31 Peer-Recommended Resources for Elementary Teachers
New Jersey Alternate Route candidates specializing in Elementary Education recently recommended free web resources that they’ve consulted when preparing lessons and engaging, relevant activities for students. Their suggested resources are a part of our blog series featuring go-to-websites, blogs, and other online teaching and reference materials for helping our state’s youth achieve the NJ Student Learning Standards. More than 300 teachers participated in this professional swap and share, with many contributing lesser-known resources that even seasoned educators will be excited to discover. Read why Elementary educators love the resources they recommend.
Blooket
"The way it works is that a teacher/host picks a question set and a unique game mode. Then, we generate a code that players can use to join the game on their own devices. After the game starts, players will answer questions to help them win. That’s where the fun starts, because we offer a variety of games to keep students engaged and excited!"
-Brittany L.
BrainPop
"This site is definitely geared more towards Elementary, but I love it because it has videos on all general education topics in words/visuals the students understand. Each video has a quiz option, and also games, quick checks, and other resources to use. We use it mainly for social studies because it has great options for many of our historical topics."
-Nicole W.
Centervention
"This is a unique site that provides thousands of SEL resources for teachers to use in class. It has brain breaks, emotional understanding activities, lessons that highlight communication with peers, and so much more. The resources within this website will really help the development of our students SEL, especially in a post-COVID world."
-Abigail C.
Colorin Colorado
"This site offers many different bilingual resources. They offer books, videos, a blog, and they also have information for parents. I use this for their articles about teaching English Language Learners."
-Madeline V.
Edutopia
"Amazing techniques for classroom management and resources for professional development."
-Nellie B.
Epic
"Students can read, be read to, or see picture books on this site. There are so many different books on different topics and different reading levels. My daughter in particular loves reading books on Epic."
-Simone C.
Factile Jeopardy
"Factile offers the space to create customizable jeopardy games OR play a preloaded game based on various content. There is a small fee, I usually pay the $6 to use it as needed and then cancel the membership. It's so fun, flexible, and always a great review day activity."
-Danae R.
GoNoodle.com
"GoNoodle is my favorite educational 'brain break.' Young students often struggle to remain focused for large periods of time. GoNoodle provides them with a variety of different activities which get their bodies moving and their brains working. Some elements have a more educational basis and can be used to reinforce lessons from ELA or math. However, while some of the videos offer little academic support, they offer reliably appropriate guided dances, routines, and activities that allow students to release some pent-up energy. I choose to use these particular resources as either a quick break from sitting too long, an end-of-day reward, or else I often use several together when students must have indoor recess."
-Maria C.
Happynumbers
"Free website. Provides updates and information regarding students' math status. These reports are collected and sent to you in order to check the status of your students’ academic growth for math. I use the weekly reports to gain a better insight into where my students need to improve, and then I reteach them that information."
-Joe P.
IXL Learning
"IXL allows the students to work at their own pace until mastery of a particular area of different subjects is achieved. The students work independently, not against anyone else, which I believe is a huge help. You can use it for multiple grade levels, too."
-Connor F.
K5 learning
This website is great for worksheets and activities to print out. I love using their math worksheets and reading passages.
-Karla A.
Learning at the Primary Pond
"The creator of this site is a reading specialist who has great information on reading, writing, small groups, center-based learning and so much more. She also has videos on YouTube. I have recently discovered her videos on YouTube and have found so many useful tips and practices that I want to incorporate into my teaching next year."
-Bethany F.
LetsGoLearn
"Used to assess students in both math and ELA and provide students with instruction in those areas."
-Robert Y.
Mosa Mack
"Mosa Mack is an awesome science site for kids! What I like about this site is it seems more student paced, as well as hands on. Students can complete Do-Nows, have guided practice, even have "checks" to show their understanding."
-Hayley W.
Mystery Science
"Amazing videos and follow-up lessons about science topics. All tied to curriculum, entertaining, and explained at a level that my students understand and enjoy."
-Andrew C.
