TOP PICKS | 34 TOOLS
Apps and Sites for Storytelling
Top Picks
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Tell About This
Photo and word prompts inspire storytelling; app records the results
Bottom line: Versatile tool can be used as a pre-writing or publishing activity.
Novel Effect: Read Aloud Books
Add music, sound effects to books to spice up story time
Bottom line: This will enhance -- but not necessarily enrich -- stories; if that's what you're looking for, it works well and pairs with A-list books.
Storyline Online
Notable actors' read-alouds bring kids' storybooks to life
Bottom line: Kids can experience the magic of books; though even better when accompanied by the site's extensions for further activities and reading
Write About This
Fun pictures and prompts are great for getting kids to start writing
Bottom line: The tool’s flexibility for many possible applications makes it an excellent bet.
My Story School eBook Maker
Sleek platform is a great artistic tool, intro to digital creation
Bottom line: This is a great and accessible option for getting kids telling stories and introducing them to digital creation tools.
Toontastic 3D
Flexible tool hands kids the reins for creative animated storytelling
Bottom line: Despite some lack of variety and simple drawing tools, Toontastic 3D remains a terrific, versatile storytelling tool.
Writing A-Z
Abundant, thorough resources help both teachers and students
Bottom line: This full-service program can help teachers easily weave writing into their curriculum.
Storybird
Social storytelling site helps kids create, publish storybooks
Bottom line: A great fit for teachers looking to develop students' writing and digital citizenship skills through storybook creation.
Elementari
Storybook creation tool offers cool blend of ELA, art, and coding
Bottom line: This is a great storytelling tool for younger kids that also offers an entry point into coding and computational thinking.
CAST UDL Book Builder
Sensitively designed so any student can write and share books
Bottom line: CAST UDL Book Builder is an excellent resource to get kids started on digital content creation; it's simple and straightforward and caters to a variety of learning styles.
Pixton
Popular comics platform puts students' focus on creation
Bottom line: This is a platform with the potential to motivate students, getting them to share subject knowledge in a way that blends art and literacy.
Shadow Puppet Edu
Resource-rich video slideshow maker a gem for a variety of classrooms
Bottom line: Easy-to-use free tool is a must-have for elementary classrooms; just keep an eye on sharing and privacy.
Historias Para Armar
Spanish site combines storytelling and media meaningfully
Bottom line: The interactive tools, educational videos, and collection of projects and resources seamlessly lend themselves to meaningful storytelling.
Animation & Drawing by Do Ink
One-stop animation tool for beginners through experts
Bottom line: Accessible entry into animation for beginning students, but with enough depth to satisfy more advanced artists.
Make Beliefs Comix
Comic creation tool has wealth of resources, busy design
Bottom line: While it feels a little dated and disorganized, Make Beliefs Comix retains its charm and can promote creativity and self-expression.
Book Creator
Magically easy way to create and publish digital books and multimedia
Bottom line: This is a top-quality creation tool that lets students of many ages and abilities publish their own digital books.
StoriumEdu
Collaborative writing game inspires purposeful storytelling
Bottom line: With some planning and customization, this unique card game can motivate thoughtful and sustained creative writing in your classroom.
Binumi
One-stop shop for creating and assigning beautiful video stories
Bottom line: Set students up for storytelling success with quality content and tools in a safe environment.
NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program
Wildly engaging contest turns students into novelists in 30 days
Bottom line: A thoughtful adaptation of the famous and fun grown-up novel writing contest, NaNoWriMo Young Writers Program is brimming with advice and encouragement as well as classroom support.
iMovie
Movie editor will satisfy beginner and intermediate creators
Bottom line: Despite some limitations with editing, it's the perfect tool to get teachers and students started with digital video production.
Adobe Spark
Super-flexible design tool for crafting fab images, videos, and sites
Bottom line: This one-stop shop for creating sleek graphics, web stories, and animated videos is incredibly easy to use and challenges students to think critically about visual presentation.
Sway
Create dynamic visual presentations on flexible storytelling platform
Bottom line: A seamless transition from design to presentation makes Sway a great fit for presenting carefully curated content.
StoryCorps
From the everyday to the extraordinary, personal interviews get kids listening
Bottom line: It's a great resource to help demonstrate the value of listening and the importance of storytelling and interviewing skills.
Sutori
Build timelines, embed media with cool storytelling tool
Bottom line: With a super-simple design and tons of flexible features, this is an appealing and intuitive way for teachers and students to organize and share class content.
Textadventures.co.uk
Play or design text adventures, but creation can get technical
Bottom line: Text adventures can be a blast to play and make, but the Quest game-making tool, while offering some decent support, can be tough to use effectively without coding experience.
TextingStory
Turn text message-style stories and conversations into shareable videos
Bottom line: With careful planning, this app could make storytelling fun and challenge students to write or reimagine dialogue among fictitious or famous characters.
Anchor
Podcasting app is super easy to use, if you can do it all in one take
Bottom line: There are few easier ways to publish a podcast, but that ease of use comes at the cost of one-take creation and few tools for post-production.
Animoto: Slideshow Maker
Slick video slideshow tool lets kids tell stories and share them
Bottom line: Anything that happens during school can be turned into an engaging video slideshow.
StoryMapJS
Pro-oriented storytelling and mapping tool has classroom potential
Bottom line: Getting comfortable with StoryMapJS will require some focus, but students who take the time will gain a new perspective on digital storytelling.
Youth Voices
Aging online community hosts authentic student writing
Bottom line: With some patience and understanding, this could be a good space for supporting healthy student expression.
Clips
Create and share videos with cool effects, tons of language options
Bottom line: This slick video creation app is fun, empowering, and accessible in lots of languages, but be careful with sharing.
TouchCast Studio
Cool tool takes videos to the next level
Bottom line: It's a creative tool for teachers to make interactive video content and for students to present information, but teachers should monitor use.
Write the World
Global community helps young writers write, revise, think, and grow
Bottom line: With interest-based writing prompts and thoughtful feedback from peers and pros, this is a great tool for writing for authentic audiences.
