World Book Kids


 

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 Using World Book Kids

 Level 2 No Data Is Shared Icon

Level 2 Tool

No data is shared:

Access to this tool does not require any user to share information about themselves

Grades:

  Primary

  Intermediate

  

   

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

This information last checked: 10/21/2016

 

 

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Digital Content SNAPSHOT & SUPPORT RESOURCES


Table of Contents:


Visit the World Book Kids Database:
We recommend that you open the database in a new tab, and refer to it as you review this Snapshot.  
The database remote access username & password are needed if you are outside the BCPS network.

 

 

*World Book Kids has new updates! *

*Please be sure to check out the new features!*

 

Overview

World Book Kids is the premier general reference Web site developed especially for young students. The site features simple navigation, easy-to-read articles, thousands of illustrations, videos, comparison tools, and a wealth of engaging games and activities.

 

World Book Kids Homepage

Target Audience: 1-4

Content Connections:  Supports all content areas

 

 

Standards Alignment

 

  • Aligned with Maryland State Standards and CCSS

 

Content & Features

 

  • New Accessibility Features: These new features include translation, read aloud, large print that can be made larger in the browser window, large images, and a new student-friendly layout. 
  • Maps and More:  The online atlas covers the whole globe interactively, linking from map to map.  Also includes interactive clickable maps, and printable map and flag outlines.
  • Compare Places: Compare Places can be used to explore and compare countries, states, provinces, and continents. Click Compare US States, Compare Canadian provinces, Compare Australian states, Compare Countries, or Compare Continents on the Compare Places homepage. Compare any type of place to any other by selecting Compare Everything. To choose a place, use the arrows to the right and left of the browse tiles; choose a place by clicking the place’s picture. Use the filter to display places by a different category.
  • Dictionary: The dictionary contains approximately 250,000 entries.
  • Encyclopedia Articles: World Book Kids offers thousands of media-rich encyclopedia articles that are carefully selected and edited to suit the educational level of the users.
  • Games and Activities: World Book Kids features game on curriculum topics related to Important People, Math, Reading and Grammar, Science, and Social Studies topics. Adobe's Flash plub-in is required to play games.  World Book Kids features activities in three categories:  Make It! activities, which include hands-on activities, such as "Paper Maker", recycling new paper from old paper. Think It! activities, which include analytical exercises and puzzles, such as "Triangle Hunt".  Be It! activities, which include "Dig In! Pretend to Be a Geologist!", and activity that teaches about the soil and its contents.  Each activity is available in a teacher's version, with discussion questions and an evaluation matrix.
  • Science Projects:  Find science project and experiment ideas for long term and last minute projects.
  • Important People:  World Book's Important People provides a simple search and browse interface for young users to locate biography articles. Enter a query into the search box to search the full text of all biography articles. Another option is to browse biographies by category such as Inventor, Author, or Explorer. The most powerful search tool allows you to use the Advanced Biography Finder to search for biographies by selecting from up to four categories: Area of work or interest, gender, nationality or ethnicity, and year.
  • Pictures: Thousands of pictures illustrate World Book articles. Pictures include photographs, animal illustrations, reproductions of great works of art, and much more. 
  • Sounds: World Book Kids offers audio clips of bird songs, popular and classical music, national anthems, and much more. To play sound clips, users will need the Adobe Flash plug-in, which is already installed on most browsers.
  • Videos: World Book Kids offers videos and animations. To view the videos, users will need the Adobe Flash plug-in, which is already installed on most browsers.
  • Web Sites: Selected articles feature age-appropriate, editor-selected websites, accessible at the bottom of the article page.
  • World of Animals: Browse the animals by selecting the arrows to the right and left of the animal tiles; choose an animal by clicking the animal's picture. Click on the link to go to the animal's exhibit for quick facts, images, videos, and web links about that animal. To compare animals, close the animal's exhibit by clicking the red X and click Compare Animals to select a second animal. Click Compare Now! to display the comparison.  Users will need the Adobe Flash plug-in.
  • More Information on World Book Student: Additional information is available on the World Book Student. Users can access the link to Student in the blue box at the bottom of search results and article pages. 
  • Featured Image and Article: A large full screen image is featured on the front page with an article related to the featured image. This image changes each time you access the home page of World Book Kids. 

