Posted June 11, 2020
As we all continue to navigate COVID-19 school closures, we are aware that many of you are faced with an increased challenge to provide equitable access to learning for all of your students. We wanted to share a few free resources we’ve curated from our trusted partners that can support your own professional learning around equitable instruction and that can help your educators and parents with the transition to at-home learning.
If we can be of assistance during this time, please reach out. We are here to provide support and advice as you continue to serve our students.
UnboundEd
Many of the organizations we partner with are offering or have recommendations for free online learning platforms, printable lessons and activities, and more to support all of your educators, parents, and caregivers as they transition to distance learning in an equitable way. We’ve compiled a list of these high-quality resources to help you navigate what is available.
ELA/LITERACY
Curriculum Associates: The iReady ELA digital learning platform is now available at no cost. Curriculum Associates also has printable activity packs on their website for grades K-8.
EngageNY: EngageNY provides a full K-12 curriculum for ELA including lessons, activities, practice, and how-to videos.
Five from Five: Find activities, games and videos that are free, easily accessible and enjoyable that reflect the highest quality, up-to-date research evidence on early literacy development.
Fordham Institute: A large collection of instructional resources as well as tips and best practices for effective remote learning.
FreeReading.net: A collection of free activities, searchable by literacy skill, that can be used to teach reading and writing in or out of the classroom.
National Center on Improving Literacy: Toolkits and other online resources to support early literacy development. There are several toolkits specifically for parents and caregivers that provide guidance and resources for developing their children’s literacy skills at home.
Open Up Resources: This high-quality, comprehensive curricula for grades K-5 reading and language arts is always free. Just register to gain access. Resources to support implementation are also available.
Reading Eggs: This award-winning homeschool reading program provides a comprehensive range of research-based online reading lessons, activities and books that teach children aged 2–13 the literacy skills needed for a lifetime of reading success. A free trial is available.
Society for Quality Education: Free downloadable materials designed to help parents and educators teach children remedial reading and grammar.
Student Achievement Partners
UFLI Virtual Teaching Resource Hub: This site provides assistance to educators as they explore new ways to teach foundational reading skills using technology. The site has tools for reading instruction and intervention with children in the elementary grades. The materials are designed to be used with videoconferencing platforms for distance education and to create video lessons for asynchronous learning.
UnboundEd
Zearn: 400 hours of digital lessons for grades K-5 with on-screen teachers and embedded remediation along with paper-based materials that can be used without a device are available for free. To help districts, schools, teachers, and parents/caregivers get started quickly, Zearn has put together a Distance Learning Resource Center with step-by-step instructions to get started, mini-PD webinars, video tutorials, and parent/caregiver packs to send home.
MATH
ArcAdemics: Arcademics are fun video games focused on repetition to build automaticity and fluency with number facts at the grade s 1-6 level.
Curriculum Associates: The iReady math digital learning platform is now available at no cost. Curriculum Associates also has printable activity packs on their website for grades K-8.
Edulastic Distance Learning: Edulastic has developed a new eLearning hub that provides resources for lessons and assessments with tips and resources for teachers and students. Edulastic includes content for ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies.
EngageNY: EngageNY provides a full K-12 curriculum for math including lessons, activities, practice, and how-to videos.
Fordham Institute: A large collection of instructional resources as well as tips and best practices for effective remote learning.
K-8 Learning Activities for Math: Veteran teacher Fawn Nguyen has curated a selection of grade-level-specific math activities (enough for four weeks of remote learning) that support a balance of conceptual thinking and reasoning, fluency practice, and application. These are perfect for engaging students in challenging and creative mathematical thinking as a class or independently.
KenKen Puzzles: Number puzzles that provides fun practice that requires reasoning and problem-solving with elementary school practice with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
Make 24 at 4Nums.com: The application randomly draws 4 cards from a standard deck of cards must use the values shown on the four cards and the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to create an outcome of 24.
The Math Learning Center: The Math Learning Center provides free tools, applications, and lessons for K-5 math.
Math Solutions: Math Solutions provides sets of math lessons with engaging activities for grades K-8.
Mathematics Assessment Project (MARS Tasks): The Mathematics Assessment Project provides lessons and tasks to engage students in applying math knowledge through problem-solving and reasoning at the middle and high school levels.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM): NCTM provides a variety of free resources for teaching math online, including free webinars for teachers, applications, and student activities.
Open Up Resources: This high-quality, comprehensive curricula for grades K-5 reading and language arts and grades 6-8 math is always free. Just register to gain access. Resources to support implementation are also available.
Society for Quality Education: Free downloadable materials designed to help parents and educators teach children remedial math.
Sumaze: Sumaze is an application for Apple and Android devices in which players work through a mazes developing number sense and other skills through problem-solving and mathematical reasoning. Activities are provided for both elementary and secondary levels.
Which One Doesn’t Belong: This website provides a variety of thought-provoking puzzles in which players look at four images or numbers and decide which of the four does not belong in the group.
Student Achievement Partners
UnboundEd
Zearn: 400 hours of digital lessons for grades K-5 with on-screen teachers and embedded remediation along with paper-based materials that can be used without a device are available for free. To help districts, schools, teachers, and parents/caregivers get started quickly, Zearn has put together a Distance Learning Resource Center with step-by-step instructions to get started, mini-PD webinars, video tutorials, and parent/caregiver packs to send home.
ASSESSMENTS
VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS
Explore: Home to more than 300 original films and a massive library of world-class photography from all over the globe, Explore also offers lessons plans to help educators connect students to nature. You can watch animals in action on site’s many live webcams. Peek in on the daily activities of everything from puppies and kittens to bald eagles and penguins.
National Parks — Virtual Tours: Travel Zoo has compiled list with links to 12 virtual tours of national parks.
Smithsonian for Kids: Free activities and games in art, culture, history, and science. Many are connected to museum collections so provide students with a virtual way to experience the many treasured objects housed by Smithsonian museums.
ThoughtCo: Kids can explore the world without leaving their homes with these seven virtual field trips.
Wide Open School: This free collection of online learning experiences for kids K-12 is curated by the editors at Common Sense. They are also compiling many resources that can be completed offline and on smartphones, as well as bilingual and English-language learner resources. The Access for All portion of the site has compiled a list of organizations and resources to help connect schools and families to low-cost internet and devices, as well as food.
WonderStruckTV: Developed by BBC America, this site offers free nature videos that feature facts and trivia about the natural world.
WorldChannel.org: Monday through Friday tune in online for at-home learning programs for grades 6-12 students. WorldChannel has partnered with PBS LearningMedia to provide grab-and-go activities, lesson plans, and interactive lessons and media that illustrate specific topics or themes and support learning across subjects.
Reading Eggs is something my students could really use since they are all struggling readers and I have had a hard time finding online resources that are appropriate for them. They are all low-income so I am wondering what a free two week trial is going to do except make them want to buy a program they can’t afford. Do you have any way of convincing Reading Eggs to open up the trial for a longer period of time to help us get through this period of mandatory remote learning?