Freely Educate

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).  If your student or child is struggling with reading in school, consider checking out Stairway to Reading. 

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. 

Here are a few testimonials from others who have used  Stairway to Reading:

I have had the opportunity to try Stairway to Reading with a number of my students. It is a program that teaches towards a variety of learning styles. ~ A teacher in Ontario, Canada

One month later (one half hour per day) and my son has come a LONG way with his reading. The only problem is that I see how simple it is, and it makes me angry that they can't do this during the six-seven hours he spends at school every day.
Tym Barker, Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, Canada

Thank you very much for your reading program. I have successfully used it with my now 10 year old daughter, who had difficulty in grasping reading with other programs. Now we have a child we care for over the summer who is in public school, and we are using it also to teach her to read. She's very excited as she will be ahead of her class when she goes back to school in the fall.
Angela Webster, Boone, North Carolina, US

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Thank you, Jess of the D.A.I.L.Y. blog, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us! Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

Free Humorous, Educational Newsletter on English, Grammar & Spelling

The writer of Gnarly News, the popular math newsletter that I highlighted on FreelyEducate.com in the past, has stopped writing new newsletters on math, but is now concentrating on English.  In his first free Gnarly Gnenglish newsletter, the writer says,

"So now I'll be trying to teach

      Things like grammar and spelling and speech
      You'll learn how to think and compose,
      And I trust I won't cause you to doze."

This is the only "newsletter" I've ever highlighted on FreelyEducate.com, but it is so well-written and thought out that it really is more like an ebook than a newsletter.  You may view the free content on the website or subscribe to receive the newsletter via email or download.

A note: Gnarly Math was for middle to high schoolers.  I'm not sure if Gnarly Gnenglish will also be geared to those grades, but after looking through the newsletter, I think it would be best for grades 5 and up, depending on the student.  If you have elementary students, do check it out to see if you think it would be appropriate for your students.

Check out the new Gnarly Gnenglish and see what you think!

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For Preschool through 6th Grade: Free Curriculum in All Subjects

Today we have another one of those vast sites that offer something in many subject areas.  The Learning Site is primarily for preschool through about 6th grade.  You're going to have to visit it yourself to see all there is to offer you!

Here are a few screenshots of random pages within The Learning Site:

At least one area of the site (math) requires registration, including adding the author's name of a Harcourt textbook as a password.  Other than that area, and perhaps another that I haven't yet noticed, the site can be freely used, even without registration.

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us! Do you have a resource to share, too?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

Here are a few screenshots of random pages within The Learning Site:

At least one area of the site (math) requires registration, including adding the author's name of a Harcourt textbook as a password.  Other than that area, and perhaps another that I haven't yet noticed, the site can be freely used, even without registration.

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Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us! Do you have a resource to share, too?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

Free Novel Writing Organizational Software for Students and Writers

I imagine it's a confusing business trying to keep track of character's traits while writing a novel or piece of fiction.  Your students, and the writers among you educators, may find Storybook to be the organizational answer you've been searching for.  Best of all:  Storybook is 100% free.

Below is a little about the program from the creators:

Storybook is a free (open source) novel-writing tool for creative writers, novelists and authors which will help you to keep an overview of multiple plot-lines while writing books, novels or other written works.

Storybook assists you in structuring your book

Store all information about your characters and locations in one place. Then, use the included Storybook features for managing chapters, scenes, characters and locations. A simple interface is provided to enable you to assign your defined characters and locations to each scene and to keep an overview of your work with user-friendly chart tools.

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here 

Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

I imagine it's a confusing business trying to keep track of character's traits while writing a novel or piece of fiction.  Your students, and the writers among you educators, may find Storybook to be the organizational answer you've been searching for.  Best of all:  Storybook is 100% free.

Below is a little about the program from the creators:

Storybook is a free (open source) novel-writing tool for creative writers, novelists and authors which will help you to keep an overview of multiple plot-lines while writing books, novels or other written works.

Storybook assists you in structuring your book

Store all information about your characters and locations in one place. Then, use the included Storybook features for managing chapters, scenes, characters and locations. A simple interface is provided to enable you to assign your defined characters and locations to each scene and to keep an overview of your work with user-friendly chart tools.

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here 

Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

Free College Course: Introduction to Writing Academic Prose

The University of Utah has posted the full curriculum to their course, Introduction to Writing: Academic Prose.  You may access the content at their site or look on the bottom right sidebar to download the entire course. 

The course schedule is for one-hour sessions three times each week for 16 weeks.

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Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

Free Reading Curriculum for Beginning Readers

Okay, I have a good free reading curriculum for you today, especially if you have preschoolers, kindergartners and/or beginning readers traipsing around the house.  We have a couple of those in our house, and Starfall.com is definitely a favorite site for them! 

Starfall teaches children the alphabet and how to read.  It's interactive, brightly-colored, and fun (that opinion is based on my children's frequent requests to visit the site). 

Here is a screenshot of the "Learn to Read" area of the Starfall.com website:

Click on a "book," such as Zac the Rat and the program reads a book to the child, sounding out, through audio, each word in the book.

