Free Online Learning Tools for Elementary Students

One of the most beneficial aspects of obtaining an education is learning to write. Unfortunately for some students with disabilities, writing can become an obstacle they must overcome in order to succeed. By using documentation, writing tools, and alternative technologies, these students can realize their strengths and enjoy educational opportunities that are within reach.

Tools for Building Interactive Lessons

This is a category of dynamic and interactive educational tools that make learning engaging for the students. They give life to your lessons with sound, videos, infographics, assessments, quizzes, and animation.

1. iSpring Free

iSpring Free is an eLearning authoring tool that allows you to turn boring PowerPoint presentations into mobile-compatible online courses with quizzes. The main advantage of the tool is its simplicity. Its intuitive interface enables any novice course developer to create an unlimited number of courses quickly and easily.

2. Kahoot

Kahoot is a game-based learning platform that lets you create fun learning games. You can make quizzes on any topic and in any language, and customize those quizzes with videos, diagrams, and images. Students participate in “kahoots” (games) by logging the game codes on their device or application.

3. Edpuzzle

With Edpuzzle, you can create interactive video lessons with embedded audio notes, assessments, and quizzes. Its analytics tool enables you to track how students are watching your videos and if they understand the content.

4. Starfall

Starfall is an online service that was initially designed to teach children to read. Its phonics-based learning model supports online games and print series, which can be downloaded for use at home and in the classroom. Now, it also features animated songs, movies, and mathematics activities for Pre-K, Kindergarten, and Grades 1 to 3.

5. SpellQuiz

SpellQuiz is another online service that is mainly focused on helping kids and adults to learn phonics. The platform contains English spelling lessons for individuals from Grade 1 to Adult, as well as fun quizzes and word games.

6. Quizzizz

Quizzizz is a web-based assessment tool that allows you to present quizzes on science, social sciences, computer science, technical education, and art to students as a timed test or homework with a specified deadline.

7. CommonLit

CommonLit is a database of literary instructional materials that you can use to develop lessons. You can choose a lesson from the digital library, share it with your students, assign them text-based questions, and analyze their performance.

8. Quill

Quill is a platform that has a set of tools for teaching writing, vocabulary, and grammar and includes over 400 exercises. You can guide your students to learn by reconstructing sentences, proofreading passages, writing new passages, and more.

9. Plickers

Plickers is a card activity that lets you poll your class, without the need for student devices. You just need to give each student a card (a “paper clicker”) and use your Android smartphone or tablet to scan them to do instant checks for understanding, exit tickets, and impromptu polls.

10. Powertalk

Powertalk is a presentation enhancement tool that automatically speaks your PowerPoint slides. When compared to other common ‘text-to-speech’ programs, Powertalk can speak text as it appears and can also speak hidden text attached to images.

11. FreeOnlineSurveys

FreeOnlineSurveys is a tool for building online tests, surveys, and forms. You can create quizzes using the drag-and-drop builder and 22 question types and fields, share them with your students and staff members, and analyze responses with its data reporting tool right from your mobile devices.

12. JeopardyLabs

JeopardyLabs is an online service that enables you to build Jeopardy games without PowerPoint, by using a simple editor. You can also choose from ready-made games created by the platform users on such subjects as foods, cities, countries, books, and hygiene.

13. Edgames

Edgames is an edutainment tool that provides educational activities, including board games, scrambled word games, sports-based games, and cards. You can help your students learn and understand personal hygiene, nutrition, current affairs, and many other things through playing games.

Teaching Tools for Classroom Management

A teacher’s tasks include planning lessons, marking attendance, assigning homework, and grading. This is where you can benefit from classroom management tools – they can help you streamline all these processes and improve communication and the learning process.

14. Edmodo

Edmodo is software that enables you to bring your classroom online. It provides a number of online tools for teachers that allow the sharing of class materials, assigning homework, and displaying students’ grades. You can also join students into learning groups, exchange messages with students and parents, and manage calendar events.

15. ClassDojo

ClassDojo is a classroom management tool that enables schools to bring parents, teachers, school administrators, and students into classroom communities so they can track and enhance classroom behavior in real-time.

16. Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a free educational technology tool that allows you to create an online classroom, invite your students, and assign homework. You can also discuss assignments with your students online and track their progress.

17. Class123

Class123 is a classroom management platform that contains a chalkboard, seating chart, timer, random name picker, and many other tools necessary for efficient class management. You can also keep track of students’ attendance and behavior, share stories and photos on boards, and communicate via private messages.

18. Flubaroo

Flubaroo is a Google Spreadsheets Add-on designed for you to quickly create multiple-choice and fill-in assignments, grade and analyze online student performance, share scores with students, and assign stickers and badges on completed tasks.

19. Show My Homework

Show My Homework is free technology software for teachers that helps them make the setting, administering, and monitoring of homework much easier. Teachers can quickly assign homework and record student submissions and grades on the go with its mobile app.

Content Sources for Teachers

With the enormous amount of educational digital content on the web, teachers can make their lessons even more useful and engaging. However, it is crucial to find trustworthy websites that provide valuable content. Here are a few sources of digital content you might find helpful in your teaching practice.

20. Ted-Ed

Ted-Ed is a platform that enables you to create educational lessons. You can build a lesson around video content and create assignments to assess how well students understand the material. You can also use ready-made videos from the specially curated “TED-Ed Originals” section that features lessons made by educators around the world.

21. YouTube Teachers

YouTube Teachers is a YouTube channel that allows you to leverage educational videos to inspire and engage your students. It contains over 400 video playlists created by leading organizations and industry experts such as the Khan Academy, Ted-Ed, and PBS.

22. YouTube Edu

YouTube Edu is another educational YouTube channel that provides extensive playlists on various subjects, from physics and chemistry to filmmaking and public speaking.

23. Ted Talks

Ted Talks are videos from industry experts and innovators on science, tech, business, and education subtitled in over 100 languages. You can integrate Ted Talks into your lessons to spark creativity and innovation in the minds of your students.

24. TeacherTube

TeacherTube is a free resource for teachers where they can share instructional videos and materials. You can upload your video tutorials and attach learning activities, assessments, and lesson notes to your videos. You can also browse other teachers’ content and connect with educators with similar interests.

25. SchoolTube

SchoolTube is a K-12 free video hosting platform that helps you integrate video content relating to subjects or concepts into your lessons without YouTube. The Free plan provides you with unlimited video hosting, video and audio creation apps, unlimited shareable playlists, automatic closed captioning, and a video quiz app.

26. Google Books

Google Books is a service from Google Inc. that provides access to unlimited books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text, and stored in its digital database. You can save, bookmark, or download books relating to the concepts you want to teach in class.

27. Readworks

Readworks helps students from elementary school to high school build their background knowledge and enhance their literacy skills. As a teacher, you can create reading groups based on their abilities and interests, monitor reading comprehension, and assign extra-credit tasks for students as they complete reading assignments.

28. Bibsonomy

Bibsonomy is an easy-to-use tool that helps you manage your publications and bookmarks, collaborate with your colleagues, and find new interesting materials for your research. You can tag publication entries and bookmarks to facilitate information searches.

29. Project Gutenberg

Gutenberg is a digital library with over 60,000 free e-books that you can download or read online. Here you’ll find the world’s great literature, with a focus on older works in the public domain.

30. Gapminder

Gapminder is a fact tank of animated statistics. The platform provides posters, interactive presentations, graphs, and handouts on global facts that can supplement instructional classroom materials.

Audio-Visual Design Tools

Audio-visual content is an effective asset for achieving your teaching-learning objectives. If you want to save time creating graphics, animation, or videos, or don’t have the requisite skills to work on advanced photo and video editing platforms like CorelDRAW and Photoshop, leverage easy-to-use tools from the list. The exciting thing is you can access them all for free.

31. Pixlr

Pixlr is a browser photo-editing tool that provides you with full control over your images. You can add filters, borders, and perform basic image editing by using over 3000 overlays, 5,000 decorative texts, and 7,000 icons.

