TOP PICKS | 26 TOOLS

Best Chrome Apps and Extensions for Students

Looking for classroom-ready Chrome apps and extensions to gear up your classroom's Chromebooks? We've assembled a list, organized by grade level, of popular, top-rated tools that'll integrate with Chromebooks or any device with Chrome installed. You'll notice many of these apps and extensions are adaptations of familiar tools available on other platforms (such as iOS or the web). However, these Chrome selections are streamlined and easily accessible versions particularly well-suited to the complexities of classrooms. So, head over to the Chrome store and use this list to save time on tool selection, setup, and integration for your elementary, middle, or high school classroom.

If you're on the lookout for Chrome extensions in particular, check out 3 Must-Have Chrome Extensions for Classrooms for a deeper look at three great options.

Top Picks

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Chrome Apps and Extensions for Elementary School

IXL

Immediate feedback and breadth a major plus, despite emphasis on drills

Bottom line: Students can improve targeted skills with tons of practice modules and visually appealing tasks.

Grades: Pre-K–12 Price: Free to try, Paid Skill practice is free but limited to a small number of problems a day. After a 30-day free trial, classroom licenses start at $249 per class for 25 students and one subject. Individual, school, and district licenses are also available.

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Raz-Kids

Solid choice for leveled readings and progress-tracking

Bottom line: Trusty -- if a tad dated -- tool for helping younger students become proficient in many aspects of reading.

Grades: K–3 Price: Free to try, Paid $109.95 per classroom for a one-year license. There are optional paid upgrades for the Learning A-Z suite of products (e.g., Reading A-Z), which are also offered as bundled collections.

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Seesaw: The Learning Journal

Versatile digital portfolio appeals to teachers, students, and parents

Bottom line: A powerful multimedia learning and communication tool that demonstrates student progress over time.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid Seesaw Plus is $120 per year, and gives teachers more privacy options and other features. Seesaw for Schools, which includes school-wide reporting, is priced per student.

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Matific

Engaging supplemental resource encourages conceptual understanding

Bottom line: A fun and engaging conceptual supplement for math lessons with easy-to-find standards-aligned activities.

Grades: K–6 Price: Free, Free to try, Paid Teachers can sign up for free. Parents interested in using Matific at home can sign up for a free trial, and then pay $30 per year.

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Freckle

Target skills and differentiate with dynamic practice and assessments

Bottom line: Rich with content-aligned assessments, printable worksheets, and progress analytics; mindful teachers will find it a valuable resource to promote skills mastery through practice.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid The Teacher Edition is free with limited features and content. The School Edition has unlimited assignments and benchmarking and data capabilities. The District Edition includes district-level reporting and Clever integration. Call for pricing.

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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.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid Teachers create accounts for free with unlimited classes and students. Finished stories are available for purchase. Curriculum and some premium extras are available for $4.99 per student.

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Edpuzzle

Crop, customize, and remix online video content with interactive tool

Bottom line: As a flipped classroom or student creation tool, there are lots of opportunities for use, but teachers will need to be creative if they want students to engage.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid The basic version is free. The Pro Teacher plan is in development but is slated to cost $6.50 per month. The Pro School plan starts at $55 per month (call for quote).

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Chrome Apps and Extensions for Middle School

CK-12

Super STEM resource with highly accessible content

Bottom line: Making STEM content accessible to kids with different learning styles, CK-12 could be the key to mastery for some students.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free

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Edulastic

Powerful formative assessment tool tracks achievement of standards

Bottom line: Efficient platform supports teachers who are expected to assess and track student progress on meeting standards.

Grades: K–12 Price: Free, Paid An optional $100 per year upgrade adds advanced reporting and extras like text-to-speech, shareable rubrics, presentation mode, and more. The enterprise version -- which adds school- and district-wide reports, SIS and LMS integration, and custom PD -- is available but pricing isn't public.

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TES Teach with Blendspace

Create multimedia lessons with engaging but not-so-interactive style

Bottom line: Blendspace allows you to incorporate lots of multimedia resources but can still be confusing for students.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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Newsela

Absorbing daily news stories offer kids just-right learning content

Bottom line: Up-to-date, high-interest articles meet students right at their level: Use this robust tool to bolster students' nonfiction reading practice.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free, Paid There's a "Pro" subscription targeted at schools, but pricing information isn't public; interested teachers and districts can contact them for more information.

