Supporting children's learning during this time of uncertainty.
Learning has suddenly shifted from the classroom to the dining room, which presents challenges for teachers who want to prevent their students from falling behind, and for parents and guardians who have become homeschoolers overnight.
Our education faculty and staff have created and curated these resources you can use to support children's learning during this time.
General Resources
Going Virtual: Anthea Lavergne, Cambridge school teacher and Lesley University adjunct professor, created this resource for teachers who may be feeling anxious about transitioning from the brick and mortar to the virtual classroom.
COVID-19 Resources for Special Educators: Educational resources from Massachusetts and the Department of Education.
PBS Learning Media: Standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more. Grades K–12
Distance Learning Center: Boston's WGBH and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education have partnered to offer curriculum that aligns with grade-level needs and to adjust broadcast schedules to show programming relevant to the standards.
These additional resources are also available:
- Arthur: Beloved characters keep the focus on community, civics, and social-emotional learning. Grades PreK–5
- Molly of Denali: This collection offers videos, digital games, lessons, teaching tips, and activities with a focus on informational text. Grades PreK–2
- Inspiring Middle School Literacy: Self-paced lessons that include videos, interactive activities, notetaking, reading, and writing to present students with engaging science, social studies, mathematics, or English language arts topics. Grades 5-8
Brain Pop: Free access to multidisciplinary curriculum ideas
Cloudy with a Chance of Fun: A collection for families to do together from the Smithsonian Learning Lab
Scholastic Learn at Home: Grade leveled videos, online books, and connected activities
Teaching Support Group: A free service from Mt. Holyoke College
Math
Bilingual Math Resource: Our Center for Mathematics Achievement, in collaboration with the Kentucky Center for Mathematics, assembled this list of annotated links arranged by age group and includes an extensive selection of Spanish resources. Grades PreK–8
Math at the Core Middle School: Engaging media and integrated activities, all aligned with the Common Core and Massachusetts Standards in Mathematics. Grades 5-8
Literacy
The Classroom Bookshelf: Lesley University and Manhattanville College faculty curated this list of literacy and children’s book resources, including:
The Reading and Writing Strategies Community: Ideas from Jennifer Saravallo’s Reading Strategies book
- Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems on YouTube. Watch episode 1 and find more activities on his site, Pigeon Presents
- The Big List of Children’s Authors Doing Online Read-Alouds & Activities
STEAM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics)
Lesley STEAM Learning Lab: Maker activities and other interdisciplinary examples that integrate the maker mindset into teaching and learning. Descriptions of activities are captured in posts under the Makerspace and Community Outreach tabs. Maker activities with associated videos and handouts are coming soon under the What is Happening tab.RSVP to participate in a weekly drop-in discussion with other educators.
Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms: Earth and space science, created in collaboration with NASA. Grades K-12
NOVA Education Resources: High-quality science learning. Grades 7-13+
Teaching Units and Resources for Early Educators: Mass Audubon shares fun activities to connect kids to nature.
More Ideas:
Social Studies
American Experience: History and social studies resources from one of public media's flagship broadcasts. Grades 4-12
iCivics: A comprehensive resource for Prekindergarten-12 civics education with new resources to support remote learning.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History: Resources for 5-12 grade history and civics, lesson plans
The Arts
The Ultimate Guide to Virtual Museum Resources, E-Learning, and Online Collections: A treasure trove of virtual tours and online exhibits for art, culture, history and natural science museums; national parks and more. The Created for Kids section provides online activities, lessons and coloring pages from more than 30 museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Mets Kids.
The Smithsonian's Open Access Initiative: Links to hundreds of museum collections to download and share with students, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture or special exhibits such as the Renwich Gallery’s Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists.
Jarrett Lerner: The author and illustrator shares activities that go along with his books. Most are art-based, but many are multimodal literacy and STEAM centered.
The Drama Resource: Drama strategies for the classroom and advice and strategies for remote and online creative learning.
Music
Liz Buchanan Music: A Lesley alumni and music educator shares regular musical videos. More musical resources on Youtube:
Talking to Kids About the Coronavirus
A comic book explaining the Coronavirus: NPR shares a printable zine in kid-friendly language
Talking to Children about COVID-19: From the National Association of School Psychologists