Resources to supplement student learning
You may be looking for resources to supplement your students’ learning or, as parents, to support your children at home. This list is intended to provide resources for all ages and skill levels; not all resources will be appropriate for all students based on their learning level.
There are learning opportunities that can be found in everyday activities. You can talk about math when cooking, watch and discuss nature shows, read books together. Even video games can provide the opportunity to problem solve.
The following are resources that can be used to support different areas of curriculum. If you have any suggestions for additional resources, please email HSTA Instruction and Professional Development Specialist Diane Gibson at dgibson@hsta.org.
Featured resource
Battleship Missouri Memorial
The Battleship Missouri Memorial offers free virtual field trips for grades 5–12. The one-hour online classroom experience takes students on a tour back in time and explains the ship’s place in history, length of service, and impressive magnitude. For students grades 7–12, the discussion also includes a more in-depth conversation about World War II and the Missouri’s famous role in that war. Each field trip concludes with a student-based question-and-answer session.
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Art a la Carte
Creative art instruction that goes beyond drawing. (YouTube)
Art at Home
This Google Doc created by Caroline Valezquez, an art teacher in Richmond, Virginia, offers an extensive matrix of art-related resources and activities that students can explore.
Art for Kids Hub
Quick and easy drawing tutorials. (YouTube)
Circle Line Art School
These videos are great for older students wanting to develop paper pencil techniques. (YouTube)
Disney coloring pages
The Farm Girl Gabs Blog offers 1,000 free Disney coloring pages for download.
Drawing Pop Art for Kids
Short videos showing how to draw fun and funky artwork. (YouTube)
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems
The Kennedy Center’s education artist-in-residence shows viewers how to draw, doodle, and explore new ways of writing. New episodes will be posted each weekday at 1 p.m. ET and remain online to be streamed afterward. Visit Mo Willems’ official website.
Hawaii Teachers Economics Library
An online repository of Hawaiʻi-centric economics lesson plans, teaching resources, and student opportunities.
- Amazing Educational Resources: The name of this resource is appropriate since it is full of education and activity resources. This Facebook group has become a standout in the available resources being shared to support teachers and parents support students. As resources are shared to the group,
they are added to a companion spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is alphabetized with descriptions for each resource that includes the grade, description, and free offer, if any. The resources listed help support all levels of learning and student needs. - Create-abilities
- Have Fun Teaching
- Music Teacher Resources
- No Time for Flashcards — Early Childhood
- Oceans Initiative
- Second Story Window
- Super Teacher Worksheets
- Teaching Ideas
- Tickled Pink in Primary
Formative
This online program can be used to create learning opportunities with real-time assessment of student learning and activity. Units can be created by the teacher, and pre-made options are also available. Formative is donating access to all features for the remainder of the 2019–20 school year for teams who may be in need of virtual teaching due to COVID-19.
How to create the perfect study environment for online learning
This article by Purdue University Global addresses how to create a study environment for online learning that minimizes distractions and puts you in the mindset to concentrate. Online learning presents unique challenges compared to traditional in-person learning. With so many students adjusting to this type of learning for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this article provides actionable tips that you may find useful.
Socrates
Socrates is a learning engine and classroom management tool that creates individualized learning paths for each student and engages them so that they are excited to learn. It is being made available to all impacted students for the rest of the school year and through the summer at no charge.
Teach from Home
Google has become a go-to resource for teachers to connect to their students. Its Teach from Home website provides resources and ideas for all Google Suite products. This site also offers a downloadable toolkit to keep as a desktop reference.
Battleship Missouri Memorial
The Battleship Missouri Memorial offers free virtual field trips for grades 5–12. The one-hour online classroom experience takes students on a tour back in time and explains the ship’s place in history, length of service, and impressive magnitude. For students grades 7–12, the discussion also includes a more in-depth conversation about World War II and the Missouri’s famous role in that war. Each field trip concludes with a student-based question-and-answer session.
Can Hawaiʻi’s Aloha Spirit Survive a War? World War II curriculum
Can Hawaiʻi’s Aloha Spirit Survive a War? is a humanities-based learning resource that leads students to consider the extent to which war has an effect on the people involved. In this curriculum, students research the sociopolitical effects of World War II on the Territory of Hawai‘i, including delving into the personal stories of the Japanese American soldiers from Hawai‘i. The unit meets two Hawai’i Department of Education educational standards, Inquiry Standard SS9-12.4.2 and Content Standard SS.MHH.3.19.2.