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StudySync

Superb ELA resource has comprehensive coverage, tons of supports

Bottom line: StudySync offers a complete core literacy program for secondary schools, making it easy to recommend, especially for teachers new to digital platforms.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free to try A one-year subscription is $16.47 per student. The student reading and writing companion bundles cost $111.24 and are available per grade level as a 6-year subscription.

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Tynker

Cute, colorful coding platform caters to strong independent readers

Bottom line: Students will be empowered by custom-coding creations for a variety of platforms, but may need some reading support to complete lessons.

Grades: 3–8 Price: Free to try, Paid Plans and pricing vary widely. K-8 pay-per-course is $399 for 30 students; K-8 school plans for 400-800 students range from $2,600-$3,800. Quotes for district-wide plans are also available.

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Canva - Photo Editor & Design

Create snazzy designs in seconds with flexible, cloud-based tool

Bottom line: A flexible, accessible way to get kids -- especially design novices -- creating digitally in your classroom if you have stable internet and time to get students set up to be successful.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free

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TED-Ed

Support kids' sense of wonder with outstanding short videos

Bottom line: Excellent, engaging videos and support for flipped-class lessons with an incredible community of thinkers and doers.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free

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Google Art Project

Massive online global collection makes art accesible to all

Bottom line: Extensive access to the world's cherished art collections gives teachers a glimpse at the future of arts education.

Grades: 7–12 Price: Free

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Chrome Apps and Extensions for High School

PlayPosit

Simple design makes it easy to jump into interactive video

Bottom line: With features that are both basic and useful, it's an easy tool to learn; adding interactivity to video is a snap.

Grades: 2–12 Price: Free, Paid Basic accounts are free. Optional premium features are $96/year and include the ability to copy and edit other teachers' content, the ability to crop video, more question types, student-created content, printable worksheets, grade exporting, and advanced student data.

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Edmodo

Manage classes, content, and communication with social LMS platform

Bottom line: This free platform allows for teacher-monitored classroom communication but lacks excitement.

Grades: 4–12 Price: Free This website is free to use for all features, but it does contain advertisements on the teacher side.

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ThinkCERCA

Well-structured lessons encourage deep analysis, thoughtful writing

Bottom line: This is a ready-to-go, research-backed resource that focuses intently on CCSS-aligned and AP-level critical reading and writing skills.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free, Paid Free Basic version limited to four grade band-based differentiation levels, short reading lessons, and multiple-choice assessments. Paid Premium version adds 10 levels of differentiation (grades 3-12), more in-depth and varied lessons, writing benchmarking, rubrics, data dashboards, and more. Contact for a quote.

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Chalkup

Elegant LMS tool keeps classroom conversation, collaboration going

Bottom line: The rare LMS designed for ease of use, and it doesn't sacrifice functionality with tons of opportunities to maximize learning, collaboration, and organization.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid Individual teacher accounts are free. Contact for school/district pricing.

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Desmos

Elegant graphing calculator and math simulations promote collaboration

Bottom line: Innovative calculator and simulations are a standout graphing option for inquiry-driven math.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free

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InsertLearning

Useful Chrome extension lets teachers add interactivity to websites

Bottom line: A potential go-to tool for teachers focused on building critical reading skills, especially those in Chromebook classrooms.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free to try, Paid The limited trial includes five docents. After that, it's $40/year or $8/month. School and district pricing is available; contact DocentEDU for details.

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Grammarly

Helpful tips support the writing process and build confidence

Bottom line: A helpful site to check grammar and plagiarism, and a good tool for understanding errors and how to fix them.

Grades: 6–12 Price: Free, Paid Grammarly's editor is a free tool. However, a premium version can also be purchased; monthly, quarterly, and annual pricing plans are offered at $29.95/mo., $19.98/mo., $11.66/mo., respectively.

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Tinkercad

Amazingly simple yet powerful online CAD tool turns kids into makers

Bottom line: A big step forward in making iterative 3D design more accessible and social.

Grades: 3–12 Price: Free

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Brilliant

Challenge top students with self-guided math, science, and CS courses

Bottom line: This learning and review site can be an exciting challenge for passionate students, but may be too much for struggling kids.

Grades: 7–12 Price: Free to try, Paid Limited intro courses are free. Premium subscriptions are $9.99 per month (if billed annually), $24.99 per month (if billed monthly), and $599.99 for a lifetime membership.

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