Free Primary Grade Learning and Educational Apps, Software and Games

I have personally reviewed this curated collection of 100% free primary learning and educational apps, software, and games. These can be powerful tools for primary grade learning and offer a wide range of benefits and value for students as well as their parents and teachers. Here are some key points:

Increased Engagement and Motivation:

Engaging learning: Games and apps make learning fun and interactive, boosting motivation and participation.
Immediate feedback and rewards: Reinforce learning and keep students motivated.
Gamification elements: Points, badges and leaderboards add a competitive and collaborative edge.

Enhanced Learning:

Tailored learning paths: Apps adapt to each student’s needs and pace.
Styles catered to: Visual, auditory, kinesthetic learners all find engaging formats.
Active engagement: Problem-solving, decision-making, and exploration lead to deeper understanding.
Immediate feedback: Students learn from mistakes and solidify knowledge.
Safe experimentation: Games create immersive environments for discovery and trial-and-error learning.
Multimedia learning: Sound, animations, and videos boost understanding and retention.
Unlimited practice: Games offer countless opportunities to hone essential skills.

Additional Benefits:

21st-century skills: Games foster critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity.
Beyond the classroom: Apps provide flexible learning anytime, anywhere.
Teacher insights: Software tracks progress, helps identify strengths and weaknesses.
Time-saving tools: Automation helps teachers focus on individual needs.

However, it’s important to remember:

Tech as a sidekick, not a swap: Games and apps enhance learning, not replace teachers.
Choose wisely: Pick engaging, age-appropriate tools aligned with curriculum goals.
Balance the screen: Prioritize physical play and social interaction over excessive screen time.

By thoughtfully integrating games, apps, and software into the primary grade learning process, parents and educators can create a more engaging and enjoyable learning environment, as well as fostering a love of learning.

It’s important to note that games, apps, and software should be used strategically and not replace traditional teaching methods. They should be chosen carefully to align with learning objectives and used in moderation to avoid potential screen time issues.

Primary Grades Educational and Learning Apps and Software

GCompris is an outstanding instructional software program/app with a wide range of educational activities for children aged two to ten. Here is their download page for Windows, Android, Mac, and Linux. Activity areas are:
- Computer exploration: keyboard, mouse, touchpad
- Skills in Reading: letters, words, exercise, text entry…
- Math activities: numbers, operations, retention, count, and double entry tables.
- Science learning: the canal lock, the water cycle, and renewable energy.
- Geography exercises: nations, locations, and cultures.
- Games: chess, memory, align 4, hangman, and tic-tac-toe.
- Other topics: shapes, colors, Braille, and telling time.

eduActiv8 is a free program/app that provides engaging learning activities for K-7th grade studenst. It provides hundreds of short instructional activities, such as flashcards sets, “simulation” activities that let children manipulate numbers to see what changes to more fully grasp specific concepts, and drill exercises in the form of interactive worksheets. It teaches: basic math concepts (learning numbers, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division), fractions, patterns, symmetry, time, and language exercises (alphabet and word activities), logic games, memory retention activities, puzzles, and color games. Here is their installation page for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Word Wagon is an app for kids aged 2-6 can play with Mozzarella the mouse and his buddy, Coco the bird, as they explore letters, words, and pronunciation. It teaches 103 words (44 of those being Dolch sight words) organized into seven groups. It runs on iPhone and iPad.

Learn to Read – Duolingo ABC features interactive stories and over 700 hands-on lessons, offering a comprehensive curriculum designed to introduce children to the alphabet, phonics, sight words, and vocabulary in an engaging way. It runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Duck Duck Moose Reading is an app for youngsters to join Milo the Meerkat and his friend Puffs on a phonics learning trip around the zoo, including nine word and letter exercises which aid children to read feeding and playing with flamingos, monkeys, lions, and other animals. This runs on iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Moose Math is an app that takes young children on a math journey, teaching them counting, addition, subtraction, sorting, geometry, and other topics. Kids may earn awards for creating and designing their own city by going through five multi-tiered activities in the Moose Juice Store, Puck’s Pet Shop, and Lost & Found. You can install this app on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

Sheppard Software provides hundreds of free, online, learning games and activities for kids and adults covering many subjects: geography, math, animals, science, language arts, creative activities, and health, with various of levels for all abilities – loads of games and activities for learners of any age. These run on all web browsers.

