Family Resources for Remote Learning

Younger students (e.g., preschool through elementary school) are less likely to have prescribed homeschooling plans. Instead, parents may have to come up with instructional material. For this reason, the guide below provides more detailed information about the “what” and the “why” for specific resources through mid-elementary school. For older students, we have provided more general information about educational and enrichment resources that families can present their students with.

Pre-Academic for 3- to 5-year-olds:

Books that emphasize rhyme and/or alliteration

For 3 and 4-year-olds, supporting later reading skills means boosting phonemic awareness (i.e., the ability to identify and manipulate the phonemes [sounds] in words). Towards that end, reading books that emphasize rhyme and/or alliteration is particularly important.

• The Absolutely Awful Alphabet by Mordicai Gerstein
• Big Alphabet Workbook by School Zone.
• Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• Clara Caterpillar by Pamela Duncan Edwards
• Jamberry by Bruce Degen
• Bedhead by Margie Palatini
• Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? By Bill Martin, Jr.
• Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
• Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. & John Archambault
• There’s a Wocket in my Pocket by Dr. Seuss
• The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson & Ariel Scheffler
• Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryan Cauley
• Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae
• Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site by Sherri Duskey Rinker
• The Pout Pout Fish by Deborah Diesen
• And any nursery rhyme!

Books that teach about numbers and counting

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Ten Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth
• Click Clack Splish Splash by Doreen Cronin
• Olivia Counts by Ian Falconer
• Chicka Chicka 123 by Bill Martin & Michael Sampson

Books that teach about shapes and colors:

• Circle, Triangle, Elephant by Kenji Oikawa and Mayuko Takeuchi
• I Lost My Sock! A Matching Mystery by P.J. Roberts
• Colors versus Shapes by Mike Boldt
• Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert
• How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors by Jane Yolen
• Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni
• Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by James Dean and Eric Litwin
• The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns
• Food for Thought by Saxton Freymann & Joost Elffers (also letters, numbers, and opposites)

Early Elementary (Grades K-1)

Literacy:

Emphasis in early elementary is placed on developing early literacy skills, including phonemic awareness, phonic decoding, and sight-word reading.

• BOB Books (by John R. Maslen and Bobby Lynn Maslen) introduce and reinforce phonics in a systematic and enjoyable way. Kids can read entire books on their own so they feel successful.
• Beginning Reading Workbook by School Zone does a nice job breaking down early reading concepts, such as syllables, beginning and ending consonant sounds, vowels, sequencing, etc.
• Reading Activities 1 and 2 Workbook by School Zone covers reading comprehension concepts, such as comprehension, predicting, main idea, comparing, contrasting, evaluating, etc.
• To support the development of reading comprehension, ask your child questions, such as “What do you think will happen next?” while reading aloud.
• Listening to stories is a great way to build a child’s vocabulary and comprehension skills. Audible is offering free children’s stories through their platform: Stories.audible.com.
• The Parents’ Read-At-Home Plan for Student Success has a number of fun games and activities for Grades K-3, organized by the “5 Pillars” of reading instruction: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency, and Comprehension. The guide is free.
• SpellLinks has several great tips to help parents read and spell at home with their children
  • Reading
  • Spelling

Numeracy and Counting:

Books that teach the concepts of addition and subtraction:

• What’s New at the Zoo by and Suzanne Slade
• One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab: A Counting by Feet Book by April Pulley Sayre & Jeff Sayre
• The Mission of Addition by Brian Cleary
• Monster Musical Chairs by Stuart J. Murphy
• Elevator Magic by Stuart J. Murphy
• Math Start Series by Stuart J. Murphy

Mid-Elementary

English Language Arts (ELA):

As word reading develops and improves, instructional emphasis shifts to reading fluency, which is critical for comprehension. Try to boost your child’s reading fluency by reading books out loud at the same time (aka choral reading) and seeing if they can try to match your pace. This will help them get used to what fluent reading feels and sounds like. Choose books that your child can read independently so that they can focus instead on pacing, rather than decoding.Here are some books and strategies you can use:

