Student Tech Resources
FUN THINGS FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS TO TRY AT HOME!
General Games and Activities
ABCya!: ABCya provides over 400 fun and educational games for grades PreK through 6. Games are categorized by grade and subject, and cover topics such as multiplication, parts of speech, typing, pattern recognition, and more. We even have games that are just plain fun (and safe) to play!
Digital Escape Rooms: Digital escape rooms are fun and give students the opportunity to practice productive struggle as they work through the puzzles and solve the clues.
- DK Kids Find Out!: DKfindout! allows you to search, learn, and explore information on a safe and secure site. There are quizzes, videos, and animations, and new content being added all the time to engage and fascinate you!
- Google Quick Draw!: Quick, Draw! tells you what to draw. Then, Google’s artificial intelligence tries to guess what you’re drawing.
- The Kids Should See This: This is an award-winning collection of over 5,000 kid-friendly videos, curated for teachers and parents who want to share smarter, more meaningful media in the classroom and at home.
Wonderopolis: Where the wonders of learning never cease! Wonderopolis® is a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages. Each day, we pose an intriguing question—the Wonder of the Day®—and explore it in a variety of ways.
Chrome Music Lab: Chrome Music Lab is a website that makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments to explore music and its connections to science, math, art, and more.
Literacy
- Storyline Online: The SAG-AFTRA Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations.
- Scholastic Home Base Summer Reading Challenge: Scholastic Home Base is a safe, free, 3D interactive world that celebrates favorite stories through book-based games, live author events, and a large community of readers.
- Lower Merion Library Summer Reading 2023: This year's theme is All Together Now and it runs from June 17 to August 12, 2023. Read any print or listen to any audiobook in the timeframe mentioned above and then record it in the "Beanstack" where you registered online. Earn virtual badges for logging your reading, qualify to earn prizes and be entered into the end-of-summer raffle.
Math and STEM
NASA STEM Engagement- Activities and opportunities selected by NASA STEM Experts.
Greg Tang Math Summer Challenge: A math challenge game board for students to complete during their summer break, using the online games and books at TangMath.com. Students who complete the challenge can be entered into a prize drawing by their parent. Have a grown up sign you up here.
PBS Kids Design Squad: DESIGN SQUAD GLOBAL includes hands-on activity challenges that focus on the engineering design process. They use simple materials, allow for multiple solutions, and are ideal for ages 9-12.
Science Bob: Here's a list of great science experiments with instructions that you can do right at home or at school. In order for your science experiment to be safe and successful, be sure to get your parent’s permission, and their help and follow the directions as written.
Social Studies
Free Rice: Each time you answer a multiple-choice vocabulary question correctly, you generate enough money for the United Nations World Food Programme to buy 10 grains of rice to help reach Zero Hunger.
iCivics: This site puts a flashy twist on civics-related topics, puts a ton of resources in teachers’ hands, and lets you play REALLY fun games. This site is great for older elementary students.
National Geographic Kids: Play games, watch interesting videos, learn about animals, science, geography, and culture, and explore Weird but True! stories.
The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks: You can visit some lesser-known U.S. National Parks through interactive multimedia tours hosted by Google Arts & Culture.
San Diego Zoo: kids can learn about wildlife and conservation efforts through live animal cams, videos, and interactive activities hosted by the San Diego Zoo.
Explore the world in Google Earth with the famous super-slueth Carmen Sandiego! Play three different games with Carmen:
Technology and Coding*
*Note: These websites involve creating accounts for your children. It is recommended that you review the sites you want your child to use and create accounts with them.
- Code.org- Grab a grown up to help you create an account to save your progress and projects. Or just start coding - no account needed. All courses are available at no cost.
- Scratch- Grab a grown up to help you create an account so you can create and save your own stories, games, and animations!
- Tynker- Coding Made Easy! Everything needed to learn computer programming the fun way! Grab a grown up to help you create an account so you can save your work.
- Code Monster: This simple platform teaches about Javascript by using two boxes, one for you to code in and one that shows them the results of what you entered. There's also a friendly monster that acts as a guide if you need help or get stuck. This site is great for older elementary students.
PBS Nova Cybersecurity Lab: In this Lab, you’ll defend a company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Your task is to strengthen your cyber defenses and thwart the attackers by completing a series of cybersecurity challenges. You’ll crack passwords, craft code, and defeat malicious hackers.