More Great Websites for Kids

The Great Websites for Kids Committee (from the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association) has announced six new sites for inclusion in Great Websites for Kids. They are as follows:

BBC Primary History
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/
This is a great history site for primary grades to learn basic information about a few specific periods in history and the people of the era. This visual site does a great job of including timelines and biographical information in a way that younger learners can understand and enjoy. The website is designed like a toybox and will allow children to really "explore" the different topics.

Kids.gov
http://kids.usa.gov/
The US Government's website for kids explores jobs, health, art, school subjects and more. Choosing personal interests or researching your latest school report can be done on this website through text, games and informational videos.

Mi Heroe (Spanish site "My Hero" project)
http://www.miheroe.org
My Hero is a project to celebrate the best of humanity. Students can add to the project by submitting their own essays about their heroes. Mi héroe es un proyecto para celebrar lo mejor de la humanidad. Los estudiantes pueden aportar al proyecto por presentar sus propios ensayos sobre sus heroes.

Smithsonian Kids
http://www.si.edu/Kids
Smithsonian Kids includes a lot of information and activities about a lot of topics, including dinosaurs, world cultures, animals, outer space, history, and more…many of which are also exhibits at the Smithsonian museums.

Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms
http://www.genome.gov/Glossary/
A wide range of genetic terms are explained thoroughly but concisely by leading experts in the field. Multimedia elements include downloadable pdf’s, audio clips with explanations of terms, and 3D models.

Walking With Dinosaurs
http://www.walkingwithdinosaurs.com/dinosaurs/catalogue/
Created by the BBC, Walking with Dinosaurs features individual pages featuring interesting facts, images and statistics on particular dinosaurs.

Wimpy Kid 8 is in Your Near Future

Diary of a Wimpy Kid book #8 will be released in November (place your holds now before the waiting list gets longer!).  But for now, the title and color of the book have been a well kept secret.  On 8-8-13 the color of the book will be revealed!  While you wait, go to http://www.wimpykid.com/ to shake the crystal ball to see what Greg Heffley has revealed for the future.  Abrams Books, the publisher is trying to get 800,000 shakes (or clicks) on the crystal ball before August 8, 2013, so let your Wimpy Kid fan shake that ball!

Great Websites for Kids

The Association for Library Service to Children has updated their Great Websites for Kids web page. 
This web page features links to websites of interest to children 14 years of age and younger, organized into diverse subject headings such as animals and dinosaurs; games and entertainment; history and science; art and music; and much more. There is also a special section with sites of interest to parents, caregivers and teachers. Each site entry includes a brief annotation and a grade-level rating.  Here is a listing of websites that have been added to the webpage:

B.J. Pinchbeck's Homework Helper

www.bjpinchbeck.com
One of the oldest and broadest directories of carefully chosen web sites for students, this father-son collaboration is a "go-to" destination for anyone with homework to do, a research or science project, or any other informational need.

Common Core - State Standards Initiative
http://www.corestandards.org
Devoted to the task of defining Common Core State Standards, this site provides detailed definitions of what students are expected to learn. It serves as a resource to teachers and parents embarking on the education of young people, especially in the context of relevance to real-world knowledge and skills that are necessary for success in college and careers.

Dav Pilkey's Extra Crunchy Website-O-Fun
www.pilkey.com
Meet Dave Pilkey in comic book form! Explore his books, videos, games and book app! Be sure to check out "Fun Stuff" for more activities and silly facts.

Engineer Girl
http://www.engineergirl.org/
The Engineer Girl website is designed to bring national attention to the exciting opportunities that engineering represents for girls and women.

Howtosmile.org
www.howtosmile.org
A collection of hands-on science and math activities, created by staff from science museums around the country, this website is a resource for educators, homeschoolers, parents, and anyone looking to teach school-aged children about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using interactive, non-classroom methods.

National Center for Learning Disabilities
http://www.ncld.org/
A user-friendly resource for parents, caregivers, or anyone impacted by or concerned about learning disabilities (LD). Features guides for understanding LD symptoms and treatments in an age-appropriate context, from preschool through adulthood.

Start With A Book
http://www.startwithabook.org/
Themed books (fiction and nonfiction) and activities to engage children in reading and learning during the summer. Helpful literacy tips, resources and printables for parents and caregivers. "Read. Talk. Explore."

Tween Tribune
http://tweentribune.com
Daily news sites for kids, tweens and teens. From animals to entertainment, you will find the most compelling, relevant and interesting news all on one site! Registration Required.

Tween Tribune en Español
http://tweentribune.com/spanish
Noticias diarias en español para niños y adolescentes.

Wonderopolis
http://wonderopolis.org
Spark children's imaginations by sharing a "Wonder of the Day" and exploring a "Wonder Playground." A project of the National Center for Family Literacy.

The Great Websites for Kids Committee has the charge to administer and evaluate ALSC’s great sites within the criteria and procedures established for selection and reconsideration and to complete other web site selection tasks as appropriate.