Hawaiian and Pacific Island Studies textbooks
Bess Press Education is offering open access to all students and teachers in Hawaii through June 30. This platform is built upon content derived from foundational curriculum centered around ancient Hawaii, the Hawaiian Monarchy, and modern Hawaiian history.
Keiki TV
ʻŌiwi TV offers animated versions of traditional Hawaiian legends and additional Hawaiian language content, all designed to be engaging and culturally appropriate. (YouTube)
ABC Kids — Tracing and Phonics
ABC Kids is a free phonics and alphabet teaching app that features a series of tracing games to help kids recognize letter shapes, associate them with phonic sounds, and put their alphabet knowledge to use in fun matching exercises.
Autism Emotions
Autism Emotion uses music and a photo slideshow to help teach about different emotions.
Austism ihelp Collection
Collection of apps that support at-home learning for autistic learners.
Camp Discovery
Designed by experts in the field of applied behavior analysis, all Camp Discovery learning games incorporate evidence-based teaching principles. Although Camp Discovery is designed for children with autism, all children can benefit from the carefully developed teaching procedures.
Endless Reader
This app introduces “sight words,” the most commonly used words in school, library, and children’s books. Each word features an interactive word puzzle with letters that come alive, and a sentence puzzle with words that become what they describe.
Endless Numbers
Kids can learn number recognition, sequences, quantity, numerical patterns, and simple addition with the adorable Endless monsters. Each number features interactive sequences and equation puzzles with numbers that come alive, and a short animation that provides context and meaning to each number.
Hopster: Preschool Learning
Children can learn phonics, play educational games, and watch family-friendly preschool shows, all in a safe and ad-free digital environment.
Hopster Saturday Club for Kids
Designed to develop kid’s fundamental social and emotional literacy skills. As they play the mini-games, they begin to recognize and understand different emotions and learn new “feelings words” to describe how they and the characters are feeling.
Kids Puzzle Games Puzzingo
Puzzingo puzzles are full of interactivity, animations, and sounds for repeat learning and play. Unlike jigsaw puzzles, every Puzzingo puzzle piece is named, so preschool children, toddlers, and babies will build vocabulary while playing. Puzzingo supports learning in many languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and UK English. It is well-suited for bilingual parents looking for tools to help kids reinforce a second language.
Kidtopia
A dynamic app that runs the gamut of early education and teaches a huge variety of skills to kids of younger ages. It covers everything from math, language skills, social skills, creativity, and self-expression, all the while engaging kids with stunning visuals and fun and exciting gameplay.
Language Therapy for Kids — MITA
A unique, early-intervention application for children with language delay and autism. MITA trains mental integration and language, starting with simple vocabulary, and progressing toward higher forms of language, such as adjectives, verbs, pronouns, and syntax.
Ninja Focus: Kids’ Mindfulness
Help your child get to sleep faster, regulate their emotions, and learn to focus. Ninja Focus drives positive behavior with its wealth of guided meditations, bedtime stories, yoga flows and poses and music for children ages 3–12.
Preschool and Kindergarten Games
Twenty-four interactive educational games for your preschool and kindergarten kids. As your pre-K child progresses through the lessons, they earn stickers to add to their board, rewarding them for learning and playing.
See.Touch.Learn.
Replace your flash cards with 4,400 pictures and 2,200 exercises. This app combines the effectiveness of picture cards with the power and interactivity of the iPad. Create custom exercises and lessons, automatically track performance, and carry your entire library collection with you at all times.
Sesame Street and Autism
For parents and caregivers, the Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children app provides tools to help families with preschool-aged children on the autism spectrum. Resources in this app are part of the Sesame Street and Autism initiative. You can access additional project materials online here.
Sight Words
An educational, multi-sensory learning tool that helps your child rapidly learn to recognize and read words by sight, sound, and touch. Ideal for ages 0 to 6.
Speech Blubs: Language Therapy
Speech Blubs is a voice-controlled speech therapy app designed to help children learn new sounds and words, and practice speaking in a stimulating, educational environment. Activities trigger sound and word production in toddlers, late talkers (speech delay), children with apraxia of speech, autism, Down syndrome, ADHD, and sensory processing disorder. Don’t have an iPad? Don’t worry. Many of these resources are also available on their website. Speech Blubs also has a blog with more than 200 articles written by SLPs on various topics, including development, speech, and milestones.
