10 FREE Things for June
FREE Curriculum Resources

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ART

• NGA Classroom for Teachers and Students
  This Web site helps teachers and students connect art and curriculum. Teachers can access lessons and resources by curriculum, topic, or artist. From National Gallery of Art.  
• Visual & Performing Arts E-Presentations
  See artists demonstrate and explain their art (online videos), including musician Wynton Marsalis, jazz; and Hector Elizondo, theater; Alan Gampel, piano; Gregory Hines, dance; Elizabeth Murray, painting; and Richard Serra, sculpture.

COMMUNITY SERVICE

• Global Youth Service Day  
  ThisWeb site provides numerous tip sheets with ideas on how to get young people involved in the community. National & Global Youth Service Day is the 3rd full week in April. From Youth Service America. 

EARLY CHILDHOOD ED

• Report and Fact Sheet
  The State of Preschool 2008 (254pp) Complimentary copies of some previous editions are also available. From National Institute for Early Education Research.
  
  The Universal vs. Targeted Debate: Should the United States Have Preschool for All? (2pp) From National Institute for Early Education Research.

ENVIRONMENTAL ED

• Make a Difference Campaign for Middle School Students
  Learn how to make healthy choices for yourself and the world you live in. For grades 6-8. Fill out a simple online form, and the kit will be mailed to you. From the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
• The Roof Is Growing!
  This interactive program includes a lesson plan and workbook pages to engage and educate middle school students (grades 6-8) about green roofs and their environmental benefits. From American Society of Landscape Architecture (ASLA).
• Reduce/Reuse/Recycle Tip
  "My local video store often has free promotional posters and they just throw out old displays. I ask for the displays right before recycling night. I use the display cartons for book reports and even dioramas." From a fifth grade teacher.   

HEALTH & WELLNESS

• Wellness Activation Kit
  Order a free 2009-2010 School Wellness Activation Kit for your school today! Free nutrition and fitness program for your school. Kit is designed to inspire students to "get up and play" for 60 minutes a day and to "fuel up" with the foods kids don't get enough of.  
• Inside the Pyramid
  This site offers an interactive display of the food pyramid, a tip of the week, and downloadable print materials, including 3 posters. From U.S. Department of Agriculture.  

HOLIDAYS & SPECIAL DAYS

May

• Asian Pacific Heritage Month  
  Put the power of primary sources to work in the classroom. Browse their ready-to-use lesson plans, student activities, collection guides, and research aids. From the Library of Congress Web site. See also the Asia feature at National Park Service Web site. 
• National Teacher Day
  (First full week in May)
  Send a free card to a special teacher you would like to thank. See cards sent by others on Teacher Day. See NEA’s Teacher Thank-You Project.  
• Mother's Day Puzzles and Themes
  (May 9, 2010)
  Free interactive word puzzles and activities help participants learn English vocabulary in context (grades 2-12). Includes 180 words from two college entrance exams. From Vocabulary University. 

June

• Dairy Farming Today and National Dairy Council
  • Dairy Farming Today - Videos spotlighting dairy farmer and veterinarians. Information about dairy farming, including milk myths and facts, dairy technology, and a dairy dictionary.
  • National Dairy Council - Downloadable charts and brochure. Some materials available in in Spanish.
    September
• Peace One Day - Materials for Conflict Resolution
  Free online educational curriculum materials (with registration) on conflict resolution and nonviolence for teachers and students in grades 6–12. Using Peace Day, September 21st, as a focus.  

JOB SEARCH

• ResumeBear 
  "ResumeBear is a great free tool for building an online resume. There is zero cost involved and the resumes are perfecty formatted every time - which is great for a newbie computer user like myself." – Linda E, from NEA discussion forums 

LESSON PREPARATION

• The Lesson Plan Book
  For-profit organization offers one free month to try out their lesson plan management site. You can add lesson plans, schedule them in a calendar, and when you pay for the service, you can attach quizzes and worksheets, and more.
  "It was nice to try it before I paid the subscription so I know what exactly I was getting. Now I can even make my own Web site with my lessons on it." –Stacy S., from NEA discussion forums
• Puzzle-Maker.com and Puzzlemaker Discovery Education.com
  • Puzzle-Maker.com - "Type in clues and answers and it will create a crossword puzzle. You can't save it unless you join and pay membership fees, but you can print both the puzzle and an answer key. If you then back up to the clues-and-answers page, you can create a new puzzle with the same clues and answers but a different configuration of words. I use these for unit reviews.  If you ever have your students design a lesson, these puzzles make great mini-assessments for them to give the class." – C Sanders, from NEA discussion forums
  • Puzzlemaker Discovery Education.com - This puzzlemaker does 10 kinds of puzzles. "I like this one because you can copy it into Word. I make a word search of terms on one side of a handout and the definitions in the crossword (crisscross) puzzle on the reverse side." – Maria B., from NEA discussion forums
    

