It’s Wednesday, and time for Language Arts. I hope the resources I have brought to you are something you and your students can use. If you’ve used the sites before would you let me know what you liked or disliked about the websites and why.
Age Range: 9-18 (Grades 4-12, with parental supervision)
This website explores the literature, life, and times of the state of Maryland’s native son and writer, Edgar Allan Poe.
Turn on your speakers to engage in a variety of multi-media activities that will help you learn about one of America’s foremost writers, who is best known for works such as “The Raven,” “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and “The Tell-Tale Heart.”
This site offers some ingenious methods for learning about Poe through both historical and fictional means, as well as from a number of different perspectives. Learn about the era he lived in, what his house, family, and hometown were like, and see how it informed the complex choices Poe made as he wrote poems and stories. You can even become a forensic investigator and review the “hard facts” about Poe’s untimely death.
Use the lesson plans and interactive experiences, including primary source documents, links to other website resources, and even some fun family-centered activities to understand the continuing impact of Poe’s legacy. [Note: Some of the links to other web-based resources are inoperative. However, we found that a quick Google search for those items led to results for similar content on a variety of other sites.]
When you get to the site you can click on images to begin to explore the content, or use the menu on the left to focus on:
Poe The Person – Includes a timeline that highlights historic events that occurred during his lifetime. This section also offers, “It’ll be the Death of Me,” that allows you to explore the possible causes of Poe’s mysterious death.
Poe The Writer – Provides an exploration into Poe’s writings and the unusual tools, techniques, and revision processes he used.
The Poe Library – Access some of Poe’s works, primary source documents about Poe, and link to other resources about Poe.
In addition to all of the above, this site is filled with trivia and little known facts about Poe. The dark, mysterious images and style of the website maintains the spooky legacy of Poe’s most famous works. (Parents, as always, should preview this site to determine if the content is suitable for their own children.)
Fact Monster: Homework Center-Writing
Age Range: 9-18 (Grades 4-12, with parental supervision) Here you will find free writing tutorials on topics from basic sentence structure to paragraphs, essays, book reports, biographies, research papers, and term papers. The tutorials are delivered through simple-to-read text that include clear and instructive samples.
When you get to the site you’ll see a menu of items to browse including:
- Essays – Learn how to select a topic, organize your ideas, write a first draft, revise the work, and proofread the final draft.
- Writing Different Types of Essays – Learn how to structure your writing for Narrative, Descriptive, Persuasive, Cause and effect, and Comparison and Contrast Essays.
- How to Write a Biography
- How to Write a Book Report
- How to Write a Research Paper – Learn to select a topic, discover how to research to find sources of information, take notes, organize ideas, write a first draft, revise, proofread, and use footnotes and endnotes. Plagiarism is defined here as well.
- How to Write a Letter – Includes instruction on personal letters, thank you notes, a letter of complaint and more.
- How to Write a Speech – Find out how to write speeches that inform, persuade, and entertain.
- Spelling & Grammar – Includes lessons on punctuation, capitalization, spelling, sentence structure, parts of speech, subject and predicate, dangling modifiers, mixed metaphors, split infinitives, and more.
This is a great reference website not only for writing, but for every subject. Look around and you’ll see what we mean. Make it a “favorite” to return often.
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Age Range: 8 and up (Grades 3 and up; children with parental supervision) This website offers a FREE automated expository essay program that “can teach almost anyone how to organize an essay in 5 minutes” and is ideal for helping students learn to write essays and prepare for essay exams.
It’s an ingenious way to help organize your thoughts so that you can write a decent essay.
When you get to the site you can try a free demo – click on “Get Started Now.” Once you’re hooked and want to continue, you must register to use the site. Registration is FREE and allows you to work at your own pace, saving and editing the essays that you create. When your “Easy Essay” is complete, you can print it or save it to your own computer.
If you want to write a longer paper, the program can automatically expand into a 17 paragraph thesis. This program is also usable in any language. See “Tutorial” from the home page for detailed information.
We enjoyed test-driving this program, and think many of you will too. It will be “helpful for virtually anyone who desires to better organize their written or verbal communications.”
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Age Range: 4-11 (Grades PreK-5 approximately, with parental supervision) Spring has sprung! The return of longer and warmer days, and the rebirth of flora and fauna has inspired poets for ages.
This website offers a selection of over 35 poems about spring by a variety of authors including Mother Goose, A.A. Milne, William Wordsworth, and Robert Frost.
Most poems are accompanied by an audio recording so you can hear the poem being read aloud. And every poem has a free printable activity page to go with it.
When you get to the site, you’ll see a menu of poem titles including:
- Daffodowndilly by A.A. Milne
- Little Seeds by Else Holmelund Minarik
- A Prayer in Spring by Robert Frost
- And many more!
Simply click on a title of interest and a new page opens with the poem text. Below the poem, you’ll see a box that says, “Play.” Click on it to hear the poem being recited. You’ll also find a sample of the activity sheet to the right of the poem. You can print out the full sheet in color, or print it in black and white and use it as a coloring page.
************************************************************************Quiz Tree
Age Range: All (All grades; children with parental supervision) This ad-supported website offers animated, interactive educational quizzes on a variety of subjects including Spelling, Reading, and lots more.
Students of all ages can use the quizzes to test their knowledge, prepare for an exam, or learn something new. For example, children in grades K-3 (who are just learning to read) can try the Dolch sight words. Spelling Bee hopefuls can try mastering the lists of misspelled words. Older students can prepare for the SAT and GRE.
When you get to the site, scroll down to see the menu. It may seem sparse, but each line in that menu opens to a new page with numerous quizzes. You can even access the quizzes by grade level. Some of the other Language Arts topics are:
- Commonly Confused Words
- American Idioms
- Advanced Vocabulary
- ESL Grammar
These quizzes (games) are fun, eye-pleasing, and include sound effects (so turn on your speakers). Some are drag-and-drop, and some are multiple-choice. Sometimes hints are available but may cost you points. Some quizzes are timed. If you get an answer wrong, one of a set of disappointed tones will sound and you will get another chance. A different set of sounds applaud your successes. At the end of the quiz, your score will be displayed and you will be given a chance to try the quiz again.
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Age Range: 5-11 (Grades K-6, with parental supervision) Learn to write personal or business letters and more – and find out how to properly address an envelope.
This site is designed with classroom teachers in mind, but most of the content can be tweaked for homeschool use. When you get to the site, choose your grade level and view the lesson plan:
- K-2 – Write a personal letter.
- 3-4 – Write a persuasive letter.
- 5-6 – Write a letter in code.
You can also see some letter templates and how to address an envelope. (In the U.S., the return address is to be placed in the top left-hand corner of the front of the envelope.)
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Education.com and
Age Range: All (All grades; children with parental supervision) Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day! Here are some sites that provide free Language Arts worksheets themed around this sweet day.
You will not believe the massive selection of free Valentine-themed worksheets and printables for grades K-6 that are offered on this Education.com website. Get free crosswords, mazes, word searches, Valentine card templates, matching games, word challenges, coloring pages, and more. (You’ll also find Valentine math worksheets.)
And here are a couple of more sites:
Lanternfish ESL(https://bogglesworldesl.com/valentines_day_worksheets.htm)
Get a printable Valentine-themed word scramble, crossword puzzle, word search, rhyme activity, and more.
Minds In Bloom(https://minds-in-bloom.com/valentines-freebies/)
Enjoy a logical thinking activity and a printable Valentine’s Day Mad Lib to practice parts of speech.
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
