What are the Best Websites for Preschool Teachers?

Anyone who has ever worked in the field of early childhood knows that a preschool teacher is very busy, with limited time to find the best resources for the students and classroom. While working full-time in the classroom, I found the best way to manage my time was to have all of my resources at my fingertips.

The internet can be a teachers best and easiest way to find high quality information, lesson plans, printables, coloring pages, craft/project ideas, teacher tips, the latest research in the field and even forums if you have the time to participate. I have compiled what I believe to be some of the best websites for teachers and I found that the less you have, the better. There are literally hundreds of sites for preschool related resources, and many are good while some are quite annoying with jittery banners and pop-up frogs and things you don't want to deal with while resourcing for a project or lesson plans.

I have them listed in no preferential order as I find each of them extremely helpful and of high quality. Feel free to bookmark this or make a copy for your files; send to a friend if you find it helpful.

First-School Preschool Activities and Crafts This site has everything! It can be translated into 9 different languages. It has theme based lesson plans, activities, coloring pages, excellent links to sister sites, alphabet printables, and holiday projects, ideas.

DLTK-Kids This is one of my favorites for theme based crafts and excellent alphabet resources. It has everything for the educator whether school or home school based, Sunday School Crafts, recipes, puzzles. Perfect for printables.

Everything Preschool- Early Childhood Education Made Easy This site has over 170 themes! It works with the concept that children learn best through hands on learning. It has excellent lesson plans completed for each theme including circle time songs, activities for each day of the week.

Scholastic TeacherThis excellent site gives access to the literary resources that Scholastic offers along with lesson plans, activities, teacher tips, a section especially for new teachers, articles from Early Childhood Today, news and articles about favorite authors.

NAEYC National Association for the Education of Young Children This is a professional site and keeps one up to date with the latest news regarding early childhood and Developmentally Appropriate Practices. It has access to all of their materials and publications and has an excellent article about good toys for young children.

NIEER National Institute for Early Education Research This is another excellent site regarding latest research and news in the ECE field. It offers independent research based advice and assistance to educators, policy makers, journalists and researchers. It's important to keep up to date on the latest research.