01 · WHY PODCASTS
Why podcasts work for younger students
Podcasting lets students who struggle with writing show what they know out loud, and gives every student a real audience. Short episodes of two or three minutes are plenty at this age.
02 · IDEAS
Twelve elementary podcast project ideas
Pick projects that connect to what the class is already learning.
- Animal fact files: one animal per episode
- Book talks: why you should read this book
- Interview a grandparent or family member about their childhood
- Weather report for the week
- How-to episodes: how to make a sandwich, tie a shoe or plant a seed
- Our town: a tour of a place in the community
- Science experiment explained
- Class news show
- Poetry reading with sound effects
- Historical figure interview, with students in character
- Kindness stories
- Would you rather debates with reasons
03 · LESSON PLAN
A five-lesson plan
Five short lessons take a class from no idea to a finished episode.
- Lesson 1: Listen to a short kids' podcast together and talk about what made it good
- Lesson 2: Choose a topic and find three facts
- Lesson 3: Fill in a simple script: hello, three facts, goodbye
- Lesson 4: Practise, then record in pairs
- Lesson 5: Listening party and kind feedback
04 · RECORDING TIPS
Recording tips for small voices
Record in the quietest corner you can find, with the device about a hand's width from the speaker's mouth. Let students record one sentence at a time if they need to. Editing by transcript makes it easy for a teacher to remove false starts afterwards.
05 · SAFETY
Privacy checks before anything is shared
Follow your school's media and consent policy. Use first names only, avoid personal details such as addresses or school schedules, and share privately with families unless you have permission to publish publicly.
- Check school media consent
- First names only
- No personal details in the audio or show notes
- Share privately by default
Simple enough for second graders.
Record in the browser and edit by deleting words in Hilite. Nothing to install on school devices.