MATH & FINANCIAL LITERACY

• Math Manipulatives Web Site
  The National Library of Virtual Manipulatives offers an array of math manipulative activities for preK-12.
  "I've used it and I love it. The best part is -- it's FREE! They also offer a CD for standalone use, which includes extra goodies."
  – A teacher on NEA Works4Me.
• Feed the Pig for Tweens Web Site – Helping Students Make Money-Smart Decisions
  This site provides downloadable teaching materials for its financial literacy program for grades 4-6. (Developed with input from the Teacher Advisory Board through the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.) From American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Ad Council. 
• Comics for Teachers from the Federal Reserve
  Twelve different comics teach children about the importance of saving, the history of money, foreign trade, and more. You can order a maximum of 35 of each.
  

POSTERS GENERAL

• Behind Every Famous Person is a Fabulous Teacher
  Just send an email to Teachers Count with your name, address, and which posters you want and they will send them out to you, absolutely free!

READING & LITERATURE & LANGUAGE ARTS

• Bookshare
  This online library has digital books for U.S. students with difficulties reading printed text because of blindness, visual impairment, color blindness, certain learning disabilities, certain mobility problems. A “free” membership with Bookshare will enable you to download 2 FREE etext readers. From U.S. Department of Education. 
• RFB&D: Audio Access to Recorded Books
  From now until January 25, 2010, any student with a with a certified print disability (such as a visual impairment, learning disability, or other physical disability) in the U.S. can sign up for 12 months of free access to the CV Starr Learning Through Listening® Library of more than 46,000 textbooks and literature, via Internet download. From Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. 
• Free Book Download for the Month
  Learn more about this offer from Kid Thing, Inc. in the Read Across America Web area. (Curric)  
• Books and Book Chapters Online from Stenhouse Publishers 
  Browse through a book - online - to see if you like it well enough to purchase it. Stenhouse Publishers posts the complete texts of the current season's books and selected chapters of others. Check out their list. (Curric)  
• NEA’s Read Across America
  Read Across America is an annual reading motivation and awareness program that calls for every child in every community to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of beloved children's author Dr. Seuss. This Web site provides NEA members, parents, caregivers, and children the resources and activities they need to keep reading on the calendar 365 days a year.
• Newseum World Newspapers
  At this intriguing site, just put your mouse on any city in the world, and the front page of the local newspaper pops up. Double click and the page gets larger. Changes daily. Great resource for language arts, social studies (humanities), research projects.  
• Reading Materials for Your Classroom
  Type in your email address to get access to 30 free downloadable books as well as lessons, worksheets, and other resources - designed for use in various reading settings from whole class to small group to individual work. Some titles come in Spanish and French, as well as English. Many items are for sale.

SCIENCE

• Posters, Classroom Activities, & Other Resources  
  Download and print 9 posters for your classroom, on these topics: The Human Genome, Earth Anatomy, Climate Change Records, Scale and Size, Cosmic Evolution, The Science of Change, Vernal Pool Life, The Sphere of Life, and Electromagnetic Spectrum. The Web site also includes other printed resources on such topics as glaciers, earth system science, and the Science Olympiad. From The Wright Center for Science Education of Tufts University.

SOCIAL STUDIES

• Develop Your Own U.S. Map
  Users create their own U.S. maps by selecting features to add to it - such as cities and counties, roads and rivers, population and congressional districts, crops, and livestock. From U.S. Department of the Interior.

STUDENT DIVERSITY

• Workshops for Teachers of Native American Students
  These short online workshops were produced by the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative in collaboration with Office of Indian Education.

SUPPLIES

• Kids In Need Foundation 
  This national nonprofit organization provides free supplies and grants across the country to students and teachers.  

TECHNOLOGY & MEDIA LITERACY

• Presentations ETC
  This site offers audio, clip art, font, photo, video, and presentation services. Up to 50 items may be used in any non-commercial, educational project without special permission. Educational Technology Clearinghouse. From University of South Florida.
• Media Literacy Materials
  Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in a variety of forms. Media literacy materials build an understanding of the role of media in society as well as the essential skills of inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of a democracy. From Center for Media Literacy. 
  • Project SMARTArt - Case study and "how-to" program for teaching media literacy skills to K-5 students, with replicable structure, tools, and lesson plans.
  • Five Key Questions That Can Change the World: Deconstruction - Downloadable classroom activity guide with 25 lesson plans for K-12 media literacy.
  • Media&Values magazine - Over 350 articles online.
  • MediaLitKit™  - Materials in English and in Spanish. Some materials for sale.
    
    

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