The Top 10 Digital & Audio Book Sites for Kids

Books are expensive and I've found that while many of my students don't have access to a large book collection at home, they have access to technology. 

There are so many online digital libraries out there that share a wealth of children's books right at your fingertips. But the truth is, many of them are pricey, very nonuser-friendly, and don't provide a very good book selection.

I've done some research and piloted numerous online digital libraries in my classroom the last couple of years and today I share "The Top 10 Digital & Audio Book Sites for Kids." All sites are user-friendly, teacher-tested, and hassle-free!!

Storylineonline.net 

This site features tons of award-winning titles you'll recognize.

• Free
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Books read by famous actors

 Tarheelreader.org 

Features books on just about every imaginable topic you could think of.

• Free
• User-friendly
• No audio
• Reliable search engine

Storyberries.com

• Free
• User-friendly
• No audio
• Search by age, topic, time, or conversation

Getepic.com

I LOVE Epic! It's my definite fave and my students too! Choose from many eye-catching titles, customize your library, and create your own avatar.

• Free for teachers
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available

 Youtube.com

Did you ever think to look on You Tube for read alouds? It is often my go-to for read-alouds. Just search your book and choose a video.

• Free
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Friendly search engine

Schooltube.com

You can also find read-alouds on School Tube.

• Free
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• Friendly search engine

Education.com

I love Education.com for lessons, activities, interactive games, and songs...but did you also know they have over 70 audio books on their site? Education.com limits the number of downloads with the free membership, but downloads are unlimited with the premium membership.

• 3 free downloads per month
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• Common Titles

The premium membership is well worth the investment. You can read all about the perks of education.com in a blog post I wrote here...AND membership is 50% off right now!

 Farfaria.com

Farfaria is another one of my favorites! While it is not free, subscriptions are as low as $4.99/month and as low as $20/year for teachers. That's not very much at all, when you consider 1-2 books can easily cost a whopping $20. 

• $$
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Thousands of stories

 Onemorestory.com

Another phenomenal audio book site! Although, not free, worth every penny when you take into consideration the price of books. 

• $$
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Thousands of award-winning titles
• "I can read it" mode for struggling readers
• Word lists and vocabulary components

Meegenuis.com

Another fabulous audio book site! This subscription is only $4.99 a month, which again is much cheaper than purchasing hardcover books. You can also try it free for 30 days.

• Free 30-day trial
• User-friendly
• Audio Books
• App Available
• Award-winning titles
• Customize your library

When you look at the price of books these days, you can't beat these prices for providing good quality books to your children. Or try out the sites that are free! Audio books are engaging to children, and the other great thing about audio books is that children are exposed to modeled reading. 

No more excuses that they didn't have a book to read at home!

No more spending exhausting hours and valuable time searching for good digital/audio book sites! I've done the work for you and I know you and your children will find all of these sites very enjoyable.

Top "Teacher" Apps

Let's talk "Teacher" apps! I'm not talking about apps you can use with your students, but apps exclusively for teachers! Here are my top teacher apps! 

GOOGLE DRIVE

DROPBOX

Google Drive and Dropbox both offer FREE online storage and will quickly become your best friend. Access your files from any computer anywhere, share files with friends and colleagues, and never worry about losing another flashdrive again! 

GOOGLE PHOTOS

FREE unlimited online photo storage! Take all of the classroom photos you want without taking up space on your phone. You can set it up to automatically upload the photos you take while erasing them from your phone, if you choose that option! Create folders and easily share classroom photos with families with one simple link.

RANDOM NAME SELECTOR PRO

I love this app for randomly selecting student helpers or a student to answer a question. It's very fun and engaging for students too, as they watch the curtains open to see which name will be revealed. It was free when I started using it a couple of years ago, but it appears to be $3.99 now. But I would have totally paid that! So worth it and so easy to use.

COMMON CORE

If your school and curriculum is based off of the Common Core Standards, you'll love this app. Easily retrieve and keep the standards for all grade levels right at your fingertips!