32. Animoto

Animoto is an online video editor that enables you to convert photos and videos into slideshows. You just need to drag and drop your images and video clips into pre-built templates to create stunning slideshows that can be used as visual aids for classroom learning.

33. Pic-Lits

Pic-Lits is an eLearning literacy website that uses writing and photography to inspire and spark creative writing. You can create so-called “pic-lits” that are combinations of words placed on a photograph to render some story or the meaning of the picture and share them on your interactive whiteboard during a grammar or writing lesson.

34. Gickr

Gickr is a free online tool that lets you instantly create animated GIFs. You just need to upload your pictures or grab images from Flickr to make flashy slideshows, cartoons, or banners.

35. Smilebox

Smilebox is a web app that enables you to create slideshows, collages, greetings, invitations, photo albums, and scrapbooks. For example, as a teacher, you can make newsletters for your students, parent letters, certificates, and school photo albums and share them online.

36. Pixton

Pixton is a cartoon creation platform that can help you guide your students on creating comic strips to represent their understanding of concepts. It has numerous characters, different sets of comic strip layouts, and background options your students can use to design comics and storyboards.

37. Chartsbin

Chartsbin is a data visualization app used by teachers to introduce various topics with infographics. You can also leverage the tool to guide your students on creating infographics from the materials they have learned to show their mastery of the subject.

38. Tableau Public

Tableau Public is a free data visualization platform that enables you to create interactive graphs, stunning maps, and live dashboards in minutes. You can use it to manage in-class exercises and homework assignments and connect with a vibrant community of data enthusiasts.

39. Roxio Photoshow Maker

Roxio Photoshow Maker is an online tool that allows you to combine images, video clips, and soundtracks to create slideshow stories. You can make them look even more professional and engaging by adding captions, effects, and transitions.

40. Ezvid Wikimaker

Ezvid Wikimaker is a free video creator powered by voice synthesis. It was initially designed to allow researchers and journalists to turn text into video wikis. But you can create video tutorials with images and video clips. You don’t even need to record a voiceover – when you add text, it will be automatically transformed into narration.

41. Free Cam

Free Cam provides a full set of features for creating professional video lessons and eLearning presentations. You can easily record screencasts, edit recorded videos, and upload to YouTube or email them to your students.

42. MakeBeliefsComix

MakeBeliefsComix is an in-browser comic creator that provides you with multiple ways to use it in a classroom environment. For example, you can have your students create comic strips to practice new vocabulary, develop conversation skills, or inspire creative writing.

43. Vocaroo

Vocaroo is an online tool that helps record, send, and download your voice notes. You can use it for podcasting, broadcasting, digital storytelling, or giving feedback. Recordings are available for a few months (usually three months).

Communication and Collaboration Tools

Communication and collaboration are important aspects of both teaching and learning. We’ve compiled a list of tools that will help you make these processes even easier and more efficient. Here you’ll find teaching communities, tools for sharing educational resources and tips, and apps for conducting online discussions.

44. Flipgrid

Flipgrid is an online service that provides a simple, free, and accessible video discussion experience for Pre-K to PhD educators, learners, and families. You can create a discussion topic and share it with your learning community. In response, learners will record and share their videos with you and your team.

45. Goboard

Goboard is an online collaborative tool that combines video conferencing with an interactive canvas. It is designed to help students collaborate one-on-one on virtually any topic. Goboard features a digital blackboard, so users can share their notes, pictures, and calculations.

46. Teacheroo

Teacheroo is the only global social network designed specifically for teachers. You can post your resources and educational tips, comment, like, repost other teachers’ materials, and build professional connections.

47. Loop

Loop enables you to gather feedback from your students in real-time. You can type in your questions or pick ones from a library of best practice questions. Students will receive notifications and can reply instantly.

48. Teach Learn Lead

Teach Learn Lead is a community dedicated to supporting, encouraging, and connecting new teachers as they navigate their early careers in the classroom. It includes the global education library that is a curated epicenter of K-20 research and professional development resources.

49. Google Docs

Google Docs is a free word processor included as part of a Google Docs suite within the Google Drive service. It enables you to create and edit your own documents, check your students’ writings, and add comments to provide them with feedback.

