I keep a list of themed websites that are easy-in easy-out for students. 
They must be activities that can be accomplished enjoyably in less than ten minutes. In the parlance, these are called “sponges”.
What exactly are sponge activities? The term, originally coined by Madeline Hunter, refers to an activity designed to produce learning during the time taken up by “administrivia.” They stem from Hunter’s teaching philosophy that there should be no wasted moments in her classroom.
Here’s my list, by topic:
Tech
- Desktop Wallpapers from National Geographic
Vocabulary Building
- Hangman
- Games with high-frequency words
- Videos on reading, comprehension, phonics, sign language (similar to YouTube, but school-friendly)
- Web-based Mad Libs
- Dolch Flash Games
Geography
- Geogreeting
- Quick quizzes—how much do you know about geography?
- Geospy
- Another Geography game—Geonet
History
- Videos of historic events
- Kid’s Website on the US Government and History
- History Happens: Stories on Video
- Newspaper front pages from around the world—interactive
- When they were Young: A Photographic History of Children
- Road to Revolution Game
PowerPoint
- A variety of Jeopardy topics, from Math to Science, organized by topic and grade
- Jeopardy games on Math and vocabulary
- Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, Who Wants to be a Millionaire
For more of these sponge activities, click on Sponge Activities–Part II
Share any sponges you have that are popular What do you do during free time with students?
–Thanks to 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom
[...] may have read my post with nineteen sites my students love visiting during sponge time (let me know if you liked them, have some to add, I’m always interested in [...]
[...] may have read my post with nineteen sites my students love visiting during sponge time (let me know if you liked them, have some to add, I’m always interested in [...]
[...] with permission of Ask a Tech Teacher © [...]
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[...] Ways to Use Spare Classroom Time (http://askatechteacher.wordpress.com/2010/06/07/five-ways-to-use-spare-classroom-time/)–websites to fill those 5-10 extra minutes before lunch/end of the day, for early finishers, [...]