Ready for Back to School? Part 1

I know a lot of teachers that work during the summer collecting new ideas, materials, and lesson plans in preparation for the next school year. As a parent, finding fun ways for your kids to practice skills over the summer can be a daunting task (let’s face it, we don’t want to work when we are on vacation, why would they?).

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to share with you some fun websites to help the transition to the new school year a little easier and add a little bit of fun for teachers, parents, and students.

I’ve been having fun finding new interactive websites for reading this summer. I’ve found two that I really enjoy – one for elementary and one for middle school and up (even adults are enjoying this one).

The first site, Storyline Online, is a website filled with stories read by actor’s (e.g. Betty White, James Earl Jones, etc.). Each story has streaming video of the actor and the pictures from the book as well as activities to accompany the story. There is also a nice caption option that accompanies each video and can be turned on and off.

The second site, Skeleton Creek, is a series of interactive books/videos written by Patrick Carmen. It is a series of four mystery books, well, really journals. The journal entries are written by the main character, Ryan. Throughout the entries, the reader is then sent to the website to view videos related to those entries and help tell the story and solve the mystery.

Have fun reading and enjoy the rest of your summer!