Students need to give credit for the resources they have used, even in elementary school. Here are some simplified guidelines for elementary school students based on MLA 8 format which they will use in Middle and High School.
There is a Citation Maker available on the website EasyBib. Students type in the information, and the site generates a citation that can be copied and pasted into a Works Cited page, however this gives the full citation record, not the simplified one as listed below. It is available at: http://content.easybib.com/
For Grades 3&4
(Use italics when typing citations, underline when writing.)
Book
1. Author's name—last name first.
2. Title of book, in italics.
3. publisher (Grade 4 only),
3. Copyright date.
Landau, Elaine. Sea Horses. Penguin, 1999.
Print Encyclopedia
1. Last name of the author, first name.
2. Title of the article or chapter in quotes.
3. Title of the encyclopedia or book, in italics,
4. Publisher, (Grade 4 only)
5.The year the book was published.
Fisher, Joseph. “Shark.” The World Book Encyclopedia, Astor Press, 2016.
Online Encyclopedia
1. Author of the article last name, first name.
2. Title of the article in quotes.
3. Name of the resource site in italics.
4. The date the article was published (day month year),
5. URL of the article page. (Grade 3 - word Online only.)
Winters, Paul. “Abraham Lincoln.” Kid Stuff. 2017, http://kidsdb.com/abe.
Creative Commons Image from Web Page.
1. Creators last name, first name. (Grade 4 only)
2. Description or title of the image, in quotations.
3. Name of the Web site, in italics.
4. The year the image was published,
5. CC.
Schrock, Kathy. “Butterfly.” Flickr. 2011, CC.
Web Page
1. Title on the page or of the section of the page you used in quotes.
2. Title of the Web page, in italics, found in the address bar.
3. The date the page was published or last updated (day month year),
4. URL of the Web page. (Grade 3 - word Online only)
“New toys.” Consumer Reports. 10 March 2015, http://consumerreports/newtoys.
​Mobile App
1. Title of App in quotation marks.
2. Publisher, year.
3. Title of Website app downloaded from, in italics,
4. URL of the Webpage.
“iBiography.” MobiAppBiz, 2017. Apple App Store, https://itunes.apple.com.
Sources: http://www.easybib.com/, http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/workscited_1_6.pdf