GOOGLE CLASSROOM

I am new to Google Classroom this year and I am loving it so far! Take your classroom website, announcements, newsletters, assignments, emails, Remind 101, etc. and combine them all into one....and that's Google Classroom!

BEHAVIOR TRACKER PRO

I am not currently using this app at this time and went back to paper/pencil, but that's just me. If you like to keep data electronically, this is hands down the best behavior tracking app I have found and used to date. It is $29.99, but well worth it if you want to go electronic!

TOO LOUD KIDS NOISE METER

I just started playing around and using this app the last couple of weeks, and my students and I really like it for tracking the noise level in the classroom. Display on your Smartboard for students to see. You can customize your noise levels and times. While this app is free, you can unlock even more great features and characters for just $4 more.

TIME TIMER

Say What? Time Timers are available on an app??! I LOVE my Time Timers! I use them for my center rotations and for my students that need a time warning, but they are so expensive! I just discovered this app and am so excited! It is $2.99 but the actual Time Timers range from $30 - $40. 

TIMER FOR KIDS-VISUAL COUNTDOWN

When looking at the Time Timer apps, I ran across this one which is FREE and works the same way as the Time Timer; showing how much time is left. 

QUIZLET

I'm loving Quizlet! It's all about flashcards. You can create your own flashcards study sets, or choose from tons of flashcards already available on the app created by others. I've been using it for sight word practice this week. Students can practice reading their words, writing their words, and even take an assessement on their words. I plan to use this app alot this year! And it's FREE!

TRELLO

I've been playing around with Trello quite a bit the last couple of months. This app has a lot of great reviews. It's a great organizational tool for staying organized and on task. You can create checklists, reminders, upload images, assign tasks to others, and more.

CLASS TREE

I haven't had chance to delve into Classroom Tree yet, but it sounds amazing! Turn all of your classroom permission forms, responses, and correspondences into digital documents that parents can e-sign and save on paper. No more keeping track of paper documents! I'm super excited to try this app out!

ADDITIO

 I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard lots of great things about Additio and can't wait to explore it! It looks like you can keep grades, attendance, class notes, and more all in one place and share and collaborate with other teachers. Looks great and has lots of good reviews!

What am I missing? What are your favorite teacher apps!?

ABCmouse.com

Have you heard the news!?! ABCmouse just released the expansion of their new curriculum that now includes 2nd grade! It is now geared for children ages 2 - 8, or children working at a Pre-k through 2nd grade level. 



If you're not familiar with ABCmouse, it is an award-winning curriculum, available on computer, tablet, or phone, and is highly recommended by educators and parents. AND, it is FREE for teachers! Here are some facts about ABCmouse.

-ABCmouse is regularly ranked as the leading children's learning iPad, iPhone, and Android app in both the Kids and Education categories. 
-More than 8,500 standards-based learning activities covering preschool-2nd grade and 850 lessons.
-More than 1.6 million ABCmouse learning activities are completed each day, with over 2.2 billion completed to date.

I am so impressed with ABCmouse that I don't know where to start to share all of the fabulous features it offers! Take a tour with me to see for yourself!

This is what the student's homepage looks like. It is very user-friendly and so easy for children to navigate. I also love that that it reads all of the text to my students. So as they hover their mouse or finger over each section or link, it reads each category or command to them. This is great for our non-readers.

 Students can complete the activities you customize and assign for them in the "My Lessons" section or they can complete the activities in their Classroom or Learning Path that are determined by ABCmouse based on the student level you assigned them to. 

Setting up and adding your students and their level is super simple. Click on the "options" tab on the bottom left hand corner to be taken to the teacher dashboard. Don't worry, you'll have to enter your password, so students won't be able to access this without your password. 

Click on "Class Builder." Here you can add/remove students and create classes or groups. 

In the "Add Students" section, you'll be able to select their level from Toddler through level 10. My students are working at a grade level of KG to second grade, so I found that Levels 7-10 were the most appropriate for my students. 

To build and assign customized lessons for your students, choose "Lesson Builder" from the teacher dashboard and then click on "Start."

