The Online Classroom: Perfect for Homeschooling or the Classroom!
The Online Classroom is an educational resource which I’ve used in our homeschooling plan for years now. It’s a series which I highly recommend for both homeschooling and the classroom setting.
I’ll explain the History series in this post, however there’s also the Online Classroom Geography series and the Online Classroom Mammals series, which are both just as wonderful.
Quite often I change up our resources over the years, however the Online Classroom (History) series is one that I’ve happily used for all of primary school for all my kids.
Each Online Classroom book includes:
✅ Blackline master
✅ Teaching Guide
✅ Interactive Online Resource
✅ Full links to the Australian Curriculum
The Online Classroom series is incredibly easy to follow, allowing for open-and-go learning with little to no preparation needed, or alternatively you can use it as a base to plan a more elaborate program with excursions and further learning added.
Either way, the series is fully curriculum-linked. More information (including videos) can be found on our webstore, which you can view here.
When you purchase a book in the series, it comes with the Blackline Master, a Teaching Guide, and a code for the Interactive Online Resource.
The book itself includes worksheets and information about the relevant subject. However, this next aspect is what I love about this series - there is an interactive online resource, which is included! Simply go to the Online Classroom website and enter the code which is included in the book. This will take you and your student to the interactive online resource.
This online resource isn’t your usual “click through the pages to learn about the topic” sort of design. Instead, it has been designed with age-appropriate bright engaging colours, text, videos, buttons, and images which are specifically targeted at engaging students to make the topic fun.
My kids don’t just click the links because they have to. Instead, they see the picture of a historical figure in the corner of the screen with the intriguing line “Find out how this person escaped prison”. After learning about that, their eyes may then be drawn to the bottom of the screen, where they may see a button which says “Find out more about the battle which happened here and how it began due to something you wouldn’t expect”. Once they’ve finished learning about that, they may decide to click to the next screen where it has four buttons with images, and a question at the top saying “Which of these everyday items was the cause of a significant historical event?” They can then click on each image to see its relevance throughout history. Or they can make it a game and try to click the correct answer!
The Online Classroom has done a wonderful job of making each topic fun and engaging for students, while also doing one of the most important roles of education - encouraging natural curiosity!
Once students have gone through the topic in the online resource, there are relevant worksheets which students can complete in the book. You can go through the worksheets together (we’ve had some wonderful discussions while doing this, as the kids have been intrigued by the stories they’ve come across during the online aspect). Or the worksheets are also simple enough to follow for students to be able to complete by themselves.
It’s the same with the interactive online resource. You can go through it together, or complete it as a group in a classroom setting, or the student can go through it on their own. You can choose how to follow this depending on your situation, and each way is a wonderful choice. The online resource works on laptops, tablets, smartboards, whiteboards, and other devices.
Each year level for each topic is available to be purchased separately.
View or purchase the Online Classroom History series online here.
View or purchase the Online Classroom Geography series online here.
View or purchase the Online Classroom Mammals series online here.
(The Online Classroom Series is also available to be purchased in store from our brick and mortar store if you're lucky enough to be local to Bunbury, Western Australia!)