These days it seems just about everyone has a podcast. But have you ever thought of tuning in to some podcasts for kids in the classroom? They’re out there … and there are plenty of educational podcasts with content that’s perfect for teachers to incorporate into the school day!
The teachers on our teacher team have pulled together the best podcasts for kids that we’ve heard with a focus on podcasts that are free and have an educational benefit! Episodes can be added to your lesson plans, take the place of read-aloud time and be used as your Fun Friday activity — among the long list of other ways to incorporate podcasts into the school day!
What Are the Benefits of Podcasts for Kids?
As the pandemic has reminded us time and again, there are dozens of amazing benefits to using technology for learning, however, many parents and teachers remain worried about the side effects for students, especially when they involve brightly lit screens or over-stimulating images.
Kid-friendly podcasts are resources that can provide hours of entertainment and learning opportunities for students without the added screen time. There are so many upsides to using podcasts in the classroom:
- Students can engage in them independently.
- Educational podcasts can develop your students’ listening and auditory comprehension skills.
- Listening to podcasts can enhance other, more traditional learning activities that your students may undertake.
This is an opportunity to teach your students that podcasts are a great source of entertainment, culture, news and information. They can be fictional, non-fictional, formal or conversational. There really is an educational podcast for every child.
Where Do I Find Kid-Friendly Podcasts?
Most podcasts have a homepage at which you can listen to episodes or episode snippets and read episode summaries. They usually also provide helpful links to Spotify, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts to help you access their episodes through these streaming services.
The Best Educational Podcasts for Kids
1. Squiz Kids
Billed as 10 ‘fun and fresh’ news for kids, Squiz Kids is a 10-minute daily podcast that offers a kid-friendly take on the news of the day and some more surprising topics — mac and cheese ice cream anyone?! Aimed at upper years students (ages 8 to 12), the podcast is produced in North Sydney by a journalist and a former primary teacher.
2. Quizicle Kids
Quizicle Kids is Nova’s latest foray into the world of child-friendly podcasts!
Perfect for primary-aged students, this trivia-based podcast will have your kids stimulated and entertained. With comedian Lindsay Webb at the helm, these bite-sized episodes are sure to shine some bright happy notes on your days.
3. Story Pirates
Argh, there be a podcast for telling stories! Featuring original stories written by real kids, Gimlet’s Story Pirates podcast for kids is a side-splitting podcast that adapts stories into sketch comedy and musical theater. The pirates themselves are a professional group of actors, comedians, musicians, and improvisers, which makes for world-class storytelling.
Why not have your little learners take one of their favourite stories and adapt it in the theme of a Story Pirates podcast? You can even record it and send it to the parents of your class to listen!
4. Tumble
Tumble is a fantastic science-based podcast for kids created by an investigative journalist and a former teacher from the US. Tune in, and your class can investigate scientific mysteries and discoveries and explore the world of experiments with scientists Lindsay and Marshall. Episodes include ‘why are sloths so slow,’ ‘how do toilets work’ and more questions that bound to be tumbling ’round in your students’ heads.
Explore a sloths teaching presentation to pair with the sloths episode!
5. The Past and the Curious
The Past and the Curious brings you history-themed episodes your students will love! Sharing the stories of fascinating figures from the past, host Mick Sullivan is a professional museum educator who knows his stuff.
This podcast would perfectly complement lessons on historical empathy, then-and-now activities or even a biography activity.
6. But Why
It’s that aged-old question, loved by children and despised by parents! Luckily for you, the question of ‘why?’ is answered in this podcast for curious kids. Tackling a broad range of topics, But Why explores the world from a child’s perspective.
Have a ‘But why?’ question that you’re struggling to answer for your students? Send it in to the podcast and let them do the explaining for you! Then, encourage your students to write an explanation text on the topic.
7. What if World
What If World takes the concept of courting questions from kids and telling stories, then puts them together for a seriously cool podcast for kids. The host, Mr. Eric, specifically takes ‘What if?’ questions posed by kids and spins them into fascinating fictional stories.
Not only does What If World make for fun listening, but they also provide access to a question generator that poses What if? questions. Why not try it out for a fun story-writing prompt?
Need more prompts? Try our random sentence starter app!
8. Wow in the World
Wow in the World is a podcast for kids hosted by American podcaster Guy Raz — teachers may know him as the guy behind the How I Built This or Ted Radio Hour podcasts — and children’s book author Mindy Thomas. The duo challenges their young listeners to sort fact from fiction and tune into the coolest new stories about science and technology.
9. Noodle Loaf
Love playing music in the classroom but like to switch things up now and again? We’ve got what you’re looking for: Noodle Loaf is an interactive music-themed podcast! Featuring episodes that help your students develop skills in pitch matching, creative movement, melodic improvisation, and close listening, this is a fun, relevant, and timely music-themed podcast for the whole family.
10. Earth Rangers
Sustainability is part of the core mission here at Teach Starter — it’s why you’ll find many of our resource are available in digital form. It’s also why we love Earth Rangers, a podcast for kids that’s all about learning to protect wildlife and their local habitats, being more sustainable, and finding new ways to help the earth. The podcast hails from Canada, so kids may get to hear some fun accents while they’re listening!
Bonus Podcast: That’s Incredible
The ‘That’s Incredible’ podcast for kids from Mamamia was discontinued in 2021, but you can still listen to old episodes for free! Episodes cover fun Australian topics like ‘the great emu in the sky’ and ‘Australian inventions that changed the world,’ and each episode ends with a quiz. Test your students’ listening skills to see who was paying attention!
The whole class listening to a podcast after Lunch is also quite a relaxing way to calm down. I cannot wait to try some of the suggested podcasts. Thank you!
Hi Alison, thank you so much for your kind comment. We are so glad you and your students are enjoying our blogs!