COVID Crisis Teaching at Home – Resources for ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
The COVID pandemic has forced us into – not “Homeschooling,” but – Crisis Teaching at Home, which can be especially challenging for elementary school students. Before you explore these resources for teaching elementary school students, check out my overall thoughts and suggestions for “Homeschooling” during COVID school closures by visiting this page.
Some notes about the info below for ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS:
- For thematic learning, you can use several of the resources listed below to help you easily develop entire lesson plans around the topic. I indicated resources that are especially useful for thematic learning with [TL].
- Unless otherwise stated, assume these resources are free (some are always free; some are just free during school closures). Please keep in mind that many businesses are struggling to stay open and pay their workers. So, if you enjoy the resources and are able to donate to the organization, please do – especially at a time like this.
- For those sites that have a related app for your phone or tablet, I have added [App] so that you can search for it by name in your device store. Please note that the apps, while often more convenient, usually have more limitations of free access.
- Some activities are live streamed at certain times on certain days. I have indicated those in italics. For most of these, the videos are available at least 24 hours afterwards also.
- Hands-on learning creates stronger memories and understanding. So have your children try the activities that can be done “In Real Life” [IRL]. Keep in mind that this may mean going to a website to read about a hands-on lesson, order materials, or print a worksheet.
- Pro Tip: Put printouts in plastic sheet protectors and have your children use dry erase markers so that you can do the sheets over and over.
Note: I usually create my own content in pdf form because linking to other websites often results in unforeseeable changes like altered content, modified pricing, broken links, etc. If something I posted below has changed or is not correct, please email me so I can correct it.
Visit the following links for resources for:
Students with Learning Difficulties
Resources for Teaching ELEMENTARY SCHOOL children:
Science:
National Geographic Kids has games, videos, activities, and books about science-related topics. [App]
World Wildlife Foundation has videos and printable “biodiversity toolkits that provide students with an understanding of the importance of nature and how all living things are connected.” [IRL]
Skype with a Scientist: Sign up for a personal Q&A session with a scientist of your choice over video chat.
Mystery Science offers K-5 Common Core aligned science lessons. [App]
Club SciKidz has theme-related videos, activities, songs, and projects. [TL] [IRL]
NIEHS Environmental Science based games, songs, printables, activities, and lessons. [IRL]
Reef Relief has lesson plans, videos, and activities about the ocean. The also have Virtual Classroom Lessons on Facebook Live every MWF at 9:30am CST. The videos will be saved to the Facebook and YouTube pages. [IRL]
Rader’s 4 Kids websites: Biology 4 Kids and Chem 4 Kids and Cosmos 4 Kids and Geography 4 Kids and Physics 4 Kids [TL]
Amazing Space has various space-related resources, activities, explorations, and lessons organized by topic. [IRL]
Through the Space Foundation Discovery Center, Snoopy and the Peanuts gang use space themes to improve students’ interest and skills in STEM. [IRL]
Numinds.tv has interactive, educational STEAM videos for PreK-5 students.
“Code Camp teaches children ages 7-2 to code with step-by-step instructions on how to build a selection of apps/games.”
Tynker offers coding lessons for K-2, Elementary, and K-8 ranging from beginner to advanced. [TL] [App]
“CodeMonkey is a fun and educational game-based environment where kids K-8 learn to code without any prior experience. They have 14 day free trial, then it costs $4.95/month. [App]
Math:
Reflex Math: “Adaptive and individualized, Reflex is the most effective system for mastering basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division for grades 2+.” [App]
Zearn has animated and differentiated K-5 math lessons.
Splash Learn has interactive games for K-5 math. [App]
Monster Math is an app for K-5 math. [App]
Math Playground has math games for grades 1-6. [App]
99Math has multiplayer math games which help competitive students advance, while providing parents with reports to track growth and areas of need.
Happy Numbers “individualizes math instruction . . . and gives you actionable insights about student growth.”
Dreambox offers an adaptive, online K-8 math learning platform and has a 90 day free trial for parents (sign up by April 30th). [App]
Prodigy Game offers self-paced math practice for grades K-8. [App]
Greg Tang Math offers K-8 math games and resources. [IRL]
Math Game Time offers PreK-7 math games, videos, and worksheets. [IRL]
Math Score has adaptive online math practice and assessment aligned to Common Core math standards for K-8.
CoolMath4Kids offers games, lessons, quizzes, manipulatives, brain teasers, and more. [IRL]
Bedtime Math has on- and off-screen activities for kids to learn math. [App] [IRL]
The Stock Market Game has an online simulation that engages students grades 4-12 in the world of economics, investing, and personal finance. [App]
Compilation of lessons from Intuit to teach your kids about coins, counting money, practical money skills, etc. [IRL]
Coupon Follow provides some great money math games and real life scenario games too.
