Teacher Helpers

ABC Teach offers over 5000 free printable worksheets for kids Pre-K to 8th grade. I found festive Halloween Bookmarks that you can print, complete with name and date. Why do it yourself when someone else has gone through the hassle for you? You can also become a member for $35.00 a year and have access to over 12,000 worksheets.

I Love That Teaching Idea is an excellent site for submitting your innovative teaching ideas or learning from others. Designed for grades K through 6, it was founded by 2 elementary school teachers in 1998. Wanting to share the work they did with children, they also wanted to allow those teachers with creative concepts to do the same. Their sister site Teaching eBooks offers such clever ideas as "Helpful Teaching Extras! Volume 1: Awards, Motivators and More!" and "Little Books For Little Hands -25 Mini-Books That Encourage Simple Writing and Illustration!" eBooks. Titles are less than $10.00 and easily downloadable.

Puzzles in Education - To improve your class's brainpower, Puzzles In Education features brainteasers, logic problems, and interactive jigsaws on many levels, with new ones offered every day. Many of them can be downloaded as handouts or chosen as individual projects for slower students who can use extra tutoring. I must warn you that it is easy to get carried away by this site that has plenty of puzzles for adults, too.

Sites for Teachers - If you haven't found it in the list of sites above, then Sites for Teachers features hundreds of other sites with pre-written lesson plans, worksheets, clip art, and activities for reading, math, science, social studies, and much more. The best part is that they are rated by popularity so you can sift through the sites more easily.

Live Search Club - Finally, here's an interesting spin on student motivation. The Live Search Club has games for older students whose basic skills may not be up to par. Playing matching and spelling games or crossword puzzles comes with a bonus. They learn how to successfully search while playing. In addition, each game awards points that can be traded for such prizes as free music downloads, computer accessories, ringtones, and t-shirts. Although the best prizes can take up to 20,000 tickets, it will take a lot of patience and learning to earn a Zune or an Xbox 360, but undoubtedly worth the effort for the pupil.