This week, we have a lot of online art resources, STEM, dance classes, and more!
Art
Deborah Zemke
Deborah Zemke has posted activity sheets on her website that are based on her doodle, chapter, and picture books, and the 101 Ranger Rick cartoons that she’s done over the years. These are free to download and share with friends.
MetKids
MetKids is a digital feature made for, with, and by kids. Explore The Met with our interactive map and watch behind-the-scenes videos that feature kids just like you. With fun facts and creative projects for the galleries or at home, #MetKids has been inspired, tested, and approved by real kids ages 7–12.
10 University Art Classes You Can Take for Free Online
This article is from 2018, so some of the links may be out of date. Interested in mastering a new, hands-on creative skill? You can learn to draw your own comics or capture artful digital photographs. Wish you could brush up on Art History 101? There are courses exploring the art and archaeology of ancient Egypt and the development of the artistic avant-garde.
Computer Games and Programming
MINECRAFT: EDUCATION EDITION
A game-based learning platform that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive digital environment. Educators in more than 115 countries are using Minecraft: Education Edition across the curriculum!
Scratch
With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. Scratch helps young people learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively — essential skills for life in the 21st century. Scratch is a project of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab. It is provided free of charge.
Entertainment
Play Like an Animal: STEM Picture Book Read Aloud
Author Maria Gianferrari reads Play Like an Animal.
One Plastic Bag Read Aloud
Author Miranda Paul reads One Plastic Bag.
The Mahjong
Play an ancient game of Mahjong online on TheMahjong.com, try fullscreen and other cool features.
Free Online Jigsaw Puzzles
TheJigsawPuzzles.com is an ever-growing collection of free online jigsaw puzzles. Albums on the left have hundreds of free jigsaw puzzles already – feel free to explore and play it all.
Poet-Themed Paris Review Crossword Puzzle
Celebrate Poetry Month by taking your mind off the world. Can you find all the poets clue-ed from their archives? Play online or print it out.
General Education
GoNoodle
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!
Khan Academy
School closed? We’re here for you with free resources to keep everyone learning. Daily schedules for students ages 2-18 to keep them learning.
Free Classes for Families Affected by U.S. Public School Closures
Outschool is a marketplace of live online classes for kids ages 3-18. Classes meet in small groups over live video chat where students are safely connected with teachers and classmates who share their interests. We are making $1,000,000 worth of classes available for free to families in the U.S. who have been impacted by school closures and are facing financial hardship.
Hands-On Activities
Fun Family Activities Using Paper
63 Easy Science Experiments for Kids Using Household Stuff
Searching for kid-friendly science experiments? Don’t worry if you never made it past biology: These 63 science experiments for kids are super-easy and a lot of fun to boot, as kids are exposed to a wide variety of scientific concepts.
Language Arts and World Languages
7000 Languages
Free online language-learning courses in partnership with Indigenous, minority, and refugee communities so they can keep their languages alive. More than 7000 languages are spoken worldwide… and nearly half of them are endangered.
Rosetta Stone for Students
To keep their minds sharp and give you a much needed break, we’re offering free access to Rosetta Stone for Students for the next three months.
Math
Prodigy
The engaging, curriculum-aligned math platform loved by over 50 million students, teachers and admins. No cost, ever. Easily motivate 1st to 8th grade students to learn and practice math. Accessible at home or in class!
Physical Education
Keep Dancing with Ailey
Ailey Extension was created to continue Alvin Ailey’s legacy that dance comes from the people and should be given back to the people. While these are difficult times for the dance community which relies on people gathering in spaces to share movement and create together, it feels important more now than ever to make dance accessible to everyone. We are inspired by the unity of dancers across the globe sharing at-home classes and dance videos online. To continue our mission, we are sharing special Extension online classes and all Extension instructors’ and guest instructors’ online class resources to keep our community dancing.
Science
Science Buddies
Our mission is to get hands-on STEM learning into the hands of all children. We know that this is a particularly difficult time in education and parenting and we’re focused on bringing fun and simple STEM activities into homes to both education and entertain. Specifically, we are continuing to add to our library of simple STEM activities, we have started a parent focused blog series about Doing Science at Home, and we are curating tips and tricks for educators about online STEM learning.
Curriculum Guide for The Big Bang Book
Moving out into the farthest reaches of space, then back home on Earth again, this is a picture book Carl Sagan would love, introducing the wonder of our pale blue dot to the youngest readers. Best for kids ages 4 to 9.
Play Like An Animal: STEM Game Cards to Prompt Creative Play + Read Aloud
Are your kids fidgeting or needing to get away from their screens? Invite them to “play like an animal.” We have taken the animals, action words, and STEM facts from the picture book Play Like an Animal!: Why Critters Splash, Race, Twirl, and Chase to create game cards for creative play. Game cards come with an invitation to make your own rules (like wolves and gorillas), create play environments, and play further with STEM.
Free Interactive Math and Science Simulations
Founded in 2002 by Nobel Laureate Carl Wieman, the PhET Interactive Simulations project at the University of Colorado Boulder creates free interactive math and science simulations. PhET sims are based on extensive education research and engage students through an intuitive, game-like environment where students learn through exploration and discovery.
Ptable: The Interactive Periodic Table
Ptable: The Interactive Periodic Table has a rich history stretching back to September 1997, a year before the founding of Google. It was introduced as a piece of HTML artwork and published to the web October 1, 1997. Simple dictionary element descriptions were added later in December. A version utilizing HTML 4 and CSS was introduced March 1999 and replaced the original version September 2004. Wikipedia integration and the addition of other languages came in August 2005. Dynamic layout switching was later added in September. The first low resolution-friendly layout (no names) came in October 2006. Interactivity was radically enhanced throughout summer 2007 and continues into the present day.
Chemistry Lesson Plans
With help from the American Association of Chemistry Teachers and American Chemical Society, Ptable has sponsored the creation of exciting new lesson plans developed by chemistry teachers which take advantage of the site’s in-depth interactivity. Using these free lesson plans, you can engage with the periodic table in ways which were previously impossible.
Two Activity Worksheets for SMALL MATTERS
This free book-study worksheet asks students to think about five engineering problems and consider which nano-scale animal adaptations might help solve them. This activity touches upon topics such as biomimicry, materials science, materials engineering, biology, animal adaptations, and microscopy (specifically, scanning electron microscopes).
Virtual Field Trips and Other Help Managing Social Distancing
Meditate for Free
Join Deepak Chopra, Oprah, and millions of meditators around the world to find peace of mind in the midst of turmoil, and do your part to help our global community find hope and optimism.
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Catch up on all of our Help at Home resources.