Community Resources

Education

Keeping our children engaged and educated during continuing distance learning school models, and knowing how best to go about it, can feel like a daunting task! Below we have a list of online educational resources we love and trust to help make things a little less overwhelming on the home front.

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Latest Updates on Distance Learning By School District

Fort Bragg Unified School District

Mendocino Unified School District

Point Arena School District


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tips for learning and working at home

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AAP (HealthyChildren.org) This resource gives practical advice and strategies for setting up work and study from home routines.

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Edutopia (Edutopia is a trusted source shining a spotlight on what works in education. They show people how they can adopt or adapt best practices, and tell stories of innovation and continuous learning in the real world.)

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Supporting Students with Disabilities and distance learning

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‍Top 12 Websites for Children With Learning Disabilities (article)

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Can Do! Kids! Provides resources for helping students focus on the skills and strengths they possess through guided self-assessments.

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Adaptive Worksheets allows parents and teachers to create their own worksheets or print existing worksheets but does have a collection of free resources.

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The Special Student Services Blog by Juanita Pritchard provides guidance for supporting students with significant cognitive disabilities who have been classified as moderate/severe/profound.

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English Language Arts

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Curriculum Associates Free Downloadable Reading Packets Printable at-home activity packs that are designed to provide students with valuable self-directed exercises and practice during extended absences from school. Each pack is designed to reinforce key concepts for a given grade. i-Ready’s engaging online lessons can support at-home learning.

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Myon A student-centered, personalized literacy environment that gives students access to more than 6,000 enhanced digital books.

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Starfall Reading  A free public service to teach children to read. It includes language arts and mathematics for preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade. Starfall emphasizes phonemic awareness, systematic sequential phonics, and common sight words in conjunction with audiovisual interactivity.

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StoryKit is a simple storybook creation app, with a private online sharing tool. It caters to students in grades 1-4 and above, and allows them opportunities to create stories, add pictures, and infuse recordings of their own voices.

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Core Knowledge provides open access to an exemplary curriculum for preschool through eighth grade.

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Open Culture allows visitors to download hundreds of free audio books, mostly classics, to your MP3 player or computer.

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Librivox - Free Public Domain Audiobooks features recordings of books in the public domain read by volunteers from around the world.

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CommonLit - Free reading passages in all literacy and nonfiction genres for grades 3-12.

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ReadWriteThink Free Mobile Apps helps students engage in literacy learning using tablet devices. No internet connection is required once the apps are downloaded. Offers resources for grade levels K-12.

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ReadWorks, driven by cognitive science research, ReadWorks aims to create world-class content, teacher guidance, and integrated tools that improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement. They leverage cognitive-science research to create high-impact instructional materials and tools that are designed for immediate use within the practical realities of current U.S. classrooms.

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S.T.E.M. (Science Technology Engineering and Math)

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Khan Academy Award winning, self-paced, interactive content--exercises, videos and articles--for students in every grade and in most major subject areas, 100% free, we wish Khan Academy had been around when we were kids!

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Curriculum Associates Free Downloadable Math Packets Printable at-home activity packs designed to provide students with valuable self-directed exercises and practice during extended absences from school. Each pack is designed to reinforce key concepts for a given grade.

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PhET Simulations support math and science learning.

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Zearn is offering their entire K-5 curriculum - including 400 hours of digital lessons with on-screen teachers and supportive remediation.

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Eureka Math offers its curriculum as PDF downloads for free, non-commercial use. The curriculum is accompanied by a selection of instructional materials and support resources for teachers at no additional cost.

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National Council of Teachers of Mathematics provides access quality standards-based resources for teaching and learning mathematics, including interactive tools for students and instructional support. Lessons and activities on Illuminations align with NCTM's Principles and Standards for School Mathematics and the Common Core State Standards.

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National Association for the Education of Young Children encourages mathematics learning at home.

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Illustrated Mathematics free educational resources and videos.

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PhET Simulations supports math and science learning.

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Legends of Learning provides educational games for grades 3–8. These resources have been made available for free due to school closures.

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National Science Teaching Association contains resources from NSTA to help you support your child's learning in science at home and at school.

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MysteryScience has made their resources free in response to the Coronavirus.

