Internet4Classrooms Newsletter: January 2012

Hello! Thanks so much for using Internet4Classrooms with your students and children. Our mission is to help you find the best educational online resources available to meet your individual needs. Our monthly newsletter focuses on sharing information, tips, and ideas on everything related to schooling inside the classroom and at home. Each month we'll be featuring resources and information on a variety of topics. We are constantly upating information on our site, and urge you to visit often!

Keep in Touch!

If you need help, please email us. We answer questions about almost any subject matter/grade level. We feel that this is a very important part of Internet4Classrooms. Internet4Classrooms is maintained and built for educators, parents, and students and this site is yours. Comments and suggestions are appreciated and welcomed. Don't be afraid to email and ask!

Follow us on Twitter (internet4classr). Stay up to date with offerings and new sources/links for great educational and technology information for you, your students, and children.

App Of The Month

**NEW!**

Every month we are going to feature a different, and hopefully FREE, iPad/iPod educational application. Stay tuned!

This month's featured app is the "AppShopper." Finding free apps can be difficult, especially when the price changes from costly to free on a random basis. AppShopper allows you to create wish lists in addition to searching by sales and freebies. You can even get alerts when apps you want go on sale. Take advantage of this free app today!

Things To Celebrate This Month

Happy New Year! 2012 has arrived. This month we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr., the Chinese New Year, National Static Electricity Day, and World Literacy Day. We encourage you to take some time to click through our site. You never know what wonderful resources you can find to enrich your classroom experience. Let's get started!

Drinking Straw Was Patented - 1-3-1888

The first straw prototype was simply paper wrapped and glued around a pencil. Three years later it was a $100,000 a year business equivalent to $2.3 million today! Find fun and creative crafts kids can do with straws.

First Road Sign - 1-4-1901

Can you imagine what we would do if we didn't have road signs? Find safety rules and traffic sign games in our Kindergarten Social Studies Governance standards.

World Literacy Day - 1-8

Reading is the key to success. Check out our language arts resources page full of links to grammar, writing, reading, stories, and more. We also have reading help for our parents so you can continue to development student literacy skills at home.

National Static Electricity Day - 1-9

Make a lemon battery. Learn about circuits and conductors. We have online electricity quizzes and interactives explaining how electricity works. Explore our Magnets section also within Elementary Science.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day - 1-16

Did you know that more than 700 cities worldwide have streets named after Martin Luther King Jr.? Find MLK classroom resources and Martin Luther King lesson plans.

Chinese New Year - 1-23

This Chinese New Year is the Year of the Dragon. Make your own dragon. Learn Chinese words and writing techniques. We have something for everyone.

National Puzzle Day - 1-29
Make your own word search, crossword puzzle, or bingo game. Puzzles keep our minds sharp so you can never have enough brain teasers!

** We Want Your Input! **

I4C already has Free Vocabulary Quizzes and Free Math Quizzes in our ACT/SAT Test Preparation Guide.

We're looking for new ideas for quizzes and informational resources that you'd feel are useful to you and your students. Please email us and let us know what you could use to make your teaching experience better.

Write to: [email protected]

Focus On: Teacher Resources

Internet4Classrooms offers a wide variety of informative online resources, tips, tools, and tutorials regarding your classroom needs. There is always something you can utilize with your students. Each month we'll feature a few links to useful topics.

Honor Martin Luther King Jr. in your classroom with these lesson plans and information relating to the importance of the things he stood for. Watch MLK's "I Have a Dream Speech" online and find the transcript.

The Chinese New Year begins January 23rd. Learn a few Chinese words and explore the Year of the Dragon while students discover other cultures and traditions.

Celebrate National Literacy Day all month long with our Language SkillBuilders. Find the MAIN IDEA in these interactive online stories for 1st grade , 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade levels.

Reinforce reading comprehension with these ONLINE STORIES by grade for 1st, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 6th grade, 7th grade, and 8th grade levels.

Practice CAUSE AND EFFECT online for 4th grade and 5th grade students.