• Readworks.org offers a lot of free content for families, including an informational video about remote learning, a tip-sheet to help families get started, and numerous, high-quality activities to promote vocabulary and reading comprehension. Families can access free materials, including a student library with access to thousands of fiction and non-fiction works, reading passages and question sets leveled for grades K-12, “article-a-day” to increase background knowledge, and family supports.
• Encourage your child to act out books that have a lot of dialogue, such as A Big Guy Took My Ball by Mo Willems (An Elephant & Piggie Book). Using the same tone of voice that the characters might use improves their reading expression, which is an important part of fluency.
• Incorporate book sets that fine-tune early reading skills, like phonic decoding and sight-word recognition. When these skills are mastered, reading fluency will follow. For example, try Pete the Cat Phonics Box Set, Peppa Pig Phonics Box Set, or Scholastic Success with Sight Words
• Encourage your children to spend some time every day reading actively.
• Have your child listen and read along with a book within his/her reading level and encourage him/her to think about and write down the following:
  • What is this story about?
  • What is the solution to the problem in the story?
  • How did the character solve his problem?
  • How is this story the same or different from others stories you have read?
• Have your child listen and read along with a book within his/her reading level and encourage him/her to think about each character.
  • List each character in this story.
  • Write down one adjective that describes each character.
• Encourage your child to read a biography and write about the following:
  • Who is this story about? Why is that person important?
  • What did this person do that made him famous or special?
  • What did this person need to overcome in order to be successful? o What other information did you learn about this person?

Math:

• Math Basics 1 Workbook by School Zone – covers addition, subtraction, greater than, less than, comparison, number order, etc.
• Math Basics 2 Workbook by School Zone – worksheets that emphasize addition and subtraction, time and money, place value, sums and differences, fact families, geometry, etc.
• Big Second Grade Workbook by School Zone – covers grade-level math calculations and word problems, along with phonics, reading comprehension, and science.
• Math Basics 3 Workbook by School Zone – covers grade-level math concepts, including multiplication, division, word problems, place value, square units, fractions, etc.
• Multiplication and Division Workbook by School Zone – for third and fourth graders, covers multiplication, division, estimation, and word problems.
• Spectrum Critical Thinking for Math – Covers concepts, including multi-digit addition, multi-digit subtraction, multi-digit multiplication, long division, fractions, geometry, and estimation, while encouraging critical thinking skills.
• Flash Cards are a time-tested tool that help students achieve mastery and automaticity with rote math facts. There are also computer-based math fact programs available, which use a game-based system to drill math facts and achieve fluency (e.g., Reflex Math: reflexmath.com; offering a free 60-day trial).

More Learning Resources for Younger Children

• At-home math activities, parent blogs, and more resources: http://bedtimemath.org/
• Online math visual activities (content offered in English and Spanish): http://nlvm.usu.edu/
• PBS Kids / PBS Learning Media. https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/kids-lab/
• Reading Rockets. This website offers activities, checklists, and information on building literacy skills. www.readingrockets.org
• Scholastic Learn at Home: https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome.html
• Starfall Parent Teacher Center: https://teach.starfall.com/lv/
• Stuck at Home Science: Daily science activities for families to enjoy using household materials(content offered in English and Spanish): https://californiasciencecenter.org/stuck-at-home-science

Online Course Content for High Schoolers

• High school subjects include math, language arts, science, study skills, and history. Content is presented in engaging 30-minute videos. One-month free trial available. https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/programs-for-young-learners
• Online math visual activities (content offered in English and Spanish): http://nlvm.usu.edu/

Where to Get Books to Read and Hear

• New York City Library, free digital books
• Free Audio Books
• Free Public Domain Books
• Storyline Online: Actors read children’s stories accompanied by animation recommended for grades Pre-K to 4th
• Your local library has digital books and audio books to check out

General

• https://www.teachstarter.com/us/resource-availability/free/
  Offers a range of free worksheets, sortable by topic and age.
• https://www.allkidsnetwork.com/
  Educational worksheets as well as crafts, coloring, pages, and other activities. Also has templates to generate your own worksheet to fit your needs.
• https://eduprintables.com/
  This is the Pinterest of educational resources. There are over 20 pages of educational and creative activities for children of all ages. This includes coloring pages, educational puzzles, vocabulary, flashcards, videos, and more.
• https://www.quizlet.com
  Quizlet allows you to search their platform for activities and resources across any subject of interest. Search for “Fundations” flash cards, which help teach children phonics.

