Elementary Students and the Internet
In today's world students who are not familiar with computers and the
internet are at a severe disadvantage. The computer is a powerful research
tool that students need to learn how to use responsibly. I will try to post
sites and information that will be helpful to you as you try to support your
student's learning.
Sites for Parents
Here is a fantastic article about search engines and websites for children.
It has some excellent links to safe sites that you can explore on your own
or with your student. The title of the article is "Using Search Engines to
Locate Appropriate Internet Sites for Elementary Students" and is written
for parents. It supplies information on computer vocabulary as well as
advice on searching for safe sites.
Kidsearch
Here's a program summary from another very good site: "Between the Lions is
an award-winning PBS television series that premiered in April 2000. It's
designed to foster the literacy skills of its viewers, while playfully
demonstrating the joys of reading. Each show aims to give kids four to seven
years old some of the experiences they need in order to become successful
readers."
Between the Lions: Get Wild About Reading
Yahooligans has changed. Although it still functions as a search engine, it
is now called Yahoo!Kids. I do have one caution about this site. It has a
lot of activities that are not homework related on the home page. When the
4th and 5th grade students evaluated the site this week they admitted that
they would be much more likely to play the games than do their homework! I
suggested that they do their homework first by using a search engine such as
Kidsclick (http://www.kidsclick.org/) then go back to Yahoo!Kids when they
had the time.
Yahoo! Kids
Other Resources