Educational Links and Online Games

Here's where links to all the online educational games, activities, and research sites that my kids love live.

THE ARTS

About Pitch
Learn about pitch through tons of examples.

Google Art Project
It's Google Earth, but with art!

JoyTunes Recorder Master
Use the computer's microphone and a real recorder to play.

Little Amadeus
Learn about Mozart from the guy himself!

Mood Music
Evaluate the way that different compositions make you feel.

The New York Philharmonic KidZone
Play games and learn about the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Parrot Phrases
This call-and-response game trains your ear!

Playing with Scales
Compose using your number keyboard and a music staff.

Science of Music
Play these music games from the Exploratoreum.

Time Line
Put composers in the correct spots on a timeline.

GEOGRAPHY

The Campaign Trail
Pretend that you're running for a seat in Parliament.

CultureGrams
Explore kid-friendly, engaging geography info at a state or country level (log-in required).

Culture Quest
Play a game to learn more about Native Americans.

GeoBee Challenge Game
Take a daily geography quiz.

GeoNet
You'll like this if you like trivia!

Junior Ranger World Heritage Program
Do you like earning Junior Ranger badges? You'll like this, too!

Map Puzzles
Put together online map puzzles of countries and continents.

MP for a Week
Practice being a Member of Parliament.

MyUK
You're the Prime Minister!

Statetris
Play geography Tetris games for the US and several other countries and continents.

U.S. States and Capitals
Take an online quiz on state capitals and U.S. geography.

World Geography Games
There are tutorial levels as well as quizzes, so this can be a fun way to enrich a geography unit.

Woven Together
Learn about weaving traditions of Native Americans of the Pacific North Coast, while learning to speak the language of the Nuu-chah-nulth people.

HISTORY

1066
Fight in the Battle of Hastings!

A Song for the Horse Nation
Explore the impact of horses on Native American culture in this online unit from the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

Chauvet Cave Paintings
Scroll through an immersive, interactive example of prehistoric art (SOTW 1).

Chronozoom
Created by Walter Alvarez (the geologist who discovered that an asteroid impact caused the extinction of the dinosaurs), Chronozoom is the ultimate timeline--zoom in to watch videos about the first billionths of a second after the Big Bang, or zoom out to see the microscopic speck that is human history.

Colonial Williamsburg
Explore the town and play games.

Egyptian Tomb Adventure
Play several games involving Ancient Egypt.

Houses of History
Explore an animated timeline of British political history.

Lascaux Cave Virtual Tour
Tour another immersive, interactive example of prehistoric art (SOTW 1).

Living Maya Time
Learn about the Maya, and why the world isn't ending!

Mystery inside the Mummies
Use CT scanning to look inside mummies.

The Oregon Trail
Run an in-browser emulation of Oregon Trail.

Plimoth Plantation First Thanksgiving Interactive
Play a game centered around the first Thanksgiving.

The Science and Technology of World War II
View Top Ten Lists, take a quiz, or play with a cipher disk to send a secret message.

Smithsonian's Interactive Human Evolution Timeline
See the course of human evolution (We study this in history as part of SOTW 1).

Story of the World Video Links
Watch Youtube videos on SOTW topics.

Time Warp Trio
Play games from this children's educational TV show about history.

Tutanchamun Interactive
Watch a presentation on Ancient Egypt.

Virtual Secret Annex
You've read about Anne Frank; now explore the space where she hid for two years.

MATH

Arithmetiles
Use all four operations to make number tiles match each answer.

Base Ten Blocks Subtraction
Solve multi-digit subtraction with borrowing using virtual Base Ten blocks.

Build Your own Kaleidoscope
Explore lines of symmetry by creating a virtual kaleidoscope.

Calculator Chaos
Invent calculations to target numbers using limited digits.

Change Maker
Practice money math and subtraction.

Counting Money
Practice coin math.

Euclid: The Game
Can you figure out how to build the shapes? This game is really fun!

Explore the Multiplication Table
Visualizes the multiplication table as the area of a rectangle.

Fill and Pour
Solve logic problems about volume.

Geogebra Tube
Play with interactive simulations of sophisticated mathematical concepts.

Geometric Solids Tool
Manipulate geometric solids and their nets, and create your own.

HTML5 Experiments
You never knew that you could code cool games and gadgets like these!

Interactive Tangrams
Manipulate virtual tangrams and solve puzzles.

