The internet is a vast sea of information. It is vital that students know how to find the information they need in a timely manner. They also need to know how to discern between good information and bad information. Once they information is found, students must know how to paraphrase and cite the resources they are referencing.
Copyright and Fair Use Laws - Vital information for teachers and students before starting a research project
Google Advanced Search - Did you know that you can specify a search by reading level? You could also search for a particular file type. There are many search options in Google Advanced Search.
Creative Commons - Content that is not fully copyrighted and is okay to use in projects, etc...
Discovery Education - DE has tons of great photographs that students can use in their projects. This is an often overlooked resource for projects.
Encyclopedia Britannica - Great site to use for research.
Qwiki - Very cool visual wiki that gives a quick summary of any topic you can think of
Pics 4 Learning - Great site to find images
Free Clip Art for Kids - Cartoony images By Philip Martin.
Animoto - Make incredible video slideshows set to music. Very easy and quick to do.
PhotoStory - This program is installed on all computers in CMS. Great for digital storytelling. Allows you to narrate your slide shows. This link will take you to a tutorial on how to create a photostory. Here is a video tutorial as well.
Jamendo - Need music for your PhotoStory? Jamendo has royalty free music galore! You probably have never heard of any of the artists, but most of it is pretty good.
UJAM - Create your own songs with UJAM!
Online Stories
StoryJumper - This is my personal favorite for creating an online picture book.
Storybird - Another wonderful site for creating stories. Not as much freedom as you find on StoryJumper, however the artwork in Storybird is amazing.
My Storymaker - A fun story creating website with animated characters. The cool thing about this one is that the stories practically write themselves.
Kerpoof - One of my favorite sites of all time. Create stories, pictures, or even cartoons! You have to use Kerpoof in your classroom.
Poetry4Kids - Poetry4Kids is an amazing website dedicated to children's poetry. One of my favorite things about the site is the rhyming dictionary. An invaluable resource for writing poetry.
Scholastic Story Starters - Fun website for helping kids come up with story ideas.