Science and Math:
Explore Learning has over 400 math and science Gizmos that teach how to graph, measure, compare, predict, and prove. Free 60 day trial.
ELA:
Vocabulary Spelling City has lessons to “expand knowledge of vocabulary words and reading comprehension.” $34.95/year [App]
Lailo has K-2 lessons on letters, sounds, and sight words.
Mrs Wordmith’s phonics books and cards games are designed for children ages 4-11. Prices start at $15.95 per resource. [IRL]
“Classroom Cereal is a series of printable short stories that double as grammar exercises.”
K12 Reader: printable worksheets and articles for grades 1-5 to help with spelling, reading comprehension, grammar, and composition. [App] [IRL]
Night Zookeeper uses animated games to improve spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and writing. They have a 7 day free trail, then it costs $9.25/month for the annual package.
Read Write Think has lessons and interactives organized by grade level, theme, learning objective (spelling, vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, etc.) [TL] [IRL]
Raz Kidz: Students can listen to K-5 books for modeled fluency, read books for practice, and then record themselves reading. Every leveled eBook has an accompanying eQuiz to test reading comprehension. Books include Spanish, Song, Nursery Rhymes, Poetry and more. 14 day free trial. [TL] [App]
LightSail is a digital educational reading platform with 6,000 texts from different subject areas and topics that is designed to engage students in grades K-12 to develop and reinforce their reading skills. Each student is given a customized library based on their Lexile reading level and reading interests. Students earn badges based on total minutes read, the different types of genres or topics they engage with, or the number of embedded questions that they get correct. [TL]
Quill provides interactive writing and grammar activities.
Dreamscape is a reading video game for grades 2-8. [App]
Math & ELA:
Sign up as a “free subscriber” with ABCya! which has learning games and activities that are aligned to PreK-6 ELA and Math Common Core Standards. [App]
Arcademics: K-6 multiplayer educational math and language arts games. [App]
Starfall offers animated lessons on math, language arts, and music for grades 1-3. [App]
Hand2Mind has daily K-5 lessons, videos, and activities for Math, Literacy, and STEM.
K5Learning has printable pdf worksheets for math, reading, vocabulary, spelling, grammar, and cursive. [IRL]
Oxford Owl: Reading, English, and Math videos, worksheets, and activities organized by subject, age, and grade. [App] [IRL]
Learn Zillion has K-8 Language Arts and Math videos and related curriculum. [IRL]
Social Studies:
One Globe Kids: “Beautifully photographed, interactive stories by and for children around the globe.” [TL] [App]
The Week Junior features science, animals, current events, entertainment, technology, sports, and books. You can get 6 issues free, then it costs $1.49/issue.
Smithsonian Kids has videos, activities, and games to learn more about art, history, culture, science, and nature. [TL] [IRL]
Ducksters has geography and history lessons organized by category.
KidCitizen provides a growing set of interactive episodes for K-5 students to work with primary source photographs to explore Congress and Civic Engagement.
iCivics has games, news, webquests, and lesson plans to engage students in “meaningful civic learning.” [IRL]
Free Election Guide: This guide will help your kids learn everything there is to know about all the stages a candidate goes through on the road to the white house. [IRL]
Learn Our History has “‘animated lessons that make it fun for kids to learn American history.” 7 day free access.
All Subjects:
Esme the Curious Cat books are great alone, but they also align with free coloring sheets and other free learning printables to teach ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Mind Puzzles. [IRL]
Education.com: Sign up for a free account to gain access to resources, study packets, and guided lessons in arts, foreign language, math, reading, writing, science, social studies, typing, and social emotional for grades PreK-5. [App] [IRL]
PBS has standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more in PreK-12 science, math, social studies, ELA, engineering & technology, health, art, etc. [TL] [IRL]
Freckle offers animated differentiated instruction in Science K-8, Math K-9, ELA K-12, and Social Studies K-12 with easy-to-use reports to check your children’s performance across standards and skills. During school closures parents can sign up for a free teacher account (see directions halfway down the screen here). [TL] [App]
BrainPop Jr has K-3 animated lessons and related questions on topics including science, health, reading and writing, social studies, math, arts and technology. [TL] [App]
Use ixl.com to search any math, language arts, science, social studies, or spanish concept for grade-specific, student adapted problems with detailed explanations. [TL] [App]
Ck12 has interactive K-12 learning activities and practice in science, math, and social studies that adapts to individual student performance.