50. Bloomz

Bloomz is an interactive app that enables teachers and schools to share classroom updates, events, and photos with parents securely. You can send an alert notification of the next parent-teacher meeting to emails and smartphones with a single click.

Full Curriculum Coverage Distance Learning Tools

Albert: Thousands of standards-aligned practice questions for grades 6-12. Curriculum coverage of ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, AP, SAT®, ACT®, Regents, STAAR, and Common Core needs. Click here to evaluate Albert for free.
ABCmouse: Reading, math, science, art & colors curriculum for ages 2-8. They offer a 30-day trial after you watch their video on their homepage.
BrainPOP: Over a 1,000 short animated movies for grades K-12 in all subjects, with quizzes and related materials. You can request free unlimited use of the BrainPOP suite for the duration of your school closure here.
CK-12: Free and customizable K-12 open educational resources that are aligned to state curriculum standards.
EducationCity: Targeted at grades PreK-6 providing lesson plans, resources and activities. 21-day free trial here.
Edulastic: Library of standards-aligned practice questions to create assessments in minutes. They’re offering Premium and Enterprise features for free until July 1, 2020. Learn more here.
IXL: K-12 curriculum supports for math, language arts, science, stocial studies, spanish, and Common Core. Teachers can start a 30-day trial account here.
Khan Academy: 100% free covering a wide range of subjects. Particularly strong in STEM subjects.
MobyMax: Targeted towards K-8 teachers providing CCSS-aligned content, assessments, and activities. Free COVID-19 support announcement here.
Nearpod: Thousands of customizable lessons with student activities. Request support here.
PBS: Free K-12 classroom resources ranging from media galleries, videos, and lesson plans. Create a free account for full features.

Reading or English Language Arts Distance Learning Tools

Albert: Thousands of standards-aligned practice questions for grades 6-12. ELA content is high-interest, evidence-driven, with built-in differentiation. Click here to evaluate Albert for free.
Accelerated Reader: Reading quizzes on a variety of books. Requires subscription.
ActivelyLearn: Standards-aligned ELA, Science, and Social Studies for promoting students to stop and ask questions. COVID-19 offer here.
Book Creator: Lets you create digital books online. Fosters creativity in the classroom for telling stories and more. They’re offering 90-days of free access you can start using here.
BoomWriter: For grades 2-8. Somewhat similar to Book Creator in that it allows students to create original stories that can be published into softcover books. But also allows teachers to send students engaging fiction and non-fiction and vocabulary exercises.
CommonLit: 100% free site that provides a digital lesson library, formative insights, and interim assessments. Features some Spanish materials as well.
Epic: Digital library for K-5. There are learning videos and quizzes within as well.
Learning Ally: Equitable access to a large library of “human-read” audiobooks, including, curriculum-aligned literature, fiction and nonfiction, and STEM textbooks.
MyOn: Digital library of 6,000 titles sorted by grade and Lexile reading level. Requires subscription.
Newsela: Leveled readings to build literacy skills. Most require a subscription.
ReadWorks: Free content, curriculum, and tools for grades K-12 targeted at building reading comprehension. You can read about their recommendations regarding using the site remotely here.
Starfall Reading: Targeted at K-3 for teaching basic English reading and writing skills. Lots of games and phonics. Some features require a subscription.
StoryKit: Simple free storybook creation app that allows students to add pictures and recordings with their own voices. Targeted at K-5.
ReadTheory: This is an online reading comprehension platform that is completely free for teachers.

Writing Distance Learning Tools

Albert: 100% free grammar course with over 3,300 original practice questions and explanations. Includes contemporary, informative and engaging texts and aligns to Common Core, Regents, and TEKS standards.
Draftin: Simple site that allows you to have students share drafts with easy version controls. Good for those who may not want to use Google Docs and wants to emphasize focus in writing. Has a free version.
Grammarly: Free browser extension or desktop tool that detects tone, typos, and helps build cleaner writing skills.
Hemingway: Similar to Grammarly, provides annotations to help make student writing bolder and more clear. Free.
Quill: Free writing and grammar activities for K-12. Includes lessons for teachers to lead writing instruction as well as diagnostics.
Scholastic Story Starters: Tool focused for K-6 to help students brainstorm ideas for writing a fictional story. Prompts for adventure, fantasy, and sci-fi are included.

