5 Great Websites to Use in Upper Elementary

As school winds down, and we begin to think of the upcoming year, I thought I would bring you some *must use* websites in your upper elementary classroom.  Now, these websites aren't really sites that the KIDS use (although, I supposed they could).  These are websites that I, as a teacher, use WITH my students to enhance their education while in my classroom.  I wouldn't just put a list of these up for the students to peruse on their own.  Again, the kids *could* use them, but I have found in my own experience that these really work well when I am using them as part of my lessons.



1.  Go Noodle

I know that some people think this site is for younger kids only, with the silly little videos they have.  But honestly, my fifth graders beg me for it.  Truly.  Every chance they get, the kids want to do the Koo Koo Roo songs, or get moving with the Fresh Start Fitness guys.  It is a wonderful way to get a little exercise in to a very sedentary day.

Recommendations:  The Brainercise exercises are very short brainteaser type things (do something with your left and right hands at the same time in opposite directions) that get the kids quietly thinking and moving.  My fifth graders really, really like these.

2.  Study Jams
If you teach any sort of math or science course, this site is for you.  There are short cartoon videos with kids explaining all different science and math concepts.  I personally use this in my room with my fifth graders to help explain all things physical science related.  The way the videos are written makes it so easy to explain difficult concepts to the students.

Recommendation:  The weather videos take particularly difficult concepts of fronts and air masses and make them relatable to the students.


3.  Brain Pop

I use this site for everything.  Again, like Study Jams, it has short little videos that explain all sorts of concepts from Christopher Columbus to September 11 to grammar concepts and all things science.  There are quizzes and even a Brian Pop community with lessons written by teachers that you can use that incorporate these videos into your class.  Here is a lesson I described that used the Columbian Exchange videos as the backbone.  This is a paid subscription site though, with a *few* free videos available.  If you have a little extra money in the budget, I highly recommend using it on this site!

Recommendation:  Pretty much any of the social studies and science videos are worth watching, but my class particularly enjoyed the Water Cycle video and the Periodic Table. (we did use it A LOT for science concepts.)

4.   Code.org

If you want to get your students excited about computer coding, this site is perfect!  My students (and my own children) LOVE LOVE LOVE this site.  They could literally play for hours.  What the makers of this site have done is take popular cartoons and turn them into coding games.  The kids learn different ways to code computers, and make the cartoons do what they intend for them to do.  It is easy and addicting and, most importantly, thought provoking.   I wrote an entire post about how my kids use this program here.  They had a great time on the site, but more importantly learned code.  They learned how to do something that most of the population doesn't know how to do or thinks is too hard to even try.  It made them feel uber smart when we completed it.


Recommendation:  Start your students with the Hour of Code section (which is what I linked to in this post)   It is a great way to get the kids into the coding. 

5.   Learn Zillion

Have you ever tried teaching a math topic that you were just not super sure about?  You know what to do in your head (or you don't ;)) and it isn't getting through to your students?  Learn Zillion has been my answer to that.  There are videos for every conceivable math topic that out there.  What is best is that there are ALTERNATE strategies than just the plain old regular algorithm, which really helps in this time of Common Core.

Recommendation:  The videos for using the area model when multiplying decimals is great.  It really helped me to see what was going on, as well the kids.  We learned together on this one!

So there you have five different sites that I personally use in my own classroom.  Want to read about even more sites that educators find valuable?  Here is an entire thread on my Facebook Page where teachers like us have listed off sites they have used in their rooms.

What websites do you use and love in your room?