Free Teaching Resources for Elementary, Middle, and High School Teachers

Updated October 2025

Teaching on a budget? You’re not alone. Between lesson planning, grading, and keeping students engaged, teachers need reliable, free teaching resources that work across grade levels and subjects.

Here’s your curated list of top free educational websites and tools, organized by elementary, middle, and high school, all classroom-tested and 100% free to use.

And if you are looking for English lessons for grades 7-12, check out my own resources here. One of my favorite aspects of teaching high school English was utilizing my creativity to design engaging lessons and materials. Please take a look and use any of these as resources that might serve your class. It makes me happy knowing they will still get some use!

Note: I have personally vetted each of these resources to ensure the links work and that there is valuable material on them!

Elementary School (Grades K–5)

At the elementary level, teachers juggle reading, math, science, social studies, art, and SEL, often in one day. These free tools will save time, boost engagement, and keep those little nuts focused and curious.

General Lesson Planning & Printables

• ReadWriteThink — Free, standards-aligned literacy lessons, interactive tools, and printables for K–5 classrooms.
• PBS LearningMedia — Thousands of videos and ready-to-teach lessons from PBS shows and educational programs.
• Education.com (Free Tier) — Printable worksheets, guided lessons, and activities organized by subject and grade. These worksheets are also excellent for ESL students.
• Smithsonian Learning Lab — Tons of primary sources, art, and multimedia lessons for cross-curricular learning.
• ABCYA — A collection of educational games for children, with various levels and subjects.
• Ed Helper — Worksheets, games, and teacher resources organized by subject matter and grade.
• Education World — Worksheets, lesson plans, templates, daily columns, and other content.
• Pear Deck Assessments — Scroll down for 23K assessments for various subjects and grade levels.
• WNET — Curated collection of popular lesson plans for all grades and subjects.

Reading & Literacy

• Epic! for Educators (Free Account) — A digital library with thousands of picture books, audiobooks, and read-to-me titles.
• Storyline Online — Celebrities read children’s books aloud — perfect for listening and comprehension skills.
• Starfall — Early literacy games and phonics lessons for Pre-K–2 classrooms.
• ReadWorks — Built on the science of reading to ensure students can steadily expand their background knowledge, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
• Raz Kids — 800+ digital books to meet students’ needs and interests, tools to develop active reading strategies, and an engaging student portal for independent practice.
• Sight Words — Flashcards, lessons, and games to teach sight words.
• One Stop English — Many lessons and materials for ELA, all grade levels.
• Eng Hub — ELA lesson plans, grammar games, speaking activities, holiday-themed materials, and interactive tasks.
• Free Online Books — Several sites with digital books and reading tools.
• Tons of Reading Lessons — Stories and activities by grade level.

STEM

• Khan Academy Kids — Interactive lessons for math, reading, and SEL designed for young learners.
• PhET Simulations — Hands-on science and math simulations made for interactive exploration.
• NASA for Students (Grades K–4) — Free STEM activities and educational videos that make science exciting.
• Meaningful Maths- Various math lessons and resources by level.
• Elementary School Science — Free lesson plans and resources for elementary school science teachers.
• K12 Math — Math worksheets for grades K-8.
• Concord — Tons of free STEM materials, K-12.
• Weather — Lessons on weather.
• Wonder of Science — Mini lessons and assessments.
• Dads Worksheets — Various math worksheets.
• Math Playground — Math games.
• Exploratorium — Interactive content and explorations in science.

Engagement & SEL

• GoNoodle — Short, free movement and mindfulness videos for classroom brain breaks.
• Twinkl– Plenty of worksheets for self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, and relationship skills.
• Greater Good  — SEL lessons with step-by-step teacher scripts.
• Second Step — Digital lessons for Pre K–6, printables, discussion cards, and role-play.
• Edutopia — Articles, classroom videos, and teacher-tested strategies.
• Zones of Regulation — Helps students identify feelings and use coping strategies.

History

• Little Patriots — Interactive lessons and tools to teach American history.
• iCivics — Interactive lessons to teach civics. 
• Lakeshore — Lots of lessons and printables for several subjects, including social studies, grades preK through 5.
• Miniature Masterminds — Many printable resources for history.
• New Path Worksheets — Tons of lessons and worksheets for many history topics.

Middle School (Grades 6–8)

Middle school teachers know the challenge: students want independence, but they still need structure. These free tools strike the right balance with engaging, standards-based lessons that build skills and confidence.