Khan Academy Videos
Watch videos of math and science tutorials.

Learn Money
Play a money math game.

Make-a-Flake
Practice rotational symmetry and make paper snowflakes online.

Math Cats
Play online math games.

Math Playground
Play math games.

Mobiles
Can you make them balance?

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
Play with Base 10 blocks, fractions, pie charts, money, hundred charts, etc.

Number Bond Machines
Practice number bonds.

Number Cracker
Practice number patterning and sequencing.

Pan Balance
Balance the shapes!

Patch Tool
Play with virtual pattern blocks.

Play Pentominoes
These twelve blocks are fun to play with, and impossible to master!

Polygon Playground
Drag and arrange colored polygons to make patterns and pictures.

Projective Geometry Games
Can you solve these mind benders?

Proof!
Solve math puzzles online.

Rotopos
Your guy needs help to navigate the maze!

The Scale of the Universe
Zoom in out and to see things microscopic and massive.

Spirographs
There are so many to make!

Thinking Blocks
Solve word problems using virtual models.

Visualizing Fractions
Divide a shape into the correct number of pieces, and color the correct number of pieces.

READING AND WRITING

ABDO Digital
Read non-fiction books online.

Comic Master
Make your own comic book!

Dance Mat Typing
Play these games to learn keyboarding.

LOTR Project
Explore family trees from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Use this dictionary/thesaurus as a ready-reference tool.

NACLO Practice Problems
Stretch your brain with these interesting linguistics challenges.

Spelling City
Play games to learn your spelling words (log-in required).

Starfall
Read books for beginning readers online.

TumbleBooks
Read and listen to books online (log-in required).

TumbleBookCloud
Bigger kids read bigger books online (log-in required).

"That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates"
J.R.R. Tolkien sings this!

WeGiveBooks
Read books online and earn money for charities.

Words are CATegorical
Play grammar games and print posters and coloring pages from this series of children's grammar books.

SCIENCE

ARKive Design a Habitat
Design an appropriate habitat for the endangered black-footed ferret.

Ask a Biologist
There's so much to do here! Play a game, read, print high-quality coloring pages, or try an experiment.

Astronomy Picture of the Day
See a new space image every day.

BBC Plant and Animal Habitats
Place each alien into the correct habitat.

BioDigital Human
Explore a virtual human body (log-in required).

Bird Anatomy
Build a bird!

birdJam Bird Songs Learning Center
Listen to song birds, and learn their calls.

Bird Song Hero
This FUN game helps you memorize bird songs!

Bird Songs Interactive
Click on a bird in this online poster to hear its song.

Cool Cosmos
Explore infrared images from Earth and space.

Critter Lab
Can you design the perfect habitat for these critters?

Discovery Channel Dinosaurs
Watch videos and read articles about prehistory.

EcoKids Wanted: New Home for Frog
Find a new suitable habitat for a frog.

KidsHealth
Explore human biology.

Monterey Bay Aquarium Animals and Experiences
Use the links at the side to watch live webcams, read animal guides, and listen to a podcast

Muse Lab
Find reading recommendations, experiments, and games from the current month's Muse magazine.

NASA Kids' Club
Play games, explore space, and learn about current space station crews.

National Geographic Creature Feature
Explore animal categories by playing with search terms.

National Geographic Little Kids
Play games about animals.

Nine Planets
Take an interactive tour of the Solar System.

OLogy
Explore this children's science site from the American Museum of Natural History.

Periodic Table of Elements Videos
Want to know more about the elements that make up the periodic table? Here you go!

NASA Kids' Club
Play astronomy games.

NMNH Virtual Tour
Take an interactive online tour of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum

Science Museum Free Games
Play online games from a UK science museum.

SMM Games
Play online games from the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Star Child
Young astronomers learn about the universe.

Switch Zoo
Learn animal biology while creating new animals.

Webcams at the California Academy of Science
Check out the penguins and the sharks and the pretty fish!

World Wildlife Fund Species
Explore several interactive tools for learning about endangered animals.

TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING

Beetle Blocks
Program the beetle to draw elaborate 3D shapes, and then print them!

Blockly
Programming fun games is as easy as building with blocks.

Codeacademy
Learn to code.

Code Combat
Play games. Learn coding.

Code Monster
Learn programming from a genuine monster.