Starfall Free
Starfall features English language arts, math, social-emotional development and anti-bullying activities for K–3. You can also visit Starfall’s website for learning activities, books, movies, songs, and educational games.
Wonster Words Learning Games
Award-winning ABC, phonics, and spelling games. Kids and toddlers put together words through interactive word puzzles. As the child drags a letter puzzle, the name of the letter and the phonics sounds will play. Once the words are completed, children will enjoy silly videos head-lined by the lovable Wonsters.
25 fun math activities and games to do at home
This blog post on Matr, a London-based online learning platform, offers suggestions for math and games that can be done at home with students.
ABCmouse.com
An early learning program designed to support students from preschool to second grade. Curriculum covers subjects such as language development, reading, math, science, social studies, and health. A subscription is required, first month is free.
ABCya
ABCya provides more than 400 fun and educational games for grades Pre-K through 6. Games are categorized by grade and subject, and cover topics such as multiplication, parts of speech, typing, pattern recognition, and more.
Bedtime Math
Fun math activities that parents can do with their students at home.
CanFigureIt Geometry
This interactive tool provides an easy-to-use workspace where students can practice proofs while exercising deductive reasoning muscles. Teachers can set up class sites to encourage asynchronous learning.
Carmen Sandiego learning resources
Super-sleuth activities aligned to the Carmen Sandiego television series on Netflix.
CK-12 Foundation
Free online resources in math, science, social studies, and photography.
Delta Math
Online learning platform that allows teachers to assign learning packets to classes. Each packet has step-by-step instructions for the concepts in the packet.
DreamBox
Adaptive, online K–8 math resource system that adjusts to the learner and their needs based on progress through activities.
Fun Brain
Fun Brain’s Math Zone offers math programs for students in kindergarten through grade 5. Games focus on basic skills for the grade level. The site also offers games, books, comics, and videos that develop skills in reading, problem-solving, and literacy.
HippoCampus
Learning platform that allows teachers to create a virtual campus for their classrooms. Activities for math, science, and social studies can be added to the campus playlists.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. Daily schedules and remote learning resources are available for students ages 2–18.
Marco Learning
Materials to help students study and prepare for Advanced Placement courses.
Math at Work Series
Industry leaders work with real students to demonstrate the importance of learning math.
Math Playground
Math and problem-solving activities organized by skill level, grade level, and interest. All games are free; no registration or login required.
MathScore
An adaptive math program designed to support learning in grades kindergarten through higher-level math programs. In free mode, users have full access to assessments and a limited, but useful set of topics. As students achieve success, paid upgrades are needed to access more advanced topics.
PBS Kids
Games related to popular PBS children’s programming; activities support primary learning.
Prodigy
A curriculum-aligned math platform that supports students in grades 1–8. Teachers, students, and parents can create free accounts.
Meditation for anger: How it works & tips for getting started
Choosing Therapy explains how meditation disrupts stress response and helps you remain calm. Learn seven meditation exercises to get started managing anger.
Headspace for educators
Learn the essentials of meditation and mindfulness, and mindfully guide yourself — and your students and children — through the COVID-19 crisis, or other tough times. Free accounts are available for K-12 educators, school administrators, and supporting staff.
Adventure Academy
Adventure Academy is an immersive virtual universe that gives users access to hundreds of hours of educational activities to develop essential skills in math, language arts, science, social studies, and more. Appropriate for kids ages 8–13. A subscription is required, first month is free.
AP online classes and review sessions
College Board has assembled the country’s best Advanced Placement teachers to conduct live and on-demand AP classes and review sessions to help students still be able to test and earn college credit in 2020. (YouTube)
Highlights Kids
An online hub for children of all ages to play games and discover jokes, surveys, answers to science questions, and fun crafts and recipes from Highlights.
NeoK12
Educational videos and games for kids that have been reviewed and screened by K-12 teachers.
RoomRecess.com
RoomRecess.com was developed by an elementary school teacher with the goal of reinforcing fundamental learning concepts in math, reading, spelling, language arts, typing, and problem solving. Games are free, and students do not have to sign up or hold an account.
SchoolTube
SchoolTube is the nation’s largest K–12 moderated video sharing platform specifically designed for students and educators.
WatchKnowLearn.org
An index of approximately 50,000 educational videos, arranged in a directory of more than 5,000 categories. Search for videos by subject and age level.
Debbie Doo Kids TV
Fun learning songs, some with movement. (YouTube)
Kennedy Center Digital Stage
Experience live performances in music and dance.
