Resources Can Help Students be Better Writers

Janea Green, the district’s writing teacher-on-special-assignment, reminds us that there are many reasons why every student should write frequently. Not only is writing an important way to communicate, but writing improves reading comprehension and performance in other academic areas such as social studies, science and math.

The Writing Site
http://www.thewritingsite.org/resources/parent/primary.asp
Parent resources for writing for primary, intermediate, and secondary grades.

Seussville
http://www.seussville.com/
Brightly animated and highly interactive, Seussville entertains children as they complete word puzzles, matching games, and other activities based on the books of Dr. Seuss. Kids can also write a story and bring it to life with fanciful characters, music, and scenery.

Poetry Teachers
http://www.poetryteachers.com/
The site provides ideas for poetry lessons, contests, and activities. It also links to Giggle Poetry , a fun site for students reading, rating, and writing poems.

Make Beliefs Comix
http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
Students can create their own comic strips on this site that offers animal and human characters with different moods, thought and talk balloons to fill in with words in English or Spanish, and story prompts. After creating their comic strips, students can print them or email them to friends or family.

Kids Can Publish University
http://www.fivestarpublications.com/kidscanpublish/
Student authors, journalists, poets, artists, and photographers can submit their finished products for a chance to be the monthly featured writer on this site.

American Library Association: Great
http://www.ala.org/gwstemplate.cfm?section=greatwebsites&template=/cfapps/gws/default.cfm
This ALA website, collected by the Children and Technology Committee of the Association for Library Service to Children, offers links to a variety of Web resources organized by subject, including a Literature and Languages section.

Fun Brain
http://www.funbrain.com/
This site by the Family Education Network provides free educational games and quizzes in math, grammar, science, spelling, and history. It also provides excellent resources for teachers and parents.