NewsELA
"I like it as comprehension assignments mostly for social studies and current events for my students. The Lexile level can be adjusted for the student groups and there is a quiz to check for understanding that can be used as an exit ticket."
-Amarlyn S.
PBS - Student Reporting Labs
"Student Reporting Labs (SRL) creates project-based learning resources to support teachers and young people invested in building vital media literacy skills and reporting on important issues in their community."
-Elliot R.
PBS Learning Media
"PBS Learning Media is something that I actually already use in the classroom! I primarily use it for enhancing social studies lessons, particularly for Colonial America. I have not even thought about using this site across the curriculum for general education, but it is a great resource. The news quizzes in particular stuck out to me because I often struggle to think about ways to approach current events with students."
-Sara A.
Raz Kids
"This site offers fun reading practice for your students online."
-Caitlyn B.
Read Write Think
"It provides free lessons, lesson plans, activities, videos for students to improve their reading and writing."
-Namrata S.
Read At-Home Sets Resources
"This is a great resource you can provide to students' parents for additional practice for their child based on their guided reading level. It includes all the components of a guided reading lesson in the videos created by teachers."
-Christy N.
ReadWorks
"This site provides free K-12 reading comprehension texts and articles. You can create class lists and assign articles and quizzes to different students. You can search by topic and grade level. They also have an "Article-of-the-Day" section to build background knowledge and reading stamina."
-Mary B.
Scholastic Teachables
"Has worksheets, lesson plans and learning games."
-Marissa B.
Seesaw
"Seesaw is a very user-friendly site. This site helped me so much through my first year of teaching. You can find activities and assign them to your students, or you can create your own. The site is easily linkable with Google classroom and it shows the progress of each individual student as well as the class in general. It can be a great tool for data tracking and making a case for extra support for students. The activities also support students' learning related to technology use."
-Jhasmany S.
Starfall
"An engaging sight where students can build literacy skills and number sense in the form of games. Teachers and parents also have access to customizable printable worksheets that complement the lessons."
-Shireen G.
Story Line Online
"This is a read aloud website that I use during downtime or as supplemental reading comprehension material. It is very professionally done and has great content."
-Johanna F.
Super Teacher Worksheets
"Site has amazing worksheets for all subject areas and grade levels, as well as worksheet generators that you can easily set up your own worksheets."
-Maximilian B.
Teacher Vision
"Provides classroom management advice, help in developing lesson plans, printable worksheets, and student activities."
-Mary Ann G.
Teachers Pay Teachers
"This is a great resource where teachers have access to each other's classwork, lesson plans, and even classroom décor and crafts. It allows teachers to use and share each other's work while supporting one another."
-Nadia A.
WeAreTeachers
"This is a blog-style site for teachers. It provides a lot of ideas for lessons, advice, and classroom procedures. I have personally used a handful of ideas gathered from this site and sometimes even put my own twist to it."
-Amanda S.
What Works Clearinghouse
I think this is great because as a special education teacher it is more difficult to find content for my students. This website has resources on what works for children with disabilities.
-Dasia B.
If you’re considering following your dream of teaching, Rutgers Alternate Route can offer you the support and training you need to succeed. Be sure to follow Rutgers Alternate Route on Twitter sign up for Alternate Route’s monthly newsletter for more information and stories from the field of education.
Comments
Review of Mystery Science App
Mystery Science is appropriate for my students as its purpose is give hands-on learning experiences that match our grade level standards. The app is able to be used independently by students whether in the classroom or at home for on-line learning. Students are highly motivated to use Mystery Science and the app facilitates a higher level thinking skills. The downside of the app is having pre-prepped materials for the hands on learning piece rather just watching videos. There is no student feedback provided nor is there any performance summary over time. In class, we have uploaded pictures of our student projects into our interactive science journal posted on google classroom so that we can add a CRE to our science learning objective.
IXL Learning App.