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NASA Education Resources (searchable by topic) provides informative educational materials that engage student interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

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Teach Engineering - This collection aligns with state and/or national science, mathematics and technology educational standards, and uses engineering as the vehicle to integrate science and mathematics concepts for K-12 students.

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US Department of Energy Education Resources is a partnership between the US Department of Energy partnered with the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED) to create free energy education resources for classroom and educational use.

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The Physics Classroom is a collection of online tutorials, concept builders, and interactive lessons for students.

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California Academy of Sciences Educator Resources provides lesson plans, science videos, and distance learning programs.

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Bill Nye The Science Guy offers a collection of episode guides and videos as well as directions for home demos that can be found under the “Learn” section and cover topics such as life science, physical science, and planetary science.

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Discovery Education is an online K-12 learning platform. It provides multimedia, virtual activities and hands-on labs with model lessons in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

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Switcheroo Zoo helps kids learn about animals by playing games.

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The digital Game Center of the Smithsonian Science Education Center offers fun experiences for the young STEM learner.‍

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History, Current events, and culture

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A Mighty Girl Learning resources highlighting courageous and brilliant women and girls throughout History) 

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Teaching Tolerance provides free resources to educators—teachers, administrators, counselors and other practitioners—who work with children from kindergarten through high school. Educators use our materials to supplement the curriculum, to inform their practices, and to create civil and inclusive school communities where children are respected, valued and welcome participants.

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Smithsonian Education offers a wealth of resources and digital tools support inquiry-based learning and active engagement to spark creativity and curiosity.

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‍‍The Smithsonian Learning Lab allows you to create personal collections and individualized educational experiences.

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Smithsonian's History Explorer offers hundreds of free, innovative resources for learning about American history.

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Many museums, cultural sites, and historical sites offer virtual tours and livestreaming. Here are a few, but an internet search will reveal many others:

Boston Children's Museum
‍Metropolitan Museum of Art
‍Smithsonian Museum of Natural History
‍California MissionsLibrary of Congress
‍Metropolitan Opera

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The Zinn Education Project promotes and supports the teaching of people’s history in classrooms across the country. They aim to equip students with the analytical tools to make sense of and improve the world today. Their website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme , time period , and grade level. The teaching materials emphasize the role of working people, women, people of color, and organized social movements in shaping history.

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Teaching California offers free online instructional materials to support the California History-Social Science Framework, with an emphasis on primary sources.

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California History-Social Science Project provides professional learning and free resources such as The History Blueprint and The Source. See links to regional sites for additional information and support.

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BBC Bitesize History Bitesize is the BBC's free online study support resource for school-age students in the United Kingdom. It is designed to aid students in both schoolwork and, for older students, exams.

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Crash Course History Channel on YouTube Crash Course believes that high quality educational videos should be available to everyone for free. The Crash Course team has produced more than 15 courses to date, and these videos accompany high school and college level classes ranging from the humanities to the sciences.

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Oyez is a resource for teaching Supreme Court Cases that includes the case history, relevant precedent, arguments, and the Supreme Court Decision and applicable dissents.

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The National Archives features a website that is easy to navigate and includes lots of resources. They feature a daily historical document relating to an event from that day in history. The online catalog can be searched using keywords, and 100 "milestone" documents are identified as significant to American history.

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National Archives: Elementary School Distance Learning Programs Free, interactive programs that feature primary sources from the Distance Learning Programs. Each program aligns with National Social Studies Standards and Common Core State Standards. It also provides teacher guides with pre- and post-program lessons.

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DocsTeach is full of activities. The documents are organized by different periods in American history. If you're teaching "Civil War and Reconstruction" or "Revolution and the New Nation," just click on the topic to find hundreds of primary source documents. DocsTeach provides audio, video, charts, graphs, maps and more.

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USHistory.org Free Online Textbooks provides high school courses for students, teachers, home-schoolers, and history lovers.

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PHysical education

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PE Central’s Web Sites for Kids provides links to resources to support remote and home instruction for physical education.

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The Article Online Physical Education For Homeschoolers provides guidance and resources for teaching P.E. at home.

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PBS Learning provides resources for Health and Physical Education.

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Tinkergarten - Outdoor Classes, Activities for Kids.