October is Cyber Safety Month

It's that time of year again-time to talk about Internet Safety. Really, this should be a topic to discuss all year long, but October is specially designated as Cyber Safety Month.  So my monthly lessons for 2nd-5th grade this month will cover this super important topic.  Here are some of the resources I use.

For these lessons, I use part of Common Sense Educations's free curriculum for educators.  

I also have a subscription to Nearpod.  Nearpod has partnered with Common Sense Media and offers a lite (read FREE) version of a Common Sense lesson for K-2 and 3-5.  You can find these resources and more on Nearpod HERE.

Common Sense Education also has free resources for Digital Citizenship week, coming up on October 14-18, 2019.  You can find those resources HERE.

Another great resource for Internet safety curriculum is Google's Be Internet Awesome.  Students can practice the skills they learn in these lessons with Google's Interland game.

For K and 1st, I recommend using  My Online Neighborhood, from Common Sense Education's YouTube channel.  You can find it HERE on YouTube.

To go along with this lesson, I made this Internet Safety freebie. Click HERE to download it from TpT.

For 2nd grade, I really like using this free video on BrainPop Jr.  You can find it HERE on BrainPop Jr.

For 3rd grade, I use Super Digital Citizen from Common Sense Education.  You can find it HERE on Common Sense Educations' YouTube channel.

With 4th and 5th, I use Being Safe on the Internet from AMAZE.org  You can find it on the AMAZEorg YouTube Channel.

And this is a great video on cyberbullying from the Federal Trade Commission-yes, the Federal Trade Commission.  They actually have some fabulous Internet safety resources available.

The Federal Trade Commission runs a program called OnGuardOnline.  They offer FREE resources for parents and teachers.  I like to order copies of their NetCetra kits and give them out to parents during our Internet Safety night in September.

You can find more videos that I have used in the past on my blog by clicking HERE and HERE.

 

 

There are also some great Internet Safety games you can find online.  You can view some of the games I've used in the past by clicking HERE.  Please note, some of these games may no longer be active.

During this week in October, I put out these special Internet Safety bookmarks that I made a few years ago.  You can find the set of 32 bookmarks HERE in my TpT store. There are 16 bookmarks in color and 16 bookmarks in black and white for your students to color.

I also offer a free version, with 2 of the bookmarks in color and 2 in black and white for your students to color.  You can find this freebie HERE in my TpT store.

Whether you choose to celebrate Digital Citizenship week next week or to teach about digital citizenship at another time in the year, I hope you find some of these resources helpful.

October is Cyber Safety Month

I posted over the summer about some Cyber Safety games that are pretty popular with the students at my school, but in case you missed it here they are again, along for a few more and some great sites to find cyber safety lessons as well.  These are great to use during October to reinforce that this month is Cyber Safety Month.

Admongo

This is a fun, video-game type adventure that teaches kids to recognize the ads all around them, both off and online.

Cyberchase

Games, videos and activities inspired by the PBS Kids show Cyberchase.

FBI-SOS

A fun-interactive game for 3rd-8th that teaches how to surf the Internet safely. Thanks to Sonya of the Library Patch for suggesting this one.

Firewall

This is a fun tic-tac-toe type game that asks players to answer Internet safety questions.

NetSmartz

This is a fantastic website full of games and videos all about being safe on the Internet.  We actually use some of the videos in all of the elementary schools in the county to show to our K-2 classes during Cyber Safety week.

Safety Land

Help save Safety Land from the nasty character who is trying to make the town sick.

Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs

This is an interactive adventure that challenges players to answer Internet safety questions about the storyline.  It's a fun spin off of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.

CyberSense and Nonsense: The Second Adventure of the Three CyberPigs

The adventure continues!  This adventure talks about netiquette and determining the difference between fact and opinion.

Webonauts Internet Academy

Another fun arcade like game about Internet safety.  Kids learn to be safe while playing.

Infinite Learning Lab with Professor Garfield

Watch Internet Safety videos, play games, and take interactive quizzes about cyberbullying. There are more videos and activities, but you must sign up to be able to access those.

iKeep Safe

iKeep Safe offers some free downloadable movies that include topics such as cyberbullying, copyright, and cybersaftey.

Hector's World

Hector's World is a fun way for younger kids to learn about Internet safety.  From this website you can access videos and games that would be good to use on an Interactive Whiteboard.

Power to Learn

If you're looking for Internet safety lessons complete with lesson plans and guide, and even letters to send home, Internet Smarts is a good place to start.  This site is sponsored by Cablevision and has eight different lessons with lesson guides that deal with everything from cyberbullying to copyright to thinking about what to share online.  These lessons seem to be appropriate for upper elementary and older.

OnGuardOnline.gov

This is a free website sponsored by the government where you can order free books and toolkits about Internet safety.  I have ordered these materials in the past to be given out to our fifth graders upon their SAFE graduation day.  Unfortunately, due to the current government shutdown, the website is not accessible at this time.  However, there is a free video that you can watch through YouTube which would be great to show parents.  You can access that video here.

Common Sense Media

K-12 Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum

My absolute favorite place for Internet safety lessons is Common Sense Media's program. This FREE curriculum includes lesson plans, printables, letters to send home, videos, classroom posters, and links to great sites to help practice what the lessons teach. This is by far the most comprehensive program I have found and it is totally free.  More items are added all the time.

Do you do anything special during Cyber Safety Month?

Internet Safety Games

To support the Internet safety lesson I taught, I often had links to Internet safety games for the kids to play once the lesson was complete.  I put these up on my website so that students could access them in their classroom and at home.  Here are some of their favorites:

Admongo

This is a fun, video-game type adventure that teaches kids to recognize the ads all around them, both off and online.

Cyberchase

Games, videos and activities inspired by the PBS Kids show Cyberchase.

Firewall

This is a fun tic-tac-toe type game that asks players to answer Internet safety questions.

Safety Land

Help save Safety Land from the nasty character who is trying to make the town sick.

Privacy Playground: The First Adventure of the Three CyberPigs

This is an interactive adventure that challenges players to answer Internet safety questions about the storyline.  It's a fun spin off of the Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf.

CyberSense and Nonsense: The Second Adventure of the Three CyberPigs

The adventure continues!  This adventure talks about netiquette and determining the difference between fact and opinion.

Webonauts Internet Academy

Another fun arcade like game about Internet safety.  Kids learn to be safe while playing.

Do you have some fun Internet safety games that you use with your students?