I chose to write a review about the IXL Learning application. This app helps students to master topics and practice questions on all subjects. It is aligned with the NJSLS and the curriculum. This software can be adjusted to fit the needs of the student, it’s easy to navigate, provides personalized learning, and it helps struggling students learn new concepts. IXL gives teachers real-time diagnostics that pinpoints the students’ overall grade level/score and it breaks down into sub-topics in a particular subject area. This tool reveals exactly what students know and it helps the teacher to take steps needed to foster growth and promotes higher order thinking skills. It keep scores for each skill on one chart. IXL is an exciting and engaging program that inspires students to take responsibility for their own learning. The data is also helpful to use during PLC’s and can be shared with the students and their parents during conferences.
IXL Learning
I chose to write a review about the IXL Learning application. This app helps students to master topics and practice questions on all subjects. It is aligned with the NJSLS and the curriculum. This software can be adjusted to fit the needs of the student, it’s easy to navigate, provides personalized learning, and it helps struggling students learn new concepts. IXL gives teachers real-time diagnostics that pinpoints the students’ overall grade level/score and it breaks down into sub-topics in a particular subject area. This tool reveals exactly what students know and it helps the teacher to take steps needed to foster growth and promotes higher order thinking skills. It keep scores for each skill on one chart. IXL is an exciting and engaging program that inspires students to take responsibility for their own learning. The data is also helpful to use during PLC’s and can be shared with the students and their parents during conferences.
IXL App
IXL Learning application helps students to master topics and practice questions on all subjects. It is aligned with the NJSLS and the curriculum. This software can be adjusted to fit the needs of the student, it’s easy to navigate, provides personalized learning, and it helps struggling students learn new concepts. IXL gives teachers real-time diagnostics that pinpoint the students’ overall grade level/score and it breaks down into sub-topics in a particular subject area. This tool reveals exactly what students know and it helps the teacher to take steps needed to foster growth and higher order thinking skills. It keeps scores for each skill on one chart. IXL is an exciting and engaging program that inspires students to take responsibility for their own learning. The data obtained from IXL can be helpful for PLC (Professional Learning Community) meetings and can be shared with the students and their parents during conferences.
EPIC
Epic supports students in practicing a variety of skills that are age appropriate. Students can zoom into a page, adapt the speed of reading to their needs, change the language, and highlight words within a text. The teacher can adapt certain settings to support learning needs, such as: turning on and off the read aloud mode and assigning books with quizzes. Students are given an assessment after reading a text which offers them feedback in the form of showing them the correct answer. Students enjoy interacting with this app because there are a variety of activities and texts. They can earn badges and view reading level. The teacher is able to track student progress by viewing their assessment answers and scores, the number of books read, badges earned, etc. Overall, EPIC has many appealing features to students and teachers.
5th Grade Mathematics
I love using the app, "Seesaw". This app is fantastic to use for elementary students because you can post assignments for the students to complete, and you can also use this app to communicate with families. When I was an ELA teacher in 4th Grade, I always used the app, "Epic". This app is incredibly easy for students to launch and access by themselves. This app also gives me feedback on what books students love to read, which ones they don't like to read, and how much time they spend reading each book. I also quickly found out that the students were incredibly motivated to use the app, some even bought a membership so they could read at home!
ReadWorks
It is a web-based tool for reading comprehension that provides question sets, vocabulary skill builders, open-ended questions, and a progress tracker, making it a relevant tool for teaching reading comprehension. The site allows you to build and manage your classroom roster and connect it with your Google Classroom for easy assignment allocation. You can also differentiate the assignments for certain students and provide accommodation for certain students. There is a range of topics and subjects to choose from that all align with the standards. You can provide individual feedback to your students to see through the site after completing assignments. It grades the assignments for you except for the open-ended assignments. You must manually provide a grade. You can review the question sets before assigning the content to your students. Students like to share with me what they learned from the article while reading. They enjoy interacting with the site and listening to the articles for those that need that modification. Overall, I give the site a 24 out of 28 because it could be more user-friendly when it comes to the vocabulary builder widget.