Great Websites for Kids

The Association for Library Services to Children’s Great Web Sites Committee has announced their Spring 2012 selections of web sites.  Great Web Sites for Kids are those considered the best web sites for children ages birth to 14, outstanding in both content and conception. As applied to web sites for young people, “great” should be thought to include sites of especially commendable quality, sites that reflect and encourage young people’s interests in exemplary ways.  Selection criteria for these sites can be found at: http://www.ala.org/alsc/greatwebsites/greatwebsitesforkids/greatwebsites

Here is the list of the selections:

ABCya!
www.abcya.com
Make learning fun with a variety of educational computer games for kids. Learn new skills and improve old ones in areas such as math, language arts, and typing.

All About Birds

www.allaboutbirds.org
Learn all about birds in this website created by the Cornell Lab of Orinthology. Bird names, species, location and history are all featured. Also included are bird songs and videos.

CIA for Kids-Games

www.cia.gov/kids-pages/games/index.html
Find out what the CIA is all about, play games, and solve puzzles. Resources for various audiences including parents and teachers.

Common Sense Media

www.commonsensemedia.org
Common Sense Media helps parents make decisions about media and technology for their families. Information and advice is provided in a variety of formats including reviews, videos, and even lesson plans.

Generation on Youth Advisory Council

www.generationon.org
Whether you are looking for something to do after school or to fulfill a service requirement, you'll find inspiration to change the world around you here. This interactive website has a volunteer position search, blogs full of personal stories, and offers project tips from young people like you!

 Judy Schachner

www.skippyjonjones.com
Fun, festive, and full of fantastic resources, this author webpage includes interactive stories, games, print-outs, and educator resources.

PBS Kids Raising Readers Kids Island

www.pbskids.org/island
Helps children develop and practice basic reading skills through online games and activities with their parent, teacher or caregiver.

Poptropica

www.poptropica.com
Created by Jeff Kinney of "Wimpy Kid" fame, this virtual world invites young gamers to create a character and to undertake age-appropriate quests on over a dozen "islands" based on themes from history, nature, and human culture.

Seymour Simon

www.seymoursimon.com
Called by the New York Times "the dean of [children's science] writers," Simon offers information about himself and his books (over 250 and counting!) on his official site, along with study guides, science news and videos, a science dictionary and more.

The New York Times Learning Network

www.nytimes.com/learning
The New York Times Learning Network provides teaching and learning materials and ideas based on NYT content. It includes lesson plans and resources for teachers as well as quizzes and activities for students 13 and older.

We Give Books

www.wegivebooks.org
We Give Books enables children to read a book online and after doing so, a physical book will be donated to a child in need through literacy programs around the world. Created by the Penguin Group and the Pearson Foundation, it combines the promotion of literacy, both to the child reading online and the giving of books, and the concept of giving.

Reading for Grownups

Surrounded by picture books and chapter books, I often get lost when it comes to books for grownups. Luckily our Adult Services Librarians are on the job. The new Tigard Library website has two excellent places to help you out: May We Recommend and New at the Library. With featured books, booklists and links to helpful sites, you'll find it a quick and easy way to grab a book for yourself. The booklists are linked to the catalog, so you can place a hold on something that sounds good and we'll let you know when you can pick it up!

Kid lit site for kids!

Here's a rare and wonderful thing: A children's literature website that's actually for kids and by kids! The site features interviews with kids and authors, quizzes like "Are You a Harry Potter Expert?" and kid-contributed reviews. You child can sign up to created content and become an insider in the world of kid lit! If you or your child enjoy sharing your reviews of books, you can also do so through our library catalog. Just log in to your patron account from our library catalog, search for the book you'd like to review, click on "Write a Review" or the review link on the left hand side, and then click on "Add a review for this."

Blog About a Blog

Anna recently blogged about a young Newbery Book Award fan's blog, and now I'm going to tell you about a blog from some literature lovers on the other end of the spectrum: authors of non-fiction books for kids.

I.N.K. Interesting Non-Fiction for Kids

You will find some great suggestions for non-fiction to read to and with your kids. You will get the inside scoop on writing from the writers themselves. You will find links to other information and articles about non-fiction for kids.

Take a look!

Reading the Winners

It's the season, at least in libraries, for gathering our predictions of this year's pick for the Newbery Medal. We argue and advocate for our favorite children's book published this year and hope that our favorite is the one chosen. It's usually around this time that kids (and elementary education students) come in with their assignment to "read a winner."

One young girl took this to the extreme. To be exact, as a second grader she decided to read all, yes, all, of the past Newbery Medal winners before she entered middle school. Laura Rogers decided not just to read them, but to talk about them too...on her blog.

I love having insight into these books from an audience member that these books are chosen for. Having reached her goal (amazing!), she's now reading classic great books and the contenders for this year's medal. Very awesome!

P.S. For those interested, the winner will be announced in January.

Good Deeds and Vocabulary

Fans of good deeds and vocabulary can help the Oxford Dictionaries Save the Words. On the interactive site you can browse through oft-forgotten words. Find a word you really like and pledge to "save" it by using it as often as you can.

For example, I found a nidifice in my wisteria yesterday. What word will you save from oblivion?

Saving for College?

