Fifth Grade Freebies: Free Apps and Websites for Your Classroom

Today I'm here to share some free websites/apps with you that I used in my class last year.

Behavioral

Class Dojo - Well, technically, I didn't used it this year, but my daughter's teacher did. She had enabled it to send weekly reports to us so we could see how she did during the week. As a teacher, I was not aware that this could be done, so maybe you didn't know that either! Look at my perfect angel ;)

Go Noodle - I love the stretching exercises for the morning. All of my students were bus students, so some of them were a little wound up by the time they got to school. They rolled their eyes at Maximo, but I know that deep down they loved him ;)

ELA

Spelling City - I've used SC for a while now, and I've always upgraded to the premium account so that I could give my students more game options and track their progress. One day I was messing around, and I noticed that THE LISTS FOR WONDERS ARE ALREADY ON SPELLING CITY! How did I miss that?! I published the on-level, had the kids take a practice test then tell me which level they want to do that week. Then with a few clicks, I took them off of the on-level one (if needed) and assigned them to the approaching or beyond. What a time saver!!!

Computer Skills

Typing Web - This was recommended to me by my team, and I started using it with my class. It was really easy to set up, and I liked that I can see in real-time what everyone is doing on one screen. Here is one of the reports that you can get (I cut off the student names).

I obviously had some kids that were keyboarding at home!

Code.org - I absolutely love this site, and so do the students! I worked with a group of great kids on Course 2 of the K-5 courses. It was just the right mix of challenging and motivating. My room was completely silent for a solid half-hour. Once in a while I heard "This is hard", but absolutely no one gave up. They saw it as a challenge to solve. There are some off-computer lessons where we talk about algorithms, programs, looping, and debugging. The site can be a little tricky for teachers to navigate just because there are SO many options, but this might be the most engaging thing that I've done with technology all year.

Here was my group's progress:

Math

Front Row - This is a nice alternative if you don't have an IXL account. It's even a nice option if you do! This assigns my kids randomly to a "team", so when they solve problems, they earn points for their team. Like IXL, it lets the kids progress at their own rate. You can also have them practice specific math strands. I couldn't get a decent screen shot without having to block out a bunch of names, but there are also some really nice grouping features and reports.

XtraMath - It's for mastering basic facts. Set up was pretty easy. You can print a certificate of accomplishment whenever a student masters an operation, so that's pretty motivating. I also gave them a brag tag for mastery.

Cross-Curricular

Kahoot - You know those bar trivia games where you look at the screen and try to be the first to correctly answer a question? That's Kahoot! All you need is a device to project the game and devices in the students' hands to answer the questions. I use my laptop, and they students use either our Chromebooks or iPads. When I've created a quiz, I launch the game and project it. Students go to kahoot.it and enter the special code for that game. Then they choose a team name (and you can easily delete any that are a little questionable ;) ), you start the game, and then the fun begins! After a few uses, then I have had the kids write their own Kahoots and share them with me so I can project them. Some are better than others, but they are so proud of their quizzes.