Friday Five - Choice Reading Online Activities

Friday Five  is focused on promoting reading (off and online)

In honor of the book fair which went on all week at our school and 
Banned Books Week
Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 27–October 4, 2008

or Blocked Bytes Week (a suggestion from Doug Johnson
who believes that we need the freedom to read more than just books)
http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/9/23/blocked-bytes-week.html

Here is this weeks Friday Five
(perhaps you can use some of these as choice reading activities)

Reading On Line

1. http://storylineonline.net/

The Screen Actors Guild Foundation Reads Stories Aloud to Children. Include videos and related activities and downloadable activities guide.  Great listening centers.

2. http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/fiction-nonfiction/play.htm?f

A list of online fiction and nonfiction books with pictures for younger readers to read online.  Starfall is full of reading resources targeted for early readers.

3. http://www.roythezebra.com/

Roy the Zebra.com  includes guided reading stories,  whiteboard reading activity lessons  and more. The site is home to a package of interactive games, stories and resources that have been developed to help emerging readers learn to read It's one of the most comprehensive
interactive literacy resources on the net that is freely accessible...

4. http://www.biguniverse.com/

Big Universe(R) is a web community devoted to beautiful children's picture books. READ hundreds of offerings from today's best children's book publishers, CREATE e-books with the help of an easy-to-use Author Tool, and CONNECT with other Big Universe members to share your creations and to learn what books they have read, created, or recommend. Parents, teachers, kids, authors, and others can share and learn while they enjoy this educational and entertaining website.

5.  Books in the Public Domain (print and audio)

http://www.gutenberg.org/
Project Gutenberg is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks. (i.e. Huckleberry Finn, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes… and many many many more.) Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.

There are several sites that offer audio versions of these books:
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Audio_Books_Project

Bonus: http://free-reading.net/
And open source reading curriculum (with resources for grades k-3)