Code Studio
Play computer programming games, or take an entire course geared just to kids.

EngineerGirl
Read about engineering and women in the field.

Hour of Code
Play fun games that get you coding!

LEGO City Space Launch
Design and launch a LEGO space craft.

LEGO Digital Designer
Download the free LEGO Digital Designer program here, and browse the design gallery.

Made with Code
Make projects while learning to code.

Project Lovelace
Learn to code by writing programs to solve interesting scientific problems.

Scratch
Program and play computer games.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Play games related to the projects explored in 4-H.

American MENSA Game Room
Play Sudoku, answer trivia, work jigsaw puzzles, and play other fun games!

BBC Primary Languages: Mandarin
Play games and watch videos to help you learn Mandarin.

BBC Schools
Play games at the BBC's educational website.

BrainPOP
Watch educational videos, take quizzes, and play games (log-in required).

BrainPOP Jr.
Watch educational videos for littler kids (log-in required).

Britannica School
Read leveled-reading articles for research or ready reference (log-in required).

CBeebies from BBC
Play games for a younger age group through the BBC.

Chinese Tone Game
Play this game to learn to recognize and repeat the tones in Chinese.

Discovery Education Streaming
Watch streaming videos on a variety of topics (log-in required).

DIY
Complete projects, answer challenges, earn patches, and level up!

Girl Scouts: For Girls
Online games and videos for Girl Scout Juniors and above.

Grolier
Read and research using leveled-reading articles (log-in required).

H.I.P. Pocket Change
Learn about money and the U.S. Mint.

McGruff the Crime Dog
Play interactive games about social skills and personal safety.

MENSA for Kids
Play lots of fun games here!

New York Times
Read all about it!

PBS Kids
Play games and watch videos from PBS Kids' shows.

PBS Videos
Watch PBS online.

Pebblego
Emergent readers access online books in social studies, biographies, and the sciences (log-in required).

Primary Languages: Mandarin
Play games and watch videos to practice Mandarin Chinese.

Quizlet
Browse or search for interactive flash cards and quizzes about anything.

SET Enterprises Daily Puzzles
Play a new online game of Quiddler, Set, and Xactica every day.

Streaming Facts on File
Watch streaming educational videos from a variety of content areas (log-in required).

Usborne Quicklinks
Explore links from the internet-linked Usborne books.

Webranger
Be a Junior Ranger online, and earn real patches!

World Book Student
Research in a kid-friendly environment, or take quizzes and play online games.

Your Life on Earth
Input your age, and learn a LOT about your lifetime on Earth!

YOUTUBE AND OTHER ONLINE VIDEO CHANNELS

Animation Chefs
Kids star in this video podcasts that teaches animation techniques.

Brain Scoop
This video podcast from The Field Museum explores tons of cool science topics.

The British Museum
Watch short films featuring the museum's collections.

Chessology
Watch chess lessons taught by Coach Atkins.

Crash Course
Here are video lectures on all the things. Seriously--All. The. THINGS!

Crash Course for Kids
Crash Course can be a little blue. Here are also all the things, but without the language.

Ellen Wolters
She teaches kid-friendly pattern and design drawing.

The Friday Zone
My children sometimes appear in this children's show based at our local PBS affiliate.

Fun Clapping
Watch video demonstrations of hand clapping games and read the lyrics, so you can learn to play!

Girl Scouts 8-10
Watch videos for and about Girl Scout Brownies.

Girl Scouts 10-12
Watch videos for and about Girl Scout Juniors.

Horrible Histories
Watch clips from Horrible Histories on BBC 1.

How Things Work
Watch animated videos showing everything from how a transmission works to how to make a machine that draws a perfect circle.

Math Antics
This guy explains math calculations for you!

Quaver Music
Watch clips from Quaver's Marvelous World of Music.

Rainbow Loom
Watch video tutorials to learn how to make rubber band bracelets.

Sci Bugs
Watch videos on insect collecting, identification, physiology, and taxonomy.

Simple Science
Start with the Matter playlist, then check out all the awesome science videos!

Songs for Unusual Creatures
Learn about amazing animals and listen to songs composed in their honor.

Steve Spangler Science
Watch science experiments and tricks.

TED-Ed
Kids of all grades will enjoy these educational videos on every subject.

This Week's WOW
Watch a weekly short video from the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.

UK Parliament
Watch short videos about UK government and citizenship.