St. Francis Xavier School
Private Catholic school serving Preschool (3 yr. old) through 8th grade
Online Encyclopedias & Databases:
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Vermont Online Library (Gale Databases)
Includes:
Database passwords can be accessed here if logged in to an SFX account.
Internet Search Sites
Google Modifier Tips--specific modifiers
Beyond Google--Internet Search Engines:
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Ask - ask your question in natural, everyday language.
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Bing vs. Google - no 2 search engines are exactly the same
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Duck Duck Go -no tracking--try it!
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Sweet Search - search engine specifically for elementary students
Directories--vetted information chosen by people, not computers
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DK Findout! - visually appealing information from DK Publishers
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Notable Children's Digital Media - selected by the American Library Association
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Virtual Middle School Library - maintained by a retired school librarian; no ads.
Meta-search engines (aggregators)--search the search engines:
Citation & Copyright Resources
CITATIONS:
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Citation Maker from OSLIS - On-line citation builder for all resource formats from the Oregon School Library Information System
COPYRIGHT:
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Fair Use Guidelines -- quick reference
Creative Common (CC) License - Kenneth D. Crews (formerly of Columbia University) and Dwayne K. Buttler (University of Louisville).
Geography
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Altapedia - Physical & Political Maps; Country Facts & Stats
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Bureau of Labor Statistics--Student Resources - Facts about the U.S. economy and jobs; games & quizzes.
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CIA World Factbook - information on 267 world entities.
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Geo Cube - Find out what geography is and geographers do.
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Historical Maps of the United States - From University of Texas @ Austin Library
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InfoPlease Altas - World Atlas and Map Library
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National Atlas Map Maker - From U.S. Department of Interior
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Nationmaster - one-stop resource for maps and graphs of country statistics
Coding & Maker Space Resources
BEANZ: The Magazine for Kids, Code & Computer Science
CODING: In order of difficulty
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Blockly - A Visual Programming Editor - Learn the basic logic of Computer Programming
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Scratch - program interactive stories, games & animations; created by the MIT Media Lab.
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Codecademy - "teaching the world how to code."
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Code.org - creators of the "Hour of Code."
MAKER SPACE resources:
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Instructables - a maker-space community
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Maker Camp - a community-built collection of project-based tutorials
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Exploratorium's Tinkering Studio - an online space for exploring science, art and technology
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Make Magazine -- dedicated to information about the creation of new devices and tinkering with old ones.
Tech Tools 'n Tricks
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Big Huge Labs - Create Your Own Trading Cards
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Bitly - Shorten Long URL Links
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Create a Graph - Templates for Creating Graphs
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Easy - Who Is? - Free Domain and DNS Look-up Service
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Keyboard Shortcuts - speed up your typing
Digital timeline creators:
Word Cloud creators:
Almanacs, Dictionaries & Thesauri
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One Look - A search engine of 100+ different dictionaries
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Word Central (Merriam Webster) - Elementary Grade Dictionary & Thesaurus
E-books (free resources)
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Amazon's Popular Classics - Children's "E" Books
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Google Books - Millions of books to preview or read for free.
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International Children's Digital Library - The best of children's literature in a multitude of languages.
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Listen Up Vermont - Downloadable print and audio from your public library.
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Project Gutenberg - over 50,000 free e-books to download or read online
Image & Photo, Audio, Video Banks
All-in-one:
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Creative Commons - Digital creativity shared—legally
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Wikimedia - public domain and freely-licensed educational content (image, sounds, video)
Image & Photo:
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Cybersleuth Kids Clip Art -- free clip art.
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Flickr - Photo Sharing Site
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Google Images - filter for Usage Rights under Search Tools.
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Morgue File - 1000s of images for free use.
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Photos for Class - photos licensed for school use
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Pics4Learning - free image library for educational purposes.
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Pixabay - 1000s of high-resolution, public domain images.
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Pexels - free stock photos shared by photographers.
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Tin-Eye - reverse image search - find where images appear online.
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Unsplash--Photos for Everyone
Audio:
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Free Music Archive - free, high-quality music in many genres.
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SoundGator - free, downloadable recordings of sound effect. Requires registration.
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Purple Planet Music--Quality, downloadable free music, genrefied.
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Bensound--Royalty-free music, genrefied in a simple format.
Video:
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Moving Image Archive - download or listen to copyright-cleared video.
Educational Games
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ABCYA - Educational Games by Grade Level
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Citation Game - Correctly Format MLA Citations
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Order in the Library - Shelving Game
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Seriously Amazing - Curiosity and Inquiry Sparked by the Smithsonian Institution
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Wonderoplis - Explore a Wonder of the Day
Readers' Advisory
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The Book Seer - Free Interactive Readers' Advisory
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Reading Rockets - Choose Books by Theme
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Book Trailers - Movies for Literacy - 300+ Video Book Reviews
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Winooski Memorial Library - Youth Services Page
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YA and Kids Books Central - A Social Network for People Who Love Books
Local Libraries
For a quick, engaging overview of the role of public libraries in the 21st century, watch this: Libraries in the Internet Age. Libraries in the Internet Age.
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St. Albans Free Library
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Listen Up Vermont - Downloadable print and audio from your public library