For elementary educators, now more than ever, using the web is a vital part of everyday instruction. Today’s kids are web-savvy and have the ability to navigate the online world and respond well to online instruction. These 43 leading sites for elementary educators are sure to provide you with hours of instruction inspiration and ready-made lessons to inspire you and your classroom, fostering fun and learning!
General Education and Information Sites
1. ABCya is filled with educational games for various subjects and grade levels; this website truly has something for everyone and every subject, from math to science, skills, letters, numbers, holidays, and more. Educators can search common core standards, making finding an appropriate game to incorporate into class instruction a breeze!
2. PBS Kids offers educational games, videos, and e-books that feature students’ favorite characters with a focus on early childhood education.
3. National Geographic Kids provides engaging educational content related to science, geography, and wildlife with Cool Stuff, Brain Boosters, Space, countries worldwide, and more to keep your elementary classroom engaged all year long.
4. Funbrain is a website that features free games related to reading, math, and general fun to help engage children in the learning process. In addition to games, FunBrain offers interactive presentations, popular comic books, and writing activities for children.
5. Khan Academy Kids is generally recognized as the top educational online resource for its free, informative lessons that include printables, circle time, and powerful tools for educators.
6. Scholastic is a trusted resource for literacy advocacy and also offers a range of resources for teachers, including lesson plans, reading materials, and educational games.
7. Farmer’s Almanac has it all - from moon phases to tides, animal tracks, weather, gardening, and more. This long-lived, trusted resource is filled with cool facts and videos elementary school children will enjoy!
Math Websites
8. Math Playground features games, videos, and logic challenges that really give young brains a workout! Elementary students will find the activities on this site engaging, fun, and informative.
9. Online Math is a more serious-toned website with common core-based math instruction incorporating games and worksheets. The site is organized by grade level and is easy to navigate by grade level, common core standard, worksheet type, video topic, and more.
10. Kidzone Math offers free printable practice worksheets.
11. BrainPop is a popular choice for kids and teachers, with fun video lessons, interactive math games, and more. Teachers can create custom lessons to integrate into classroom instruction.
12. AAA is a no-subscription, no-cost bare-bones site with thousands of interactive arithmetic lessons ranging from K-8 sorted by subject.
Science
13. Home Science Tools covers science topics from Astronomy to Zoology with videos, lessons, coloring pages, printables, dissection guides, and more.
14. Mystery Science offers standards-aligned lessons to inspire kids to love learning science. Free lessons are broken down by grade level on topics like, “Why do frogs say ‘ribbit’?”
15. oLogy! is a science website for kids from the American Museum of Natural History. It focuses on “ology,” the “study of,” and includes topics from anthropology to water and zoology with fun games, stories, videos, activities, and more.
16. Science Bob offers videos of great science experiments with instructions that you can do right in the classroom!
17. Breakout Edu offers interactive digital games on various science topics with features like Lock of the Day, Breakout+ Games, and unique Digital Games.
18. Curriki is a nonprofit organization committed to using technology to improve the quality of online education and make it available as widely as possible. They achieve their goal through dynamic, interactive learning content like games, full lessons, and more.
19. Science Fun for Everyone has instructions for many cool experiments, science-related kid-appropriate jokes, trivia, and more.
20. Exploratorium is a public learning laboratory exploring the world through science, art, and human perception that offers videos and instructions for science experiments online.
Language Arts, Reading & Literature
21. The International Children’s Digital Library focuses on inclusivity and cultural awareness through free access to high-quality books from around the world in different languages.
22. Grammar Bytes is a treasure trove of grammar resources for teachers with PowerPoint presentations, handouts, quick rule guides, lessons, games, and more.
23. StoryJumper is your site if you ever thought of having your class publish a book! This site allows kids to write, illustrate, publish, and record audio for their own books. Create collectively as a classroom or individually.
24. Read Write Think is a goldmine of a resource for teachers with classroom resources like full units, individual lessons, and student interactives, plus numerous professional libraries for educators to explore.
25. Fun Fonix makes phonics learning fun for grades K-8 with printables, worksheets, workbooks, and more!
26. Story Bird offers hundreds of challenge ideas to inspire kids to write short stories, as well as tips on boosting writing skills and thousands of illustrations from works around the globe.
27. Spelling Shed offers a proven spelling curriculum with free spelling games enjoyed by millions of learners worldwide.
28. Read Works delivers high-quality content, tools, and support for reading comprehension with free materials, curriculum, and tools for students in K-12.
29. Epic! is subscription-based, with over 40,000 titles in a vast online children’s library.
30. Starfall is a platform specifically designed for teaching reading skills using a phonics-based approach where kids can also learn independently.
Social Studies & Government
31. Ben’s Guide to the US Government is a service of the Government Publishing Office (GPO), and is designed to inform students, parents, and educators about the Federal Government, which issues the publications and information products disseminated by the GPO’s Federal Depository Library Program. Educators will find fun, interactive games, learning adventures, and more to engage early learners.
32. 50 States contains nearly everything you need to know about all 50 states in the USA! With maps, state facts, capitals, colleges, study tools, and quizzes, this is perhaps the best, most thorough resource on the 50 states you will find online.
33. World Atlas offers interactive maps, clocks, flags, and videos related to every country in the world and is a must for every social studies classroom.
34. US.gov is a wonderful resource for all things government in the USA. From federal holidays to branches of government, if it has to do with the US government, this site contains it!
35. Liberty Kids is a YouTube channel with historically accurate animated movies that teach kids about events in American history.
36. Soft Schools provides free math worksheets, free math games, grammar quizzes, free phonics worksheets, and games. Worksheets and games are organized by grades and topics.
37. Captivating Compass is a homeschool website with many free, interesting, travel-based learning tools like worksheets, printables, lessons, and more for young children.
38. US Mint features online money education games.
39. iCivics offers relevant, meaningful, and engaging civics education through games that teach concepts like the importance of voting.
Art & Music
40. Masterpiece Society offers a complete curriculum that includes art training, expression, history, and appreciation, and it does not limit medium. Lessons include graphite, charcoal, inks, acrylics, oils, watercolors, soft pastels, oil pastels, mixed media collage, sculpting, mosaics, reliefs, handicrafts, and more, so there’s never a dull creative moment!
41. #metkids by the Metropolitan Museum of Art is online content made for, by, and with kids. Students can dive into over 5,000 years of art from across the globe, hop in the Time Machine, and more!
42. Toy Theatre encourages kids to unleash their artistic potential through virtual tools to build, create, and animate. Teacher tools include a range of interactive manipulatives and assessment tools that incorporate math, literacy, and reading skills.
43. New York Philharmonic offers a kid zone with concert videos, games, puzzles, and instrument-making instructions. From games that introduce preschoolers to musical basics to activities that inspire elementary students to compose, this site is an excellent music instruction resource for your classroom.
Now, instead of searching for the next useful resource for your elementary school classroom, you can bookmark this page and refer to it time and again for the best sites for elementary educators on the web!