Easy to Access Tech That Gives Students a Sense of Ownership

Overall, I think this is a powerful and engaging teaching tool, especially for introducing students to coding and design thinking in a way that feels creative and purposeful. My students were genuinely excited to use it, and even those with limited coding experience (myself included!) found the platform intuitive and easy to navigate. The animations, customization options, and problem-solving components really helped bring their ideas to life in a way that felt accessible and fun. That said, I did notice that some of my struggling readers had difficulty engaging with the tool at the same level. Despite some helpful scaffolds built into the platform, it still relies heavily on reading and following multi-step directions. For students who need more support with decoding or comprehension, this presented a real challenge. They often needed more direct teacher support to navigate the interface and understand what was being asked of them at each stage. On the flip side, more independent learners thrived with this tool. Once they got going, many of them were able to explore, iterate, and problem-solve on their own, which was amazing to watch. For teachers, there are also helpful scaffolds like the ability to set the difficulty level of a project, which can make the experience more manageable for students who need additional support. In short, this is a great tool with a lot of potential, particularly when teachers are mindful of differentiating the experience based on student needs. With a few tweaks to further support accessibility for struggling readers, it could be even more impactful.

One of my favorite features is that students can create voice activated animations. Elementari provides training videos and step-by-step tutorials.

I'm super impressed with the ease of getting students started on projects. Having the directions available in each lesson allows students to work at their own pace. Those who have more accelerated skills can easily step up the complexity of their projects with little teacher guidance. The direct correlation to ELA standards and skills makes this an easy addition to our supplemental resources for students. I have even begun using this with a small group of gifted and talented students who are looking for ways to challenge themselves in literacy. This has been a great place for us to start.