Math Distance Learning Tools

Albert: Hundreds of free questions and explanations in Foundations of Algebra and Algebra 1. Aligned to Common Core, Regents, and TEKS standards. Albert is providing supports for impacted schools you can learn more about here.
Dad’s Worksheets: This site provides printable worksheets, online calculators, games and puzzles for free. Targeted for K-6.
DeltaMath: Interactive math practice for middle and high school students. Accounts are free for teachers and students.
Desmos: Free online graphing calculator that includes digital activities for students from 6th to 12th grade. Teachers can create accounts to assign student activities.
Free Math App: A platform where teachers can assign, review, and leave feedback on student work.
FunexpectedApps: Targeted for kids 3-7 to develop mathematical thinking. They are offering a pack of free activities and a free desktop version of their app.
Geogebra: Online tools for graphing and geometry. Classroom resources and activities are free.
Illustrative Mathematics: Free math curriculum and resources for grades K-12 with a focus on creative word problems.
LegendsofLearning: 2,000 3rd through 8th-grade math and science games and simulations correlated to state standards. They are offering free access to all premium features for schools closed due to the outbreak for the duration of their closure.
Mathigon: An interactive math textbook where students can learn and practice new concepts. Targeted towards high school students.
Mathletics: An adaptive, interactive math platform centered on math challenges and quizzes that allow students to “compete” with one another. Schools and home users can try a 30-day free trial.
Mathsonline: A collection of math tutorial videos, questions, and summaries. Accounts are required, but students, teachers, and parents can get a free trial.
Mathspace: An adaptive mathematics platform including practice questions and interactive textbooks.
Myimaths: Math lessons and homework assignments for students ages 11 to 18. Schools can sign up for a 30-day free trial.
National Association for the Education of Young Children: Activities that parents and guardians can do with young children (elementary and below) at home.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics: Resources and activities for student exploration of mathematics.
SplashLearn: Game-based math learning program for grades K-5 available on iOS, Android, or Web. They’re COVID-19 support announcement can be found here.
The Math Learning Center: Free games and activities for students in Pre-K through 6th grade.
VirtualNerd: Math video support in middle school, Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry.
Youcubed: Inspirational math tasks, films, and textbooks to help students develop a growth mindset.
Zearn: Digital lessons and printable activities aligned to EngageNY and Eureka Math. Resources are free and targeted towards grades K-5.

Language Learning Distance Learning Tools

Duolingo: 100% free language learning. Personalized with immediate grading and gamification. Optional paid subscription to remove ads and get offline access.
Fabulingua: Teaches Spanish through magical interactive stories on phones and tablets specifically for kids ages 2-10. FabuLingua is suspending their subscription services and providing their entire platform for free to those impacted.
FluentU: Language immersion through real-world videos. 14-day trial is available to sign up for.
Fluency Matters: Provides e-courses that include e-books, audiobooks, quizzes, and activities. Typically $3.50/student. They’re offering extended 21-day trials. More information here.
justlearn: Here you can find a native tutor and online teacher to help you with language learning.
TeachVid: Allows you to create language learning content with interactive text reconstruction activities and quizzes
English Tools: Over 25 free tools for learning English language learners, including grammar tools, worksheet creation tools, and more.

Science Distance Learning Tools

Albert: Thousands of standards-aligned practice questions for grades 6-12. Science content is high-interest, evidence-driven, with built-in differentiation. Click here to evaluate Albert for free.
Discovery Education: Arguably best known for their science textbooks, but also support other STEM subjects. They are providing free access to their materials for the remainder of the school year. Learn more here.
Mystery Science: Interactive lessons targeted at K-5 science curriculum that are NGSS-aligned and Common Core aligned. They’ve made their most popular lessons free here.
STEMScopes: K-12 STEM curriculum with digital resources, print materials, and exploration kits. General information of how their online platform can support during this time can be found here.