Cross-Curricular Lesson Plans

• Newsela (Free Level) — Differentiated current event articles with adjustable Lexile levels and built-in quizzes.
• PBS LearningMedia — Free videos, interactive lessons, and teacher guides for every subject.
  

Math & STEM

• Desmos Classroom Activities — Free, interactive math activities that build conceptual understanding.
• Khan Academy — Complete middle school curriculum for math, science, and test prep with a teacher dashboard.
• PhET Interactive Simulations — Science and math simulations that make inquiry-based learning accessible.
• NASA for Students (Grades 5–8) — Engaging STEM challenges and digital activities tied to real NASA missions.
• Science Spot — Various materials to teach middle school science.
• Exploratorium — Interactive content and explorations in science.
• Teach Engineering — Various units and materials on engineering for all grade levels.
• Brilliant — Interactive lessons and tools for STEM. Geared towards grades 6-12. 
• CK-12 Foundation — Customizable STEM e-textbooks and practice activities, ideal for blended learning. AI for teachers that can do countless things.
• K12 Math — Math worksheets for grades K-8.
• Concord — Tons of free STEM materials, K-12.
• HippoCampus — multimedia lessons and course materials.
• Inside Mathematics — Video lessons and worksheets aligned to the Common Core standards.
• Smithsonian Education — K-12 learning modules and STEM curriculum.

ELA, Humanities & Social Studies

• ReadWriteThink — Writing and reading strategies designed specifically for middle school learners.
• National Geographic Education — Free articles, videos, and map-based lessons for geography and science integration.
• American Rhetoric — Database of 5000+ full-text, audio, and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events.
• CommonLit — One of my favorites! Free texts and comprehension questions for grades 6–12, great for ELA and social studies. There are excellent online tools to use while reading.
• One Stop English — Many lessons and materials for ELA, all grade levels.
• iCivics — Interactive tools to teach civics.
• Busy Teacher — 600 creative writing prompts.
• HippoCampus — multimedia lessons and course materials.
• AdLit — Multimedia resource library to promote literacy and writing skills. 
• Edsitement — Multimedia lesson plans and teaching resources for English and Social Studies.

SEL & Class Culture

• Edutopia Classroom Management — Articles and videos that offer practical strategies for student motivation and discipline.
• Greater Good in Education — SEL and mindfulness activities based on research from UC Berkeley.
• NPR Media — Media for teens to think critically about.
• Spent  — financial literacy game.
• Second Step — digital lessons, printables, discussion cards, role-play
• Edutopia — Articles, classroom videos, and teacher-tested strategies

High School (Grades 9–12)

High school teachers are supposed to strike a balance between academic rigor and relevance, preparing students for life beyond graduation. These free tools deliver high-quality lessons, labs, and literacy supports that meet college and career readiness standards.

ELA, Humanities & Social Studies

• CommonLit — My favorite! Rigorous reading passages, discussion prompts, and writing assessments.
• Newsela — Engaging current events and nonfiction articles tailored to high school readers.
• Facing History & Ourselves — Another favorite! Free lesson plans on ethics, identity, and social justice.
• Stanford History Education Group (SHEG) — Historical thinking lessons and document-based inquiry activities.
• Library of Congress Teacher Resources — Free primary sources, analysis tools, and classroom-ready activities.
• Read Theory — Worksheets for reading comprehension, K-12 and ESL. 
• Be Freed — Great roundup of resources and stories for history or ELA with five unique learning modes.
• Read Works — A comprehensive database of reading comprehension materials, K-12.
• One Stop English — Many lessons and materials for ELA, all grade levels.
• iCivics — Interactive tools to teach civics.
• Busy Teacher — 600 creative writing prompts.
• HippoCampus — multimedia lessons and course materials.
• AdLit — Multimedia resource library to promote literacy and writing skills. 
• Edsitement — Multimedia lesson plans and teaching resources for English and Social Studies.

