Online Education Resources (FREE)

What a day… I am going to be super honest and say I really don’t know how or what I am supposed to be feeling right about now.  Obviously, none of us have gone through anything like this so navigating feels very foreign to me and I’m sure most of you.  I am worried and sad but I am also trying to see the positive: quality time with the ones you love, time to catch up on those household tasks that always seem to linger but never get done, self care, and so much more.

Today in Saskatchewan, they announced that schools would be closed indefinitely. That really hit home for me and suddenly made it feel very serious.  As I’m sure many of you know,  they never do that.  It could be -1000 degrees with a full on white out blizzard and the schools would be expected to remain open and operating as per usual.

I’m not going to lie, I feel a bit weird being on social media right now as I really don’t know what to say.  I am not a news outlet and I really don’t know a lot about this virus (I am reading more to educate myself) but one thing I do know is kids and teaching. So, I thought I would put together a list of online educational resources (most free) for you to use during this time. Obviously, non educated activities like cooking, going for walks, baking, cuddling up for a family movie are all great things to do as well!

Online Education Resources:

Online read alouds with Peter H. Reynolds!
Peter is one of my favourite authors he has written the book I am Peace, Be You!, and The Dot!
Scholastic Canada: Free activities, quizzes, Discussion Guides, videos.
Vooks– Streaming service of animated storybooks. Right now they have a one month free trial… let’s hope they extend it!
San Diego Zoo Live Stream: Tune into an animal of your child’s choice.  The San Diego Zoo has 24/7 live cam on most of their animals! Your child can research online, observe via the live cam, and create a report (written essay, picture book, oral presentation, depending on age!) to show their learning!
Fun Brain– Free Math Games (Pre k- Grade 8)
Math Playground– Free Math Games (Grade 1 – Grade 8) This is a US based website so grade levels and curricular content may be different than Canadian content but worth a shot!
Nasa Kids Club– Primary Science activities, resources and worksheets.
Nat Geo Kids: Science Experiments, videos and so much more!
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems – Mo welcomes you into his studio at home and guides you through drawing activities using one of his favourite characters as inspiration! Mo Willems was always super popular in my classroom- I’m sure your young kids will love this!
Ryan’s World– tonnes of fun science experiments!
Go Noodle– This was my favourite resource for brain breaks when I was teaching!
Teachers Pay Teachers– this is an online teacher resource centre.  FREE (and ones you can pay for too) lesson plans, math work sheets, novel studies, phonics sheets, literally anything you can imagine. I would suggest supplementing the online resources and read alouds with this material if you want!

This is just a start, I will update this with more resources as I discover them! I hope you find these helpful! I am sending you all lots of love during this crazy time!