Computer Science Distance Learning Tools

Codecademy: Free basic courses in computer science. Paid subscription optional; subscription unlocks members only content, study-plans, real-world projects and community support.
Minecraft Education Edition: Perfect for students to learn problem-solving — free lessons through June 30 with more details here.
Penjee: Free site that provides a supportive way to learn your first text-based programming language.
Tynker: Coding site targeted for ages 5+. Includes a complete coding curriculum, automatic assessments, and classroom management tools. Google form for COVID-19 supports can be submitted here.

Social Studies Distance Learning Tools

Library of Congress: Classroom materials and digital collections for teachers that align to CCSS as well as state standards. Sortable by Common Core, State Content, and Organizations.
National Constitution Center: Free online civics learning including the Interactive Constitution and Scholar Exchanges, live virtual interactive conversations about the Constitution.
Seterra: Geography games for students. Targeted primarily at grades K-5. Learn more about their free access announcement here.
Smithsonian Education: Features a Learning Lab that allows you to build collections and educational experiences for students. Also has a Game Center for younger STEM learners and an extensive library on AMerican history.
Stanford’s Civic Online Reasoning Curriculum: Provides free lessons and assessments for students to evaluate online information. The Stanford History Education Group provides other history lessons for free here as well.
Teaching Tolerance: Site dedicated to providing free resources K-12 for creating civil and inclusive school communities. You can build a learning plan following their guide here.
Zinn Education Project: Targeted towards grades 6-12 built off Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. Free downloadable lessons and articles you can use based on theme, time period and reading level.

Music Learning Distance Learning Tools

Cyber Fret: Video based guitar lessons.
Metronome: Online metronome.
Moosiko: Online practice tool for guitar teachers to help their students learn chords, play songs, and track skills.
Ultimate Guitar: World’s largest source of guitar tabs.
Online Guitar Tuner: Tune your guitar online.

Organization & Collaboration

Save your bookmarks, collaborate with colleagues, and stay in touch with parents using these web tools.

Thinkature: Thinkature offers real-time collaboration online for students, teachers, and more.
Flickr: Share and store classroom images with this incredibly popular online photo storage service.
Diigo: Diigo is a great tool for highlighting and sharing the web with your students.
PBwiki: Create an easy-to-update web space and resource for your class using PBwiki.
del.icio.us: Save your favorite sites and share them with your class using del.icio.us.
Clipmarks: Create Clipmarks to clip out little pieces of the web to share with your classroom.
Wizlite: Enjoy collaborative page highlighting with this tool. (NOTE: This link is not functional as of June 2010 – Beyond Penguins project staff.)
Netvibes: Create a class start page full of useful resources with Netvibes.
Gliffy: Create and share flow charts, diagrams, and more with Gliffy.
Notecentric: Share and store your class notes with this online note taking application.

Search Engines & Directories

Make use of these search engines and directories that offer the best of the web.

Clusty: With this clustering search engine, you’ll be able to search on Wikipedia, blogs, and more at one time.
BUBL: Find selected Internet resources in specific academic subject areas through BUBL.
Turbo10: This search engine looks on more than 800 deep web search engines at once, so you’ll be able to save time and find great information you can’t find anywhere else.
Complete Planet: On Complete Planet, you can find more than 70,000 searchable databases and specialty search engines.
Ask for Kids: This search engine was created with kids in mind, offering tutoring and reference help as well as search.
Librarians’ Internet Index: Find websites you and your students can trust in this directory compiled by librarians.
CyberSleuth Kids: Get searches, homework help, and more from this website.
Geniusfind: Geniusfind offers a directory to some of the best resources you can find on the web.
Internet Archive: Check out the Internet Archive to get access to websites and pages that have fallen off the web.
KidsClick!: Visit this website for a kid-friendly search engine.
Digital Librarian: This site offers a librarian’s guidance for the best resources online.
Infomine: Infomine is full of scholarly Internet resource collections that you and your students can use.
ProTeacher Directory: ProTeacher has teaching ideas, resources, blogs, and more for elementary school teachers.

