science & nature, reading games, and A.I.

The BBC sponsors this website about all things natural. Some of the information is specific to Great Britain - like facts about hedgehogs and ladybirds! But there's enough that's common to our area to make it a worthwhile investigation, especially if you have a class of budding naturalists! Great information at Science and Nature at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/.

Did you know there's a teacher from Rye who's in Antartica now with this team of researchers collecting and sending data that tells about the "bottom of the world?" This site is pretty technical but it's really interesting and there are activities and information that could be adapted to an elementary level. If you're studying polar regions or cold places, this site may be helpful. And the photographs are great. Teachers Experiencing Antarctica and the Arctic at http://tea.rice.edu/index.html

Here's a site of basic "skill and drill" type phonics activities, but beginning readers will love them. There are different early/emergent reading levels represented with short stories that stress individual phonetic elements or word attack skills. Long and short vowels, blends, digraphs, compound words - and more. All within the context of games, plays, songs, even a smattering of nonfiction. Give the kids headphones when they work at Starfall at http://www.starfall.com/.

This one's really eerie. Billed as the "no search search engine," the site says it uses totally artificial intelligence to answer questions posed. Type in a question and it gives you websites that provide the answer. I've tried a few times to stump it and so far have had no luck. Truly bizarre. Brain Boost at http://www.brainboost.com/. Let me know if you find a question it can't answer.