Freely Educate

Free Children's Library - Read Books in Many Languages!

The International Digital Children's Library has a simple goal:  translate 10,000 books for children ages 3-13 in 100 different languages.  At the library site, you may read a book in English, French, Hebrew, Russian and other languages.  You may also help translate a book (even if you don't speak the language!)

 

How to Get this Freebie:   Visit the International Children's Digital Library. Here are some good places to start:

 

• Read a book! (read the same book in several languages -- great for students learning a second language!)
• How to Use the Library (scroll down that page for a teacher guide)
• Help translate a book (even if you don't know the language! You're helping with the context)

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Thank you, Kristie, for sharing this with us!

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For Young Writers: Free Workbooks, Free Snail Mail Goodies, and Free Publishing of Your Novel!

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) has a Young Writers Program for students 17 years old and younger.  Even better, they have a lot of great freebies (virtual and physical ones) to give away to all of us.

What is NaNoWriMo?

"It is a fun, seat-of-your-pants novel writing event where the challenge is to write an entire novel in just 30 days. That means participants begin writing November 1 and must finish by midnight, November 30. The word-count goal for our adult program is 50,000 words, but our Young Writers Program allows participants who are 17 years old and younger to set reasonable, yet challenging, word-count goals."

Ready for the challenge?  Start with these freebies:

Free Workbooks (digital download):

Before NaNoWriMo, if you would like to teach your students what a novel is all about and how to write one, download one of the three "non-lame" workbooks .  (I downloaded all three books: elementary, middle school and high school safely)

Free Classroom Noveling Kit (in your snail mail!)

On the Educators' Page you'll find free lesson plans and other resources, but be sure to notice the free classroom noveling kit for classes of ten or more students.  The classroom noveling kit contains buttons, stickers, and a progress report.  It will be shipped to your mailing address. 

Free Publishing

On this page, you'll see a couple of offers of "free publishing" to children with completed manuscripts. 

How to Get this Freebie:  Visit the NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program site to learn more. 

Limited Time Offer:  Remember, NaNoWriMo begins November 1st!

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Donna let us know about this program through our Facebook community.  Join the discussion, here.

 

Free Preschool Letters & Sounds Reading Curriculum

Letter of the Week is a 38-week curriculum for teaching preschoolers their alphabet and its sounds. Scroll down on the home page and you'll see all of the letters of the alphabet.  Click on one, "A" for example, where you'll find poems, math suggestions, even field trip suggestions - all related to the letter "A"

Also included are scheduling helps.

The website author, Katrina, writes:

I feel it is very important that when teaching each letter you focus on only one sound at a time.  The letter A, for example, has many different sounds.  The first time the letter A is taught, I have chosen to focus on it's short vowel sound.  While words such as airplane, acorn, and aerobics, start with the letter A, they do not focus on the short vowel sound.  Focus on one sound a week, and reading skills will come quickly for your child.  It truly does help!!

How to Get this Free Preschool Curriculum:  Visit Letter of the Week

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Free Scholastic Books in Your Snail Mail! (ages 5-12 only)

Update #2 6:30pm:  Scholastic wrote a response to your concerns:

In response to the quick depletion of supplies that we experienced in the past, we have greatly increased the number of book sets we are sending for the new program. It is our goal to accommodate as many entries as we can. We are awarding a total of 6,500 books with a limit of two books per household.

They also mentioned that homeschoolers are welcome.  This program is for all parents.   

Update 3:30pm:  Thank you to those who took the time today to write in the comments that Scholastic & Kumon did not follow through with sending books to children who met their Learn & Earn requirements in the Spring.  I'm going to send them an email right now to find out why.  If you'd like to do the same, you'll find the email address on the bottom of their Official Rules page. 

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Scholastic has partnered with Kumon to encourage children ages 5-12 to work on their reading and math skills.  When your child or student completes an activity sheet, he or she earns free Scholastic books! You'll receive one book for completing one activity sheet, or two books for completing two activity sheets: one in math and one in reading.  There is a limit of 2 books per household.  

How to Get this Freebie:  Visit Scholastic & Kumon's Learn & Earn page  to learn more and to look at the list of available books for each age group.

Expires October 15, 2011 or while supplies last (6,500 books)

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Free Reading Program for Struggling (or Beginning) Readers

Stairway to Reading is a reading program especially for those students who struggle with reading (beginning readers may use the program as well).

The program includes lessons, flashcards, games, reading material and more, all for ... of course, free. And, there is a free diagnostic test on the site (quick, easy to administer), which will help you determine where the student should begin lessons. 

How to Get this Freebie:  Visit Stairway to Reading

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Free Grammar & Writing Curriculum (Language Arts) for Elementary Students

We were sad to find out that the popular Scott Foresman grammar & writing curriculum was removed from the internet ("no longer available for free online," they said), but of course we found a freebie - just as good, maybe better - to replace it!  

Scholastic offers a free full language arts - grammar and writing - curriculum for elementary students in grades 1st through 6th. Included are teacher lesson plans and student textbooks. 

Here is a screenshot from the grade 1 student book:

And here is a screenshot from the teacher's manual, grade 1:

How to Get this Freebie:  Get Scholastic's free language arts for elementary here

The files are available as downloaded pdf files, which you can save to your computer (or place on a flash drive to save memory space!)

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A big "Thank you!" to our Facebook community for stepping up to our call for help when we discovered the Scott Foresman grammar was taken down. 

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Two Free Preschool & Kindergarten Curriculum Choices!

Teaching a little preschooler or Kindergartener this year?  If so, reading and writing are your primary subjects and I have two free full curriculum choices for you.  Our readers have given us excellent feedback on both of them:

Starfall:  Starting with the alphabet, Starfall will teach your preschool through Kindergarten student to read.  This is the most popular program we've highlighted for preschoolers.  Click on the screenshot below to visit Starfall, or go here to read my review of the site.

Letter of the Week:  This 38-lesson curriculum is especially for ages 2-5.  Focusing on one sound each week, a child learns slowly but retains the knowledge.  Click on the screenshot below to visit Letter of the Week, or go here to read my review of the site.

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