Google

Google is known for its useful web tools, but did you know that a lot of them have incredible applications for education? Take a look at these Google tools to see how they’ll work for your classroom.

Google Custom Search Engine: Create your own custom search engine and tell Google which sites you want it to index, and you’ll be able to offer your students the best of the web.
Google Docs: Google Docs offers teachers and students a web-based word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation editor that can be used securely and collaboratively from any computer.
Google Book Search: Search the full text of books ranging from popular best sellers to out-of-print books on Google’s Book Search.
Google Groups: Set up a discussion group for your classroom on Google Groups.
Google News: Google News is a wonderful place to look for news in newspapers and magazines around the world.
Google Maps: Your class can use Google Maps to build maps of your community, learn about cities, and more.
Google Page Creator: This Google tool allows teachers and students to create useful web pages without having to use complicated code.
Google classroom posters: Help your students search the web better with these posters that contain tips for using Google Search and other Google products.
iGoogle: iGoogle allows you to create a custom page for your classroom that includes components like a school calendar, bookmarks, news, and more.
Blogger: Start a class blog with Blogger, and you can share work, pictures, and more, all while staying connected with your classroom community.
Google Notebook: Use Google Notebook as an easy to use notepad for the web.
Google Calendar: With Google Calendar, you can easily communicate school schedule information with your classroom community.
Google classroom activities: Here, Google offers a few activity ideas for elementary school children.

Templates & Lesson Plans

These simple tools will make your job just a little bit easier.

Student information roster: Download this PDF to have student information easily at hand.
Lesson Plans Library: Discovery Education offers a wide variety of lesson plans, from Ancient History to Economics.
Record-Keeping Template: This chart is useful for a wide variety of applications, including permission slip checkoffs, parent communication, and more.

Research & Reference

Make use of these tools to give your students the research power they need.

Infoplease: Infoplease combines an encyclopedia, almanac, atlas, dictionary, and a lot more, all in one place.
HowStuffWorks: Your students can find easy to understand information about how anything and everything work on this site.
MetaGlossary: MetaGlossary defines more than 2 million terms, phrases, and acronyms.
Repositories of Primary Sources: This index is a wonderful place to find strong sources for manuscripts, archives, historical photographs, and more.
Refdesk: Find kid-friendly research resources through Refdesk.
eHow: eHow explains in simple language how you can do just about anything.

Games

Make learning fun by sharing these online educational games with your students.

FreeRice: Have your students play this vocabulary game, and they’ll learn while donating food to people in need.
Brain Boosters: Discovery Education’s Brain Boosters are challenging mental games.
Learning Adventures: This collection offers multimedia education on sharks, slavery, and more.

Reading & Writing

These tools are useful when teaching students about reading and writing.

The Online Books Page: This website is home to more than 30,000 free books that you can read online.
Bartleby: Bartleby offers lots of different texts online, from novels to reference.
Audio Books for Kids: Allow your kids to listen to audio books for free with this site.
RhymeZone: In the RhymeZone, you can type in a word to find its rhymes, synonyms, definitions, and more.
Children’s Storybooks Online: This site offers illustrated children’s stories for free.
Word Search Generator: Create a customized printable word find worksheet with this tool.
Free Classic Audiobooks: On this site, you’ll find classics like Huckleberry Finn on audiobooks for free.
Poetry Idea Engine: The Poetry Idea Engine is a great tool for writing haikus, limericks, and more.
Orangoo: Use this quick online spell check to make sure your text is perfect.
Bibliomania: Bibliomania offers more than 2,000 classic texts, along with notes, author biographies, and study guides.
Writing Prompts/Journal Topics: Check out these topics to assign to your students.
Handwriting Worksheets: Use these worksheets to help your students practice their handwriting.
Project Gutenberg: This project has more than 25,000 free books, and over 100,000 titles in its network.

Math & Science

Make use of these tools to deliver a richer math and science experience.

