Creator: National Geographic | visit site
Grade Range: - 6
National Geographic offers this kid-centric site as a companion to National Geographic Kids magazines and Little Kids magazines. The focus is on information about animals, geography, and the natural world presented in a fun and engaging format. Use this busy interactive site for free, register to gain access to more content. Buttons on the home page lead to short videos, images, stories, polls, news bites, games, and activities. The site includes heavy advertising for the magazine subscriptions. A search box at the top right allows for exploration of the extensive content. Students may submit photos or comments to the "My Shot" picture gallery all of which are selected to be posted by site administrators.
In the Classroom
This site is perfect for interactive whiteboards or projectors. Display the site on your whiteboard to use as a learning center for students. Select videos for lesson introductions for flipped or blended learning activities. For language arts, practice finding the main idea or summarizing stories using these interesting informational texts. ESL/ELL learners can also find accessible news stories here. Choose words from stories to include with weekly spelling tests or as vocabulary builders. Assign different stories to groups of students to summarize and present to the class. Enhance learning by challenging cooperative learning groups to create videos about any article on the site. Upload images (use Creative Commons or other copyright-safe pictures) and use moovly, <a href="/single.cfm?id=16063">reviewed here</a>, for this project. Then share the videos on a site such as TeacherTube, <a href="/single.cfm?id=9419">reviewed here</a>. Use the site for learning games that will appeal more to younger students. Preview all video since some feature animals hunting which may upset some students.
At Home
Find an engaging site to explore animals and geography with your son or daughter. View videos and read stories and discuss together. Enjoy playing the many online entertaining games and activities, especially for younger students. A few videos feature animals hunting which may upset some children.
Tags
reading comprehension, animals, countries, environment, plants, endangered species,
Subjects
Biology/Life Science, Current Events, Earth Science/Geology, ESL/ELL, Geography (US/World), Science, Special Education,