Do You Need A Fun Website For Your Classroom?
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I can remember when I was in elementary school, and we had the huge Mac desktops and the only classroom website I remember is Oregon Trail. Our day was filled with worksheets and boring textbooks. We have come a long way and I would enjoy being a kid in the classroom now.
Technology is a big part of our classroom, and we use it throughout the day. I have been at a school where we had to check out a laptop cart, which most of them didn’t work. I have had a class set of 5 iPads. At the first school I was at we went to a computer lab once a week for 30 minutes and we had a teacher that would help the kids log on.
MAN, the first month of that was torture. I then moved to a school with 1 to 1 Chromebooks and of course the COVID years where we were all online. I just moved across the country and was lucky enough to have 1 to 1 Chromebooks again. Here are the websites I use during the day and how I use them in 1st grade.
Can I just say that this is MY favorite classroom website. I play against my students at least once a week. THEY love it and so do I!!! This is similar to Kahoot!. It is a quiz-style game with different modes that you can play. You can have kindergarten through 12th-grade play this game. It has a wide variety of educational games to pick from. You can pick the mode (type of game), how long to play, and if you want to base it on money or time. I always pick a time frame. So, for example, If we are learning about digraphs I would end the unit by playing Blooket with a digraph game.
My kids like fishing frenzy, factory, gold quest, and Santa’s workshop the best. It explains the game and then they play!! The best part about this is you do not need an account. I bookmark the page for them, and they type in the game code each time. You do not have to play against them, but I love to. It is so fun for them to say, “Mrs. Wilson!!! You took my money!” The kids all come together and try to beat me. I was surprised to see how much it built my classroom community. At the end of the game it shows the winners. I have the kids that place go up and stand by their character and we all cheer for them. I feel like we need to teach them to be good sports and humble winners.
ALL the kids love this classroom website. It is more like a video game, and they can battle other kids in our class. The downside is you must create a class with passwords and codes. If you have Clever or Google Classroom you can import your class list.
This is a classroom website like Blooket. They go to the website and click join a game. You have a class code displayed on the board that they type in. They can even choose an avatar! Once they play a lot they can upgrade and change the features. I like this game because it is great for fluency, quick, and you can choose the skill. You do not have to search for hours or create your own game. Pick the skill and you are done! You pick the time amount, and it breaks it into 3 equal games. Each round there is a leaderboard that they can see. I like the feature that will tell you the common mistakes kids are making. This is a great way to practice fluency or at the end of the unit to see how they are doing. I always allow them to use their whiteboard or counters when playing.
One of my favorite ways for kids to explore books! I know I might get some hateful comments on kids need real books in front of them. I AGREE! This is for independent times to develop their love of learning. Sometimes you might have students that are not up to grade level or can’t read YET. This gives them the opportunity to find books that they are interested in regardless of how well they can read. They have a read to me feature that will read the book to them. It highlights as it reads, so they can see the words as it is reading it to them. It will replace your listening center and allow ALL students to benefit and chose books they are interested in.
This is not FREE on ipads or tablets, but if you have Chromebooks, most of it is free. I do not like the ads on the side and that is the biggest downfall. My students love playing these learning games and is one of the favorite websites this year. There are different grade levels, subject areas, and fun games too!
This is the newest classroom website that my cousin told me about. She is a 3rd grade teacher and says that it is a favorite in her class. It is similar to ABCYA, but the games are more user-friendly and the kids seem to like the style better.
This classroom website was introduced during COVID online learning by our music teacher. I have a lot of students that this is their favorite app. This is by Google and allows students to record their own music and play around with different types of sounds. Quick tip: make sure they have headphones, or it will drive you CRAZY!
I use this classroom website when we are learning about animals or writing on informative topics. It has a lot of information, pictures, videos, and animal cams. I will put the animal cams on during independent times so the kids can see the animals in real time.
I LOVE BOOM LEARNING! This is a great platform that allows me to create or use standards-based learning games. I can assign them to individual kids, groups, or the whole class. What is great about this is it automatically tells them if they got it right or wrong immediately. They can keep clicking until they get it right, but it lets them know right away the correct answer. When you pull up reports you can see the percentage of their first try answer choice. I use this sometimes instead of handing out a quiz. It is about 25$ a year and you have to create a class, but to me it is worth it!!
Our school district pays for this website for all teachers. I cannot tell you how many times I will use this at the beginning of a new topic! It is a great way to engage all students. If you want to try it out, they usually have a free video each week.
There are so many classroom websites out there and I am constantly looking for new ones to keep kids engaged with meaningful games. What is your favorite website for your students?
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Daily Engaging Math Review - The Primary Coach
[…] favorite day for math review! If you want to know more about Blooket check out my post HERE. I find whatever skill we are working on that week or find a past skill that we need to practice. […]