Welcome to another new school year!

I have been busy this summer and have added some goodies to my blog.  I taught a group of local teachers how to create their own virtual field trips and where to find some great ones.  Through this class, we compiled a huge list of teacher chosen virtual field trips for K-12!  Check out this page at the top of my blog that says Cyber Camp Virtual Field Trip list.  They are separated into grade levels and subjects.  Please use this and pass it on.  Let the others in the teaching profession pass on some goodies to you:)

You will also see another page at the top of my blog's homepage that says "Teacher and Student Favorite Websites".  I took a class earlier this summer and found a lot of my old favorites and some GREAT new ones!  I added a list of great sites, that are not necessarily field trips.  They are just great sites to teach with.  I use this site as a jumping off point for my students and invite you to do the same. 

If you ever find a super site for teachers or students and want to add it to my page, just message me or post a comment and I will add it in.

Thanks to all of the followers that have joined my blog and to those of you that are just stopping in:)

Leanne

Go on vacation without leaving home.

There are a lot of cool places that I would like to go to this summer, but I just don't have the time. Instead, I decided to make a list of them here so that I can visit them whenever I want. I hope you enjoy them too! Happy Summer!!
This picture is of my 3 children right after we got done riding the Channel Cat. It is a water taxi that takes you to several places around the Quad Cities while on the Mississippi River.

The Willis Tower(The old Sears Tower) in Chicago. This one may make you a little dizzy.

The St. Louis Arch, this one may make you dizzy too.

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is an awesome tour!! It does take a while to load, but it is worth it.

I have been to The Statue of Liberty before, but it is nice to go back again and again!

This is a quick glimpse at The Seawall in Galveston, Texas. Sit back and watch the waves come in!

Virtual Field Trips for NCTE

Here are a list of authors and poet sites that would be great to let students tour...

Edgar Allen Poe

William Shakespeare

More Shakespeare

J.K. Rowling

Mark Twain

Charles Dickens

Collection Sites...

Green K-12

Learning Things

Area Vibes

Find a Grave

Scholastic

New York Times

Tech Trekers

Lesson Planet

Weather Wonderful Sites!

Here are a bunch of cool sites that let you be the meteorologist, help you learn the ropes or simply show you pictures of the different weather words.

This site is full of tons of weather information. Look around to see the pictures and descriptions of all the weather terms.
http://www.weatherwizkids.com/

KidStorm has all that you would want to know about tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning and more!
http://skydiary.com/kids/

On this site, you get to feel like you are staring up at a tornado! You have to have JAVA in order to view it. Hold on and don't get dizzy!
http://www.jaydax.co.uk/showcase/tunnel/tornado/tornado.html

Change the size and speed of a twister and see the damage it does. When it is over, try to guess what it would rank on the Fujita scale!

http://whyfiles.org/013tornado/3.html

Cloud Clues lets you take a little tour of clouds with descriptions and pictures. When you are done, see how you do on the quiz!
http://www.northcanton.sparcc.org/~elem/interactivities/clouds/cloudsread.html

Take a trip to visit a president!

This list of sites will focus on presidents of the United States. There are tons of great tours out there. These are good for elementary levels but could be used with older kids too.

This Scholastic site is full of links to take you to anything that has to do with Abraham Lincoln. Don't miss the ones at the bottom with links to his most famous speeches.

http://teacher.scholastic.com/fieldtrp/socstu/lincoln.htm

Here is the White House site that shows information on all the Presidents.

Secrets about the Presidents!


*** Classroom help for Presidents*** Mrs. Hinton's RTI Group, click here:)


This site has a VERY detailed timeline for Lincoln. I would not expect the elementary grades to need all the info, but the big details and the attached pictures are GREAT for my kids!!

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/


Mount Vernon...I think I posted this in the Social Studies set of links, but it is a George Washington MUST SEE. Make sure to do the 360 degree tour from the 3rd floor.

http://www.mountvernon.org/virtual/index.cfm/ss/29/

If you have gone to the White House website lately, you know that it has changed during this past year. It has always had a great panoramic tour of most of the rooms. Now, those are gone and you get to see updates on videos and pod casts almost daily. I have taken you to the part of the site where you can go through all of the past presidents here.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/photogallery/the-presidents

This site from National Geographic is a SUPER site to get your kids behind the desk in the Oval Office. It takes them on a step by step tour and puts them in the position of making decisions.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/96/whitehouse/whhome.html

The Social Studies for Kids site has the most well known quotes from inaugural addresses.

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/presidentialinauguraladdresses.htm