Top Websites with Learning Games and More For Preschool and Kindergarten

Recently, on my Facebook page I asked for math and reading website recommendations for Preschool and Kindergarten aged children. I received so many great suggestions that I wanted to share them with you here.




1. Starfall




Starfall is a site to help kids learn language arts skills both at home and school. With four different areas of study, this site is great for moving children from basic letter recognition to reading comprehension. Starfall offers packages for families and classrooms and each package includes online and printable materials.  Just about every educator I know has heard of Starfall!  As for me, I never really got "into" using it.  Sorry, but the bitmapped images really bug me!  There is a free site and a paid membership site that starts at $30 for home use and $70 per year for a teacher with six students.  (Who has only six students?)  It's $150 per year for a teacher with the entire classroom signed up.  (Ouch.)


2. PBS Kids Play




PBS Kids Play provides fun learning games featuring favorite PBS characters like Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train and Friends, Dinosaur Train and Curious George. This site has 56 educational games for reading, math, and science.  Classroom passes are also available. The content of the games are aligned with the Common Core and the material increases in difficulty as children master new skills. PBS KIDS PLAY costs $9.95 a month for a family of up to four profiles.


3.  ABCYA




ABCYA has math and reading games for young children. For pre-K and Kindergartners, there is a great selection of early math concept games that cover skills such as counting, patterns, and number recognition. There is a really fun monster themed game that allows students the opportunity to practice sorting vowels and consonants and spelling sight words. This site is FREE and is great for both home and school use.


4.  ABCMOUSE




ABCMOUSE is a HUGE site that is great for Preschool and Kindergarten aged children. The site features complete curriculum plans that cover number recognition, colors, shapes, letters, reading, counting, and basic math skills. The site is cleverly designed like a classroom, which allows kids to walk through the room choosing different activities to engage in. The curriculum is developed to align with the Common Core Standards and allows students to progress to harder material as they master concepts. The site offers a family plan for $7.95 a month. For schools and preschools it is FREE!


5.  Reading Eggs and Math Seeds 






Reading Eggs and Math Seeds are sister sites offering reading and math games for 3 to 7 year olds. The games are very engaging and focus on the building blocks of math and reading that little minds need. Reading Eggs focuses their games on phonics and sight words while the Math Seeds focuses on number recognition, math terms, shapes, telling time, money, and basic addition and subtraction. Both sites offer apps that can be used on phones or tablets. Reading Eggs starts at $49.95 for six months and $69 for a year. There are options for classroom passes as well as discounts for adding additional children. Math Seeds is $49.95 for a year.

Here are a few more educational sites that you also might find helpful.  These are not "gamified," entertaining sites, but they do offer other resources:


Raz-Kids costs $84.95-$99.95 or more per teacher per year subscription. District licenses are available.


Raz-Kids offers leveled readers and quizzes that are along the lines of Accelerated Reader.  You need a subscription to access it, but there is a free trial.  Usually, if a school has a subscription, the students can access it free.


This is an example of a customized online worksheet that can be printed from MathFactCafe.


This is an example of an online math activity that can be done at MathFactCafe.


Math Fact Cafe is a custom online worksheet generator.  There is nothing special or pretty about the worksheets, but you can narrow down the questions to exactly what you need the children to work on.  Kids can complete them online or in print.  The site is free, but donations are gladly accepted.


This is a screenshot of a Studyladder video lesson on the sound of letter A.


 
This is a screenshot of a Studyladder activity or quiz that kids do after watching the video above.


Studyladder is a site that has lots of short video lessons, followed by online drills for kids and printable worksheets that teachers, homeschoolers, and parents might find useful.  There is a free section and a paid section.  This is not a "game" site, though; the online drills for the children seem to be a like an electronic worksheet (at first glance, not very engaging.)  The child reads the question, and then the child clicks the answer.  That's all.

The worksheets vary in quality and usefulness, as far as I can tell on a quick look at the site.  However, I'm probably missing something, because this is what one of my Facebook fans said about the site:  "Studyladder has all curriculum areas and games you can play and compete with other kids around the world like a spelling bee game, a maths basic facts race etc.  The child creates their own avatar, collects points and can decorate their own room."


 
This is a screen shot from the Storybird website. Kids choose a picture and then write about it creatively.


Storybird is an INCREDIBLE site for helping kids learn how to write creatively!  Storybird turns the writing process "upside down" by letting children first choose a piece of artwork and then write about it.  This helps give the creative juices a nudge!  Kids can write a poem, a little storybook, or older children can write a longer piece.  With Kindergarten, the teacher could project the pictures and let the children give her ideas to write.  I LOVE this!

I would love to hear about some of the websites you love! Leave them in the comments or jump on over and chat with me on Facebook!

