In 2015, students were asked to present a site and write up a short blurb about it. Here we go!
Toon Books: www.toon-books.com/toon-readers.html
This is a hompage with a tool for one of the most interesting lines of children’s literature being published right now. The concept is rather simple. These are easy readers, written with a limited vocabulary, in a comic book format, complete with panels and word balloons.
The Books are class divided into levels from 1 to 3 (grades K1 to 3+). This entirely free resource for online toon books in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. There are also interesting advices how to read comics with kids.
LearnEnglishKids: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch
This webpage gives the opportunity to read, watch, listen, sing and play with a story. You can choose a story and watch it while you are listening. Also, while the story has subtitles you can read it. Another good thing about this page is that the pronunciation of the reader is good and you can understand easy.
Apart from this, you instead of read every books, there are some stories that are with a song, so you can listen to it and sing it too. Also, you have subtitles that can help you.
Another interesting point of the page and the stories is that there are games. After reading a story there is a game to match some words with pictures, so you can learn and improve vocabulary. In addition, there are some question about the story and the topic. Finally, there are some tongue twisters that can help children improving and learning more English while they play and have fun.
Mighty Book: http://www.mightybook.com/
On this website you can find a collection of jokes, stories, poems and songs. There are also teaching ideas presented, which could be adapted for the EFL-classroom. I specially appreciate the animated chants providing subtitles. They help the pupils to understand the content of the song and to sing along. Furthermore there are nice stories which are built around word families and phonemic awareness.
Myths and Legends: http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/
This website animates the children to deal with some myths and legends, as the appearing story is read by a speaker (so the children could enhance their listening skills or their reading skills by following the reader) and is even visually embedded, which is quite motivating due to the funny videos.
Storyline Online: http://www.storylineonline.net
This website is fantastic for children and adults to listen to stories told by professional actors. The stories are supported by music and the pictures within the books (sometimes even animated). The children can also read along the subtitles. At the bottom of the page activity guides are given to some picture books. These are very helpful for planning English lessons.
Magic Keys: http://www.magickeys.com/books/
At the beginning, I had some trouble to find an useful story website for older children, most of the pages I found were beautifully and carefully made but more suitable for pre-reading than reading.
But then I discovered the site www.magickeys.com and was satisfied. There are different short stories for reader all ages and all stories are illustrated with beautiful hand-drawings. My favorite story is about the monkey Sari. The level of this story would fit for 5th or 6th graders.
There is also a story for Halloween on this site, which is the topic in our class today!
As original book with hand drawn pictures are usually very expensive, I appreciate free websites like magickeys.com a lot and will definitely use it in my classes.
Tumblebooks: http://asp.tumblebooks.com/
Even though you have to subscribe to have access to all the books, there are also many are for free. I think that it is a wonderful page because many of the books are read by children. This would increase the motivation of the pupils. There are also books on various themes and if you are willing to sneak through it, you will surely find one that fsuits your class. Furthermore there are also some activities that go along with the books.
Toon Books: www.toon-books.com/toon-readers.html
This is a hompage with a tool for one of the most interesting lines of children’s literature being published right now. The concept is rather simple. These are easy readers, written with a limited vocabulary, in a comic book format, complete with panels and word balloons.
The Books are class divided into levels from 1 to 3 (grades K1 to 3+). This entirely free resource for online toon books in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. There are also interesting advices how to read comics with kids.
LearnEnglishKids: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch
This webpage gives the opportunity to read, watch, listen, sing and play with a story. You can choose a story and watch it while you are listening. Also, while the story has subtitles you can read it. Another good thing about this page is that the pronunciation of the reader is good and you can understand easy.
Apart from this, you instead of read every books, there are some stories that are with a song, so you can listen to it and sing it too. Also, you have subtitles that can help you.
Another interesting point of the page and the stories is that there are games. After reading a story there is a game to match some words with pictures, so you can learn and improve vocabulary. In addition, there are some question about the story and the topic. Finally, there are some tongue twisters that can help children improving and learning more English while they play and have fun.
Mighty Book: http://www.mightybook.com/
On this website you can find a collection of jokes, stories, poems and songs. There are also teaching ideas presented, which could be adapted for the EFL-classroom. I specially appreciate the animated chants providing subtitles. They help the pupils to understand the content of the song and to sing along. Furthermore there are nice stories which are built around word families and phonemic awareness.
Myths and Legends: http://myths.e2bn.org/teachers/
This website animates the children to deal with some myths and legends, as the appearing story is read by a speaker (so the children could enhance their listening skills or their reading skills by following the reader) and is even visually embedded, which is quite motivating due to the funny videos.
Storyline Online: http://www.storylineonline.net
This website is fantastic for children and adults to listen to stories told by professional actors. The stories are supported by music and the pictures within the books (sometimes even animated). The children can also read along the subtitles. At the bottom of the page activity guides are given to some picture books. These are very helpful for planning English lessons.
Magic Keys: http://www.magickeys.com/books/
At the beginning, I had some trouble to find an useful story website for older children, most of the pages I found were beautifully and carefully made but more suitable for pre-reading than reading.
But then I discovered the site www.magickeys.com and was satisfied. There are different short stories for reader all ages and all stories are illustrated with beautiful hand-drawings. My favorite story is about the monkey Sari. The level of this story would fit for 5th or 6th graders.
There is also a story for Halloween on this site, which is the topic in our class today!
As original book with hand drawn pictures are usually very expensive, I appreciate free websites like magickeys.com a lot and will definitely use it in my classes.
Tumblebooks: http://asp.tumblebooks.com/
Even though you have to subscribe to have access to all the books, there are also many are for free. I think that it is a wonderful page because many of the books are read by children. This would increase the motivation of the pupils. There are also books on various themes and if you are willing to sneak through it, you will surely find one that fsuits your class. Furthermore there are also some activities that go along with the books.