Information for Kids

Lesson Planet Newsletter
___________________________________________________________________

The Lesson Planet Newsletter brings you our bi-weekly top educational sites, lessons, and news stories. Please visit the Lesson Planet site at http://www.lessonplanet.com/ to search our directory of over 30,000 links to lesson plans by subject, keyword or grade.

___________________________________________________________________
What's in this newsletter:

Top Sites of the Week
-- Science: EPA Kid's Page - The Water Cycle
-- Mathematics: A to Z Teacher Stuff - 100 Days of School
-- Social Studies: InfoPlease!  Black History Month
-- Language Arts: Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk - Ideas Galore
-- Online Project: NASA Quest Brings Outer Space Close to Home
-- Teaching Resources: The Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge


Top Educational News Stories
-- U.S. Students Yield Mixed Results in Science, Math
-- Success Stories from the National Education Association
-- Students Shun Search for Information Offline
___________________________________________________________________
Attention All Teachers!

Lesson Planet's directory has over 30,000 links to Lesson Plans!

For only $9.95 a year enjoy full access to Lesson Planet's directory of over 30,000 lesson plan links as a Lesson Planet Silver Member!

For only $24.95 a year you will receive full access to Lesson Planet AND Teacher Web Tools as a Lesson Planet Gold Member!

What is Teacher Web Tools? Teacher Web Tools is Education Planet's suite of web-based applications for educators that make it easy to:

  * Create dynamic teacher sites
  * Send email newsletters to parents
  * Design web-based assignments and lessons
  * Store your files online via the Web

Find Out More...
http://www.educationplanet.com/link?id=280
___________________________________________________________________
Teachers! Choose From 12,000 Educational DVD Rentals!

Transform your curriculum by choosing from over 12,000 educational DVD titles for Science, History, Social Studies, Language Arts and more! Simply order titles online and in 2 to 4 days your rental will arrive by 1st class mail. Have up to 3 titles out at a time for as little as $19.97 a month! No postage fees, no late fees, no late-  night taping, no editing commercials, no rush to return titles and no more trips to the video store. This is an incredibly convenient service for teachers and parents!

Visit the Education Planet DVD rental library today...
http://www.educationplanet.com/link?id=282
___________________________________________________________________
Top Sites Of The Week:

Subject Area: Science
Title: EPA Kid's Page - The Water Cycle
Url: http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/kids/exper.html
Grade Level: K-12
Rating: * * * * *

75% of your student's brain is water… Learn more water trivia, myths,  conservation ideas and facts at the EPA Kid's Water Cycle Page.  You can download Water Sourcebook Activity Guides ranging from K-12. There are sections with games, kid's health info and links to other EPA Water sites.  There is also a small section in Spanish. 

Subject Area: Mathematics
Title: A to Z Teacher Stuff - 100th Day of School
Url: http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/100th_Day/index.shtml
Grade Level: Pre K-5
Rating: * * * * *

You've been biding your time… waiting and waiting endlessly. And now, on the horizon, the 100th day of school looms large!!  At A to Z Teacher Stuff you'll find everything you need for the theme oriented classroom:  songs, poems, books, ideas, lessons, art and more, all ready to help you celebrate that centennial milestone.  Most of the material you'll find is geared towards K-2 but there are a few ideas for older kids as well.

Subject Area: Social Studies
Title: infoplease - Black History Month
Url: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhm1.html
Grade Level: K-12
Rating: * * * * *

Get ready for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Black History Month! Infoplease.com has 500+ biographies of notable African Americans to get you started.  There are also wonderful timelines for Civil Rights, Emancipation, Affirmative Action and more. Get information on important African American cities, U.S. demographics and even a Motown crossword!  This site is a wonderful research resource for educators of all grades and could be searched by older students as well.

Subject Area: Language Arts
Title: Kim's Korner for Teacher Talk
Url: http://www.kimskorner4teachertalk.com/writing/menu.html
Grade Level: 5-12
Rating: * * * * *

Get a jolt of inspiration at Kim's Korner!  There are tons of ideas and activities for teaching the six traits of writing: idea and content, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and writing conventions.  You can also find tips for parent involvement, writing across the curriculum and several links to other helpful sites.  Kim's Korner also offers information on reading, spelling, grammar and more!

Subject Area: Online Project
Title: NASA Quest
Url: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/
Grade Level: K-12
Rating: * * * * *

How many satellites are orbiting Earth? Who was the first Afro- American in space? What are the height requirements for an astronaut? Answer these questions and more at NASA Quest!  There are 3,500 archived questions and answers; but if you can't find your own query go ahead and post it.  While you're waiting for someone at NASA to answer, check out interactive games organized by grade level.  In "Astro-Venture" you'll design a habitable planet for humans.  Check it out! Haven't you ever wondered what would happen if we had two
moons?

Subject Area: Teaching Resources
Title: The Kennedy Center's ArtsEdge
Url: http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/
Grade Level: K-12
Rating: * * * * *

ArtsEdge has hundreds of lessons which can be searched by genre (dance, theater, music or visual arts), integrated subjects from foreign languages to physical education and/or grade levels from K-12. Lessons are referenced with National Standards for the Arts, easy to use and fun!  There are sections devoted to news and history of the arts, interactive games, advocacy of art in the classroom and interviews with artists.  This site is art in itself!
___________________________________________________________________
Top Educational News Stories Of The Week:

U.S. Students Yield Mixed Results in Science, Math
http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/12/14/science.math.scores.ap/index.html

Success Stories from the National Education Association
http://www.nea.org/lac/success.html

Students Shun Search for Information Offline
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/12/09/awaysonline.reliable.ap/index.html