
Free resources for use while teaching and learning at home.
Several of these are not usually free or widely available.
Distance Learning
General Interest
-
Harvard Graduate School of Education - Shifting to Online Teaching for K-12 teachers article
-
At Home with PZ - Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero Toolbox for the activities targeted at enriching the at-home learning experience; Has an easy-to-use search function organized by age range
-
Easy PZ - Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Project Zero and the Smithsonian explain and demonstrate easy-to-use approaches to improve student thinking How-to videos
-
Harvard Graduate School of Education - Article for helping students understand COVID-19
-
Learnzillion - ELA and Math instructional videos
-
Milanote - A CASIE favorite! An easy-to-use tool to organize your ideas and projects into visual boards.
-
National Geographic - Resource library for K-12
-
PBS Learning Media - Pre-K -12 core subject areas (ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies) learning resources
-
Smithsonian - Millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian’s museums, research centers, and library archives curated into lessons and activities by thousands of educators
-
TEDEd - Video-based lessons designed to spark curiosity and organized by subjects, animations, lesson creation capability, and TED Student Talks Program platform
-
Wide Open School - New free online resource to support families and educators with remote learning featuring curated items from Common Sense as a result of a collaboration among leading publishers, non-profits, education, and technology companies; Learning activities and experiences organized by grade bands, daily schedules, and creative breaks and engagement ideas.
Global Citizenship & Service Projects
-
Kid World Citizen - Ideas, resources, service project, articles, and activities to teach your people about world cultures
-
PenPal Schools - Connects students from around the world to collaborate through online projects
-
Save the Rain - Resources to learn about the global water crisis, specifically in East Africa, and for options to get involved in helping with educating communities to harvest the rain, reforestation, sanitation, hygiene, and sustainable agriculture through permaculture design
International Baccalaureate
-
DP Pandemic Teaching Resources - Resources assembled by the IB to help you navigate learning with Diploma Programme (DP) students outside of the school setting.
-
IB Source - Teacher Sample Center for PYP, MYP and DP and Approaches to Learning
Math
-
HOODA Math - K-12 math games organized by grade level; includes tutorials and timed tests
-
Khan Academy - Free lessons in math, science, and humanities from kindergarten through the early years of college
Science
-
EPA Students - Resources for K-12 students for project ideas, lesson planning, community service, science fair project ideas, and homework assistance for learning and teaching about the environment
-
Exploratorium - COVID-19 Science: Learning Toolbox with resources for learning about current topics in science
-
How Stuff Works - Hundreds of articles that explain the wonders of science
-
Nova - PBS science show’s website with videos, articles, full show episodes, and STEM topics
-
Smithsonian Education Guide for Science - Resources organized by grade band, themes, and topics; Next Generation Science Standard
STEM
-
CoderZ - Virtual robotics and coding classes for elementary, middle school (English, Spanish, and Hebrew) and high school students and resources to help students learn computer science at home
-
Engineering, Go for It! - Provides information on engineering careers, lesson plans by grade level K-12, activities for classrooms and outreach, videos, at-home activities, an online magazine, and scholarship opportunities
-
How to Identify Effective STEM Activities for Children -- published by Baylor University's online EdD program. The resource includes information on how starting STEM education at a young age can impact critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity. Guidelines are provided for educators regarding what makes an effective STEM lesson and how to use real-world applications to tie the lesson together. The resource also highlights trusted online STEM resources where teachers and parents can learn more about this topic.
-
Master's In Data Science's STEM Guide - STEM Guide that lists over 239 summer camps, websites, competitions, apps, and career resources for students in elementary school to high school
-
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Science, technology, engineering, and math activities and resources
Reading & Writing
-
CommonLit - Reading program with a free digital lesson library that can be searched by Lexile level, grade, theme, genre, literary device of Common Core Standard in English and Spanish
-
Harvard Graduate School of Education - Article for continuing reading and writing skills development
-
Readworks - Reading instruction content, curriculum, and tools to power teaching and learning from Kindergarten to 12th Grade
-
Scholastic Home Base - Access books to watch trailers for, read, and engage in similarly themed games
-
Smithsonian Education Guides - English/Language Arts Pk-12 themes and topics organized by grade bands lesson plans and resources
-
Storyline Online - Streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations
Second Languages
-
Better Chinese - Digital support for Chinese language learning
-
Duolingo - Language learning for Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, German, Italian, Arabic, Dutch
-
Encantos - World exploration using social studies resources to learn about geography, language, history, and culture for both elementary and preschool kids in English and Spanish
-
Smithsonian Education Guides for Spanish - Spanish language educational resources for arts & culture, history & social studies, and science & nature
-
Unite for Learning - Provide children access to an abundance of short and easy reader books that celebrate their cultures and languages with a choice to listen to the narrations in more than 40 languages.
Humanities & Social Sciences
-
Discovery Education EconEssentials - Lessons for high school students to learn about economic principles for grades 9-12
-
Discovery Education Pathways to Financial Literacy - Tools for middle and high school educators to teach your students key financial success skills, including lessons, educator guides, and videos
-
HISTORY - Original articles, photos, and videos realated to a broad range of history topics can be found for research projects and additional learning; topics are aligned to middle and high school curriculum
-
HISTORY This Week - Podcasts that share a big moment in history that occurred during this week
-
iCivics - Engages students in meaningful civic engagement
-
Smithsonian Education Guides - Social Studies and History guides for PK-12 organized by themes, topics, and grade bands; includes lesson plans and resources
The Arts
-
British Museum - Virtual tour of works of artworks and their historical background from around the world organized on a unique grid that allows the viewer to select by location and by time period
-
The Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University - Puzzles created from painting accompanied by the stories that are depicted.
-
Google Arts and Culture - Explore high-definition artworks, experience cultures through 360 degree videos, and tour famous sites
-
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems - Artist-in-residence at home featuring artist and writer Mo Willems with live doodle lessons at 1:00pm EST
-
Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo Assis Chateaubrind - Six art stories presented in separate online exhibits
-
Musee d’Orsay, Paris - Virtually walk to view famous works from French artists from 1848 and 1914
-
National Gallery of Art - 40,000+ artworks displayed in a wide array of collections
-
Smithsonian American Art Museum - Art collections and explorations
-
Uffizi Gallery, Florence - Four exhibits of the art collection of the de’Medici family
English Language Learners
-
Activities for ESL Students - Thousands of teachers have contributed to provide quizzes, tests, exercises and puzzles to with learning English; Project of The Internet TESL Journal
-
English Media Lab - Free English Exercises for English language learners at all levels, including older learners; Games, puzzles, English TV, animated videos, vocabulary, listening, pronunciation, spelling, and SAT practice activities
-
Google Translate - Translating a text, Snap feature instantly translates an image using a camera and the Talk feature enables users to have live bilingual conversations
-
Microsoft Immersive Reader - Tool that can be used to increase fluency for English Language Learners by offering text decoding solutions and translation of words or the entire text
Social-Emotional Learning
-
Discovery Education Discover Your Happy - Virtual experience and information on the Six Sustainable Happiness Skills—mindfulness, human connection, positive outlook, purpose, generosity, and gratitude
-
Discovery Education Soar with Wings - Step-by-step guide and presentation for K-5 activities to build social-emotional skills
-
Harvard Graduate School of Education – Articles that address ways to help children with social-emotional situations and research stories on various related topics.
Virtual Fieldtrips
-
Discovery Education - Free virtual educational fieldtrips by subject area
-
The Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History virtual tours allow visitors to take self-guided, room-by-room tours of select exhibits