Monday, February 20, 2012

10 places to find childrens stories online

Sometimes Its not always easy to go to the library. Still you want to instill a love of reading to your child, and tell them stories to inspire their imagination. You could read them the same favorite story book for the 100th time or you could go online. Their are lots of places on the internet where you can read children's stories. Here are a few, along  with the good and bad points that i have found.

  1. We give Books.

 We give books has 167 books, so theirs sure to be something there for you to read. They have some popular book series such as llama llama, the lady bug girl,and tingatinga tales as well as some non fictional titles to learn about animals, trucks, and going to the doctor. It is easy to search for books in your child's age range.  Their library is also still growing. The most unique thing about this site is that every book read helps to give books to someplace in need. You can also read for your school where reading books online will help put books in your child's classroom or other classrooms in the united states. We give books dose not have an audio book option so you will have to read the books to smaller children. They have a book mark option so if for some reason your reading a book and have to stop it will save your place for you. In my opinion this is the best place to read books, not only do they have good titles to chose from doing so helps other people in need.

2. International Children's Digital Library 
The International Children's Digital Library has over 100 books, and offers books in many different languages. They have many different search functions so you can look for a book by age, subject , length and even the color of the cover. This library dose not have audio either but is a great place to read your child a story. A lot of the books they have are older books, but they are still great to share. They do not have any  of the newer book series that children like today, but they carry many classics such as Cinderella, and Aesop's Fable.

3.Story Place
 The story place has only 15 stories.It dose not seem that any new ones will be added any time soon either.  The stories are animated and are read aloud to your children. The best part about Story Place is that every book is  paired with an online game, and a activity that you can print out and do with your child. The books are separated out into themes such as colors or monkeys. If you have a specific theme in mind and it corresponds with one of theirs its a good place to get a book to read.

4. Star-fall
Star Fall has books to help teach your children how to read with phonics. Each book starts with showing your children what sound a letter makes, and books are sorted by phonics sounds, for example a book about short a. The books can be read, or the children can click on the word and star fall will sound the word out. Each story has at least one game to go with it to help children with their phonics skills, and a movie, or what they call a skill which is like a book that is read to your child. The Library is pretty small with only 15 books to choose from.

5. ePub Bud
ePub Bub has hundreds of unique children's books to read.  The main reason for this is that it encourages people to upload there own stories onto this site. If you wanted to you could even upload your own story here. The result of this is that it creates a library of stories your not likely to see anywhere else.The books are separated into two groups beginner books and kids books. They have no audio so you will have to read it to your children. Also its hard to determine what some of the books are about or even called by just looking at the picture on the self. Some seem a bit hard to read, but there are also some real gems if you spend the time to look. There are some books you cant read unless you buy, but there still are plenty of free ones.




6. Between the Lions
Between the Lions has animated stories for your children to watch and read. It shows the words and highlights them as it reads it along to your child. The books are separated into categories such as Folk Tales and Fables, Animals and other categories.They are the same stories as your kids see in the PBS show. They also have games to help teach your children about phonics and rhyming. They also have a place to download stories and songs from between the lions to your mobile devices. If you want to just read a book with your kid this isn't the place to go, and some kids would rather mess with the games then sit and listen to the stories.

7.DLTK
Has Mini-books that you can print and read with your children. There is one for each letter of the alphabet as well as for seasons, holiday's and other themes. The books are small and simple to read, you can even print them in black and white and use them as color sheets for your children. If you do not have a printer or a desire to print out and fix a little book then this is not the site for you.

8. British Council

The British council has many fun flash stories to help children get interested in reading. Each one comes with some questions that you can ask the children after the story is done, and each has an activity that you can print out to do as well. The site also has games and other printable items that you can do.

9. Kinder Site

Kinder site has some flash stories that are read to your child. With the words included at the bottom and highlighted as they are read. The site has a stop , next and back features so you can pause the story, go back and forward a page. They also have games and songs. Some of the stories features characters such as Clifford the big red dog, and Seaseme street as well as some favorite fairy tales.


10. You Tube

You tube is a good source if you would like for your child to watch a book being read to them. You can find many good stories on here such as stories from Arthur Mercer Mayer, many Fables, and books like Chika Chicka boom boom. Always watch the video before you show it to the child to make sure that it suits the child's needs.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

A is for Alligator-Movement Game

This is a good game to go outside and play, or if it is to cold go play in a gym or a room with lots of space. It is recommended that children get 60 minuets of exercise a day. This is a great way for them to get some exercise and it ties in well with your letter A lessons.

Pick one child, or teacher/care giver to be the alligator.You can designated this by letting the kid wear the alligator hat talked about in the last post if you would like to.  The other children will be fishes, or monkeys, or things that start with A like apes, apples, or ants. Designate a spot to be the swamp, or jungle, or whatever you want to call it.

The children will stay in this spot. Be sure that it gives them enough room to walk quickly without going all over the playground. The Alligator moves with his hands in front, moving his arms up and down like an alligator closing and opening his mouth. The other kids can move like whatever you designated them to be they try to get away from the alligator.

The Alligator gently touches the other kids, turning them to alligators when they get touched. In the end you should have all alligators in your swamp.

Friday, January 20, 2012

A is for Alligator- Alligator hats

Here is a craft you can do for an A is for alligator theme, or 5 little monkeys, jungle. any where you might need an alligator. First get some construction paper, and cut it into thick strips. Staple, or glue the strips together, until it is big enough that it will fit around your child's head.


Next cut two half circles out of green construction paper or use the template shown here.

Fold one of the half circles an inch from the edge and glue it from where it is folded to the other half circle.

Let your children decorate the alligator if they wish to. Draw eyes teeth nose, or you can use the template below and paste it on.
Glue, or staple the back of the alligator to the child's head band. Now you have an alligator hat. look at your ferocious Alligator.




She didn't want to decorate hers. It will look more like an alligator if you decorate it.Still she refused to take it off all day. She loved it and your kids will to. 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

A is for apple.

It's time to get crafty and learn about A. First I cut out some large A's out of cardboard. There was a sale on Christmas stuff in a store next to me, so I bought a bunch of those white cardboard tee shirt boxes for cheap, but if you do not have cardboard then printer paper, sketch paper, any type of paper you have lying around will do.  Just cut the A big enough for the children to be able to paint on it.

Next you cut an apple in half. This will be the children's paint brush for today.

Then lay newspaper or a table cloth, anything that you don't mind getting a little dirty and put it over a table. Squeeze out a little bit of red finger paint, or tempera paint on a paper plate, or directly on the newspaper if you want.

Give a child the large A, and show them how to push the apple down in the red paint and then on there A.  Then let them paint with the apple. They can stamp it, or use it like a brush, theirs no wrong way.

This activity is designed to help them recognize the letter A, and how it is written. As well as give them a word that A starts with, Apple.

Below are some pictures of our A is for Apple project.




























Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Letter A Worksheets

To start off learning about the letter A. I have made some worksheets to help you out. Just copy the pictures and print it off on your computer.

First is an A tracer page to help children learn to write the Letter A.



































Next is a letter A worksheet to help children identfiy what words start with A

This is the same worksheet but with only letters instead of pictures.

This is a sheet to learn numbers up to five with A words.

The last worksheet is to help recognize upper case and lower case A

That is all of them.I hope that you enjoy them, and have fun learning about A.