The Coolest Stuff Online

You asked--we found it. Read on for the best sites in every subject. And for those hours you would have spent Googling? Enjoy the time on us.

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Experience the Sounds of Africa
Studying the continents? Listen to the sounds of the Serengeti and the rhythms of Rwanda on Radio Africa, which streams diverse music clips from around the continent free every day. Depending on the particular selection, you may hear Zulu music from South Africa, an Ethiopian wedding march, or some traditional protest music. Click the button that says Recording Info for more information about the songs you’re listening to.

Have Students Find their Homes from Outer Space
National Geographic’s MapMachine is an online atlas with amazing features. Click on the world map to choose a location. The machine will find the locale for you, or you can zoom in closer and closer until individual houses come into view. Use street maps to zoom your way to the destination of your choice, then switch to satellite view with a simple.

Listen to Native American storytellers.
At Circle of Stories, students can hear Native Americans tell tales about traditions in the kitchen, Navajo beliefs, and the sacred relationship with the land. Hear one man sing “The Water Song” and learn about his international activism and dedication to environmental protection. At this site, students are asked to become a member of the storytelling community by submitting their own stories. Students can even correspond with the storytellers over e-mail and ask questions of their own.

Watch Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech.
This speech, given at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, remains one of the most famous in American history. Your students can watch this 16-minute video podcast for free!

Have kids be President for a day.
At the Democracy Project, kids learn about the U.S. government in a fun, interactive way. The site is set up like a “choose your own adventure,” where kids pick what they’d like to do during their day as President. Once they’ve made their choice, facts and photos of real Presidents appear on the screen showing an example of a similar event. Other sections allow kids to vote and print out official Future Voter’s Cards.

View bugs from your playground.
Bugscope is a free project by the University of Illinois. It allows students to come up with their own experiments, view bug specimens at high magnification, and talk about what they see with real scientists in real time. After you sign up, your students find bugs and mail them to Bugscope. Later, a real scientist will magnify your bugs, discuss what’s being viewed, and answer your students’ questions during a two-hour online session.

Learn about Thomas Edison.
At Edison Invents!, kids can play an interactive matching game to learn more about Edison’s life and inventions. Then they’ll learn how to make their own light bulb, watch one of the first on-screen kisses, and listen to a recreation of Edison’s first recording on the phonograph. Electrifying!

Become Citizen Scientists.
Citizen Science projects use the general public for scientific research and data collection. You and your students can make observations in your own neighborhood, record your findings online, and compare them with other scientists around the globe. Project BudBurst encourages your students to collect data regarding climate change and the timing of plants flowering and leafing in your area. Register online and let your students feel the reward of making a difference on a grand scale.

Take a trip with NASA.
Your students will think you’re out of this world when you share Visible Earth with them. This site is home to NASA’s catalog of images and animations of Earth from outer space. You can show kids photographs of city lights around the world, smoke trails from California fires, flooding in the Midwest, the haze of pollution over Beijing, and more.

Write Acrostic Poems
This online tool will have kids knocking out poems like Dickinsons. First, there’s a short explanation about what an acrostic poem is. Then students choose and fill in their topic word. The next page asks kids to brainstorm words about their topic that begin with corresponding letters. Then it’s time to write! The student’s topic word shows up on vertical tiles that are easy to fill in. They even give word suggestions. When the masterpieces are finished, print them out and share.

Play with an Online Geoboard.
Click on a corner and drag the “rubber band” to any peg on the board. The length of each side is automatically shown. From there, students can determine the area. With a click of the mouse, they can check their answers. Just for fun, kids can change the color of any of the shapes they create.

Let Students Fly Through Outer Space!
At Coolmath4kids.com, your students will feel what it’s like to fly past the stars as they play Space Flight. They’ll use geometry as they investigate Super Spiro and Cursor. And they’ll practice trigonometry as they play Splash and make their own waves.

Access A Visual Dictionary of More than 500 Math Terms.
Browse definitions by using the colorful alphabet letters provided, or use the Search box on the sidebar. The definitions are easy to understand and there are links for further reading. Easy as Pi!

Play Tangrams Online.
Kids can practice their geometry savvy with this classic seven-piece Chinese puzzle. Choose a picture to complete, then move pieces with the mouse. Rotate and flip shapes with a simple click. Students can choose different colors for each piece or leave them monochromatic. If they get stuck, this game has a Show Hint option that will keep your students motivated to continue.

Publish Students’ Stories.
Kids’ Space is an award-winning site that focuses on multicultural sharing in a commercial-free environment. Students can upload their stories and read other students’ work from around the world. One of the neatest features is Beanstalk, where kids can write an original story to go with a picture in the gallery. www.kids-space.org

Find Rhyming Words.
At RhymeZone, all kids have to do is fill in the box with the word they’re trying to rhyme and click Go Get It! This rhyming dictionary pulls up hundreds of possibilities. The choices are broken down by the number of syllables. It will also find synonyms, antonyms, definitions, related words, and more.

Work with Published Authors.
At Writing With Writers, students can create myths with the guidance of Jane Yolen, compose a mystery step by step with Joan Lowery Nixon, learn about descriptive writing with Virginia Hamilton, write poetry with Jack Prelutsky, and workshop with Scholastic News editors about writing articles.

Watch picture book videos.
Click on Storytime Online and choose from Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst, Harlem by Walter Dean Meyers, and Brothers of the Knight by Debbie Allen.

Play Interactive Phonics Games.
At Starfall, students can play free games to boost their phonics skills. Teachers are able to choose games based on which skills they’re working on in the classroom. Students fill in beginning sounds and actually hear them aloud as they solve problems. There are also short illustrated stories that students can read, as well. The words from the story are shown on the screen and can be clicked on if help is needed. The voice highlights every letter of the word and reads it aloud to the student.

Computers Age by Age
Discusses software for infants and toddlers and answers the question, "How young is too young?"

Forum: Just-in-Time Tech Training
It's common knowledge that we administrators must help propel teachers to the level where they are as comfortable working with technology as they are with the subject they teach. The task for school districts is to devise training processes that facilitate this end.

The Tech-Support Kids
Many students know more about tech than their teachers do. But does this mean they should be part of tech-support teams? Two experts go head-to-head.