MNPS Countdown to Kindergarten Website: A free website that provides information and resources to help families get ready for kindergarten. Families have access to resources and tools, including monthly activity calendars and an activity guide full of at-home activity ideas. The site features:

• Learning@Home, where families find lessons that mirror concepts taught in Metro Schools’ Pre-K classrooms. Each unit contains nine weeks of lesson plans based on a reading book (Note: families may be able to access the book online through the Nashville Public Library or other online resources).

• Activity sheets that support the Nashville Public Library’s Pre-K Essential Literature.

GENERAL EDUCATION (CORE CONTENT AREAS):

Age of Learning – ABCmouse, Adventure Academy, ReadingIQ: ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy is a curriculum for preschool through second grade.  Adventure Academy is an online game, serving elementary and middle-school aged children with thousands of learning activities in a fun and safe virtual world. ReadingIQ is a digital library and literacy platform for children 12 and under designed to improve literacy skills. A free month trial is available now.

Arizona Geographic Alliance Maps: The purpose of the Arizona Geographic Alliance is to strengthen geography education. They have a nice collection of maps for all grade levels including maps of the world, various countries and maps with historical themes. Books by the Bushel (PK-1) Books by the Bushel offers FREE literacy activities for young students. They are very simple, but many would need to be printed at home.

Biology in Motion: Original and entertaining biology animations and interactive activities, available for free.

BrainPop: Engaging learning games, animated movies, and activities. Designed with relevance, depth, and humor to encourage kids on their unique learning paths. (science, social studies, English, math, arts & music, health & SEL, engineering & tech)

Center for Civic Education: The Center offers effective programs in civic education. The main curricular programs of the Center are: We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution, which is used from upper elementary through middle and high school levels. They have free lesson plans and resources for students and teachers.

Chem4Kids: The site provides explanations, activities and other resources to aid students (and everyone) who wants to understand matter, atoms, elements, the periodic table, reactions, biochemistry and more.

DIY Science: Sponsored by the Adventure Science Center, this website, “offer[s] DIY Science lessons and experiments the whole family can enjoy! Each lesson provides instruction, a materials list, and ideas for activities to get hands-on with science, including sample questions to get those gears turning. Check back for more lessons!”

Dreambox Learning:  Dreambox has three different age-appropriate learning environments for mathematics: K – 2, 3 – 5 and 6 – 8. Though there is usually a monthly fee, they are currently giving 90-day free trials to the online learning platform, which is adaptive/individualized to the learner.

EngineerGirl: Try your hand at engineering with these design challenges that use common household items.

Freckle: Online learning resources for K-8 students focused on differentiation for all levels of learning in English, math, science, and social studies.

FunBrain: An educational browser game website for children in grades K-8. Includes  topics like math, grammar, science, spelling and history.

Into the Book: Free games for elementary students to practice reading strategies.

Khan Academy:  a nonprofit with the mission to provide a free education for anyone, anywhere. Along with offering free resources for parents, students and teachers, Kahn is hosting daily (weekdays) 11 a.m. CST live streams on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter for students, parents, and teachers navigating school closures.

LabXchange:  A free platform where middle and high school students can discover, create, and remix content. The content library contains high-quality digital resources from universities and scientific organizations worldwide … including interactive lab simulations, videos, assessments, and more.

Learning Blade: The STEM practices embedded within the Learning Blade platform are changing students’ self-image and efficacy towards STEM. The Learning Blade platform includes online mission challenges, hands-on lessons, and parent-student discussion topics. TSIN has made Learning Blade available to all middle school students in TN for free.

Legends of Learning:  Legends of Learning is a game-based learning platform for grades 3 – 8. Games are aligned to the math and science content standards. This resource is currently used in our STEAM schools, but the company is expanding access to all student in all of our schools. Parents can sign-up for free account using the link above.

Library of Congress: The Library of Congress provides a vast amount of digital resources including audio and video recordings, printed materials, maps, music and art, newspapers, personal narratives, and more.

Limitless Libraries: E-book and audiobooks are available.

MNPS STEAM has created a daily at home activity calendar.

MATH GAMES TO PLAY AT HOME:

• Multiplication (grades 3 – 6): https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/how-close-to-100/

• Multiplication (grades 3 – 6): https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/race-one-hundred/

• Multiplication (grades 3 – 6): https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/tic-tac-toe-products/

• Computation (grades 2 – 7): https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/bowl-a-fact/

• Addition (grades 1 – 5): https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/tic-tac-toe-sums/

• Counting/Addition/Subtraction: (grades K – 1): https://www.youcubed.org/tasks/how-many-are-hiding/

• Math puzzles aligned to content standards (K – 12): https://www.openmiddle.com

• Variations on the card game War: https://denisegaskins.com/2006/12/29/the-game-that-is-worth-1000-worksheets/

• Which One Doesn’t Belong (K – 12): (http://wodb.ca/shapes.html)

  • Parents display one of the four-image grids and ask children to come up with reasons why each of 4 images doesn’t belong with the other three.

Scholastic Learn at Home: Scholastic has created a free, open-access digital hub with education materials for children in Pre-K to grades 6-9. Subjects include English language arts, STEM, science, social studies, and social-emotional learning. You need to create a free account to access the resources.

 SciGirls: SciGirls is a show for middle school students, showcasing bright, curious tween girls putting STEM to work in their everyday lives. Each half hour episode will inspire your students to explore the world around them and discover that science and technology are everywhere.

Storyline Online (Elem): “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.”

Smithsonian Learning Lab:  Everything Under the Sun! *Well…maybe not everything… but the Smithsonian Learning Lab puts the treasures of the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex within reach. The Lab is a free, interactive platform for:

• discovering millions of authentic digital resources

• creating content with online tools

• sharing in the Smithsonian’s expansive community of knowledge and learning.