-Heidi


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for more fun ways to learn reading and math skills? Check out all our great reading and math products right here!




Look for our Jumpin' Numbers and Shakin' Shapes Vol. 1 here, and our Jumpin' Numbers Vol. 2 here as well as our newest number DVD, Number Jumble!




These DVD's help kids learn actively by encouraging them to sing and move along with the music!




You can check out our Sing and Spell the Sight Words program right here! Kids learn to read and spell by singing and moving along with the music.



----------------------------------
Follow me! Did you enjoy this post? Do me a favor and share it with your friends! And follow this blog by signing up for my email updates here, or follow on Bloglovin', or follow me on TPT! I'm also on Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and YouTube, too! Don't forget to sign up for our email newsletter for special deals and promo codes that you won't find out about anywhere else.

Popular posts from this blog

Creepy Crayon: Free Craft Template!

Image
Today, I am going to give you a link to our free Creepy Crayon craft that we made to accompany the book Creepy Crayon by Aaron Reynolds!   Yay!  If you are a fan of Creepy Carrots and A Creepy Pair of Underwear ,  then you were probably just as excited as I was for the next book in the series, Creepy Crayon !  And so by popular demand, we have have included the Creepy Crayon craft here as a free download!  We have also included links to our other crafts for Aaron Reynold's creepy books, too.  They are such fun! The Illustrations are FAB! I definitely need to give a shout out to illustrator Peter Brown, whose wonderful illustrations play a huge part in the popularity of these books!  I love the way he made almost all of it in gray tones, except for the crayon, of course!  The illustrations really give the story a creepy, but friendly tone.  I know I'll be a Peter Brown fan forever! This is a photo of my Creepy Carrots crafts samples in my classroom before I retired. Check Ou
Read more

How to Help Children That Have a Hard Time Learning the Alphabet

Image
Is your child (or student) having a hard time learning the alphabet?  Are those letters just not "sticking?" Does your child seem to know a letter one day, and then forgets it the next day- or even just a few minutes later? In this post, I will share my most recently developed techniques for helping kids learn and remember the alphabet. Check Vision- Thoroughly! During the past 30 years as a teacher, I have tried many things for all of the different types of learners that I’ve had. One thing that I would highly suggest is that you have your child's eyes checked, just in case you have not yet done that. I know that most schools have their school nurses do this, but I would suggest that a nurse is really not an optometrist, nor is he/she an ophthalmologist. I wrote about one little guy with vision issues in my post, Tips for Teaching the Alphabet to Struggling Learners . In that post, I shared that I had been teaching one child that had had such a difficul
Read more

Fun with STEM: A "Punkin Chunkin" Catapult with Craft Sticks!

Image
In this post, I am going to tell you about a really FUN, seasonal STEM project that I did with my first and second graders:  they made "Punkin" Chunkin" catapults with craft sticks and masking tape!  Then we measured to see who's pumpkin went the farthest!  The "punkins" were actually orange pompoms, so we had to use our imaginations, but none of the children cared.  They had an absolute BLAST! For this fun activity, we invited our new fifth grade buddies to come in and give us a hand, but I really think that the first and second graders could have done it on their own as well.  So if you are thinking of doing this with your own young students alone and without the help of older students, go for it!  I think that Kindergartners could do it too, but I would do it in small groups so that I could help those that needed it. My inspiration for this came from many different child constructed catapults that I have seen on Pinterest- along with a
Read more

Teaching Kids to WRITE the Numbers! – FREE Number Poems!

Image
Teaching children to write the numbers  correctly can be very frustrating for early childhood teachers! Also, attempting to GRADE their writing can be equally TRICKY! What does a number written correctly look like, versus one that is not?  In this post, I am going to tell you how I teach my students to write the numbers. I’ve posted some examples of student work showing numbers that look correct and some that are not, in my opinion.  I explain under the photos why certain numbers “would pass” or not.  I also have some FREE number formation poems to share with you, plus a FREE download of a parent guide that explains what those correctly formed numbers should look like- and the incorrect ones! So it seems that every year, getting the children to write those numbers can be something like pulling teeth: it comes slowly, and getting them to just “CARE” seems to be half the battle!  Perhaps the reason for this is that we know that the most important learning in math comes from wo
Read more

Teaching Phoneme Segmentation: Separating Sounds in Words (Freebies!)