Math & STEM

• Brilliant — Interactive lessons and tools for STEM. Geared towards grades 6-12. 
• Khan Academy — Full high school curriculum, including AP and SAT prep.
• CK-12 Foundation — Digital textbooks, concept simulations, and problem sets for every major STEM field.
• PhET Simulations — Interactive labs for physics, chemistry, and advanced math.
• Desmos Graphing Calculator — A visual graphing and modeling tool essential for algebra through calculus.
• E Math Instruction — Editable lessons, assessments, and videos that provide everything middle and high school math teachers need.
• Science Journal — Cutting-edge articles and lessons for grades 6-12. 
• Open Sci Ed — Science lessons and materials for grades K-12.
• Concord — Tons of free STEM materials, K-12.
• Code Cademy — Provides interactive and free lessons to teach you how to code in various programming languages.
• Code — Offers free K-12 computer science curriculum and resources.
• HippoCampus — multimedia lessons and course materials.
• Teach Chemistry — Labs, animations, and resources for chemistry teachers.
• Inside Mathematics — Video lessons and worksheets aligned to the Common Core standards.
• Smithsonian Education — K-12 learning modules and STEM curriculum.

College & Career Readiness

• BigFuture by College Board — Tools for exploring colleges, scholarships, and career paths.
• O*NET Online — Explore career data, skill requirements, and job growth trends.
• CareerOneStop Educator Toolkit — Free career readiness lesson plans and classroom activities.

SEL & Student Engagement

• Edutopia High School Resources — Ideas for engagement, assessment, and project-based learning.
• Mindful Schools — Free mindfulness and self-regulation practices for teens.
• College Countdown — Things to teach seniors before they graduate.
• NPR Media — Media for teens to think critically about.
• Edutopia — Articles, classroom videos, and teacher-tested strategies

Music, Art, PE (all levels) — 

• Discover — Interactive materials to teach health and PE. (Grades K-8)

• Smithsonian Learning Lab — Tons of primary sources, art, and multimedia lessons for cross-curricular learning. (all levels)
• The Art Kit — Various art printables and projects. (K-5)
• Khan Academy Art Lessons — various interactive lessons. 
• Google Arts Institute — Extensive lessons and resources on art and music.
• Google Arts and Culture — Games on music and art.
• Boundless Art — Extensive lessons on many art history topics.
• Life Over Cs — Tons of art lessons, geared towards younger students.
• Exploratorium — Interactive content and explorations in science.
• OER Commons — Interactive lessons that connect a subject with art.

ESL (all levels)

• Fluentize — ESL lesson plans for teens and adults.
• Education.com (Free Tier) — Printable worksheets, guided lessons, and activities organized by subject and grade. These worksheets are also excellent for ESL students.
• Thought Co —  Visual explanations of tenses.
• Chomp Chomp — Grammar, terms, exercises, handouts, tips, rules, and presentations.
• Grammarly Resources — A complete guide to English grammar.
• English Club — A great complete guide to English grammar:
• Games 4 ESL — Games, worksheets, and lessons.
• Col Words — Learn popular vocabulary and quiz yourself.
• Visuwords — A fun way to visualize a word and learn synonyms.
• Youglish — YouTube videos that show how to pronounce searched for words/phrases.
• Oral reading practice YouTube playlist
• Deep English — A database of stories to listen to and quizzes to take afterwards.
• English Central — Interactive English videos/lessons.
• Iteslj — Conversation questions made for ESL speaking.
• ESL Cyber Listening Lab — listening comprehension activities.
• Many Things — Listen and read along stories of many genres.
• Lingo Clip — Learn English through lyrics and quizzes.
• ESL Frog — Plenty of English lessons.
• AdLit — Multimedia resource library including ESL materials.

Free Tools (K–12)

You probably already use some of these resources —  but just in case you don’t…

Gamified Learning

• Kahoot! — Game-based learning platform perfect for review sessions.
• Quizlet — Study tools, flashcards, and practice quizzes for any subject.
• Gimkit — A game show for the classroom that requires knowledge, collaboration, and strategy to win.
• Jeopardy Labs — Allows you to create a customized jeopardy template without PowerPoint. Also has a bunch of ready-made Jeopardy games for multiple ages and subjects.
• Baamboozle — 3 million games made by teachers in various subjects and grade levels, many are free. 
• Boddle — Boost math and English engagement and close learning gaps with these interactive 3D learning games, grades K-8.
• Blooket — Fun educational games for all ages.
• Quizizz — Find and create free gamified quizzes and interactive lessons..