Tennessee History Resources: This link will connect you to a large number of resources specific to Tennessee history. They include the student version of the Tennessee Blue Book, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, Tennessee State Museum’s TN 4 me website, Tennessee History for Kids, and Teaching with Primary Sources from MTSU.

The Federal Reserve System: The Federal Reserve offers numerous educational resources for Economics and Personal Finance. Topics range from banking basics to understanding the Fed and GDP.  

The Interactive Plasma Physics Experience: This site explores plasma physics topics ranging from electricity, magnetism, energy and fusion, with interactive and animated lessons and opportunities to participate remotely in scientific research. There also is a section for submitting questions to a plasma physicist.

ARTS AND MUSIC 

American Theatre Wing: Working in the Theatre is The Wing’s Emmy Nominated documentary series produced to entertain audiences by revealing theatre’s inner-workings, profiling industry luminaries, and taking a closer look at unique stories that surround important work. The videos are best suited for students in grades 9-12. Additional free resources are also available on the site.

Center for Puppetry Arts: Center for Puppetry Arts has expanded its Digital Learning platform to include free live streaming. You can enjoy curriculum-based workshops and Digital Learning interactive puppet shows from the safety and comfort of home. All you need is an internet connection to join their Zoom rooms.

 Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Kids: The DSO’s educational website for teachers, students and families, DSOkids.com includes classroom activities and resources such as composer biographies, instrument photos with sound demonstrations and an opportunity to join the DSO Kids Club.

Davis Publishing: Davis is offering their digital resources free until the end of June. The site includes textbooks, teacher manuals, and more.

Doodles Academy: A free art curriculum that is available virtually. It provides art projects that offer authentic art experiences for students — every student makes their own artistic decisions and walks away from the project with artwork unique to them. Each project includes video tutorials and thorough lesson plans so that anyone can feel comfortable teaching art, regardless of their background or experience level. More, the art projects are aligned to topics and themes found in literacy, math, social studies, and science

Frist Kids: Provided by the Frist Art Museum this site is perfect for students interested in knowing more about art. They have several videos, and each video has an art project you can make at home.

Google Arts and Culture: This site offers daily art exposure and potential lessons.

Kennedy Center Arts Edge: The Kennedy Center offers many free arts integration lessons for multiple subject areas. 

Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems: Mo Willems invites YOU into his studio every day for his LUNCH DOODLE. Learners worldwide can draw, doodle and explore new ways of writing by visiting Mo’s studio virtually once a day for the next few weeks. Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons and join Mo to explore ways of writing and making together.

MusicPlay Online: Free access for the public to hundreds of music activities for PreK-6.

• Use login: snow and password: 2020.

National Theatre: Free online theatre videos provided by the National Theatre.

NY Philharmonic for Kids: Free music education games and learning activities provided for all ages.

San Francisco Symphony for Kids:  This website, in conjunction with the San Francisco Symphony’s live performances, provides a great way for people of all ages to hear, learn, have fun and play games with music.

Save the Music Foundation: A list of music education resources provided by VH1 Save the Music Education Foundation.

Theatre Education Resource List: A list of many free theatre education activities and resources compiled by Florida Thespians.

Theatre Education Online Resources: Links to many online resources for theatre students and teachers.

Theatre Educator Pro: Theatre education resources, videos, and webinars provided at no cost.

Resources for Physical Education and Wellness:

GoNoodle: engages 14 million kids every month with movement and mindfulness videos created by child development experts. Available for free at school, home, and everywhere kids are.

KooKooKangaroo: Stay active and get exercise with you children by dancing and singing along with funny, made-up songs.

RESOURCES FOR CRITICAL THINKING

BreakoutEDU: Breakout EDU is a learning games platform.  All Breakout EDU games require players to use critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication.  Visit the website and choose the game you want to play.

Puzzle Barron:  The world’s largest web site devoted to logic puzzles! Where more than 25,000 unique puzzles available for play, both online and the old-fashioned way – with pencil and paper. Feel free to solve online just for fun!

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING

A Parent’s Resource Guide to Social and Emotional Learning: A curated list of articles and videos for parents about fostering skills like kindness, empathy, resilience, perseverance, and focus in children.

Behavior Code: This website provides numerous links and resources to support behavior during home learning.

CASEL Resources during COVID19:  Free to access and shared resources, which are designed to support educators, parents, and anyone who works with children to understand and gain insight of COVID-19.

Confident Parents, Confident Kids:  The website offers a wealth of information and resources that support SEL and Families. 

Playworks: Activities and games for everyone to be included, be active, and build valuable social and emotional skills.

Second Step Resources for Families and Students: A list of resources you can use to help young people learn the social-emotional skills they need to get through these challenging events.

Social-Emotional Learning Games: Through playing fun games at home, kids can learn to manage their emotions and work on social skills.

SEL 101 for Parents:  An informational video to inform parents about SEL in schools and provide them with insights into SEL in their own parenting practices in order to support their children’s social and emotional development.

• Available in Spanish.

SPANISH:

BBC Learning English: News, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation lessons offered in multiple languages.

Biografias y Vidas: Online biography encyclopedia in Spanish: This site has thousands of concise biographies of historical figures and well-known contemporary people.

Bosque de Fantasias: Children stories and poems in Spanish.

Ejercicios de Matemáticas Gratis: This website offers math lessons and support in Spanish.

Juegos Infantiles: Online math activities and games in Spanish.

Spanish Language Blog: 57 of the most popular Spanish short stories online!

Unite for Literacy: Provides free books with narration in 30+ languages!

Wilbooks (Spanish): Free online books and resources in Spanish.