Futility Closet - An entertaining collection of educational related curiosities

Futility Closet is an entertaining website that shares strange and curious stories from history, language, literature, math, science, art, philosophy and more. You can read stories about amazing coincidences, unusual occurrences or try to solve challenging puzzles. The site has over 6800 entries and is growing daily. You can browse by one of their 19 topics, use the search bar or click the "random" button and see what "curiosity" appears. While Futility Closet's posts will appeal to anyone, teachers should be able to find material that they can incorporate into their lessons to make them more interesting. Once you begin reading the material on Futility Closet, you will likely find yourself returning over  and over again.

9 sources of news for kids that you may not know about

Newspapers have always been an excellent educational resource for teachers. Now with the Common Core's focus on reading non-fiction material, they are more valuable than ever. Many of the classrooms that I have visited have been using either Time for Kids or CNN Students News and with good reason as both are terrific resources. Below are nine additional websites to consider when incorporating news into the classroom.

Newsela
Newsela is an awesome site that I previously shared and it helps students develop close reading and critical thinking skills by offering current event articles with varying levels of text complexity. Lexile levels of an article range from 2nd grade up to 12th grade which allows for differentiation within the same classroom. The articles are categorized by war/peace, science, kids, money, law, health and arts. Many of the articles are accompanied by quizzes that provide quick feedback. Newsela is currently in beta and is free for all teachers.

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Science News for Students
Science News for Students features a collection of science related stories. Each week several new stories are added to the site. The stories come from a wide range of science disciplines as well as math and technology.

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DOGO News

Dogo News is a current events website designed for kids and teachers. For kids, the stories are interesting and written at appropriate level. For teachers, each article is identified for grade level and Common Core Standards and is accompanied by key vocabulary. An added feature is that each story is tagged for its geographical location which can be located on the site's "map" tab.

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Tween Tribune
Tween Tribune  posts age appropriate news stories found on the internet for students grades K-12. The stories are sorted by age group and there is spanish section as well. At the end of each story, students can respond by leaving comments or take a quiz.

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National Geographic News for Kids
One of the great features on National Geographic's Kid webpage is their news story section. Their stories range from science, people, animals, and even history. Each story is accompanied by additional resources related to the story which can be found to the right of the article.

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Our Little Earth
Our Little Earth is a free digital newspaper for kids that is published every two weeks. The news stories come from all over the world and are age appropriate for most learners. They do have "extra" activities that accompany each addition which do cost money. Their policy is "pay us what you want" and you get a one year subscription to their "extra" activities.

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Teaching Kids News
Teaching Kids News looks like a real newspaper and it read like one as well. The website shares stories from the areas of news, entertainment, sports, science, arts, and politics. Their content contains media literacy activities and is targeted to learners grades 2 - 8.

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Discovery News
Discovery News has a huge collection of stories gathered from a variety of sources. The topics range from science and tech to animals, history, and adventure. Each story ends with an area that allows students to react to what they have read. Stories can be search by category or by using the site's search bar.

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The Why Files
The Why Files is a website that I have shared earlier which helps students understand science through current events or maybe it helps kids understand current events through science. Each story explores is explored from a science perspective and includes pictures, diagrams, and charts to help students understand the topic. In addition to news, the site contains a classroom activities pages with discussion questions and quizzes from stories found on the web page. There is also an interactive section where students can learn about science based concepts through games and activities. Due to its focus on current events, the Why Files is just as useful to social studies teachers who may want to use it for current events and infuse some cross curricular science content.

Clik/Hear - A Compelling Multimedia Showcase

Clik/Hear is a multimedia web page from the Palm Beach Post that features compelling stories, stunning images, and amazing videos from around the world. Their extensive collection has six categories; South/Florida, World/Nation, Sports, Lifestyle, Video, and Pictures of the Week. Just browsing through this last category (pictures of the week) can take up a lot of your time due to the sheer volume of photographs on display. If you are a fan of incredible photography, thought provoking stories, and remarkable videos, then take a look at Clik/Hear and be prepared to spend a lot of time browsing around.

Cool Web Finds

As the teachers in my building can attest, I have been regularly sharing many of the websites that I have recently discovered. In order to simplify matters for anyone who has enjoyed the sites I have shared, I have decided to start using this blog as the new and permanent way to share my discoveries. So without further delay, here is my latest edition of "cool web finds."

We have all had moments where we feel down on humanity or even worse, down on ourselves. Reading the stories at Helpingothers.org will help restore your faith in humanity and perhaps inspire you to "pay it forward."

If you are looking for a website to make you smile go to Waveatthebus and see a real life dad wave goodbye to his son's bus while wearing a different costume each day. 

At Retronaut you can view  memories, pictures, advertisements, and videos from your life or even your grandparents childhood. This site is a great place to reminisce and social studies teachers could  certainly use this site in their instruction at some point.

Speaking of memories, Moment.Me is a place where people can share their pictures and videos from weddings, parties, concerts, or other special days. 

At a site called tackk, users can make amazing online posters using pictures, text and video. Check out their samples page to see some of the possibilities. This site could be used for invitations, advertisements, or school projects.

Finally, I am a sucker for strange and unusual gifts. With the holidays just around the corner why not check out Greenhead. This is a site that offers the latest in unusual gift possibilities with items for just about any taste.