Interactive Learning

• Nearpod (Free Tier) — Interactive lessons, polls, and quizzes for real-time learning.
• Pear Deck (Free Tier) — Turns Google Slides into interactive experiences.
• Flocabulary — Educational hip-hop videos and research-based curricular tools.
• ANTON — Engaging lessons and exercises that support over 15 subjects from preschool through middle school.
• Core Knowledge — Multiple curricular resources for every subject, grades K-8. 
• Padho.ai — Draw or write your doubts on our interactive canvas, and it figures out where you’re stuck and explains step-by-step in your language.
• The Good and the Beautiful — Full lessons for grades K-8 in language arts, math, and science. 
• Unsocialized — Tons of free resources for all subjects, grades K-8.
• Teach Starter — Tons of free worksheets and lessons in all subjects, grades K-8.
• K5Learning — Lots of free worksheets for math and reading, K-5.
• AAA Math — Features a comprehensive set of thousands of interactive math lessons, grades K-8. 
• Easy Peasy — Lessons and materials for all subjects K-12.
• BBC — Various lessons and materials for every subject, primary and secondary.
• Open Learn — Free courses and resources for all subjects, primarily for upper grades.
• Oak National Academy — free resources for all subjects K-12.
• Better Lesson — Lessons created by teachers across the country for all grades in English, math, and science.
• Ed Puzzle — Create interactive video lessons you can integrate right into your LMS, or search for one.
• NJCTL — Free K-12 Materials for all courses, aligned to National Standards.
• Fish Tank — Unit and lesson plans for English and math, K-8.
• TED ED — Tons of interactive video lessons that are customizable.
• We Are Teachers — Worksheets, rubrics, posters, crafts, for various subjects, grades Pre-K-12. 
• 32 Educational Video Sites — Includes most subjects and grade levels.
• Flipgrid — allows teachers to create “grids” to facilitate video discussions.

Grading Tools

• Parlay — Tracks discussion participation automatically so you’re not tallying tick marks.
• GradewithAI — Uses AI to grade assignments, generate rubrics, and instantly sync results with your LMS.
• Teacherfy — AI-powered site where you describe what kind of lesson or material you want, and it generates it for you.
• Report card comments — helpful suggestions to find the right comments
• Report Card Comments with a little LOL — What you really want to say and the appropriate way to say it on report cards.
• Report Card Comments for Struggling Students — How to say it professionally.

Graphic Organizers (any level)

• Teach Nology — Lesson plans with related graphic organizers.
• 4 Squares– A simple layout of ideas.
• Bingo Cards — 3 Space, 25 Space, 49 Space – Blank printable bingo cards.
• Coat of Arms – Map out your coat.
• Concept Web – A very basic concept web.
• Concept Wheel – Sort out the concepts/topics.
• Concept / Event Map – A slightly complex concept map.
• Graphic Organizer Makers – The materials are made instantly and can be printed directly from your computer. 
• KWL– A great reflection activity.
• Main Idea Map– Focus your supporting details, ideas, and main ideas.
• Meeting New Vocabulary – A good way to help students remember unique vocabulary terms.
• Moving Cycles – 4 event cycles in motion.
• Pie 4 Slices – 4 pie slices.
• Pie 8 Slices – 8 pie slices.
• Theme(s) Comparison – Great for comparing units or themes in literature.
• Triple Venn Diagram – A triple circle Venn Diagram.
• Venn Diagram – A basic Venn Diagram.
• Who, What, When, Where, How, Why? – This says it all!
• Big Mac Paragraph Format– Organizer for writing paragraphs.
• Character Analysis Pyramid– Help students identify major points of specific characters of a story.
• Elements Of The Story – This organizer helps students understand the overall tempo of a story.
• It’s All In The Title – For students to use before reading a new work. An excellent pre-reading activity.
• Life Cycles – A 4-space life cycle sequence. Life cycles don’t just apply to the sciences; they apply to all levels of work and content areas.
• Single Character Map – Map out the thoughts and actions of a single character within a story or topic. 
• Double Character Map – Work with two characters. Keep track of two characters with ease. 
• Triple Character Map – Work with three characters. Allows you to track the hero, villain, and the main supporting character.
• Quadruple Character Map – Work with four characters. 
• SQ3R Chart – Very helpful when reading long passages. 
• A Glance @ This Week! – A great way to get students ready for the week.
• Break Out Topics – A great starter organizer. Fantastic for brainstorming activities. Start with a central theme and generate three sub-themes.

Final Thoughts

You don’t need to spend your own money to access quality materials. Between Khan Academy, CommonLit, Newsela, CK-12, and PBS LearningMedia, teachers can find free, high-quality content for every grade level.

Use this guide as your digital toolbox and share it with your colleagues so everyone can save time, money, and stress while delivering incredible learning experiences.

Do you know of another helpful resource? Add it in the comments!