For my upcoming 2nd and 4th grade class, I am looking to start a blog or cms. I am looking to post my weekly homework contracts, links to Web sites, parent newsletters etc. My hopes are that the site will expand and I will be hosting content related discussions for my students as well as administering tests and quizzes via the CMS/Blog.
I have been toying with the idea of using Moodle (and pretty fixated on it!), but I want to make sure that it is the best fit. I have heard good things about the capabilities of Wikispaces and Wordpress, as well.
Try Weebly. They have a lot of great and easy to use features. I have my 4th Grade class website with them. It has not been updated since school finished, but feel free to check it out at www.mrwylie.com. I have a lot of what you were hoping to add.
I use Wordpress and like it. It would certainly allow you to start with that homework blog and you could later expand to include your students if you wished. Blogger would be even simpler and easier option to get that going. Moodle would probably be overkill initially since it takes a lot to get it set up but is a very good option once you're administering tests, quizzes and discussions.