Starfall

 

Starfall is a website used by parents and educators to help teach students skills with ELA and math. This website is based around an elementary audience, and has content from preschool to third grade. It's super interactive, and has multiple activities for students to do. My favorite part of this website is the “calendar.” The calendar is updated every day to reflect what day it is. This is great if you’re a teacher short on time, and need a fun premade calendar to share. Having a student come up and assist in this during a morning meeting, is a great way to set a routine. Students not only repeat the days of the week, they match the date and day. You can also mark any special days such as a birthday. When you’re finished, you get the option to print a handout related to the month. This website is best used with a touch board and in a group setting.

The preschool and kindergarten sections have a lot of songs to help with ELA and math, and small activities for their age level. I like that it incorporates a lot of rhymes as part of their ELA. For the upper level content, it has a lot more available such as geometry, and parts of speech. I find all the content pretty age appropriate. The only downside to this website is that a lot of the materials are locked unless you have a subscription. The free stuff, while limited, is still pretty useful in a classroom. But like I said earlier, the calendar is probably the most useful because it does update every day. In regards to the games, they could get a little redundant if you beat them all. You could probably lesson plan around a few, but there isn’t much unless you pay. Paying the subscription fee wouldn’t be a bad idea if you really liked it.