Reading

• https://www.classroomcereal.com/
  Multi-part stories that help kids practice grammar fundamentals. (Click the “Stories” tab) Kids will read the story and then find the grammar errors. There are 20 stories, each with 5 parts.
• https://www.greatschools.org/gk/worksheets/?category=reading-2
  Free reading worksheets that can be filtered by grade level. Also has other subjects (Parenting > Worksheets). Articles are offered on all things parenting on this website, too.
• https://www.englishforeveryone.org/
  English For Everyone has an abundance of free worksheets for different topics in Language Arts, including Reading Comprehension, Verb Tenses, Sentence Completion, Contractions, Irregular Verbs, etc.
• http://www.startwithabook.org
  A resource that allows parents to choose children’s books based on various topics, such as Arts and Artists; Bugs, Birds, and Animals; Builders and Buildings; Dinosaurs; Music and Musicians; Nature; and Weather. The website also offers two 5-day DIY science camps devoted to learning about stars and the solar system, as well as rivers and streams in your community.
• https://www.nypl.org/books-music-movies/ebookcentral/simplye
  While libraries are temporarily closed, The New York Public Library has a resource that allows you to borrow E-books online.
• https://www.storylineonline.net/
  Free website that features videos of famous actors reading children’s books aloud.
• https://kidlit.tv/
  Offers videos and podcasts that promote children’s literature. Includes radio, crafts and activities, book trailers, and more.

Writing

• https://simplelivingcreativelearning.com/language-arts/
  Language arts printable packs. Other subjects offered under “printables.”
• https://www.greatschools.org/gk/worksheets/?category=writing-2 (same as under “Reading” category but for writing worksheets)
• https://www.k12reader.com/subject/composition/
  Free worksheets for writing skills. Other language arts subject offered, too, on side bar.
• https://www.iew.com
  Institute for Writing Excellence has Language Arts and writing lessons, as well as resources for grammar, vocabulary, and poetry memorization for students grades 3 thru 12.

Math

• http://www.sfusdmath.org/
  This site offers lesson plans and free math worksheets for different grades. There are worksheets in English and Spanish.
• www.mathworksheets4kids.com/math.php
  MathWorksheets4Kids has a ton of free math worksheets grouped by math skill areas
• www.math-drills.com
  Their collection of worksheets, broken down by math skill area, is vast!
• https://www.edhelper.com/teacher-education/Daily-Free-Learning-Workbooks-for-Teachers- to-Share-with-Parents-while-Schools-are-Closed-Kids-will-actually-do-these.htm
  Aside from math worksheets, this site includes a list of free Sudoku puzzles, as well as sheets for practicing coding, and writing in cursive.

Movement Breaks and Home Exercise for kids and families:

https://www.gonoodle.com/

GoNoodle provides fun, free movement and mindfulness videos with a focus on wellness and increasing socio-emotional health for kids age 5-12. The videos are super interactive and fun for kids to do along with parents. Both web and app versions are available.

https://fluencyandfitness.com/

Instructional while also providing a movement break. Reviews K-2 math and reading material paired with movement exercises.

https://www.cosmickids.com/

Yoga and mindfulness for kids, ages 3+. Uses familiar stories and characters for kids to connect with while encouraging movement and mindfulness. Kids learn about feelings and practice breathing techniques to reduce anxiety. Also offers five-minute brain breaks for a quick burst of yoga and yoga disco to help kids get their wiggles out. Best accessed on YouTube for a variety of free videos.

https://www.yoremikids.com/app

Yoga paired with music. Free 60-day unlimited access to the first 500 users who request it. Additional requests will be added to a waitlist. Or, get a 14-day free trial or give a donation and receive 60-day unlimited access.

https://www.smarten-up.com/workshops-1

Smarten Up NYC, a New York City based educational tutoring organization, is offering free daily online workshops for children across all grades. The workshops include a twice daily read-aloud, foundational writing skills workshop, phonics classes, creative writing workshop, origami, Yoga, and meditation.

Just Dance 3 has multiple fun dance workouts on YouTube for free

Smile and Learn is a Youtube channel with videos designed by teachers with short (less than 10 minute) yoga videos designed for kids

Alo Yoga has yoga classes designed for parents to do with their kids

https://www.doyogawithme.com/

Free Yoga Programs for parents and older kids

https://www.facebook.com/kidsinsportsofficial