World Almanac for Kids Review

 

My district has a subscription to The World Almanac for Kids and I have been wanting to see if it is something I could use in my classroom with my first graders.

Here are some of the features on the site that I liked..

- I think the Homepage is easy to navigate and I really like the "Today's Video" feature. When I have a few minutes to spare in the classroom, I think this feature would be fun to share with my students. I also like the "Did You Know?" feature as well even though you can keep clicking to get more quick facts. Both of these features would be great to add to a morning meeting or end of the day closing.

- Another feature that I would use in the same way as the two mentioned above, is the "Featured Fun Fact." I love quick facts like this that are not always connected to our learning but are still fun to discuss and explore. 

- The search bar is helpful when you have a certain topic in mind. I did find that the topics can seem endless and having a more narrowed topic in mind is helpful. I also like that the site breaks down the resources by type.

- There is a read to me feature which is very helpful for some students. However, I found that the text seems more advanced than some of my first graders and the reading level does not appear to be able to be adjusted.

- This may be my favorite feature on the site. The user can search by state, standards, and grade level to find the resources available after narrowing the search by topic. 

- After using the standards for my state and grade level, I chose to view the resources that align with first grade standards of the solar system. Again, I think World Almanac for Kids is very kid-friendly in how it is laid out for it's users.