Do you want to know exactly how Starfall teaches students how to read?  Visit the Educators' Page for a full description of the teaching methods used.

Enjoy!

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Have a resource or giveaway to share?  Email me at loriseaborg @ gmail.com

My Favorite Site for Preschoolers & Kindergartners: Poisson Rouge / Red Fish Soup

If you have preschoolers, especially, but also perhaps   elementary-aged kids, they will probably love Poisson Rouge as much as we do. 

Poisson Rouge, or, Red Fish Soup, is....um...it's a site that is hard to explain, that's what.  Here's a screenshot of it:

Your little student simply clicks on something.  Anything.  He or she can then move it, build it, learn the alphabet from it, listen to it, play with it...all depending on what he or she chooses to do.

The makers of Poisson Rouge didn't post instructions on the site, as they'd prefer that children freely do whatever they'd like to do on Poisson Rouge,  but with more than a little reluctance, they wrote up a User Guide for Teachers & Parents, which is well worth a read not only for the lesson tips, but also for their insight into how children learn.

Here are a couple of reviews posted on Poisson Rouge:

"The site encourages, relies on, and rewards exploration.  It's only gotten better as I let students cooperate with each other.  While some of the more complicated puzzles may not entertain many students, I was very pleased to find one autistic student who happily spent hours on those."

"I have a little girl just about to turn three and she loves it. It has done wonders for her mouse skills, unlike any other websites we have found she can use it completely independently and she is still finding new things to do on it."

See those little French and British flags (circles) at the bottom of the screenshot, above?  If you click on the flag of France, you'll read the site in French.  If you click on the British flag, you'll read the site in English.   A few of the children's games are affected by this, such as the alphabet.  I can see it as a neat way to teach the little ones a bit of French (or English).

I dare you to try not to get addicted to Poisson Rouge yourself! 

~ Lori

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Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Poisson Rouge, or, Red Fish Soup, is....um...it's a site that is hard to explain, that's what.  Here's a screenshot of it:

Your little student simply clicks on something.  Anything.  He or she can then move it, build it, learn the alphabet from it, listen to it, play with it...all depending on what he or she chooses to do.

The makers of Poisson Rouge didn't post instructions on the site, as they'd prefer that children freely do whatever they'd like to do on Poisson Rouge,  but with more than a little reluctance, they wrote up a User Guide for Teachers & Parents, which is well worth a read not only for the lesson tips, but also for their insight into how children learn.

Here are a couple of reviews posted on Poisson Rouge:

"The site encourages, relies on, and rewards exploration.  It's only gotten better as I let students cooperate with each other.  While some of the more complicated puzzles may not entertain many students, I was very pleased to find one autistic student who happily spent hours on those."

"I have a little girl just about to turn three and she loves it. It has done wonders for her mouse skills, unlike any other websites we have found she can use it completely independently and she is still finding new things to do on it."

See those little French and British flags (circles) at the bottom of the screenshot, above?  If you click on the flag of France, you'll read the site in French.  If you click on the British flag, you'll read the site in English.   A few of the children's games are affected by this, such as the alphabet.  I can see it as a neat way to teach the little ones a bit of French (or English).

I dare you to try not to get addicted to Poisson Rouge yourself! 

~ Lori

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Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Free Literacy Site for Preschool through Elementary: Learning to Read

"The Literacy Center aims to provide safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. It follows a modified Montessori approach to teaching reading. As a pre and early reading curriculum, it assumes that each online lesson will be supported by appropriate offline instruction, either at home or in school."

There are two main areas of the Literacy Center site:

Play and Learn is for students.  In this area, there are letter recognition and word recognition sections, among others.  

Parents and Teachers is the other main area, where you'll find sections labeled:

• Colors
• Letters
• Numbers
• Phonemes
• Shapes
• Writing
• Words

p.s. The site is also available in Espanol, Deutsch, and Francais.

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

"The Literacy Center aims to provide safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. It follows a modified Montessori approach to teaching reading. As a pre and early reading curriculum, it assumes that each online lesson will be supported by appropriate offline instruction, either at home or in school."

There are two main areas of the Literacy Center site:

Play and Learn is for students.  In this area, there are letter recognition and word recognition sections, among others.  

"The Literacy Center aims to provide safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. It follows a modified Montessori approach to teaching reading. As a pre and early reading curriculum, it assumes that each online lesson will be supported by appropriate offline instruction, either at home or in school."

There are two main areas of the Literacy Center site:

Play and Learn is for students.  In this area, there are letter recognition and word recognition sections, among others.  

Parents and Teachers is the other main area, where you'll find sections labeled:

• Colors
• Letters
• Numbers
• Phonemes
• Shapes
• Writing
• Words

p.s. The site is also available in Espanol, Deutsch, and Francais.

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Free Kindle Books for the Student, Teacher, Homeschooler & any Educator

Since the Kindle is currently Amazon's bestselling, most gifted, most wished for item this Christmas, I thought  I'd write a post of free educational books you can download onto the new Kindle, whether you're the one receiving one or giving one.  

