Challenging Websites

(Click on the picture to go to the site)

I Know That is a Pre-K through 6^th grade site with free registration for limited use. After registering, you can try at least one activity in each subject area. Thinking Games, The Arts, and Math Story Problems provide plenty of challenges for the student who already knows the concepts that the rest of the class is learning. Subscribe to the site to use all activities, track each child’s learning progress, and get rid of the advertising. ($85.00 per classroom for up to 35 student accounts for home & school use) Home, 5 classroom, and school subscriptions are also available.

These four games can be used by all students in Grades 1- 6. Rock Hopper, Find a Friend, and Robo Packer have 6 levels that will provide a challenge. In Robo Packer, students try to fit several smaller geometric shapes into one larger shape. Rock Hopper and Find a Friend are strategy games where students try to reach a target number by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.

There are 12 Math games and many other activities at this website for elementary students. Some activities require a free download of the Micro Worlds Web Player. Jumping Math Cats is an easy one to start with. Math Mystery Words is a fun game similar to Hangman. Most games require logic and spatial reasoning.

Whyville is a virtual community designed for tween and teen girls. Inside Whyville, citizens learn about art history, science, journalism, civics, economics, and really so, so much more. Registering as a teacher in Whyville allows you to bring your students on and manage their accounts. The site is free, but requires registration.

ROBLOX is an online virtual playground and workshop — where kids of all ages can safely interact, create, have fun, and learn. Everything is designed and constructed by individual members of the ROBLOX community. “We are passionate about creating meaningful experiences that ignite the imagination and engage the mind.” Anyone can enjoy ROBLOX free of charge, but they won't have the same privileges as paying members. Builders Club memberships start at $5.95 per month, but you can enter as a guest and begin playing the games right away.

Aunty Math has 12 Math Challenges for K-5 learners. Each challenge has a parent and teacher page to provide hints for the solution and the N.C.T.M. process and content standards that are met by each challenge. Some of the strategies that students might use to solve these challenges are drawing pictures, using objects, acting out the problem, guess and check, making a list or chart, or visualizing the solution.

Puzzles.com has links to all types of puzzles on the web from Beginner to Expert. Educational Puzzles, Logic Puzzles, Interactive, Pencil and Paper, and ones to play online. Some are listed by grade level. Any type of puzzle you can imagine can be found at this site.

Meet Me at the Corner has Virtual Field Trips for Kids ages 7 – 12. Each video is about 3 minutes long and is done by kids. There are new podcasts uploaded every two weeks. Some of the topics are Book Reviews, service dogs, museums, wolves, falcons, the history of pizza, and many, many more. Students can make their own podcasts and submit them to the site. There is also a segment on How to Make a Video.

Weather Wiz Kids was designed to teach kids more about weather. It includes information as well as experiments for all types of weather. There are also links to learn more about weather, games, kid’s questions, jokes, and much more.

The San Francisco Symphony Fun with Music teaches kids about music. Kids can hear all the instruments, learn the basics of music, play a tune, and even make their own tune. This is a good site to have fun with music.