The Best Free Apps and Websites for Learning

Numbers-and-quantity game has precise focus and superb scaffolding

Bottom Line: Super approach to teaching a very specific topic: Help kids develop an easy familiarity with quantities under five.

AR adds unique twist to geometry, spatial reasoning games

Bottom Line: Once kids get a hang of things, this app's puzzles will get them thinking creatively about shapes and spatial reasoning.

Engaging supplemental resource encourages conceptual understanding

Bottom Line: An engaging conceptual supplement for math lessons with easy-to-find standards-aligned activities.

Innovative combo of live instruction and adaptive online math lessons

Bottom Line: It's a great balance of online lessons, in-person instruction, and instructional resources, all for free.

Dynamic videos and printables support CCSS math practices

Bottom Line: An excellent, free resource for educators who need support and inspiration for teaching and addressing CCSS and mathematical practices.

Untangle robust math problems for all ages; plenty of teaching support

Bottom Line: It's an excellent classroom companion that can be implemented quickly with little adjustment and a high probability of success.

Satisfying mathematical treats kids will gladly gobble up

Bottom Line: Teachers and students will excel with engaging, often funny material; it's a pleasure to explore these extensive resources.

Elegant graphing calculator and math simulations promote collaboration

Bottom Line: Part calculator, part interactive simulation tool, Desmos is a standout example of inquiry-driven math with super-smart instructional supports.

Create, share, and modify math models and simulations

Bottom Line: Free, open-source software that lets teachers build or adapt learning experiences to meet their kids' needs.

Grow math skills with global awareness and big questions

Bottom Line: An innovative math resource encourages authentic learning through global stories and connections.

Use real data from hot topics to make math relevant

Bottom Line: Easy-to-access curriculum supplement will spice up algebra and statistics courses.

Variety of drills offer solid, thorough approach to reading fundamentals

Bottom Line: This can be a fun way to engage struggling readers or reinforce early reading classroom instruction.

Creative, smart mix of activities for pre-K to 2 is a breath of fresh air

Bottom Line: This early-learning standout offers scaffolded, creative learning of foundational skills.

Differentiate reading instruction with high-quality texts and lessons

Bottom Line: The quality and scope of texts, lesson plans, assessments, and supports on this platform can help facilitate online or offline targeted reading instruction in nearly any home or classroom.

Free hub for literacy lessons aims to deepen learning, engagement

Bottom Line: This is a trustworthy site that teachers of all grades/subjects could find a way to use weekly for lessons or professional development.

Free storybook creation site has great support for classrooms

Bottom Line: Reliable storytelling tool gives students solid tools to create, collaborate, and share work including real, printed books.

Popular after-school program shares its resources with teachers

Bottom Line: This is a worth-bookmarking resource thanks to relatable writing lessons and motivating examples of actual student writing.

Feature-rich literacy resource offers superb support for readers

Bottom Line: Access a hefty collection of reliable, ready-to-print, leveled passages that allow you to tailor lessons, assign online reading, and track progress.

Text-leveling tool gives every student access to complex readings

Bottom Line: This utilitarian differentiation tool is useful enough to be in every teacher's toolbox.

Relevant media clips get students examining identity, culture

Bottom Line: Teachers will need to take time to build effective lessons, but if they do, this is a useful, relevant, high-interest resource for deconstructing identity and building critical thinking and empathy skills.

Read, write, and share with innovative independent reading platform

Bottom Line: With a few thoughtful tweaks on the part of teachers, this can be a useful tool for building a classroom culture of active independent reading.

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.

Fewer clicks and less clutter equal a new go-to site for citing sources

Bottom Line: An intuitive site that takes the stress out of citing sources, but students will still need instruction to tweak auto-generated citations.

Compelling science videos have high-quality classroom applications

Bottom Line: Unparalleled science documentaries offer a window into real-world scientific topics in a high-interest way.

Popular games, big names get kids and teachers pumped to program

Bottom Line: A thoughtfully planned, produced, and curated set of free resources bound to get kids hooked on learning to code.

Super STEM, social studies resource with highly customizable content

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

Visually super NASA-backed treasure trove may overwhelm

Bottom Line: A visually stunning way to get kids interested in science and space exploration.

Massive collection of excellent (and free!) science and math simulations

Bottom Line: Instantly add meaningful lab experiences to math and science classrooms for exactly $0? It's tough to beat that.

