Step 1: Search to find existing web engines that 4Kids staff use to begin a site search. Once you find a site that has potential, spend some time evaluating the content using the 4Kids evaluation criteria. Each 4Kids article has to capture a story within the site. Some readers enjoy 4Kids articles in the newspaper exclusively, yet many get online and explore the site themselves.

Step 2: Search the Excel database to make sure that the site has not been featured in the past 3 - 5 years. Use the 'Find' feature in Excel to search the database. Type the domain name in the search criteria. For example, if I wanted to feature www.nps.gov/webrangers/index.html I would search the database to see if any links with nps.gov are present and then see if they promote similar content to what is desired to feature. In this example, nps.gov is the 'main' name of the site, or domain name. If you input the entire URL you wouldn't conduct the most complete search of the database. Often links can change in the dynamic world of the web.

Step 3: Conduct a complete evaluation of the Web site using the 4Kids Web Site Evaluation criteria using RubiStar ID#1305223.

Step 4: As you write the story, think about a good Kid Quest question that addresses something you want people to learn from the site. For the example, the question listed for www.nps.gov/webrangers/index.html was, "In what year was the National Park Service founded?" The author of the 4Kids article must also come up with three possible answers and identify which of the three is correct. The options in this case are 1916, 1961, and 1691.