Internet Safety for Elementary Aged Kids

The Internet is powerful. It has almost anything someone would want to know, do, or see. As our children become more interested in and experienced with computers and using the Internet, we as adults need to help monitor their activity. Here are some tips and safety information for parents with Elementary aged children.

Computers can be a great resource for educational activities and learning. There are many sites for kids that have educational and leisurely games. It's difficult to find websites that are 100% kid friendly with no ads or possible links to other sites. Here a few trusted sites with tons of games and activities.



Crayola has a colorful website
Crayola Crayon Website-Games

If your child loves Arthur they have a great site as well
Arthur Games




PBS Kids has tons of games and printable activities for kids. Your child can pick from many different characters and visit their site to play games and explore much more.
PBS kids game site

PBS also has a site Kids Go! with more games for the next age level
Kids GO!





Here are some simple tips to help keep your kids safe online

• Becoming informed and comfortable about the Internet and the sites your child will be visiting will help you to know what they will be doing and how to use Internet protection and check their activity.
• Use the Internet browser safety settings to block certain material and inappropriate or explicit content.
• Place the computer in a family room or kitchen so you can supervise your child the whole time.
• Bookmark your kids' favorite sites for easy access.
• When your child is researching, sit with them. This way you can correctly spell words and phrases to help find the appropriate information or pictures.
• Create a shared e-mail account that your child and you can use for their online activity. Use this to sign up for games and check regularly to monitor any e-mails sent to them
• Check the computers browser history
• Never reveal personal information such as an address, phone number, or school name or location. The more information you give out the more likely it will be miss handled and seen more freely on the Internet.
• Use only a screen name when creating accounts.
• Never allow children to go into chat rooms and participate. This is the most common place for predators to pose as children. Never agree to meet anyone from a chat room in person.
• Never trade personal photographs in the mail or scanned photographs over the Internet.
• If you allow your child into a chat room even for a game, and they meet a new friend insist on being introduced and see their conversation.
• Take what your child says seriously if they mention about hearing or seeing something uncomfortable or inappropriate. Contact your local Law Enforcement Agency or the FBI if your child has received pornography via the Internet or has been the target of an online sex offender.

Talking to your children right away about Internet safety will help them to be safer online. Make a list of rules and make sure your child knows them. Post them by the computer to remind them. Talking about the dangers of the Internet and to stay away from unknown people and websites will help to protect them. If you go over rules from the very beginning then when they get older and move into Middle and High School were there are more problems with Internet safety, they will understand and cooperate with rules and restrictions you need to place at a later date.

Watch this fun and easy to understand educational video with your kids and discuss Internet saftey with them.

Stress the importance of never giving out any information to anyone!!

Talk to your kids about internet safety! Parents are their best online protection!

My classroom technology experience

This is our reality now, technology is consuming our children's and student's lives.

Everyone knows that technology is evolving every day. However some might not know that technology in education is growing and becoming integrated into everyday activities in the classrooms. All throughout my education in Elementary, Middle, and High School I've used technology. I went to public school in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Wellesley Public Schools specifically has a plan to intergrate technoology so students and teachers alike can learn and grow with our ever changing society.

Technology in the Wellesley Public School System

My first interaction with technology that I can remember was in Elementary School. I remember using AlphaSmarts! Most people probably have no idea what these are because there have been so many advancements since them. AlphaSmarts are keyboards with a small screen that are used to type assingments. After finished typing we would connect the AlphaSmart and the computer together with a cord and print out our paper.

These dinosaur "laptops" were the beginnings of my experience with technology!

We also used over head projectors. These were easier than chalkboards because chalk boards were messy and created dust.Teachers used these to write assignments or problems, and it was easier for the whole class to see. Or a teacher would pass out overhead projector sheets and students would answer problems on them, then present them to the class. This helped students learn how to present in a way that was fun to do and gave them public speaking skills. These also made it possible for the teacher to sit down facing the class and teach them instead of turning their back to them while writing on the board, which is always a concern for teachers with classroom management..

My Elementary School also had the Mac book carts. A cart with about 25 Mac books that a teacher could check out for a certain time for the students to do assignments on. I remember we as kids were so excited to use computers. It gave us a feeling of importance and independence.

In Middle School the amount of technology I experienced increased respectively. We still had and used the Mac book carts. We also now had computer labs that we would go to occasionally if the teacher reserved it. Often it was for research on a project. Another form of technology I used in Middle School was the Elmo. This was a more modern and advanced form of the over head projector. This allowed the teacher and students to place a book or paper under the camera and it would reflect it onto the board.An image of whatever was on the board could be captured and uploaded online for students to review afterwards. I remember using this when sharing homework. Students would put their papers up and the class could see their work.

The Elmo is a direct advancement from the over head projector and shows exactly how fast technology is evolving.

In High School there were "Mac labs" as well, rooms filled with 20-30 Apple computers. In High School we went there for research often as well. As High School students we were starting to use technology more and more. Almost everyone had a cell phone and a laptop. Teenagers are more likely to research a topic online than go to a Library and look at books. Teachers need to realize their students strengths and if they are always using technology they should use that to their advantage. In High School all of our essays had to be typed and printed for the teacher. This is a form of technology that students need to know; how to format a document correctly and all the bells and whistles to make a project look top notch.

In High School we also had SMART Boards. These looked like white boards but could be interactive with the computer, students, and teachers. The screen on the board is the computer desktop and the specific Notebook application was used for the SMART Board. Teachers could use these boards for everything in a lesson plan. After writing something on the SMART Board with specific colored pens a document could be saved. These SMART Boards could then save what was done on them and be uploaded online for students to review later, or if they missed a class they could print them out.

These SMART Boards are one of the newest pieces of technology for the classrooms. As you can see they work for all ages and grades. Elementary to College aged students can interact with the SMART Board for a variety of subjects and activities. Students can come up to to the board and write answers down, make diagrams, write sentences and much more. They are easy to use and help engage the students in a fun and interesting way.


Children younger and younger are getting personal computers and playing online games, surfing the web, and spending hours on the computer. Children and teenagers are becoming more advanced in technology than their parents and this is causing censorship problems. Because student aged children are so technology oriented with; cell phones, Mac books, ipads, ipods, and video games, educators need to realize this and use this to their advantage. Most typical students in any grade of school would rather use technology to learn than sit in a lecture or read a book. Therefore educators need to be knowledged and creative when using technology.

There are always new gadgets coming out for technology and the Internet is expanding every day. There are so many ways you can use technology in the classroom and here is a site with some activities and ideas to get you started!

Ways to use technology in the classroom