Our students have never known a world without the Internet. Before they use the Internet, it’s a good idea to teach them what the Internet is and how it works.

The Kid’s Guide To How the Internet Works is a free ebook designed for early elementary school students. The book is not comprehensive, but could be used as a supplement to a larger lesson about how the Internet works. The free ebook includes a few passages followed by review questions for students to answer. You can either print the ebook to give to students or have them view it and answer questions online.

Take a look at the videos from Planet Nutshell for more lessons about how the Internet works and Internet safety. Planet Nutshell produces short animated videos to explain products, services, and concepts. One of their series of videos is all about Internet safety for K-12 students. The series is called NetSafe and it has eighteen episodes covering topics like protecting personal information, responsible posting of pictures, and mobile location privacy. The videos are labeled with grade levels so that students in high school don’t watch videos designed for K-3 students. A video for K-3 students and a video for high school students are embedded below.