Kiboomers
Kids music channel with fun songs to learn from, some with movement. (YouTube)
The Metropolitan Opera
Nightly live streams of past opera performances.
Cosmic Kids Yoga
Yoga, guided relaxation, and mindfulness adventures. (YouTube)
Fluency and Fitness
This program reviews essential K–2 reading and math topics while including physical movement. Parents can get three weeks free while students are home.
Glenn Higgins Fitness
Star Wars and superhero-based workouts. (YouTube)
GoNoodle
Songs with movement. (YouTube)
Just Dance
Dance move videos. (YouTube)
The Body Coach TV
Home workout videos for adults and kids. (YouTube)
YMCA 360
On-demand videos for YMCA classes that are suitable for all ages. These can also be found on the YMCA of Honolulu web page.
Authors read books on social media
- Jan Brett reads “Cozy” (Facebook)
- Susie Jaramillo reads “Little Sunny Sunshine” from the Cantico Series in English and Spanish (Facebook)
- Sophie Blackall reads “Ivy & Bean” (YouTube)
- Anica Mrose Rissi reads “Love, Sophia on the Moon” (YouTube)
- Steven Weinberg reads part of “AstroNuts” (Instagram)
- Shawn Harris reads “Everyone’s Awake” (Instagram)
- Molly Idle reads “Pearl” (Instagram)
- Ame Dyckman reads “You Don’t Want A Unicorn!” while dressed as a unicorn (YouTube)
- Eva Chen reads “Juno Valentine and the Magical Shoes” (Instagram)
- Karen Romano Young reads a chapter of “A Girl, a Raccoon, and the Midnight Moon” (Instagram)
- Dan Gutman reading “My Weird School” (Facebook)
Audible Stories
Stream a collection of stories, including titles across six different languages, for free.
Famous people reading children’s books is one good thing during the coronavirus shut-in
Romper.com compiles a list of famous authors, illustrators, celebrities, and educators reading children’s books.
HONOLULU Family Virtual Storytime
HONOLULU Family invites everyone to enjoy local community leaders reading their favorite books. Take a five-minute break with your whole family.
Mouse Circus
Neil Gaiman, author of “Coraline” and “The Graveyard Book,” reads books in their entirety on his official website.
Publishers adapt policies to help educators
As educators moved to remote learning, many worried about reading books aloud online and possibly violating copyright laws. In response, many children’s publishers have temporarily altered policies. School Library Journal offers this roundup.
ReadWorks
Free content, curriculum, and tools to support reading comprehension from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Scholastic Learn at Home
Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing, organized by grade level.
Spanish children’s stories
Well-known children’s stories translated into Spanish and spoken by a native Spanish speaker. Read along in Spanish or English.
Storyline Online
Videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Visit Storyline Online’s YouTube channel.
The big list of children’s authors doing online read alouds and activities
Compiled by We Are Teachers.
Time for Kids
This digital library is free for the rest of the year. Parents must fill out the form to activate the subscription.
Tokybook
Listen and download audiobooks for kids, including “Little House in the Big Woods.”
VocabularySpellingCity
Provides K–12 cross-curricular word study with online vocabulary, writing, phonics, and spelling programs that give students immediate feedback and record their progress on any device.
25 ways to learn at home with Lego
Childhood 101
60+ awesome websites for teaching and learning math
We Are Teachers
200 free kids educational resources: video lessons, apps, books, websites & more
Open Culture
All Digital School
This resource has more than 1,000 educational resources, including apps, tools, websites, ebooks, and videos, for all school levels (K–12) organized by subject, year level, type, as well as price, though most are free. There is also a special filter in the directory so that only resources made free by their owners due to the COVID-19 outbreak will be listed. The guides button at the top leads to resources for self-care and support ideas for online learning. This resource is useful for both teachers and parents.
Breakout EDU Fun at Home
Digital games that students can play at home.
Education in isolation
Digital Trends’ purpose is to keep its readers updated on the current world of technology. To inspire everyone who has committed to staying home, homeschooling, teaching virtual, and moving into the new reality of supporting needs virtually, the technology publisher created a comprehensive list of tools and resources that don’t just focus on education, but on surviving and thriving in this new normal.
ChemMatters
Peruse science-related articles arranged by the chemistry concepts they cover.
Discovery Education’s Polar Bear Virtual Experience
Virtual tour of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada for the annual polar bear migration.