This summer the Oregon College Savings Plan and public libraries throughout the state are teaming up to bring you the Dive into Saving for College program. You could win a $1,000 Oregon College Savings Plan account for your newborn to 18 year old.

What do you have to do? Sign up for Summer Reading at the library! Look for entry cards for Dive into Saving for College. Fill it out and drop it in the mail for a chance to win! Fifteen lucky winners will chosen at the end of the summer. Find out more here or stop in the library for the entry form and rules. Entries must be postmarked by August 20, 2010 and received by August 24, 2010 to be eligible.

Young Readers Choose

The Younger Readers Choice Award winners have been announced. Young readers from Oregon to Alaska read and voted for the following:

4th-6th graders Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
7th-9th graders Schooled by Gordon Korman
10th-12th graders City of Bones by Cassandra Clare.

Kids, I have read all three, and I approve of your voting. Good books all around!  Next year Oregon will be hosting their own Choice Awards, so bring on the books and start reading!

Suzanne's Around Town

Getting bored of doing the same ol' thing around the house with the kids? Check out Suzanne's Around Town to get some ideas of fun things to do around the Portland Metro Area.

Attention All Homeschoolers

I was lucky enough to get to attend the national conference of the Public Library Association which just happened to be in Portland this year, and got to attend a session on Homeschooling. Thanks to Lisa Way and Susie Hetzel of the Mid-Continent Public Library in Kansas City, MO and Adrienne Furness of the Webster Public Library in Webster, NY for this information which I am posting word for word. For those of you parents teaching your kids at home, here are some websites you might try:

• NASA For Students The ultimate space science resource geared just for kids


• Olga's Gallery Loads of rolyalty free pictures of masterpieces from great artists throughout the centuries


• dso Kids Lots of games, lesson plans, and musical sound bites sponsored by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra


• Easy Fun School Great program starters with dozens of themes and free lesson plans in a range of subjects


• Extreme Science Great multimedia source for everything science...just for kids!


• Owl & Mouse Megamaps Great maps for lessons in geography, world cultures and cartography
  

Biography Resource Center

You may have seen Anna's post in January about some great online resources that the kids can use to help with their homework. Another one is the Biography Resource Center. I've seen a lot of kids asking for biographies lately, and I always make sure to tell them about this great resource. It's actually a database made for grown-ups, but there is a ton of great biographical information that kids can also use. I strongly recommend using it when working on a biography assignment.

Celebrate with Books

One of my favorite blogs The Brown Bookshelf celebrates Black History Month with 28 Days Later, highlighting a different African American illustrator or writer every day of the month. It's a great way to find new books, learn about the writing/illustrating process and support diversity in children's books.

Reports, Reports, Reports

With school back in full swing, it's report time. Luckily, the library subscribes to several online resources to help your child with their homework. Accessible from home with your library card or in any Washington County Library, you can help develop your child's research skills without the frantic rush to find the one book everyone's checked out!

For country and state reports, CultureGrams is packed with information in an easy to use format. With state symbols, recipes, and, of course, population, geography and history information, it's all there in a click.

For magazine and newspaper articles, as well as graphs and pictures, Kids InfoBits puts it all together for your child to search. I especially like their "Related Subjects" which helps kids think about how to develop their searches (think "Pioneers" or "Explorers" or "Settlers").

There are plenty more as well, including some great ones for grownups at the WCCLS main page.

How Do You Say...?

If you're like me you studied a language in high school or college. Now, I'm lucky if I can remember a few words, much less grammar, sentences and verbs. 

Maybe you want to learn Italian for trip, or Spanish for work. Maybe your youngster has asked about other languages and wants to try it out.

You're in luck because the library now offers Mango Languages. With twelve languages to choose from, you'll learn grammar, vocabulary, and verbs through listening and written exercises.  Best of all...it's free (we've already paid for it!). You can even create an account to track your progress over time.

Mango Languages is one of the online resources brought to you through Washington County Cooperative Library Services.

Giving Books

Need gift giving ideas? I'm pretty partial to this list of books paired with related items and arranged by age group (tiny tots to teens!). With 105 book titles to choose from (non-fiction and fiction) there's bound to be something for the youngsters you know. Thanks to MotherReader for developing the list!

I'm thinking Scaredy Squirrel with an emergency kit, nuts and a flying squirrel puppet, if such a thing exists.

With Fresh Eyes

I loved this post over at Booklights* (which if you don't follow, you should!) about which titles we read as children we wish we could read again for the first time. You know, those stories that just seemed so amazing and you couldn't wait to turn the page.

For me, there are quite a few...The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Warner, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry.

Add your favs in the comments below!

*Booklights is a fabulous blog sponsored by PBS by several children's book experts with book ideas, reading tips and much, much more.

Resource for English Teachers

Do you work in a school, library, preschool, child development center, or teach English to your kids at home? I just learned about a great resource that connects teachers in an online social network: The English Companion Ning. Within the Ning there are groups of teachers sharing their ideas and challenges on such topics as teaching with technology and teaching writing. If you find this resource useful, you may want to check out our parenting collection as well. We have lots of books and videos for homeschool teachers, and parents who are helping their children learn to love books!