Image
Teaching children to pick out all of the phonemes (or sounds) in a given word can be tricky!  This requires good listening skills and well developed phonemic awareness in general.  For some children, mastering phoneme segmentation can seem just about impossible!  Here are some teaching tips that have worked for me in the past. *  The best advice I can give is to practice segmenting words with a designated MOTION for a short time every single day with your whole class.  Even just one or two minutes per day will help! Look for suggested motions on this post. There is also a downloadable list of words to use, plus a homework sheet that you can download here. Here is where you can get another  word list for practicing words with two, three, and four phonemes. And here is another post with lists of words with four, five, or six phonemes. *  Give kids beads to slide down a pipe cleaner as they segment the word.  I made these "Segmentation Sliders" out of p
Read more

Getting Control of a Very Difficult Class: TAKE TWO

Image
Have you ever had a class that just tried your patience day after day? Have you ever felt like you could walk away from teaching forever tomorrow, and be fine with it?  This is a repost of a piece that I wrote several years ago when I was teaching Kindergarten.  I'm now in second grade, and finding that I have many of the same problems!  Since I actually went back and read my own post again, I thought I would post it here for you again, too, with a few of my updated comments inserted in italics.  Hope it's helpful! This is the original post. ********** This year, I have one of the most challenging classes I have ever had. I am still working on training them to do what I want them to do, but I know that in the end, I will win! Meanwhile, we are spending a LOT of time on classroom management, modeling routines and procedures often. Here is a list of some classroom management tips and techniques that I have used successfully in Kindergarten, but I think that they would prob
Read more

An EASY Critical Thinking Game for K/1 Kids!

Image
Today I'm going to tell you about a fun and EASY game to help boost critical thinking skills in Kindergarten or First Graders!  I call it The Critical Thinking Comparison Game, because in it, the kids are simply comparing one thing to another and telling what they think are the similarities and differences between two objects.  Believe it or not, my first graders LOVE this game and often ask me if we can play it again!  I think they like it because the game makes them feel successful and "smart."  I have also played it with Kindergartners, and they enjoyed it, too! The Critical Thinking Comparison Game is really very easy to play!  All you need is a few questions like the ones below, and something for the children to color, just to keep them busy while they wait for a turn to talk.   ( I also used my Critical Thinking Comparison Cards as a visual aid, but you can certainly play it without them! ) Here is the type of question that I ask in this game: How
Read more

A Creepy Pair of Underwear Craftivity FREEBIE!

Image
Today I have a fun and easy craft based on a SUPER fun book by Aaron Reynolds called A Creepy Pair of Underwear .  After reading this book just ONCE with my class last year, it instantly became the class favorite, and I KNEW we had to make the project!  The illustrations by Peter Brown provided the perfect inspiration.  We are providing the master and instructions free for you today at the end of this post.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! If you are unfamiliar with this fun book,  you can read the synopsis here on Amazon, where you can also purchase the book .  Another great book to go with it is Creepy Carrots, by the same author and illustrator.  Both are instant Halloween classics, in my opinion!  Don't miss them! My teammate Jeff Pang is super creative, and he adapted the design from the book to make it into a craft that would be simple enough for the children to make into their own little Creepy Pair of Underwear!  So kudos to Jeff!  He seems to be able t
Read more

Creepy Carrots: A Free Halloween Craftivity!

Image
Here is another fun, FREE craft for kids based on the book Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds, with SUPER FUN pictures by Peter Brown!  Did you enjoy the free Creepy Pair of Underwear craftivity from a few weeks ago?  Well  Creepy Carrots is the sort of like the companion book to A Creepy Pair of Underwear - and it is just as much fun as the other one! When I first got this book out and showed it to one of my students, he said, "Oh, I want this book!  I want it REAL BAD!!!! "  And that was before I had even READ it to them!  He had only just looked at the cover !  LOL! When I found out about these books last year, it was right before Halloween, so it was really too late to share the ideas that my teammate Jeff and I developed.  We made a creepy pair of underwear on Halloween Day at school, but did not get a chance to do the carrots. So this year, we got right on it!  I hope it's not too late for you to take advantage of using this project this year!
Read more

20 Hands-On Ways to Build a Sight Word, (And Research to Back it Up!)

Image
Today I am pleased to share TWENTY great ideas for building the sight words to help kids learn them in a hands-on way!  Making sight words (AKA high frequency words) in lots of different ways allows kids to choose their best learning modality and really take charge of their own learning. I'm super excited about this way of teaching, and I hope you will be, too! When my teammate and I do this, we focus on just ONE of the trickier sight words per week and have the kids BUILD JUST THAT ONE WORD over and over again in many ways.   If there happens to be a parent volunteer at that center, they are to ask the children to spell it and tell what the word is often. This is what our Sight Word Building Table looks like.  We put out a variety of choices, and the children can change seats each time they finish to keep building the word.  If there happens to be a volunteer, she ask them what word they are working on and to spell it, and will hand them a different manipulative.  
Read more