We have compiled a list of resources that students can use outside of school to build skills and knowledge.
Build Typing Skills
More typing games with leveled lessons
Type your way through classic-looking games like Pac Man and Tetris!
Build Vocabulary
Learn about and practice roots.
Learn about and practice prefixes and suffixes.
Practice your prefixes and suffixes even more here.
Click around on this site for a variety of vocabulary lists and activities.
Try crosswords and other activities to build academic vocabulary.
Word searches, word scrambles, and a myriad other word games help build vocabulary
Reading Challenges and Adventures
Check out "Four Stories". Play around. See what you think.
Reading Test Prep -> If you like that sort of thing.
Go "into the book" on different adventures that challenge your reading.
Lounge over at PBS Kids Island and watch some fun reading videos.
Different reading games to help you improve vocabulary, spelling, and other skills.
Listen to stories and answer questions to see how strong your comprehension is.
Write More (For Fun)
Explore your hidden writing talent at Protagonize.
Write a "five-card Flickr story" using photos from Flickr.
Write interactive / choose-your-own-adventure tales at Inklewriter.
Create your own tale with pictures on this site.
Or create a "story plant" tale at the BBC.
182 Questions to Write or Talk About at the Learning Network Blog (Teaching and Learning @ the NY Times)
163 Questions to Write or Talk About at the Learning Network Blog (Teaching and Learning @ the NY Times)
150 Questions to Write or Talk About at the Learning Network Blog (Teaching and Learning @ the NY Times)
Get Help With Serious Writing Projects
Build academic writing skills with these activities.
Learn more about and get help with narratives, informational pieces, and arguments here.
Time for Kids also offers lots of help for your writing assignments.
Get help from real authors and students who can guide you through your writing.
Get Better at Spelling
Work on your spelling with easy and challenging games.
Combine, unscramble, or move letters to make new words or reveal secret ones.
Lots of spelling and grammar games of varying levels.
Recommended for ESL/ELL students, play simple spelling and vocabulary games.
Use Better Grammar
Holy games, Batman! Over fifty games that WILL improve your grammar.
Learn about the parts of speech (nouns, verbs, etc...)
Write better, more sophisticated sentences.
Try the "grammar wizard" at Time for Kids.
Help Grammarman save the city of Verbo from bad grammar.
Spend some time in the Grammar Arcade.
The Virtual Grammar Lab has games and activities for... everything.
Get better at using apostrophes.
Challenge your punctuation, vocabulary, and other grammar skills.
Review -- or learn -- basic grammar to help improve your writing.
Feed fish nouns, smash verb-carrying robots, or help a fairy capitalize sentences.
Shoot the basketball to identify different types of nouns.
Grammar fun in English and Spanish by Scholastic.
Grammar exercises specific to topic and grade level
Challenge Your Brain \ Sharpen Your Thinking
Sudoku! More than just numbers, challenge your logic by putting the correct numbers in their spaces
Improve Your Handwriting
Start here, at this site from the BBC.
Learn History
Go on a mission during the American Revolution in these role-playing games.
Go west across America with Lewis and Clark in 1804.
Fun games to learn more about U.S. presidents.
Some games to practice knowledge about women in U.S. history
Be a history explorer or detective, using clues to help reveal some historical culprits.
Know Your Geography
Memorize Your Multiplication Tables