Hawaiʻi Storm Patrol
Encourage primary-level students to learn more about and protect Hawaiʻi’s beaches and oceans! Free online workbooks, badges, and videos from the state’s Storm Water Management Program inspire keiki to join the Hawaiʻi Storm Patrol and take pride in their newfound roles as protectors. There’s also an instructor’s guide to facilitate activities and discussion questions. If you use these resources, please complete an online survey to share feedback and data with the state.
NASA STEM Engagement
At-home activities for grades K–4 selected by NASA STEM experts. Launch rockets, build a hovercraft, and more.
National Geographic Kids
Find amazing facts about animals, science, history, and geography, along with fun competitions, games, and more.
San Diego Zoo
Information about the animals at San Diego Zoo. Live web cams allow you to observe animals in their habitats. Games, activities, and stories support animal knowledge.
Science Mom
Science activities presented by Science Mom, a.k.a. Jenny Ballif, who holds a master’s degree in plant science.
Switch Zoo
Information about animals with make-and-play activity games, music, videos, and factual information to learn about biomes and habitats.
Pyramid Educational Consultants
Downloadable books to support at-home learning for autistic students.
Simply Special Ed
A special education resource activities blog developed by a former elementary special education and life skills teacher.
The Autism Helper
Download a home school emergency kit with eight weeks of curriculum at a range of academic levels, schedules and calendars to help organize your days and weeks, a path and plan for how to use these materials and put them together, visuals, and training resources.
Imagineering in a Box
Have you ever wondered how theme parks come to life? Disney Imagineers from hundreds of career disciplines around the world share how they use a wide range of skills — from story development and conceptual design, to math, physics and engineering — that all come together to create immersive experiences.
10 strategies for online learning during a coronavirus outbreak
Members of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) professional learning networks identify key practices for successful online learning.
105 tools for distance learning & strategies for student engagement
Albert, an online learning companion, offers a comprehensive list of helpful learning tools, common benefits and drawbacks of remote learning, and strategies for keeping students engaged while remote.
Flippity
This resource allows materials from Google Sheets to be turned into flashcards, quiz shows, manipulatives, etc. You name it, this resource probably has a template for it.
Wide Open School
Wide Open School is a free collection of the best online learning experiences for kids curated by the editors at Common Sense, organized so teachers and families can easily find it and plan each day. The website launched a Distance Learning Teacher Center with resources to connect with partners, set norms, find the right tools, and view how-to videos.
Khanmigo: Free, AI-powered teacher assistant by Khan Academy
Khanmigo for Teachers, a pilot AI-powered teaching assistant, is free for all U.S. educators, and will help create engaging lesson hooks, provide insights on student performance, recommended assignments, and support for refreshing your knowledge. No prompting is required. Get an overview here and learn more with the Khanmigo for Teachers Quick Guide.
A trauma-informed approach to teaching through coronavirus
Experts from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network share their recommendations for educators supporting students during the COVID-19 crisis.
SafeShare
This resource allows you to share videos from YouTube or Vimeo without ads. Create a “SafeView” to ensure your viewers can watch your video free of distractions, which is especially important in an educational setting. You can also select a start and end time to show only part of the video, and edit the video title and description.
Safe YouTube
Safe YouTube allows users to watch and share YouTube videos in a safe environment without distractions, offensive comments, or the potential to access adult-oriented content.
Art museums
- Louvre Museum, Paris
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
- Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy
Hawaii
History
- The Seven Wonders of the World
- Smithsonian: Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.
- Mount Vernon, Virginia
- Anne Frank’s house, Amsterdam
- Ellis Island, New York
- Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia
Literature
Science
United States
Webcam experiences
- Waikiki Aquarium monk seals
- San Diego Zoo
- Smithsonian’s National Zoo
- Reid Park Zoo lions, Tucson
- Ouwehands Dierenpark polar bear cubs, Rhenen, Netherlands
- Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, California
- Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta
- Seattle Aquarium
- Kansas City Zoo penguins
Free Spanish lessons
The Spanish Experiment offers free online beginner Spanish lessons with audio.
Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone is offering free access for students for a three-month period. This offer is available to parents and guardians of K–12 students who either attend a school that is closed in response to COVID-19 or are homeschooled.
BoomWriter
BoomWriter is a writing app that helps teachers inspire students in all types of writing. BoomWriter also offers resources to help educators deliver impactful remote learning activities.
Knoword
Knoword is a fast-paced word game that challenges your vocabulary, tests your typing skills, and stimulates your mind.
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