Education at Home

Faculty and administrators from Cal State East Bay’s College of Education and Allied Studies curated the following list of educational resources for families and caretakers looking for educational resources while schools remain closed due to COVID-19.

FREE RESOURCES 

Go Noodle: Since we are spending so much time at home, it is important to get up and start moving. Go Noodle offers free engaging content and games including dance parties, yoga sessions and mindfulness activities that encourage children to wake up their bodies and engage their minds. 

11 Teachers' Tips on How to Handle Children: Teacher-offered classroom tips for keeping multiple children focused while learning at home. 

Teaching your child at home: A curated list of 31 inexpensive activities and organization ideas for every family teaching children at home. 

Khan Academy: This nonprofit organization has a mission to provide free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. There are tools for learners, parents, districts and teachers. 

Typing.com: Typing.com teaches free keyboarding, digital literacy and coding. There are lessons, tests and games for every level of learning. 

Storyline Online: The Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Foundation’s award-winning children’s literacy website, Storyline Online, streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Readers include Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Costner, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White and dozens more.

Teach Starter: Teach Starter offers thousands of downloadable  posters, games, activities and worksheets by experienced teachers, illustrators and designers.

12 Museums From Around the World That You Can Visit Virtually: This article profiles virtual tours of museums around the world for students to explore.

National Geographic Kids: National Geographic Kids offers science-based activities for students, including videos and articles.

BrainPop Lessons: Brain Pop offers free access during school closures to its lessons on everything from science and social studies to art and music. Lessons are also offered in Spanish and French.

Kid-Friendly Podcasts: Entertaining, informative, and kid-friendly podcasts for bedtime, road trips and more. Best part? They're screen-free. 

MATH SPECIFIC RESOURCES

YouCubed: The main goal of YouCubed.org is to inspire, educate and empower teachers of mathematics, transforming the latest research on math learning into accessible and practical forms. YouCubed.org’s latest newsletter featured a set of activities from their website with modifications to make them work better from home. 

Math Mama: Math Mama is a blog written by Sue VanHattum, a community college math teacher interested in all levels of math learning, and the mama of a teenage son. 

Estimation180: Estimation 180 presents students with a daily estimation challenge. There are also free activities, resources and tutorials. 

Robert Kaplinsky: Robert Kaplinsky is an educator and author who offers math strategies and resources. You can download his favorite lessons for elementary, middle and high school students for free. 

Math For Love: Math for Love was created by a husband and wife team devoted to transforming how math is taught and learned. The pair develop math games and curriculum, including tons of free lesson plans.

The Elementary Math Maniac: This math-focused website was created by a K-6 math specialist in a small elementary school. After spending her days working with students and teachers to differentiate and personalize math class in order to meet the needs of all learners, she is sharing the tools she has acquired. 

Build Math Minds: Teaching math isn’t easy and for a lot of teachers, it isn’t fun. The creator of Build Math Minds is here to help with that. She is offering a free online mini-class and resources. 

Counting Collections at Home: This quick video shows how counting collections provide opportunities for children to develop a variety of mathematical concepts and a positive mathematical identity. Participants will engage in counting as an instructional task and will learn how to leverage students’ ideas to develop important mathematical concepts. 

Marilyn Burns' Blog: Marilyn Burns is one of today’s most highly respected mathematics educators. This is her blog. She touches on a myriad of mathematical subjects including silent math, numerical reasoning, place value and algorithms. 

Duncan Melville: Duncan Melville is a source of information on all aspects of Mesopotamian mathematics. The website explains the origins of mathematics in Mesopotamia from the earliest tokens, through the development of Sumerian mathematics to the grand flowering in the Old Babylonian period, and on into the later periods of Mesopotamian history. 

FEE-BASED RESOURCES

Adventure Academy: Adventure Academy offers virtual learning activities for elementary through middle school. Kids learn reading, science and math. It’s free for the first month and $9.95 per month after that.

Take Lessons: Learn how to sing online. Free for 14 days, then $19.95 per month. A free beginner class is also available.

Lesson Planet: Lesson Planet offers more than 350,000 technology-driven lesson activities for $3/month - $36/year. Each of the resources on the website has been summarized and rated by credentialed K-12 teachers, allowing members to rapidly locate relevant, high-quality curriculum. 

FULL OR PARTIAL CURRICULUM RESOURCES

Education.com: This site offering worksheets, games and other curriculum items has made some of its premium features available for free during school closures. 

ABC Mouse: ABC Mouse offers a full homeschool curriculum for children. Its website has more than 10,000 learning activities for children ages 2-8-years-old and families can add up to three children per membership. It is free for the first month and $9.95 per month afterward.

Homeschool Lessons: This website offers lessons and activities in social studies, math, science, literature, geography and more. The first month is free. 

Time 4 Learning: Time 4 Learning offers a nationally-approved homeschool curriculum. A monthly subscription is required.

IXL: IXL offers a comprehensive K-12 curriculum. This website gives personal guidance through recommendations, analytics and real-time diagnostic. A family’s monthly membership is $19.95. You can sign up for a year for $159.