 

Navigation 

 

  • Search/ Explore: A large white search box is located in the center of the top of home screen.  Students can enter keywords to perform a search. The green Explore button is to the right of the Search box. This feature allows students to search for articles by topic categories (Dig In) and then narrow their search down into subtopics (Dig Deeper), which lead to a page of results with a short description of the article and a hyperlink to the article. 
  • Article Tab: Displays the full article. Allows the user to navigate back to the article if they click on the next two tabs. 
  • Pictures, Video and More Tab: Clicking this tab allows the user to view all of the pictures, videos, sound clips and other items that are included with the article in one location. 

Pictures, Video, and More Tab 

  • More Information Tab: This tab will give the user more information about the topic in the following areas:
    • Websites- External websites that will help users find more information on their topic. 
    • Activities- A list of hands-on activities that relate to the article.
    • Games- A list of games that relate to the article.
    • Lesson Plans- Users can find lesson plans related to the article.
    • Questions- A few comprehension questions are included for users to review information found in the article.
    • Content Standards- Users can view the content curriculum correlations. 

More Info Tab 

  • Contents: This tab shows users the Lexile of the article as well as the contents of the article, starting with the introduction.

Contents 

  • Tools (gear icon in the upper right hand corner): This new tab gives users the following options:
    • Downloads- This new feature allows users to download and save the article (in PDF format) to their computer for offline access.
    • Email- Allows the user to share the article via email. 
    • Print-Allows the user to print the article.
    • Citations- A pop-up window gives the user three citations (MLA, APA, Harvard) to choose from when citing the article they are using. 
    • Translate this text- This new feature translates an article into over 70 world languages. 
    • Hear this aloud- this new feature allows users to hear the article aloud in two speeds.  

Hear This Aloud

Learning Supports & Tools

 

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Text Enlargement
  • Read Aloud: This new feature allows users to select an area of the article that they wish to hear aloud. This feature can be accessed using the Tools icon. There are two speeds for the read aloud feature.

Read Aloud 

  • Translation- This new feature translates an article into over 70 world languages with the click of a button. The translated article opens in a new window. This can be accessed through the Tools icon.

TranslationTranslation 

  • Dictionary: The dictionary contains approximately 250,000 entries.  Users can access the Dictionary from the home page (the bottom menu bar- last icon). Users can also access the dictionary from within an article by double clicking on an unfamiliar word. The definition will appear in a pop-up window. Users can also search other words in the dictionary from the search bar at the bottom of the pop-up.

Dictionary 

  • Citation: Citation styles are provided at the end of each article in addition to the access from the Tool icon (gear).  Users may choose from MLA, APA, or Harvard citation styles to copy and paste into their works cited list.

Citations 

  • Printing:  The Print option now appears at the top of each article when a user clicks on the Tools icon..  When a user selects the print option and print compatible version of the article appears in a new window. This printable document includes the pictures from the article.
  • Save Options: The Save option is now the Download option under the Tools icon. The article will download as a PDF document. This PDF document does not include the pictures from the article. 
  • Sharing Options/Email: The Email option is now accessed through the Tools icon. When the user selects this option, a email window appears where the user may type in the email address they would like to send the article to along with a message. The article is sent as a PDF document.

 

 Lexiles/Reading Levels: 

  • To find the Lexile of an article in World Book Kids, click on the Contents tab to the right of the screen. The Lexile will appear in the window that pops up. 
  • For more information about Lexile, visit the Lexile Resource Page on this wiki.

 

Tutorials & Guides

 

Educator Resources

 

 

Technical Specifications

  • The system requirements for World Book Kids to run optimally are as listed below. If you do not have the requirements below, please contact your tech liaison.

 

Browsers:

  • Chrome
  • Internet Explorer- Version 9.0 and higher
  • Mozilla Firefox- Version 17.0 and higher
  • Safari- Version 6.0 and higher

 

 

Following Plug-ins are needed to use site

  •  Adobe Acrobat
  •  Java™ Runtime
  •  Shockwave flash

 

Tablets and OS Supported

  •  Samsung Tab 2 with android version 4.1.2
  • iPad2 with iOS 7.1.1

 

Mobile Devices Supported

  •  Safari Browser on iPhone
  •  Android browser on Android
  •  Internet Explorer on Windows phone
  •  Internet Explorer on Blackberry

 

Following setting should be enabled

  •  Cookies should be enabled
  •  Javascript should be enabled
  •  Security level in the browser should be medium or lower (should not be high)