The Internet is a goldmine for reading materials. Earlier this week I wrote a post highlighting 12 websites that provide great reading material for young learners. (https://www.schoolnet.org.za/2012/01/bring-technology-into-your-foundation.html). These sites could be very useful to link to with the new CAPS curriculum being implemented in South Africa for Grades 1 – 3 this year since there is a big emphasis on reading. 

In this post I list ANOTHER 12 sites that can be used to encourage reading in our young learners.

1. Pinky Dinky Doo podcasts

http://www.pinkydinkydoo.com/podcasts.html

This site is presented by Sesameworkshop. It consists of downloadable podcasts.

2. Nursery rhymes

http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/Foundation/nurseryrhymes/rhymes_set1.swf

3. Free kids books

http://freekidsbooks.org/

Here you will find loads and loads of PDFs to download.

4. Storytime for Me

http://storytimeforme.com/series

This site has plenty of free online stories anda large selection of talking kids stories. The only problem is that the site is overloaded with adverts, so watch where you click.

5. Mighty Books

http://www.mightybook.com/

This site provides plenty of animated storybooks and songs.

6. Steve Barracks Best Children’s Books

http://www.best-childrens-books.com/free-childrens-books.html

There is plenty of reading material available at this site.

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7. Little Squirts Books for free

http://www.kidsbooksfree.com/

These are books written and illustrated by Mark Griffin

8. Storynory books

http://storynory.com/

These are free audio stories for kids.

9. The International Children’s Digital Library

http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

The ICDL Foundation’s goal is to build a collection of books that represents outstanding historical and contemporary books from throughout the world.

10. Kids’ English Books.com

http://www.kidsenglishbooks.com/

This is a collection of free printable books with matching audio.

11. Light up your brain

http://lightupyourbrain.com/stories/

This is a selection of free audio stories for children.

12. We Read for Kids

http://www.weread.org/kids/index.php

Many of the links above are mentioned on this site. It is an incredible site that not only gives links to a number of places where you can find free children’s books, but also also provides a multitude of good reading tips for teaching reading to children…plus all sorts of information about reading.

Application for the classroom

This last site in particular is worth dipping into. It gives some great tips for reading sessions and also had a page of reading games that one can play to stimulate an interest in words.