I've had my Kindle (pictured above) for a year and a half now.  I justified the expense (at the time, $349; now it sells for just $259) because of all the free books I could put on the Kindle and would no longer have to buy.  There are a few other reasons* I think the purchase price was worth it, but first, here are some links to free Kindle content:

 from Jane Austen to Mark Twain to Greek books, FreeKindleBooks.org  has links to thousands of free Kindle-format-ready books...

Project Gutenberg, a frequently used site for any literature lover, has over 30,000 books ready to use on the Kindle...
  

 
There are over 25,000 free books at ManyBooks.net...

 

There are also free books available straight from Amazon, new and old.  Often, free books are offered as special limited time offers. Here is a Listmania list to get you started:

 
There are many, many other sites to list.  If enough of you are interested, I may start a Kindle category.  I think the Kindle - and devices based on it - may be in the near future for most students.  Imagine not carrying those heavy textbooks across campus!

* A few of those other reasons I justified buying my Kindle, even at the higher price it was then:

• It can hold thousands of books and magazines (even more with a memory card added to it) so I only have to carry one thing
• Amazon saves every single thing - even the notes I write in the books -  so I don't have to worry about losing my Kindle content
• The web browser.  It is in black & white and the browsing is not the fastest thing, but I use the web browser often  to check the news or my email and I like having it for emergencies.  One time we were lost in the shady side of a new-to-us city and I used my Kindle to view an online map to find out way out.  Whew.
• There are no monthly fees at all.  I mostly download free content.  So, since my Kindle is a year-and-a-half old, it is a real bargain at $349* divided by 18 months of usage (and counting!).  It's much cheaper than my cell phone is! (*the Kindle is now $259)

Do you have Kindle?  If you do, chime in!

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The Princess & the Frog Lesson Plans

Lesson Planet always has a lot to offer the teacher - we've featured the site on Freely Educate before - but I thought you'd be especially interested in this one, if you're educating little girls who like princes, princesses, and fairy tales.

Disney's newest movie, The Princess and the Frog is opening in theaters on December 11th (I'm sure those little girls you're educating already know this!). 

As incentive to get some schoolwork done, Lesson Planet has put together a series of lessons related to The Princess and the Frog movie. The subjects include frogs, Louisiana, and the Grimm Brothers among many others

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Lit to Go: Free Educational mp3 Audios of Stories and Poems

The University of South Florida offers a reading treasure trove for an educator -- free audios of many popular stories and poems.  They describe Lit2Go like this:

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. You can:

• Download the files to your Mp3 player and listen on the go,

• Listen to the Mp3 files on your computer

• View the text on a webpage and read along as you listen

• Print out the stories and poems to make your own book.

Browsing through the Lit2Go archives by author, I found some of our favorites such as Jane Austen, Thornton W. Burgess, and good old Abraham Lincoln.  Browsing by title, I found such gems as The Merchant of Venice and "Hickory, Dickory, Dock" and even some that just make me curious as to whether my students would consider them gems or not, like Philosophy and Fun of Algebra.

You may also search the database by reading level. The results will show how long the audio is, and how many words are in the passage (or book, poem, etc.).

And, happily, if you're an iTunes junky like myself, you may enjoy knowing you can download many of the Lit2Go audios directly into your iTunes library.

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The Learning Site: Free Lessons in Many Subject Areas for Preschool - Elementary

Today we have another one of those vast sites that offer something in many subject areas.  The Learning Site is primarily for preschool through about 6th grade.  You're going to have to visit it yourself to see all there is to offer you!

Here are a few screenshots of random pages within The Learning Site:

At least one area of the site (math) requires registration, including adding the author's name of a Harcourt textbook as a password.  Other than that area, and perhaps another, the site can be freely used, even without registration.

~~~~

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Keep up with FreelyEducate tweets (Twitter) here: @freelyeducate

Thank you, Kathleen, for sharing this high quality, 100% free educational find with us! Do you have a resource to share, too?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

Free Play Scripts for Children

Whootie Owl's site offers folk stories, fairy tales and - best of all -  free play scripts for children.  Teaching your students about a certain country?  Whootie Owl probably has a child-friendly play for your students to perform!

Thank you, pernell, for sharing this high quality, 100% free, educational find with FreelyEducate.com readers!  Do you  have a freebie to share?  Email me at freelyeducate@gmail.com

Subscribe to FreelyEducate here

Free Literacy Site for Preschool through Elementary: Learning to Read

"The Literacy Center aims to provide safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. It follows a modified Montessori approach to teaching reading. As a pre and early reading curriculum, it assumes that each online lesson will be supported by appropriate offline instruction, either at home or in school."

There are two main areas of the Literacy Center site:

Play and Learn is for students.  In this area, there are letter recognition and word recognition sections, among others.  

"The Literacy Center aims to provide safe learning activities for parents and teachers to share with young children. It follows a modified Montessori approach to teaching reading. As a pre and early reading curriculum, it assumes that each online lesson will be supported by appropriate offline instruction, either at home or in school."

There are two main areas of the Literacy Center site:

Play and Learn is for students.  In this area, there are letter recognition and word recognition sections, among others.