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AltaVista Translations - This great Web page is also known as Babelfish. You may not need it right now, but it's a good one to remember, just in case. Say you're exploring the Web and your search engine turns up a resource that looks useful for your school report--at least it looks that way because of the pictures. If you could only understand the language the page is written in! But you don't speak German, or French, or Spanish, or Italian, or even Portuguese. Ask Babelfish. He speaks those languages, and if you give him a Web page address, he will do his best to return a translated page to you. This is fun to try--check it out. Remember, if your original search was using the AltaVista search engine there is a handy Translate button next to the appropriate foreign-language hit. It will automatically take you to Babelfish to perform the translation.
BBC - KS2 Revisewise - English - Can you solve the mystery of the missing jewelry? You'll have to read very carefully, then question the witnesses. Who is telling the truth and who is lying? Can you shed some light on the real thief? Other parts of this rollicking good fun site teach you how to write a great story, spell well, and more.
Bilingual Families Web Page - If you live in a family where more than one language is spoken, your kids are so lucky! They are growing up with an advantage many kids don't have. Other kids may have to study for years in order to approach your kids' knowledge of another language. This resource is for families who want to network with other multilingual families and share what works best for them. Some of the best suggestions are collected at this site, including links to everything from children's folk songs to language summer camps.
Braille: History, Use, and Current Research - Imagine if you could read words by the way they feel to your touch. That's one of the ways blind people read, by feeling the little bumps, which represent letters. This is Braille, and you can learn about it at this page. There are also sources for fonts, equipment, and even music in Braille.
Do We Really Know Dewey? - Librarians organize books based on a number of different classification systems. One of the most popular systems for U.S. schools and public libraries is called the Dewey Decimal System. It was created by Melvil Dewey, and you can find out about him and his classification scheme here. By the way--are you confused about the difference between fiction and nonfiction? Just say to yourself, "I can only say `No' once." Then write out these little reminders: NOnfiction = True and Fiction = NOt true. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest Junior competition.
Ethnologue, 13th Edition, 1996 - What languages do they speak in Croatia? Did you know that in Kenya, more than 60 languages are spoken, including Kenyan Sign Language? You can select any of the 228 countries on this page and then discover which languages are spoken there. Also find out how different languages are related, using the language family tree. The Inuit language, Aleut, is related to the Russian Siberian language, Yupik. Do you know why that could be?
Gamequarium - Need some help with your multiplication tables? At this site you can find games and activities that will help you learn and have fun too. There are links to games that will help you polish your skills in science, math, language arts, social studies, Spanish, and even games just to have fun.
Grammar and Style Notes - Are you a little shaky on the parts of speech? Can you tell a preposition from a present participle? The names may be strange, but you use these elements in everyday conversation. A preposition usually describes the object of the sentence and its location in time, space, or relationship to the rest of the sentence. For example, in the next sentence, the prepositions are capitalized: BEFORE the alarm rang, the cat was ON the table. A present participle just adds "-ing" to the rest of the verb: singing, sitting, walking. This resource teaches the parts of speech in a fun and easy way. You'll also learn about punctuation, building sentences and paragraphs, and yes--even spelling. Knowing the correct names for these grammatical terms becomes very important when you begin to learn another language. You'll want to know what the teacher means when talking about French subjunctives and superlatives!
Languages from the BBC - The British Broadcasting Corporation offers tutorials in French, Spanish, German, and Italian. Let's look at Italian. Pick Ice Cream Shop from among the many choices. Activity One is a Shockwave game where you drag the correct Italian phrase over its corresponding cartoon. See those kids waving? They are saying " Ciao ," or good-bye, I bet. Hey look, we got a green check mark, and now there is the sound of everyone cheering! Activity Two makes us listen to a Real Audio conversation about ice cream and drag the right words into the correct sentence gaps. This is fun! There are also English as a Second Language lessons for you to try.
Many Faces of Communication - Explore the world of communication, from the silence of body language to speaking, print, writing, advertising, TV, and of course, the Internet. There's even an ad jingle to promote the World Wide Web. This site was created by students for the ThinkQuest competition.
Parents and Children Together Online - Parents and Children Together Online. The ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication is dedicated to providing educational materials, services, and coursework to everyone interested in reading, English, writing, and the language arts. Let us guide you to the resources you need to help your children and students become effective learners.
Purdue Online Writing Lab: Writing Resources - Are those commas confusing? How about nouns, verbs, and adjectives--do they puzzle you? Are apostrophes getting you mixed up every time? And what's a preposition, anyway? Come to this writing lab to figure out how you should use all these things. Your reports, letters, and tests will look impressive! There are also many resources aimed at writers who want to be published authors.
SignWritingSite - Did you know that there is a sign language alphabet? You may be familiar with finger spelling alphabets, but this one is different. It's an alphabet for the motion of the hands and body as well as the facial expressions used in making the sign for a particular word. The result looks somewhat like hieroglyphics to someone seeing it for the first time! This type of notation has been around since the 1960s; the idea came from DanceWriting--a pictorial shorthand for writing down dance movements. Why not do the same type of thing for sign language movements? The results are here. Be sure to see if you can read "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and the other children's stories (look in the Library): all the words are in SignWriting.
Tower of English - The Tower is a fun, interactive online magazine for English students and teachers (or anyone else). Visit the Movie Theatre, Music Room, Debate Room, Library, Study Hall, and lots more.
Word Detective - This syndicated newspaper column has been running since 1953. William Morris started it, and now his son, Evan, does the honors. A short while after the columns run in newspapers, he posts them on this page. Morris answers readers' questions about the English language and its odd words and phrases, such as "busting chops," "lame duck," or "eyes peeled," and he does this cleverly, with wit and humor. He also has a sampling of The Word Detective , a newsletter that "aims for the large grey area between the Oxford English Dictionary and Monty Python."
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