A Review of Web Activities for Young Children

As I reviewed all of the links provided to the class, I realized the broad range in quality of the activities available to young children. Some of the sites were rich in activities related to content learned in school, while others had fun games that did not challenge children to learn as they played.

I first reviewed the "Teach-nology" Web site. This site contained lesson plans and resources for teachers that I might possibly use in the future to spark an idea about how to teach a particular topic in a new way. I think that the lesson plans and worksheets could also be a helpful resource to parents who would like to work with their children on review and enrichment activities during the summer months. The Web site is geared toward helping adults teach children concepts, rather than toward guiding children to find information or learn independently on the web. The few games listed on the site were very simple and did not teach meaningful content. The best of the games was a Mad Lib game, but the game did not prompt the player to vary verb tenses. Because of this, the stories that I created did not make sense.

I also explored the PBS for Kids Web site called "Between the Lions." This site had a number of activities that would be appropriate for young children. Although the concepts and skills practiced were far too young for my fifth grade students, the activities were ideal for students up to first or second grade. There were a few features about this site that I thought would really benefit young readers or younger English language learners. The first is the section in which a child can choose a story to be read aloud. As the story is read by the computer, the child can read along with the highlighted text to guide him or her. I also thought that a game called Synonym Sam's Lab was a fun way for children to identify synonyms and to compare the meanings of various words. There is also a game called "Word Play" which could be used to help English language learners understand the meaning of verbs.

The third site that I visited was called "Fun Brain." Although this site was not as rich as the PBS site above, "Fun Brain" contained some activities that I did not find on the other sites. Firstly, children could read the online version of the novel Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. This book has been extremely popular with my students. Now they are devouring the sequel. I like the idea that the online version of the text is free, making it accessible to anyone with Internet access (at home, school, or the public library). I will share that information with my students! I also liked the Math Baseball game on this site. The game allowed the player to choose the level and the types of operations which he or she would like to practice. You can even choose to complete the problems in an algebraic format. The higher level problems were challenging and would definitely sharpen my students' basic skills.

To summarize, "Between the Lions" was my favorite site for younger children, but I would not be able to use it with my current class. "Fun Brain" had some exciting features for students my age, but did not have as much content as "Between the Lions". I would rate "Teach-nology" well for its usefulness to teachers and parents but not as a site for children.

Here is a link to a resource that I like:

www.kids.gov