ReadWorks
It is a web-based tool for reading comprehension that provides question sets, vocabulary skill builders, open-ended questions, and a progress tracker, making it a relevant tool for teaching reading comprehension. The site allows you to build and manage your classroom roster and connect it with your Google Classroom for easy assignment allocation. You can also differentiate the assignments for certain students and provide accommodation for certain students. There is a range of topics and subjects to choose from that all align with the standards. You can provide individual feedback to your students to see through the site after completing assignments. It grades the assignments for you except for the open-ended assignments. You must manually provide a grade. You can review the question sets before assigning the content to your students. Students like to share with me what they learned from the article while reading. They enjoy interacting with the site and listening to the articles for those that need that modification. Overall, I give the site a 24 out of 28 because it could be more user-friendly when it comes to the vocabulary builder widget.
ReadWorks
It is a web-based tool for reading comprehension that provides question sets, vocabulary skill builders, open-ended questions, and a progress tracker, making it a relevant tool for teaching reading comprehension. The site allows you to build and manage your classroom roster and connect it with your Google Classroom for easy assignment allocation. You can also differentiate the assignments for certain students and provide accommodation for certain students. There is a range of topics and subjects to choose from that all align with the standards. You can provide individual feedback to your students to see through the site after completing assignments. It grades the assignments for you except for the open-ended assignments. You must manually provide a grade. You can review the question sets before assigning the content to your students. Students like to share with me what they learned from the article while reading. They enjoy interacting with the site and listening to the articles for those that need that modification. Overall, I give the site a 24 out of 28 because it could be more user-friendly when it comes to the vocabulary builder widget.
SplashLearn
Splashlearn is game-based and curriculum-aligned learning experience for Math and Reading. It is 100% free and over 8,000 learning games. It is for elementary school students K-5. The app allows differentiation for students to address various learning styles through a game based platform. The program offers instant feedback so students can catch their mistakes too.
Super Teacher Worksheets
Super Teacher Worksheets is a resource that provides me with worksheet and activities that help support my lesson. I use this versatile resource when I need to differentiate assignments for students that are on different learning levels. It has a strong connection to the lesson and objective and is student appropriate. I can find additional material to support our lesson (for example, articles on the oceans in social studies and animal habitats in science). Super Teacher Worksheets also allow teachers to create worksheets for games and fun as well as quizzes for quick assessments. The material and content is flexible and can be altered to meet the needs of my students. Teachers can create worksheets for games and fun as well as quizzes for quick assessments.
Epic Books
Students really enjoy using Epic as their Daily 5 Reading choice. Teachers can also use it to assign reader's response after a read aloud and can assign the same book on Epic to complete the reader's response. Teachers can also assign books to do activities and students can also use this independently as a choice. It really makes them upset that they can't have access to it after school hours!!
Epic
Epic books offer elementary grade level online books to students. The app is accessible through the student’s Clever portal or through Google Classroom. Epic offers a wide variety of texts to students. Books can be assigned to students, with or without a quiz at the end. The quizzes, however are not available for every book. Students can also choose a book to read on their own. You can assign books that are relevant to what you are teaching or use it as an additional support to reinforce reading skills. The app has a robust search feature with filters so you can find books easily and assign them to students. There is a feature that you can use to assign books to the whole class or just certain students. This feature helps with providing customizable content to students based on their reading level. Quiz results and reports are available for teachers to view. The app offers some flexibility to learners however there is little to know feedback when it comes to quizzes. There are no writing assignments associated with Epic; it is strictly for reading. Epic does have a video library and read-to-me books which can be helpful for accommodations, modifications and emerging readers. Because there are not assessments after every book, this app focuses mainly on reading and understanding the material. The usability is excellent and students have no issues launching and accessing the material on their own. Some students enjoy the app and ask to go on it while the majority just wait for the teacher to tell them to use it. The reporting feature is easy to use and you can see how many books each student has read, if they have read the whole book and if they have taken the quiz and what their score is. Badges are awarded to students as they complete books to encourage engagement and more reading. All-in-all Epic is a great app to use reinforce learning in the classroom and add a robust online library for students. The customizable features allow teachers to assign books that promote rigor and advance the reading levels of each student.
