❇️ My Cute Graphics: Free for personals and educational use.
❇️Pixabay: Free image and royalty free stock. Search for images- photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and also videos.
❇️ Emojipedia: Lots of free emojis to add to your google classroom documents. A tip– Use selected emojis on sections of your Google Classroom subjects and documents to help your students stay organized.
Wizardly World is the official Site of the Harry Potter world. You can sign-up for free and investigate everything Harry Potter.
J.K. Rawling has granted open licence to read aloud her books during the Covid-19 outbreak. This means that teachers can post themselves reading to their students. Some teachers never got to finish reading the book they started before the outbreak. Now is your chance to read to your students.
❇️ Daniel Radcliffe reads the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone/Sorcerer’s Stone, ‘The Boy Who Lived’.
❇️ Noma Dumezweni reads Chapter Two: ‘The Vanishing Glass’.
❇️ Eddie Redmayne reads Chapter Three: ‘The Letters from No One’.
❇️ Stephen Fry reads Chapter Four: ‘The Keeper of the Keys”.
❇️ Simon Callow, Bonnie Wright, and Evanna Lynch read Chapter Five: ‘‘Diagon Alley’.
❇️ Jamie Parker and the Broadway cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child read Chapter Six: ‘The Journey from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters’. Have a watch and listen. This chapter is read as a script with a wonderful casting of characters reading the parts. Enjoy this read.
❇️ simpleK12 – Just-in-time teacher training
During this time of isolation teachers have the opportunity for self-directed professional development.
Many districts are having their teachers reach out to their students using Google Classroom. If you need technology support to learn how to use Google Classroom to your advantage, look no further. You can sign up for free and then view 30-minute webinars to get you on your way to an online classroom for your students.
❇️ simpleK12 offers lots of free webinars. Sign-up to their site for free to have access to a lot of free webinars and resources.
There is a treasure trove of excellent learning opportunities for teachers here. When I was in the classroom I did pay for the low yearly fee to have access to my learning on-demand. It was worth every penny. I started with the free offerings for some time until I just couldn’t be without what they offered on my timeline. Have a look. You won’t be disappointed.
The webinars are always useful, time-efficient, and presented by teachers in the trenches who offer many practical ideas.
Ministry of Education, Social Studies, History, Geography Grades 1-8 Curriculum
People and Environments: Living and Working in Ontario – cursor down to page 92 of the curriculum to review the expectations for this strand.
Students can determine land use in cities. Then they can design and build their own city using the building templates provided by the British architect studio, Foster + Partners. The templates included are for skyscrapers and a variety of houses.
Have the students brainstorm what is found in a city. (Include: street names, traffic signs, roads, ponds, parks, government buildings, homes, etc)
Students can alternatively create their own city using boxes, Lego, other building blocks, or found material.
Printable Paper Buildings Design your own streetscape from the templates at KraftTrains.com
Ken Burns in the Classroom- PBS Learning Media
Known for a signature style that brings primary source documents, images, and archival video footage to life on screen, these films present the opportunity to pose thought-provoking questions for students, and introduce new ideas, perspectives, and primary sources.
You can search the resources available by Era or by Film. The target audience is for grades 4-12+.
Classroom support resources and National Standards are included with each topic.
There are links to share resources via Google classroom and other social media options.
Students and teachers can signup to the website to keep track of their learning using this resource.
UNUM Ken Burns: One Nation, Many Stories
Ken Burns and his team carefully curate topics for study from his media resources.
The topics are sorted by Themes, Events, People, AP US History Themes, Wars, and Time. You can signup to get new topics in your inbox.
The target audience is for grades 7-12+
Explore the The World War II Museum in New Orleans. The site has many things to offer teachers and students:
Complete the booklet below. Use the following sites, books, and atlases to research a country.
Research Booklet for Student Use (Google Slides)
National Geography for Kids
A great site to find primary level reading about for 68 countries to choose from. You will find information about their:
Factmonster Countries of the World
Each Country Profile provides information on: Geography · Maps · Flag · History · Current ruler · Area · Population · Capital · Largest cities · Languages · Ethnicity/race · Religion · Literacy rate · Economy · Government
Duckster Geography- U.S. and by Continents
Click on a continent, then cursor down to select a country. Facts, maps, and flag can be found. (You might find too many advertisements on this site.)
World Flag Database
Click on the country’s flag to read some fast facts and see the different flags of the country.
Teachers and parents, signup to download free research lapbooks to guide student learning. You will see lots of activity ideas. Look for the Country Lapbook to support your student’s research.
Guggenheim Online Resources: Artists
Featuring over 1,700 artworks by more than 625 artists, the Collection Online presents a searchable database of selected artworks from the Guggenheim’s permanent collection of approximately 8,000 artworks.
Do you think that you could live in space? There are three short videos that show you how it is done. Watch the video to see how Astronaut Karen Nyberg washes her hair in space.
Then you will learn how Astronaut Chris Cassidy has a “close shave”.
I wonder how you would sleep in space? Astronaut Suni Williams shows you how it is done. Have you ever wondered how you go to the bathroom in space? Well, Suni tells you how that is done too!
❇️ Complete the viewing sheet as you watch the videos.
Take a visit to China through the Nature Labs video: China’s Great Forests: What the Giant Panda and Earth’s Climate Share. Complete the Viewers Guide as you watch the video.
Students in a primary classroom (Gr. 2-3) can visit a farm without leaving their homes. Learn from a farming family how a dairy farm brings you milk from the barn to the store. Use the worksheet to guide your learning.
I am redesigning my edSelect site. It has been a long time coming. Blog posts will highlight topical teaching ideas and research links for elementary and secondary students. The blog links will be catalogued on subject specific pages by grade and topic for future access. The basis for the sorting will be based on the Ontario, Canada curriculum as this is that I know best. This however, does not limit my visitors to appropriate sites as education transcends boarders. This will be a work in process. I hope you like the new look. It has always been a passion of mine to support teachers with the delivery of timely topics and links with meaningful explanations and to support student learning with a few clicks to at level resources.
Please continue to check back to see the progress and to support the learners in your care.