TOS Crew Review: Lesson Planet

Lesson Planet is a paid search engine for teachers. It puts 150,000 lesson plans and 75,000 worksheets at the click of a mouse. Here is a video description of this website.



Using the search engine, I was able to find lesson plans and worksheets for our current topic of study.  There were many different websites suggest from textbook companies to school districts. Lesson plans also came from State council of art, among many other resources. I had 66 choices for my topic: Great Depression. There were also 15 pages of worksheets.  I had already narrowed my choice to ratings of 3+ stars and for grades 3 to 5.

Because I teach nutrition classes to adults, I decided to try to find out what I could find for that. There was 3 pages of links for grades 9 to adult. I found several worksheets that I thought would be helpful such as worksheets on proteins, carbohydrates, and liquid sugar (soda). I also found over 70 worksheets on the food guide pyramid and over 1000 lesson plans.

I really appreciate the ease of use of the website.  You can narrow your search as well as see previous searches right on the page you are on.  My only complaint, and it is really minor, is I wish the pages I went to from this website would open in another window or tab. Sometimes you surf around a site of lesson plans and then decide it does not have what you want and then you have to find your way back to your search result. I know this is easily remedied by right clicking and telling it to "open in another tab."  The other thing is that the content of the lesson plans are from secular sources.  You would expect this, but I thought I would mention it anyway.

Overall I think this site is very useful. I was able to find lots of resources for the topics I am studying. Cost per year is $39.95 a year, which is cheaper then another I looked at in the past. You can also try it out for your self with their free trial.  Just check out their website below:

http://www.lessonplanet.com/

lesson plans

worksheets

TOS Crew Review: abcteach

"At abcteach, we make your teaching preparation faster and easier by providing access to over 35,000 pages of printable worksheets and activities, to abctools, our exclusive custom document generators, and more!"

http://www.abcteach.com/

For this review, I was given a free month membership abcteach's member site.  abcteach has a non-member site with thousands of free worksheets. They also offer a membership site, which is quoted above, which has over 35,000 worksheets and growing. What makes abcteach membership superior, in my opinion, to the non-member site, is the ability to custom make worksheets.  I had fun making my own sudoku puzzles, addition fact worksheets, telling time worksheets, word scrambles and more.

All grade levels are represented by abcteach, but I did see more worksheets for the lower grades. The subject areas span all regular school subjects, including art and music. You can find topics with the search engine or from the subject index.  Other topics of interest include clip art, languages, including sign language, Montessori materials, puzzles, games, physical eduction, holidays/seasons, thematic units, homeschool resources, and more.

The worksheets are in pdf format that you can print off or save on your computer. They are very clear and easy to read.  They also come with an answer key that you can use if necessary. I did find an error once on a worksheet, but overall they seem very accurate.

One area that have used the most so far is the spelling section.  They have upper elementary / junior high level most common misspelled word lists.  They encompass word searches and other activities to help learn the most common misspelled words.  We have had fun with these.

This is not a Christian website, but I did see some Christian themed items such as crosses, manger scenes, and angels. They did have some Chronicles of Narnia worksheets and study guides, but I am not familiar with that book to be able to review the pages. One study guide for Prince Caspian had 19 pages with comprehension questions for each chapter. You will find evolutionary content in some worksheets, but those are easily skipped.

While this is a fun site, don't get carried away with worksheets.  These are a great tool to supplement your homeschool, but can easily become a snare. Just don't get carried away with them.

In the past, Homeschool Buyer's Co-op has offered a group buy with a 50% discount. You might want to check it out.

To learn more about abcteach or to access their free pages - CLICK HERE.
http://www.abcteach.com/