Educado Linux is an instructional and entertaining application for children and their parents. It contains a wide range of educational programs and games for pre-school and elementary school levels, including English, math, programming, and other subjects. It runs straight from a USB thumb drive or a Windows computer and it’s 1600 MB in size.

Fact Monster is a free learning resource website for students, teachers, and parents where you can learn about hundreds of topics, including science, language arts, math, geography, history, and health, along with significant reference resources, flashcards, entertaining facts, and homework support. It runs on all web browsers.

Sebran’s ABC is a stimulating and entertaining Windows application that seamlessly incorporates colorful images, relaxing tunes, and interactive activities to teach pre-K to first-grade learners the foundations of letters, numbers, simple math, and reading. It runs in a variety of languages.

Kids Key – Alphabet Training for Toddler is an easy “game” for young children (1-4 years old) that employs letters and changing colors to teach and reinforce the ABCs, colors, and numbers. It runs on Windows only.

Fish School is an award-winning game for ages 2-5 offering 8 instructional activities as it presents youngsters alphabet, numbers, shapes, and colors by means of charming fish and friendly underwater characters. It’s available for Android, iPhone and iPad.

Khan Academy Kids is a free learning app aimed at children aged 2 to 8 for Android and iPhone. The Khan Kids collection has hundreds of children’s books, reading games, arithmetic exercises, and more. It is completely free, with no commercials or subscriptions. It runs on Android, iPhone and iPad devices.

KWordQuiz is a multi-purpose flashcard application. It is suitable for studying vocabulary as well as a variety of other fields of study. It has an editor and five distinct flashcard quiz formats. It employs the KVTML file format, and users may download contributed files for vocabulary and other subjects from inside the program and from here. It runs on Windows and Linux.

Find That Word is a free word search puzzle creator that allows you to quickly and simply insert vocabulary words or phrases for students to learn into a well designed word search puzzle, along with helpful options such as hints, hidden messages, and automatic page layout. This software is available for Windows.

Tux of Math Command is a fun arcade-style math drill game featuring the Penguin Tux. The exercises range from number typing to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of positive and negative numbers. It is designed for children aged four to eleven and includes translations in over 40 languages. You can download it for Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Stella is a simplistic natural language processor that was developed to assist primary school children with learning elementary math word problems. You can download it for Windows or Mac. The app presents how each solution was solved, working with arithmetic word problems such as:
- John carries seven pencils. He buys ten additional pencils. How many pencils does he have in total?
- There are six guys and four girls in the library. How many children are there altogether?
- Bob ran eight miles, while Stella ran two miles. How many total miles did they run?

Tux Math Scrabble motivates children to create compound equations and to explore many creative alternatives. It Includes touchscreen, has nice colors and animation, is browser-based, and has no plugins. Aimed at grades 1-4, covering addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division. You can also download the installation files for installing on Windows, Mac or Linux.

4thgradearithmetic was created to help children improve their foundational math skills, for grades 1-4. It runs on Windows only.

Math Worksheet Generator creates PDF files for practicing arithmetic problems in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The worksheets are generated ready for printing. It runs on all operating systems and you’ll need Java to be installed.

Android Math Challenge is an easy and enjoyable math learning game offering a range of difficulty and timing choices. It enables you to practice your addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division abilities with progressively challenging problems.This app is for Android only.

Asymptopia Math Crossword Builder is a crossword math skills puzzle generator with which you can create countless layouts by entering word hints or using the buttons to create math problems in words or symbols.. Instructions: unzip the download file, then navigate to and open xw.html. View the built-in help. Runs on all browsers regardless of operating system.

Thinking Blocks is a web-based learning tool that employs math blocks to teach and improve children’s their knowledge of math problems covering addition, multiplication, fractions, ratios, and algebra. It runs on all web browsers.

Bedtime Math is a free Android and iPhone app which blends an amusing story with math questions for basic tasks such as addition and subtraction, making math a pleasant, daily habit for any child. Kids can go over it with their parents or siblings and are unaware that they’re learning. According to research, Bedtime Math helps children get three months ahead during a single year of school.

Mathgam is simple math game for children from 4 to 12 years learning how to add, subtract, multiply and divide. It supports one or two players on a single computer and includes levels of difficulty. You can install and run it on Windows, Mac, or Linux.

