AASL Best Elementary Websites for Teaching & Learning: Home

Be Internet Awesome offers elementary school students a path to digital citizenship and a way to become smart and safe users of the Internet. They will enjoy participating in the game Interland, and traversing Reality River, Mindful Mountain, Tower of Treasure, and Kind Kingdom to learn the fundamentals of online ethical use and safety. Additional resources for parents and educators are included. Grades 2-5.

Newseum is more than a physical museum in Washington D.C. Its NewseumED educational website contains primary sources, historical videos, and other resources that cover media literacy and civics. The site has curated virtual collections and artifacts as well as offering units, lesson plans, and activities. Signing up for a free account provides access to all of their educational resources. Use these materials to teach media literacy, propaganda, debate, fake news, and civics among many other topics. Grades 3 and up.

Prodigy is an epic adventure math game that will engage students in the quest at the same time they are learning math. The questions are actual math problems that must be solved in order to continue the quest. Teachers can create classrooms, add students, give a placement test, and track their students progress as they play. A math adventure is just around the corner to help students increase their math content knowledge and confidence in math facts. Grades 1-8.

Covering the outer reaches of space to the tiniest microbes in our bodies, Science Friday provides free STEM activities, lessons, and resources for all learners, making science fun for everyone! Science Friday will spark students’ curiosity at a visceral level, on topics from Frankenstein to the La Brea Tar Pits, and from shrinking polar bears to an online rock collection (#neatrocks). There is so much to explore in this child’s world! Science Friday connects digital STEM resources to hands on learning. Some activities in Spanish. Grades 3 and up.

EdWeb is a free anytime-anywhere professional learning network for teachers, librarians, and administrators, offering over seventy-five different learning communities, covering a wide range of innovative topics and practices. The heart of Edweb is its community sponsored webinars, which are timely, engaging, and always archived. Edweb is a go-to source for personalized professional development, offering continuing education certificates, follow up online discussions, free resources, and a support network of like-minded professionals.

An educational site covering subjects such as history, science, geography, math, and biographies. Pages are written to be easy to read and understand.

Thousands of amazing kids’ books. Free for teachers & librarians.

Make beautiful boards, documents, and webpages that are easy to read and fun to contribute to.

Unite for Literacy provides free digital access to picture books, narrated in many languages.

Book Creator allows students to engage in the real-world application of online publishing. Both students and educators can create and publish fiction, non-fiction, comic books, picture books, how-to guides, and more. The free version allows each educator to store up to 40 digital books with text, audio, video, and illustration. Book Creator is available for iPad and Chrome. Useful in any content area and includes resources for training and support. Grades K and up.

BoomWriter’s interactive writing site promotes creativity and collaboration as students build on each others’ work to create a final writing product. Students start with a story prompt, then contribute successive chapters which are reviewed by the teacher and assessed by their peers, who vote for their favorite to add to the ongoing story. Once a book is completed it may be published online or purchased in hard copy format. Resources such as story starters and other ideas for educators add to the unique features of this site. Grades 2 and up.

Kapwing provides a multi-tool solution for teachers and students to create everything from video montages and memes, to stop action videos and sound effects. Its simple yet robust platform makes it useful for students of all ages. Teachers can use the various tools to engage students in any subject, and students will use these same tools to showcase their learning and improve presentations. Grades 4 and up.

Students and teachers will find this screencast and webcam video creation tool helpful on a daily basis. Teachers will find it especially easy to create videos of tutorials, review sessions, or feedback for students assignments. Students can use it for presentations, how-to videos, or responses to assignments. The options are endless, and teachers with a flipped classroom will love the ease of use. Grades 4 and up.

Classcraft transforms classrooms through avatars, gamification, and creating immersive play that promotes self-actualization, engagement, and collaboration for students. Teachers can reshape lessons into quests in which students choose their own adventure or work as collaborative teams that build positive classroom culture. Classcraft offers a wide range of features to continually keep the game(s) fresh, including a random selector for elements of surprise, a timer/countdown, random events added to the story, a live volume meter, boss battles for formative assessments, and a grade converter to make points earned meaningful. Full integration with both Google & Microsoft Classroom and compatibility across platforms as well as extensive teacher resources make this site an educator’s and student’s technology dream. Basic account is free with fee subscriptions for advanced settings. Grades 4 and up.

Build and navigate 3D and 360 degree virtual reality worlds, either replicating actual places or creating imaginary ones, using objects and backgrounds from Cospaces’s library or importing your own. Cospaces also allows users to animate and code creations with simple visual programming language. Use this app to create simulations, tours, games, and more. All Cospaces scenes can be experienced in 3D on mobile devices with VR headsets. Grades 2 and up.

Earsketch provides an innovative and unique learning experience by blending computer coding concepts with music theory. Educators can utilize Earsketch to challenge students to compose original songs, or as a launchpad for a coding class or club. Beginning coders can follow guided tutorials to instantly apply computer programming languages (Python or Javascript) to create loops, construct beats, and generate sound effects. Grades 5 and up.

Pencil Code fosters an interest in computer coding by introducing concepts in an accessible, straightforward environment. Students can bolster their coding ability by creating art, music, or other imaginative projects. Extensive teacher resources are available, including guided tutorials and printable resources. Pencil Code can be used to reinforce a variety of math skills or as a platform for students to create their own works of interactive fiction. Grades K and up.