This site run by parents for 13 year old English speaking children is full of interesting resources, easy to use with lower intermediate students. It is also safe, and you can let the students explore it on their own and report what they found to the class. Here is how the site describes itself : « The idea of Pitara was born out of the recognition that education is not an end in itself. That it has a higher goal – of helping our children become intelligent human beings.
Intelligent and sensitive to their immediate social-political-cultural-ecological surroundings. »
You can find there:
– in Tale-Spin : stories (about one page long), folktales and poems, quite
fit to make intermediate students study a story or a tale.
– in Magazine : Fun Do (riddle, limericks, jokes) and People, with the
profile of several famous people, including our Cousteau….
– in Discover : find other stories in the 5W/H section, like ‘what is the
mystery of Dracula’, from Vlad Tepes to a theme park! And the Eureka
section, with articles about a smart kitchen, an electronic schoolbag
weighing 2.5kg and clothes that don’t get dirty….
– in Activities : arts and crafts, quizzes and word play…
http://www.pitara.com/