Mangahigh is a well-designed and ad-free interactive math games website for students aged 5-16. Learn multiplication, fractions, decimals, geometry, shapes, graphs and algrebra. Runs on all web browsers.

National Library of Virtual Manipulative is an excellent collection of Java applets and exercises for math students in grades K-12. These apps teach number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis and probability They run on all operating systems and you’ll need to have Java installed.

Dr. Geo is an interactive geometry program for creating and manipulating interactive geometric drawings, encouraging children to investigate geomety. It is open source and simple to learn, edit, and expand. It comes with the source code and you can change it’s code while using it. You can download it for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Here is a help page to get started using it.

E-Learning for Kids combines web-based games with learning to make their instruction more effective. They provide free, leading-edge curriculum-based instruction in Math and Science for children aged 5 to 12, that includes environmental, health, and life skills. They present the courses as a learning journey, as students learn new competencies, they travel throughout the world discovering more about the seven continents, nations, cities, waterways, and cultures.

Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing application designed for ages 3 to 12, but it can definitely be used by anyone. It has an easy-to-use design, entertaining audio effects, and an enthusiastic cartoon mascot that accompanies youngsters through the software. Tux Paint also provides a “stamp” function for adding pre-drawn or photographic material to photographs, as well as a collection of “magic tools” for filter effects (such as blur, tint, and waves) and special drawing tools (such as train lines, bubbles, and grass). You can download many versions, including Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

Tux Typing is a typing software for children that features Tux, the Linux Penguin. The teaching material features two video game-style sessions for younger players, as well as phrases and finger exercises for more advanced students. You can download this program for either Windows or Linux.

Typing Guru is a dekstop app for beginners to learn how to increase their typing speed. It provides a step-by-step method to improve your typing skills. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Bonza Planet is a puzzle game app that takes you on an adventure around National Geographic’s world with word searches, jigsaws, and quizzes covering Science, Travel, Earth, People, and Animals as some of the topics. This app is available at the app store (iPhone) and google play (Android).

KGeography is a geography investigation application that teaches students about various nations’ political divisions, countries, capitals, and flags. It runs on Windows and Linux.

NASA Space Place Games offers many space related learning games for primary students. NASA also provides STEM related games for students in grades 1-4.

KStars can guide you as you explore the skies. It can automatically recommend objects for you to view in the night sky, giving you a graphical recreation of the sky featuring planets, up to 100 million stars, 10,000 deep-sky objects, comets, and asteroids. The simulation rate is adjustable. It runs on Windows and Linux.

ScratchJr is a free app that allows younger kids (ages 5-7) to code their own interactive stories and games. Throughout the steps, they understand how to resolve problems, develop simple programs, and express themselves creatively on the computer. It’s available for the iPhone, Mac, and Android devices.

BASIC-256 is an application user-friendly version of BASIC programming that shows virtually anyone how to code. A built-in graphics mode allows kids to create drawings on the screen in minutes, and a collection of simple tutorials explain programming basics with engaging tasks.You can install it on Windows or Linux.

The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits teaches the kind of basic electronic circuits that electrical engineering students initially learn about in a pleasant and enjoyable manner for children in grades 2-6. This is web based so it runs on all platforms.

Tinkercad is a free web-app for children to learn how to use computer-aided design (CAD) to build, edit, and print 3D items, explore circuits, and investigate how to code using blocks. Tinkercad enables students to understand the design process by combining many simple components to create more complicated designs. The Codeblocks tool gives students additional opportunities to sharpen their design talents and combine creativity and coding for a full STEAM engagement.

Tate Kids is a web-based platform that provides a range of art activities and resources to use for individual study or supplementing art lessons. Two interactive tools (Tate Paint and Street Art) enable art learners to produce their own works of art. Also, text descriptions, graphics, and videos are used to learn about artists and art styles.

Minuet is a music education application the provide students a variety of ear training exercises including intervals, chords, scales, and more. It runs on Windows and Linux.

Toca Life World is a free world-building app allows young children to create stories and encourages their imagination, so they can experiment and express themselves as they design their own world. They add and create characters, personalize their attire, construct their buildings, and travel around to other places. It is available for Andoid and iPhone, iPad and Mac.

Pepi Wonder World’s purpose is to encourage children to develop and play out their own stories and entertaining situations. The Pepi Play team feels that pretend play activities are important because they help children develop their social, emotional, intellectual, and imaginative abilities. This app is available for Android and iPhone, iPad, and Mac.