Customize science simulations to highlight phenomena

Bottom Line: Science simulations become more effective with teacher-added edits and formative assessments.

Highly relevant site teaches how to construct arguments, defend claims

Bottom Line: Provides a crucial and timely earth science backdrop to lessons on analysis, data, and modeling that are important for all students to grasp.

Turn your phone into a lab sensor to collect and analyze data

Bottom Line: Science Journal does a good job recording real-time motion, sound, and light data using phones.

High-quality multimedia brings biological research to life

Bottom Line: Superb multimedia tools and lesson plans help kids explore biology through real-world examples.

Comprehensive climate change facts visit history, offer solutions

Bottom Line: This sophisticated resource covers climate change thoroughly, but may not be accessible to all.

Dazzling globe-trotting tool has endless classroom applications

Bottom Line: This tool defines engagement and offers a completely open-ended experience perfect for use across the educational spectrum.

Give students global perspective with pen pal projects in any subject

Bottom Line: This is a thoughtful, ready-to-go platform that facilitates authentic and safe cross-cultural collaboration.

Critically acclaimed documentaries repackaged meaningfully for classrooms

Bottom Line: Top-notch documentary clips offer opportunities to expand students' perspectives, but some lesson materials might be underwhelming.

In-depth, interdisciplinary lessons crank up the learning

Bottom Line: This site's materials have the potential to supplement, augment, or even replace favorite units of study, once teachers dig into and master what's offered.

A wealth of resources explore racism, prejudice, and anti-Semitism

Bottom Line: These valuable materials empower students to understand and address difficult ethical choices -- past and present.

Well-designed games, lessons can spice up your civics curriculum

Bottom Line: This game-based curriculum would be an excellent addition to any secondary social studies.

High-powered news site offers daily resource to process current events

Bottom Line: Driven by a trusted news organization with its finger on the pulse of the world, this free resource can be a reliable source of activities and ideas for current event discussions.

Civics site offers a PBS-guided approach to thoughtful debate

Bottom Line: This is a powerful framework for building critical media literacy, but teachers might need to bring in some extra perspectives.

Crowd-sourced ancient history site features extensive, varied resources

Bottom Line: It's free, web-based, and regularly updated with vetted info, so classrooms can turn to this site often to kick off research projects.

High-quality, document-based lessons spark stellar historical inquiry

Bottom Line: A gold mine of cross-curricular literacy lessons that encourage sound, research-backed strategies for reading, analysis, and critical thinking.

Expansive world history courses powered by great open-source materials

Bottom Line: A stellar program for exploring foundational concepts in history, humanities, critical thinking, and science with tons of support for teachers.

Captivating, cross-curricular stories increase cultural awareness

Bottom Line: Teachers looking to enrich their curriculum with high-quality, thought-provoking videos and photos will find plenty of inspiration, but may need to create or fine-tune some lessons.

Online art museum empowers students to exhibit, explain their work

Bottom Line: A time-tested digital art museum that allows students to share work and reflect on their artistic process while helping teachers assess student understanding of artistic concepts.

Stellar content, practical tips for integrating arts into every subject

Bottom Line: If you're willing to do some digging and prep, this is a terrific resource for integrating the arts across the curriculum.

Enjoyable and practical design tool supports creators of all ages

Bottom Line: Beautiful templates and user-friendly tools empower students to turn their creative ideas into professional-looking media.

Creative sandbox opens the door to coding in any subject area

Bottom Line: Scratch draws students of all types into coding and lays a foundation for future learning.

Hands-on activities and explorations give the art world a splash of color

Bottom Line: A wonderful site that really engages kids in the world of art and provides great inspirations.

Amazingly simple yet powerful online CAD tool turns kids into makers

Bottom Line: Full-featured site and app make iterative 3D design accessible, social, and relevant.

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

Bottom Line: With stable internet access and enough time to get started, this is a flexible, accessible way to create beautiful designs in your classroom.

Well-curated art and history site inspires curious learning

Bottom Line: A beautifully presented one-stop shop for compellingly curated and contextualized art, history, and culture resources, but it's lacking educator supports.

Extremely powerful photo editor will equally delight pros, amateurs

Bottom Line: It successfully walks the fine line of photo-editing features, offering satisfying experiences for those making quick edits and those crafting perfect images.