I love that there are life skills lessons too! The particular student I am going to use in this example to show you how to build lessons is a student with Autism and is working on learning about the kitchen. So I typed "kitchen" into the search bar and these are the kitchen lessons that came up. Each lesson includes several activities. You can also choose to not type in a search and view all the lessons available if you are not sure.

Click on the lesson you'd like and click continue.

Next, choose your activities. Use the drop down filters to select what you're looking for and narrow your search.

You can choose specific learning topics....

activity types...

 or specific levels.

 You can also choose activities using the search bar, which is what I did for this student. I typed "kitchen" into the search bar and as you can see 23 activities came up. Check the ones you want, or I liked them all so I checked the "add all activities" box on the bottom right and clicked "save and next."

This step gives you the option to organize and arrange items in the desired order if you choose. If you like them in the order they are, click "save and next."

Last, assign your lesson. You can assign to classes, groups, or to individual students. As you can see, I am only assigning my "kitchen" assignments to one student. 

Then, click "save" and you are done.

You can go to your "Lesson Library" anytime to see what you have assigned and to edit, assign, or delete assignments by clicking on the white button in the upper right hand corner of each assignment.

Visit the "Progress Tracker" in your teacher dashboard to track the progress of your students. Here you can see how many activities they've completed and how much time they've spent on the site. You can even search specific date ranges.

Another awesome feature of ABCmouse is the teacher resources. Visit the "Teacher Resources" feature on the teacher dashboard and download tons of printables, student incentives, and logic puzzles.

 You'll also love the simplicity of student logins. No passwords required. Once you log in, students simply click on their name to get started. 

When students click on their lessons, they receive the following notification.

When my student I assigned the "kitchen" lessons to clicks on his lessons, all of his kitchen lessons will show. He will click on a lesson to complete it. Since I chose "ALL" activities when I set these activities up, he will get to do books, games, songs, art, and puzzles all related to learning about the kitchen.

Here is one example of a kitchen vocabulary lesson. As my student clicks on each item in the kitchen picture, the word will appear as you see with "pot", and the word will be read to my student. I also love that the kitchen resembles what a traditional kitchen really does look like.

Another thing that makes ABCmouse so fun for children is the "All About Me" section that they get to customize themselves. This section is accessed by clicking on their name on the left. Here they can change their Avatar, save activities to their files, save favorites to their "favorites" list, print their activities...and they earn tickets for each completed activity that they can use to buy things for their pets and to decorate their room with.

This is a great tool that teaches children how to print and save which can be transferred over to utilizing these features on other computer programs and students love being able to customize and have their own private files. 

Students can also visit their saved files, click on a particular file and have the option to crop, edit, or delete their files. They can also turn their files into a puzzle if they choose.

In this section, students can learn to take care of virtual pets, feed them daily, and even learn facts about their pets or complete activities pertaining to their pets.

Parents can also be a part of their child's learning with the ABCmouse "school to home connection" and children can work on your lessons at home. You can send invites by email or print invites to send home. All parents have to do is go to abcmouse.com/redeem and enter the code provided!

ABCmouse has definitely outdone themselves and taken all educator and childrens' needs into consideration. It is user-friendly for both teachers and children, has no advertising or pop-up adds, targets all areas of instruction designed by expert educators to include reading, math, science, social studies, and health, utilizes a multi-sensory approach that includes books, songs, puzzles, games, videos, art, and real world experiences, offers life skills activities and instruction, provides motivating and fun learning experiences for children, prepares students for more advanced computer use, provides an accountable teacher tracking system, allows for differentiated instruction, and allows parents to participate and be a part of their child's learning. 

Did I mention that ABCmouse is completely FREE for teachers! Just click on the image below, then click on "Teachers" in the upper left hand corner to sign up for FREE and start using ABCmouse in your classroom. 

If you're not a teacher, click below to try it for FREE for 30 days! Or sign up for an annual membership at 38% off! 

What do you think of ABCmouse thus far?

Do you know of another teacher that can benefit from ABCmouse? Forward these deals onto them!