Find Elementary reading comprehension worksheets and stories and assessment test practice with these online reading comprehension quizzes.

We also have Math SkillBuilders with INTERACTIVE CHARTS AND GRAPHS ACTIVITIES for 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade levels.

Play games while learning how to COMPARE NUMBERS for 1st grade and 2nd grade.

Discover the benefits of SMART boards and Whiteboards. I4C has a comprehensive list of Whiteboard and SMARTboard resources, lesson plans, and tutorials.

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Don't Forget: Free Online Practice for ACT Test and SAT Test Resources . I4C now offers free SAT and ACT vocabulary and math quizzes . Become a free member and log in as much as you'd like. Students can take practice tests on 5000 vocabulary words.Take daily practice math quizzes on over 1000 questions. Log in to monitor your students' scores - including seeing which vocabulary words or math questions they missed. Interactive quizzes allow the test taker to retake and study as much as they want.

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Remember: One of our most clicked resources is the teacher tools page. You can access everything teachers need for the school year, including forms, planning, bulletin boards, and worksheets.

Another popular section is our Grade Level Help. Click here for Pre-K - 8th grade level help and here for 7th - 12th grade resources. Find Skill Builders interactive sites for Language Arts and Math.

Focus On: Parent Resources

In addition to our teachers, parents can take advantage of our online resources as well.

Reinforce Martin Luther King Jr'.s message and celebrate diversity in your home with these activities.

In honor of the Chinese New Year, print these free Chinese flashcards and expand your child's vocabulary. It's a fun way to identify every day words in a different language.

Did you also know we have a section on English as a Second Language? There are helpful tools for learning English and grammar.

Explore calendars and time zones. We have world clocks, time zone information, online stop watches and timers, current local time charts, and more.

Does your child have ADHD? I4C has a large section of ADHD resources on everything from classroom help, to handwriting and reading help, and behavioral tools.

Take advantage of our handwriting help when the younger kids have some downtime. There are printable worksheets and tracing paper.

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Find ACT Test and SAT Test Resources to get your children ready for the ACT and SATs ! I4C now offers free SAT and ACT vocabulary and math quizzes. Become a free member and log in as much as you'd like. Students can take practice tests on 5000 vocabulary words and practice tests in math with over 1000 questions. As a parent, you can log in to monitor your children's scores - including seeing which words or math problems they missed. Interactive quizzes allow the test taker to retake and study as much as they want.

As always, if you don't see something of interest highlighted this month, we have the Parent Zone which is full of resources. You can find homework help, special needs resources, language tools, reading help, educational games and activities sorted by grade.

Technology Tips

Tech Tip #1: Where Did My File Go? Have you ever saved a document and then couldn't find it? Go to your Start Menu, and in the search window type in the name. It will pull up all related docs. Visit our Tech Tutorials page for more help.

Tech Tip #2: Print Preview Shortcut in Word CTRL + ALT + I shows you what your document will look like once printed. Simply click on the "Close Preview" icon at the top right to go back to the original format. More Word shortcuts here.

Tech Tip #3: Are You Using Internet Explorer Effectively? Make sure you are taking advantage of favorites and bookmarking. Do you know what long URLs can signify? Make heads or tails of Internet Explorer with our tech tutorials pages.

We Need Your Help

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Many thanks!

This Month's Blog

This month's blog: Resolutions You Can Keep. It's a new year. We have a few resolutions that you can meet to improve the rest of this school year and your classroom.

Internet4classrooms.com is a free educational portal for teachers, parents, homeschoolers and students. Visitors come from around the world to find Internet resources for their educational needs. One can find resources ranging from lesson plans to worksheets, individual grade level resources to templates, and even interactive learning games. We were very honored when one teacher called the site a "Walmart for Teachers". If you cannot find what you need for instruction on any topic, please feel free to email us and we will help you find resources to fit your needs.

Sincerely,

Susan Brooks

Bill Byles

Internet4classrooms.com