Two More to Add to Your Favourites
Curiouscanuck and Ask Jeeves for Kids are fun and informative.

By Denys Gigučre

http://curiouscanuck.iscapenetwork.com
Robert Smolenaars, an elementary teacher from Burlington, developed this gem of a web site that you’ll want to add to your Favourites for sure. Curiouscanuck is a web site for Grades 1 to 8 students that draws you in from the first click of the mouse and challenges students’ minds and abilities at every turn. One of the many features that make it amazing is its suitability and interest for kids of all age groups — the activities, resources and graphics go from fun and entertaining for the earlier grades to clearly more advanced and sophisticated for the later grades
When I visited the site at the end of September, for example, the On This Day feature for Grades 1 to 5 told students about the gambling scandal sur-rounding the defeat of Chicago White Sox in the 1920 World Series. On This Day for Grades 6, 7 and 8 commemorated the judgement by the Supreme Court of Canada to grant then-Prime Minister Trudeau the right to request the patriation of the Constitution without provincial consent. It also highlighted a number of historical facts, like the Upper Canada legislature decree in 1793 that all slave children born in Canada after this date would become free at age 25.
The site suggests resources and activities in language, social studies, the arts, math, health and physical education and science. If you have students who like to challenge you for fun, don’t tell them about the Problem of the Day brain-boosting problems — they may get too much of a kick out of them.

www.ajkids.com
Here’s another Favourite. A companion site to the regular Ask Jeeves web site, this one focuses specifically on kids’ questions. It’s fun and educational and provides a good start for school projects 
of every kind.
All kids have to do is key in a question and follow the links to the answers. I found that the vast majority of resources the site links to are very suitable for children and give them a range of options depending on the level of details they want.
The site has useful quick links to sections well worth a visit like Study Tools, Net Mom Picks and Art Tour. Key in Who Invented? and you’ll get to an excellent section touching on topics ranging from leukaemia-fighting drugs to television, kevlar, the microscope and a host of other interesting subjects.
The ability to peek at what kids are asking right now is another neat feature. It allows you to see what kids are asking and follow the links they are given to answer their questions.
Give the site a try, it’s a great start for any Internet search.


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