Blooket
Blooket is an engaging educational tool that enhances student learning through interactive games and quizzes. The app offers customization, allowing teachers to create games based on any content area or topic they want. It provides instant feedback as students could see in real time if they answered a question correctly. Usability is high since students are able to operate the app independently following guidance at first. Overall, Blooket significantly motivates students since it makes learning enjoyable through the use of trivia game style quizzes.
GoNoodle
GoNoodle is a great application that helps to keep kids engaged and having fun when they are in need of a brain break, or a calming exercise. My students love the melting calming exercise and any of the KidZ Bop sing and dance along. As a class, we choose 1 character to level up. The more GoNoodles the students complete, the wicket the character levels up. The students can then choose another character to start leveling up, until all characters are unlocked.
Blooket
I think that Blooket is a fun and engaging website. Teachers can create games with question sets and the whole class or individuals can play. There is a variety of game modes that the teacher can choose. The questions are all multiple choice and speed is rewarded. The games are a fun way to review content and the speed of questions can be adjusted although my students seem to enjoy fast responses. Teachers create content titles, answers and questions which they can get from the internet and quizlet and make their own. The app gives some flexibility and students are provided feedback. My students are highly motivated to use the app, they ask to play on Blooket.
Mystery Science
Mystery Science is a great tool that I utilize in my first grade classroom. It is an educational website designed to provide engaging and interactive science lessons for elementary school students. Mystery Science excels in creating captivating content that holds students' interest. The lessons are structured around intriguing questions and mysteries, which foster curiosity and a love for science. The website covers a broad range of scientific topics, from life sciences and earth sciences to physical sciences.
Third Grade All Content Areas
IXL is an app that is appropriate for students of all age levels and is for practicing and building upon English Language Arts and Math skills. It is customized to meet the needs of individual student achievement and understanding and will not advance until the student has mastered a specific skill. Students are provided indivualized and specific feedback to help with their learning and understanding. IXL is user friendly and students can launch and operate the app independently. Students enjoy this app and the various games they can play within the app to assist with their learning. Student summary of performance with data and growth over time is saved in the app and can be exported to the teacher or for the student.
BrainPop
As a second grade teacher I chose to give BrainPop a review because my students love the informational videos! BrainPop videos' are relevant to the content I teach in my classroom. The students like the characters (Annie and Moby) and are engaged when watching the videos. The videos help students visually see the information. The visual and audio content promotes them to activate their thinking skills. At the end of each video a short quiz is given that the kids love to answer as a group on the carpet. Also, it is a great assessment tool for me to assess what the students learned.
Seesaw
I have been using Seesaw as a exit ticket tool with my students for the better part of this school year. I find that there are so many pre-made quick check assessments that align with my curriculum. I also find that it is simple to create interactive assessments of my own. My students really enjoy utilizing this platform as well. We have integrated it into our daily math menu. Students must complete the Seesaw first, then while I review their responses, they complete additional practice or enrichment work. This allows me to divide them into small groups for tiered intervention.
2nd Grade - All Subjects
Epic demonstrates strong alignment with our standards for elementary students. Its vast library of books that caters to various interests and reading levels. Epic allows some customization through book recommendations and reading progress tracking. Feedback is integrated through quizzes and progress reports. It promotes higher-order thinking through comprehension activities. Overall, Epic serves as a valuable teaching tool, fostering literacy skills in an interactive and enjoyable manner.
Heather Ngoma has over 25 years of experience collaborating with educators across New Jersey to drive education innovation. She currently serves as the Director of the Rutgers-GSE Alternate Route Program in the Department of Learning and Teaching, a program which helps career changers, recent college graduates, and other aspiring education professionals become licensed teachers in New Jersey. Follow her on Twitter @heatherngoma.
Raz Kids
Raz Kids is a wonderful online resource for students to learn to read. It helps students not only to read and decode words but aid kids with comprehension questions. It allows teachers to see the progress of reading levels. It is fun for students to see their levels increasing. This online program keeps students entertained by keeping it fun. There are many incentives for students and of course it is very educational.