It’s Wednesday, and time for Language Arts. I would like to ask you to check out the Recommended Websites: If you have used these resources let me know what you thought of the resources and why.
Age Range: 4-14 (Grades PreK-8, with parental supervision) We thought it would be fun to play a game that teaches the origin of words – which can be very helpful when it comes to honing spelling and vocabulary skills.
When you get to this ad-supported site, play the game Rooting Out Words. Uncover the meaning of root words with this fun game for kids – with levels from easy to super brain. Answer the questions correctly and Remainder the Dog collects mushrooms. Then you can scroll down to choose a grade level for more word games, videos and online books such as:
- Word Derby game
- Watch Highlights Animated Storybooks
- or Read Stink and the Great Guinea Pig Express
- and more!
Bookmark this site as there is so much to see in other subjects as well, like math and science.
Recommended Website: Project Gutenberg
Age Range: All (All grades; children with parental supervision) Select from over 60,000 free eBooks to read online or download.
Many of you may already be familiar with the Gutenberg Project that is composed of a team of volunteers endeavoring to make as many books as possible available online at no cost. Currently, there are over 60,000 books. Gutenberg makes it easy for you to find just the titles that might interest you.
When you get to the site, click on “Book Categories” in the top menu bar. When a new page opens, scroll down where you can select from categories such as children’s literature, mysteries, detective stories, science fiction, one-act plays and more! Click on any category, and a new page opens with a list of the free books available. These books can be read online or downloaded.
In the Children’s Literature bookshelf, access the writings of L. Frank Baum, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Edith Nesbit, and Anna Sewell.
Other authors in the bookshelves of Project Gutenberg include Agatha Christie, Andre Norton, Lester del Rey, and Dostoyevsky.
Project Gutenberg has also put together a selection of audio books. Imagine your family enjoying one of the following authors during a long ride in the car or around a crackling fire:
- Aesop
- Hans Christian Andersen
- L. Frank Baum
- Charles Dickens
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Benjamin Franklin
- Robert Frost
- The Brothers Grimm
- Rudyard Kipling
- Jack London
- Nietzsche
- Plato
- Poe
- Beatrix Potter
- Shakespeare
- Mark Twain
- Jules Verne
- H. G. Wells
- Walt Whitman
- and more!
To find the list of audio books, start here.
One more thing: Project Gutenberg is always in need of more volunteers willing to proofread one page per day. You or your teen might like to join the team and take advantage of this exciting, fulfilling, skill-building opportunity.
Recommended Website: Lit2Go
Age Range: 5-18 (Grades K-12, with parental supervision) This website provides free audiobooks of classic literature, stories, and poems in MP3 format that you can download to your MP3 player or listen to on your computer. You can also read the text of the literature on the webpage or download a pdf and print it out to read offline.
When you get to the site, you’ll see an introduction and links to the ways you can browse for information including by:
- Authors – Enjoy listening to literature by Aesop, Jane Austen, J.M. Barrie, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Brothers Grimm, Thomas Jefferson, Jack London, Melville, Poe, Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert Louis Stevenson, Thoreau, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, Walt Whitman and many more.
- Books – You can listen to titles such as Anne of Green Gables, Black Beauty, Common Sense, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Gift of the Magi, Just So Stories, A Little Princess, The Merchant of Venice, Rip Van Winkle, The Scarlet Letter, Treasure Island, The Ugly Duckling, The Wind in the Willows, and more.
- Readability – Click on any grade level from K-12 to find a suggested list of suitable titles based on the Flesch-Kincaid reading level scale.
This is a terrific resource for homeschoolers, unschoolers, and carschoolers!
Thank you,
Glenda, Charlie and David Cates
