First of all, kudos for taking the time to learn about a new tool before using it!
iNaturalist is a great resource for learning, but it can be a little complicated, and it’s not uncommon for teachers to hop on the bandwagon without understanding what they’re getting into.
the search function of Discourse (the software that hosts the forum) can be… iffy. The Educators category is IMO the best way to get results that will help you.
You may also want to check out iNat’s Seek app, which is designed for younger citizen-scientists. It’s much more user-friendly, gives live ID suggestions (which have variable accuracy though!), and has strict privacy protections.
Sounds good, and empowering. I do wonder if it might be fun, though, to also take a look at the list of species which have been identified near the school by all iNat users – just as a preview, or even a “quest list”. You can save an Explore search
feel free to play with the filters. this is a circle from HaBima Square in Tel Aviv (where I live) that encompasses any observation with a photo – so casual, needs ID, and RG – within a few hundred meters. And looking at the “species” tab.
you can filter Explore results by project + date. Haven’t worked with fifth graders for ages but I wonder if they could learn how to use the search filters themselves. Seems like a good life skill / tech literacy?
I think there’s a way to mass import using CSV but I’ve never done it. If you do this, make a project, then use the shiny new “add to project from Identify” feature you could quite rapidly put it all under one project, or several if you want to essentially pre-sort the data so as not to require the students to use advanced filters.