SuperKids Math Worksheet Calculator: Create math drill worksheets using this tool.
Calcoolate: Give your classroom an awesome calculator with this “cool” tool.
Produce Oasis: Visit the Produce Oasis to learn about nutrition and food.
eNature Zip Guides: Find wildlife that lives in your local area with this online nature tool.
The Abacus: Check out The Abacus to find an abacus tutorial, calculations, and more.
Visible Body: Use Visible Body to give your class a 3D look at human anatomy.
Universal Currency Converter: Teach your class about money around the world with this currency converting calculator.
whonamedit: Find out about the name behind medical conditions with this online tool.
Ask Dr. Math: Dr. Math has formulas, instructional resources, and more.
TryScience: TryScience has great ideas for experiments, field trips, and science adventures.
Create A Graph: With this web tool, you’ll be able to quickly and easily generate graphs.
Climate Zone: Teach your students about the climates of the world with Climate Zone.
Math Playground: On the Math Playgound, you’ll find worksheets, logic puzzles, and more.
Roman Numeral Converter: Use this converter to easily switch back and forth between roman numerals and regular numbers.

Arts

These online collections offer a wonderful way to share art from around the world with your students.

The Guggenheim Museum: Share the Guggenheim’s online collection with your students.
Louvre Museum: Find some of the Louvre’s collection available online here.
Catalog of American Portraits: You can find more than 80,000 portraits in this portrait search.
Classical Music Archives Listen to the works of the great composers on this website.
National Gallery of Art: Find galleries of photographs, sculpture, and more in the National Gallery of Art.

History & Social Studies

From geography to mummies, you’ll find lots of tools for exploring our world here.

50 States: This website offers a wealth of information about each of the 50 states in the United States.
Geodata.gov: Find useful state, local, and federal geographic data on this website.
Maps.com: This online map store has lots of wonderful games, including a U.S. Capitals map game and a geographic continent map game.
The Biography Maker: Use this tool to turn a biography into a wonderful story about a person’s life.
Visible Earth: Show your class unique perspectives of the earth with satellite images from Visible Earth.
Clickable Mummy: Explore the different parts of the mummy and learn about the mummification process with this online tool.
Countries of the World: Find country studies from the Library of Congress and other authoritative sources through this site.
EyeWitness to History: Get a look at the ancient world through World War II through photos, voices, and other media on this history site.
CIA World Factbook: The CIA World Factbook has useful information about the countries of the world, including maps and flags.
The History Beat: This site offers loads of history timelines on the web.
ANYDAY Today-in-History: Learn what happened on any day in history with this online tool.
dMarie: dMarie’s time capsules offer a way to look at data for dates from 1800 to 2002.

Online Libraries

Make use of these online libraries to enjoy incredible collections that you can share with your students.

Smithsonian’s Galaxy of Knowledge: The Smithsonian has a digital library, arts, science, lectures, and more.
Exploratorium Digital Library: Exploratorium offers a variety of collections in digital media and digitized museum materials for elementary school students and beyond.
SONIC: The Library of Congress’s Sound Online Inventory and Catalog houses about 2.5 million audio recordings, including unpublished recordings.
The Internet Public Library: Founded by a class of students at the University of Michigan, the Internet Public Library is a full-service library online.
Stately Knowledge: This kid section of the Internet Public Library offers basic facts about the United States, the world, health, music, and much more.

Activities

Create fun and educational activities for your class with these resources.

Electronic Fieldtrips: Take field trips online with this site.

Exploratorium Hands-on Activities: Here you’ll find activities including sport science, a journey to Mars, and cow’s eye dissection.

GPS Activities & Lesson Plans: This resource will show you how to make GPS and geocaching an important part of your curriculum.

Conclusion

Writing is a basic and fundamental task for students and professionals alike. While most people enjoy writing and find this task easy to do, others struggle with it. Writing is challenging for two types of learners: those who have learning disabilities and those who need effective writing tools. Those with learning disabilities may have trouble generating ideas, organizing thoughts on paper, and editing their work. Students who need effective writing tools may face challenges such as the inability to write using a computer, problems with fine motor control, or other issues that inhibit writing fluency. Fortunately, there are many tools available to address the needs of both types of learners.