TLS Books has a variety of printable worksheets for PreK-6 for math, language arts, history, geography, science, theme, etc. [TL] [IRL]
Enchanted Learning has activities, worksheets and crafts for PreK-3 english, social studies, math, science, art, etc. [TL]
Homeschooling resources organized by grade, subject, theme, etc. [TL] [IRL]
123 Homeschool4me has printables, worksheets and how-to’s for every subject, K-8. [TL] [IRL]
Discoveryk12 is offering 180 days of free online non-Common Core curriculum for PreK-12th covering all subjects and including quizzes and tests. [TL] [IRL]
Actively Learn has “texts and videos for ELA, Science, and Social Studies with scaffolds and higher-order questions.” [TL] [App] [IRL]
Adventure Academy has “learning games and videos for reading, math, science, and more.” They are offering the first month free. [TL] [App]
Kids Academy: PreK-3 interactive lessons on math, reading, language arts, chess, science, social skills, art, etc. They are offering a short-term free account, then 50% across all plans. [TL] [App]
Wide Open School has videos, lessons, and printables for PreK+ to help with scheduling, emotional well being, life skills, and all core subjects. [TL] [IRL]
Newsela: Access to age appropriate news aligned with ELA, Social Studies, and Science. [TL] [App] [IRL]
Read Brightly‘s printable reading guides for various books to help children learn about history, culture, life skills, critical thinking, emotions, etc. [IRL]
Adventure2Learning is a “video-driven learning platform that curates active learning resources across a wide range of core curriculum subjects as well as timing topics such as SEL (social-emotional learning), mindfulness, and STEM.” 2 months free access with the code “LEARN60.”
Funbrain has online games, books, and videos for grades 1-6.
Lakeshore has printables, worksheets, lesson plans, writing prompts, crafts and more! [TL] [IRL]
Miacademy offers hundreds of lessons in math, language arts, science, and social studies, covering all of K-8. In addition to the core subjects, Miacademy has a variety of electives from introductions to several languages to life skills. First month is $1.99, then it costs $19.95/month.
Always Icecream “offers hundreds of lessons in math, language arts, science, and social studies, covering all of K-8. In addition to the core subjects, Always Icecream has a variety of electives from introductions to foreign languages to life skills.” First month is $1.99, then it costs $19.95/month.
Time for Kids’ digital library broken down by grade level. [TL]
Kids Discover Online gives unlimited access to their entire library of science and social studies articles for $4/month. [TL]
Khan Academy has schedules of self-paced, interactive content–exercises, videos and articles and in most major subject areas: 1st & 2nd grade and 3rd – 5th grade
Miscellaneous:
Handwriting Without Tears is an “award-winning curriculum that offers multisensory strategies and materials to teach pencil grip, letter formation, and the literacy skills that are needed for print and cursive handwriting.” Keyboarding Without Tears “is a web-based curriculum for grades K–5 that teaches typing, general computer readiness, digital citizenship, and online test prep.”
Code Spark Academy helps kids ages 5-9 learn how to code. Parents can get 3 months free with the code “schoolclosed.” [App]
Breakout EDU has K-12 escape room digital games.
With Chess Kid, children can learn and play chess with other kids. [App]
Braingle has “over 15,000 brain teasers, riddles, logic problems and mind puzzles.” [IRL]
“Puzzle Prime’s mission is to provide students and adults of all ages the opportunity to develop their mental skills in fun and engaging ways with puzzles (including Brain Teasers, Detective Mysteries, and Optical Illusions) that will challenge your analytical thinking and boost your passion for science.”
Brain Den helps users test logic skills and have fun with brain teasers, riddles, puzzles, and optical illusions all sorted by category.
Sanford Harmony’s social emotional learning program for PreK-6 students is “designed to foster intergender communication and understanding, connection, and community both in and outside the classroom and develop boys and girls into compassionate and caring adults.”
Big Life Journal helps children ages 4 and up to reflect on their mindfulness, self-care, routine, confidence, growth, etc. Each is about $13.
Character Strong’s curricula is focused on fostering the Whole Child with vertically-aligned lessons that teach social-emotional learning (Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, Responsible Decision-Making) and character (Character Development: Patience, Kindness, Honesty, Respect, Selflessness, Forgiveness, Commitment, Humility), side-by-side.
Life, Love, Action has a free kit to teach kids how to problem solve & manage their emotions. [IRL]
Amaze Jr. has age-appropriate sex ed resources and videos for kids ages 4-9.
And remember… if you’d like one of WorldWise Tutoring’s expert tutors to help devise, teach, monitor, and assess lessons for your elementary school child, we are here to help! CONTACT US.
