activity, listen to a word or sound and click the appropriate

correct letter to complete the word on the screen. The words are spoken, as are the letter sounds if you hover over the pictures. The

scoreboard tracks all correct and incorrect answers.

http://www.helpme2learn.com/demos/phonics1b/html/BCDF%20Soccer.html

MeeGenius has a free collection of on-line (audio) classic picture books for children. Listen to the stories read aloud or read

them independently. The audio playback and word highlighting makes these books perfect for the beginning reader. The currently available platforms for this online library include the Web, the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, and Google TV. MeeGenius invites aspiring authors and illustrators to submit their own stories. Older students can use this site as a way to create books themselves.

http://www.meegenius.com/store/books/free

Join Curious George in his adventures with the Man in the Yellow Hat. Enjoy the antics of Curious George through online

games, printables, and videos. Games feature matching, numbers, sounds, categorizing, shapes, Spanish, movement/dance, and animal sounds. Earn stickers with successful completion of each game. In the teacher section, there are 16 "ready to go" activities. Each activity includes a description, topic, and tips!

http://www.pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/

Join four year old Daniel Tiger, Mom Tiger, Dad Tiger, and Tigey in games, videos, and printables. Topics explore socio-

emotional themes: sadness, anger, and bedtime anxieties. There are also activities about doctor visits, music, exploring around the house, riding the trolley through the neighborhood and more. The collection of videos has many different segments from the television series. Don't miss the printables.

http://www.pbskids.org/daniel/

Jump aboard to learn American folk history songs and music with Lomax, the Hound of Music (inspired by Alan

Loman, a famous folk artist). Join the hound puppet Lomax, Delta the cat, and their 2 humans on a train traveling across America

exploring music. The site features activities that incorporate melody matching, musical selections to listen to, and video clips from the PBS television series. Find lesson plans, activity guides, and educational philosophies to make the most of theinteractive experiences to learn both music narratives and problem solving.

http://www.pbskids.org/lomax/

Join Martha (the dog) from the book and animated children's series, Martha Speaks. This interactive website focuses on

vocabulary and word usage. The site includes interactives, printables, videos, and "Martha's Stories" for students to explore. Make newspapers, dog tags, vocabulary word pictures, and more. Vocabulary introduced are not necessarily sight words, yet specialized content area words. Apply and learn new vocabulary in a wide variety of interactive ways. Some game features require Shockwave and/or a webcam. Don't worry. It does not keep your picture.

http://www.pbskids.org/martha/

Join the Cat in the Hat, Sally, and friends on an adventure that teaches, reinforces, and enriches learning for young students.

Easily navigate through Games, Printing, Videos, Snap-o-rama, and Cat's Math Safari. Each area features different concepts: colors, shapes, numbers, letters, matching, easy art projects, videos, songs, and spatial reasoning. There are also seasonal/timely activities on the main page. A wide variety of games keep you coming back to find yet another adventure with the Cat in the Hat. The site features user friendly directions for any age.

http://www.pbskids.org/catinthehat/

Key Seeker offers an interactive practice with letters and keyboard skills. Using "monkey paws," follow the purple letters

(meaning type with your left hand) and the green letters (type with your right hand). Click on the monkey image to hear instructions before playing. View letters presented with an image beginning with the letter then type the correct letter from the keyboard to

continue play. This site not only teaches basic keyboarding but also letter recognition to the very young

http://www.annrymer.com/keyseeker/

Estimate and Measure is a learning activity for early elementary students. Drag and drop cinnamon rolls to pans to

view how many fit in each different size pan. View how to estimate and measure. Then make your own estimate on how many rolls will

fit into a pan. Drag and drop to find out if your guess was correct! http://www.compasslearningodyssey.com/sample_act/math_k/grade/subject/mak_04_03_03.html

Arcoiris offers online educational games for 3 to 10 year olds in English and Spanish. Activity topics include shapes, numbers,

letters, and more. They are relatively simple but extremely useful. Conversion between Spanish and English is simple using the buttons near the top right-hand corner of the home page.

This site includes advertising. http://www.juegosarcoiris.com/home/

Turtlediary is a one stop shop for learning games and more for early elementary students. Choose from various categories:

games, videos, stories, and arts and crafts. Included under each heading is an age range and description of each activity. Be sure to scroll down near the bottom of the page to find lists of all learning games sorted by subject, sort further by choosing a grade level from preK through 2nd grade. For full access to this site, you must register (which does cost a fee). However, most of the interactives are currently available for FREE to guests with no registration. This site includes advertising. http://www.turtlediary.com/

Ocean Create: Use this colorful site to make your own animated water scene. Click once and again to drop sea creatures to

where you want them. Click on the creatures to hear their names. Drop them into the scene and hear the sounds that they make. Click the printer icon to print your result.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/ocean/animaloceancreate.swf