Challenge ~ Visit 40 sites for students with free time on their hands. Unlock your potential!
A BIG thank you to Matt Miller for providing this collection.
1. Free Rice
Each time you answer a multiple choice vocabulary question correctly, you generate enough money for the United Nations World Food Programme to buy 10 grains of rice to help reach Zero Hunger. Click here!
2. BeanBeanBean
BeanBeanBean works like Free Rice where you answer questions and each one that is correctly answered earns you virtual beans that are converted to money that is donated to charity. Quiz topics include times tables, ASL alphabet, world capitals, the periodic table and more. Click here!
3. GeoGuessr
GeoGuessr uses Google Maps Street View to place you on the ground somewhere in the world. You must use context clues to guess your location and pin it on a map. Click here!
4. City Guesser
City Guesser is a global guessing game where students watch videos, collect clues, and then try to guess on a map where they are. The closer they get the better they do! Click here!
5. iCivics
This site puts a flashy twist on civics-related topics, puts a ton of resources in teachers’ hands and lets students play REALLY fun games. Click here!
6. Quiver
If coloring sheets are part of your life — with your students or with your own children or grandchildren — you MUST know about Quiver. Print coloring sheets from the Quiver website and color them. The Quiver app (iTunes) (Andriod) uses your camera to scan the coloring sheet and bring its characters to vivid, 3D life!. Click here!
7. Wonderopolis
Kids are curious. Wonderopolis is a site that asks and answers interesting questions about almost anything. Click here!
10. Street View Treks
Street View Treks gives a first-person view to some of the most spectacular locations in the world, from Mount Fuji to the Grand Canyon to the Taj Mahal in India. Click here!
11. Duolingo
Duolingo works a lot like Rosetta Stone, guiding students methodically through language lessons. But it’s free! Click here!
12. 5 Clue Challenge
Students watch these short videos. They get 5 clues to guess the animal, location or person. Click here!
14. Crash Course
Crash Course is a YouTube channel filled with educational videos for kids ages 12+ and adults. Videos offer content delivered by entertaining teachers combined with animated graphics. Each playlist contains a course focusing on a different content area. Topics include Engineering, Media Literacy, Psychology, World History and more. Click here!
If YouTube is blocked at your site, or if you want to avoid the “suggested videos” you can also view Crash Course videos on pbslearningmedia.org/collection/crash-course
15. Crash Course Kids
Made by the creators of Crash Course (I bet you had already figured that one out for yourself) Crash Course Kids combines the same engaging lecture-style content delivery with animated graphics that focus on grade school science. Topics include Earth Science, Physical Science, Biology, Geography, Engineering, and Astronomy. Click here!
This channel began with 5th-grade science but more videos have been added and all can be great additions to any science curriculum grades 3+.
16. SciShow Kids
Another creation by the same producers that bring you the Crash Course series, Sci Show Kids is a compilation of informational science videos for students of any age. These videos are hosted by Jessi and her robot rat “Squeaks” and answer questions that inquiring young minds really want to know. Students can watch playlists of videos dedicated to science on the playground, getting to know your emotions, simple machines, experiments, and many more fun topics. Click here!
17. Pixar in a Box
Pixar has partnered up with Khan Academy to bring your students Pixar in a Box. With video tutorials and interactive lessons, this course gives us a window into the jobs of Pixar animators. Topics include the art of storytelling, animation, rigging, color science and more. This course shows students that the subjects they learn in school — math, science, computer science, and humanities — are used every day to create the movies we love from Pixar. Click here!
18. Imagineering in a Box
Khan Academy has also teamed up with Disney to create Imagineering in a Box which allows you to explore different aspects of theme park design, from characters to ride development, as you design a theme park of your very own. Click here!
19. Google Arts and Culture
Discover exhibits and collections from museums and archives all around the world. Explore cultural treasures in extraordinary detail, from hidden gems to masterpieces. See super high-resolution images of some of the best works of art in the world. Walk world-famous museums. Examine historical happenings in detail. Click here!
20. Google Expeditions
Google Expeditions are not gone. They just now live in Google Arts and Culture. Take a virtual field trip to hundreds of places around the world and beyond. Search by subject, topic, location and more. Click here!
21. Dollar Street
Homes are sorted on Dollar Street by monthly income one end showing the poorest, the other the richest and everything in between. Click on any picture to view images and learn more about families around the world. Click here!
22. Google Quick Draw!
Quick, Draw! tells you what to draw. Then, Google’s artificial intelligence tries to guess what you’re drawing. Click here!
23. Radio Garden
An interactive globe that has radio stations from all over the world. Students can tune in to hear talk radio, songs, or all sorts of other things from around the world. Click here!
24. Interland- Be Internet Awesome
Interland is an engaging and fun online site that makes digital citizenship and safety lessons into a game. Click here!
25. Art Hub for Kids
With Art Hub for Kids you’ll find all kinds of art lessons designed with kids in mind and for almost all of their lessons all you need is paper, pencil and coloring supplies. Click here!
26. Storyline Online
Storyline Online give kids a virtual read aloud of fantastic storybooks featuring famous actors. Click here!
28. Shapegrams
Learn and practice Google Drawings skills with interactive tutorials from Tony Vincent. The first 4 shapegrams are FREE to download and use with your students. Thirty-five dollars gets you 365 days of membership privileges, which includes access to all Shapegrams and a license to distribute them to students. Two new Shapegrams are added per month (August through May).
Click here!
29. Carmen Sandiego
Explore the world in Google Earth with the famous super-slueth Carmen Sandiego! Play three different games with Carmen:
30. National Geographic Kids
National Geographic Kids has tons of games, videos, and puzzles which will teach them while they explore the exciting world we live in. Click here!
33. How Stuff Works
Have some curious students? This site has tons of curiosity questions ("How far can the human eye see?"), riddles to solve, and more. Click here!
34. NASA Kids' Club
Are there any aspiring astronauts in your class? NASA Kids' Club is a place to play games and learn about NASA. Many of its activities are standards-aligned. Click here!
35. Chrome Music Lab
Chrome Music Lab is a website that makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments to explore music and its connections to science, math, art, and more. Click here!
36. Tinker Ball
Playing around with objects and ideas helps us see that there may be more than one solution. Tinker Ball provides students lots of puzzles to help them develop their thinking skills. Click here!
37. Scratch
Scratch is the world's largest coding community for kids. Create stories, games, and animations -- and share them with people all over the world. No login required. Click here!
38. Typing.com
Typing is still a crucial skill, and sometimes students don't get lots of instruction and practice. Typing.com has games that let students develop their skills. Click here!
39. Pixlr
Pixlr has tons of image editing and creation tools -- some powered by AI. Students can create photosmashes, collages, animations, and more. Click here!
40. PBS Nova Cybersecurity Lab
In this Lab, you’ll defend a company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Your task is to strengthen your cyber defenses and thwart the attackers by completing a series of cybersecurity challenges. You’ll crack passwords, craft code, and defeat malicious hackers. Click here!
What are YOUR favorite sites for students with free time on their hands? What OTHER strategies/ideas/activities do you have for students with free time?
