ThePioneerPage: World Book Web (Part 1)

One of the resources that the School District provides for us is World Book Web. When I was younger, World Book was encyclopedias. We don’t use encyclopedia much anymore, but there are a LOT of fun things at World Book Web.

First, how to get to World Book Web. Start at the Polk County Public Schools page, then go to Students and then Online Resources. If you scroll down to Reference and Research, the first thing icon is World Book Web.

If it ever asks for a username or password, it’s readmore with no spaces and no capitals.

Once it opens, there are so many choices. There are so many things here that are fun and interesting. There are so many that it will take more than one post here to talk about all of them. Today, we’re going to learn about Early Learning and The Activity Center.

First is Early Learning. This is useful for our smallest students. It is broken down into four different sections.

Let’s start with Videos. The items are in categories, from Creepy Crawlies to My Body to Dinosaurs to Wild Animals. There are tiny short videos that define words and show an example of the item. It’s great for building vocabulary.

Under Games, there are four different kinds of games. There are Tracing Games, to help students learn to write and spell words. There are Matching Games, in many categories to help students notice details. The pictures are a little different, as the animals or creatures may be in different positions. There may be a bird flying and a bird sitting on a branch, but it’s the same bird. There are Concentration Games where student flip over two cards and try to make matches. There are 20 different categories. Last, there are True and False Games. Students are given a fact and they must guess if it’s true or false. After they guess, there is a small explanation.

In the Stories section, World Book uses the same categories used in Videos, but there are small little stories. The stories can be read aloud to students, or by clicking the speaker icon, students read the book themselves.

Under Activities, student can color online. They can also draw their own picture and download it. There are also many, many categories of pictures to color. It’s great for those fine motor skills. The paintbrush lets students choose the color, the stamp puts selected pictures in the drawing and the camera downloads the finished picture.

The Activity Center is one of my favorite parts of World Book Web. The Activity Center is FULL of fun, fun things to do. In this time when we are all staying home, there are some things here that will help pass the time.

This database is very searchable. It can be searched by age, so no one tries something too hard. It can be searched by Activity type: Beads. Construction, Paper, Science, Sculpture, even making wreaths!

We can search by how long the activity will take or the cost of the materials that are necessary to complete the activity. One of my favorite activities is the Paper Lantern. It’s simple, takes only paper, scissors, some tape and a ruler, and is beautiful.