Digital Citizenship Resources for the Elementary Classroom

Are you looking for some resources to use to help teach digital citizenship throughout the year? Here are some of my favorites!

👉Common Sense Media's Curriculum

This curriculum is wonderful and very comprehensive. A scope and sequence is provided for educators to download and you can easily search lesson plans by grade level as well as topic. There are lots of free resources for both parents and teachers. If you are interested in becoming a Common Sense Educator and receiving digital citizenship training, click HERE.

I created THIS presentation template in Google Slides to go along with the topics in Common Sense Media's curriculum. Students can synthesize and summarize everything they learn about these digital citizenship topics. This makes a great writing activity! I have worked with upper elementary students who have used this to create a presentation and then present their final project to a younger class. It was a hit.

👉Google's Be Internet Awesome Curriculum

This program was designed to teach kids (Grades 3-6) the skills they need to be smart & safe online. I was really excited to receive this spiral bound notebook of the curriculum pictured below when I walked through ISTE's Expo Hall this summer. You can download your free copy HERE. Be sure to check out the presentations in Google Slides with interactive Pear Deck add-ons! The Be Internet Awesome Interland interactives are really great too. The kids LOVE them.

Google's Be Internet Awesome Digital Citizenship Curriculum

👉BrainPOP's Digital Citizenship Activities

Students can learn all about digital citizenship from Tim and Moby! Even if you don't have a BrainPOP subscription, you can sign up for a free digital citizenship subscription HERE (Note: You will have to sign up for your entire school if that hasn't been done already. After finding the name of your school, you will need to provide your administrator's email address. BrainPOP will send your administrator the school's account access and they can create accounts for the teachers and students in your school). Here is the list of their current topics:

👉Nearpod

Nearpod has WONDERFUL lessons and interactive activities for digital citizenship and computer science!

👉NetSmartz

NetSmartz is an interactive educational program that teaches children how to be safe online. You can find ideas, lesson plans, videos, presentations and more. NetSmartz and Disney teamed up to provide a 1.5 hour self-paced Online Educator Training Program to help you teach internet safety and prepare kids to be better digital citizens. A certificate is provided at the end that you can use to apply for continuing education credits.

Picture Books with Digital Citizenship Themes

Reading books with digital citizenship themes is a great way to discuss these important topics, especially with younger students. Last year I wrote the blog post: 5 Reasons to Use Picture Books to Help Teach Digital Citizenship. You can find an organized list of technology themed children's books arranged by topic (cyberbullying, responsible use, online safety, etc) by clicking HERE. Check with your local library to see if they have any of these books. I really think many of these titles should be in every school building so be sure to share THIS list with your librarian!

Resources in my TpT Store for Grades 3-5

My Digital Citizenship Reading Passages resource for grades 3-5 contains 5 different close reading passages and questions. Topics include: What is digital citizenship?, cyberbullying, digital footprint, protecting personal information and creative credit & copyright.

I also have a Digital Citizenship Trivia Game that comes in Google Slides and PowerPoint. Great for review!

This Digital Safety Scenarios Sort makes a great, UNPLUGGED activity for discussing digital interactions.

Digital Activities in Google Slides™

THIS set of 14 different DIGITAL activities in Google Slides™ will get students writing, creating, and researching different digital citizenship topics.