School’s Out Learning Fun at Home

Family Fun, Indoor, Social Distancing, Spring, Summer

There are many resources available to keep kids learning at home. We have made a manageable list of ideas to help make times when school is out more productive and less stressful. 

learning at home

If you are at home with your kids when school is out, it can be very stressful to juggle keeping them engaged in their assignments and do all of the other things you need to do. Here are some ideas that will appeal to a variety of interests and ages.

We have seen many posts circulating around social media about learning at home during the social-distancing period. However, when we visit most of these resources, they are actually for schools to access and send to parents or they require signing up for trial periods and more. We have taken a look at many and have reached deep into our own bag of tricks to come up with a list that is manageable and doesn’t require parents and caregivers a ton of time or supplies to get going.

Working from home? Here are some tips from our friends at Grand Rapids Kids

Looking for a way to talk to your young kids about the Coronavirus? KET produced a great article that will help. 

What’s closed and canceled? See our post. 

Week 7-9

Art

Enjoy drawing fun with a sort of pictionary online – Google Quickdraw

Math

Do a fun dot-to-dot math puzzle

Free access through August 31 to TumbleMath from the Louisville Free Public Library. Click here for info. 

Revolution Math is offering a 30 day trial for $1 when you use our special code FAMILYFUN

This includes a FREE math starter kit ($49 value) shipped to your door!

www.revolutionmath.com/schedules 

Science

Engineer all sorts of creations with items you find around the house. This PBS kids website helps kids get ideas based on what they have around the house to use. 

Watch Mummies: Secrets of the Pharaohs – normally would be playing at Kentucky Science Center but now you can watch it from your own living room. 

And for the learning part, you can check out these printables. 

Visit Code.org and kids can code all kinds of music videos and more!

Reading/Language Arts

Explore LFPL for an e-magazine or e-comic book with your child, they can pick something that interests them for fun or learning. 

Social Studies/History

Make a book (physically make a book!!) and then write one about this moment in history. Put it in your time capsule. 

Other educational options

Learn about Snowy Owls and then make a Snowy Owl out of pine cones and other craft materials, thanks to the Louisville Zoo

Kids can learn cursive while at home. This website has printable sheets to help practice. 

 

Week 6

Art

Learn the joy of painting from Bob Ross – certified instructor (and Louisville Free Public Library Librarian) Ken Weutcher! Grab some paints and follow along, or just tune in to watch some painting magic!

Join in on the Louisville Family Fun coloring contest. 

Math

Choose grades and topics for open-ended math challenges 

Sidewalk chalk math.  

Science

Best Bubbles – click link for the instructions on how to make these amazing bubbles.  

 

Watch Wild Ocean – normally would be playing at Kentucky Science Center but now you can watch it from your own living room. 

 

And for the learning part, you can check out these printable. 

Reading/Language Arts

Learn to write a haiku

Social Studies/History

Take a tour of an ancient Egyptian Tomb.  

Other educational options

A Where’s Waldo-themed web portal with activities for quarantining families. Downloadable activity sheets, book information and videos, and an interactive social media campaign will all provide some home-based entertainment.

Daily fun by grade from Scholastic

Music

Make your own song.

Drama

Learn to be a magician

Week 5

Art

The Speed Art Museum – #MuseumfromHome and Speed Online

Visit Create your own Picasso Head to well, create your own Picasso head.  

Draw optical illusions with Master Brush.

Exercise

Bike or walk around the neighborhood

Play nature bingo

Math

KET Learning resources FREE, more than just math. 

Can you solve this math riddle? 

Complete this math problem and post your answer on our Facebook post! (Link coming soon) Click image to print. 

Louisville math puzzle

 

Science

NASA Steam at Home is helping kids and adults explore Space. They have organized the site by grade rage and have a section for educators. 

Reading/Language Arts

Reading is fundamental 

Dav Pikey at Home  – Create and have fun with some of your favorite characters from Dog Man and Captain Underpants.

Social Studies/History

The Louisville Zoo is going live on Facebook each day with different themes. 

Learn about Rosa Parks.

Other educational options

JA Biz town had lots of fun learning opportunities 

Foreign Language

Learn a language! There’s a series of videos, the first one in Spanish is here. 

 

Week 4

All around resources

The Louisville Free Public Library is always here to help and they have created an all around great resource page to help you and the kids. 

The Khan Academy courses are all FREE and set up for every age group. Self-paced and on almost every subject. 

Art
We have some fun activity sheets for our Disney Junior fans. Activity sheets to download or print the coloring sheet from one of your favorite Disney Junior Series.

Value City Furniture ‘Sit. Stay. Color!’ Activity Book: Value City Furniture just launched a coloring book featuring the company’s official mascot and resident heart-stealer, Ernie the Bernedoodle, who is on the hunt to find the perfect new sofa. 

Exercise

Go outside and teach the kids some of the classic games from your childhood. 

Math

Need a little change up for math with you teen or tween? math games that your teen and tween will enjoy. Mary Wilson created Math Games Your Teens and Tweens will Actually Enjoy.

Science
Now you can #DoScience anywhere with our new series of videos that feature easy activities, using things from around the house! Follow along daily as Kentucky Science Center brings you fun activities that you and your future scientist can do at home! First up, Oobleck, a fun liquidy solid you.

Get to know the animals at the San Diego Zoo. 

Social Studies

Do you know all the countries of Asia or Africa? Me either, but these games will help you and the kids learn what they are. 

Niagara Falls USA Online Resources: Dream about your next vacation – and learn about one of the natural wonders of the U.S.! Download, print and color your way through some of Niagara Falls USA’s greatest attractions here. Or head to the Aquarium of Niagara’s Facebook page for a behind-the-scenes look at the animals and how the staff care for them. Join daily at 2 p.m. EST to watch everything from a vet visit Penguin Coast to sea lions take the stage for a live show. The videos all have corresponding activities on the Aquarium’s website.

Music

In addition to moving private lessons online, the Academy has launched #LAMISLIVE, an online initiative to keep students connected, engaged, and inspired to create. Special guests include workshops with Teddy Abrams, Will Oldham, the Social Distancing Quartet, and a live musical puppet show with Squallis Puppeteers.

Reading/Writing

Green Eggs and Ham: A Dramatic Reading by Ms. Faith, featuring the music of Edvard Grieg.

Drama

Drams games are fun for the whole family. Why not work on your theater skills while staying safe at home? 

Fun at-home activities

Make a restaurant at home for their little ones.

Week 3

Art

Art Starts with Louisville Visual Art is a New Way to Learn Visually! Watch and learn from different LVA teachers as they show you fun at-home art projects. 

Coloring Fun with a #teamkentucky. As we’re staying at home to be good patriots, let’s color and put it in our windows to support our state. Break out your colors and go to town! PDF prints are great as an 8.5″ x 11″ coloring sheet. 

Pre-K Storytime and Art Adventures with Ms. Eileen – Tuesday, April 7, 10:00-11:00 AM Live via Zoom. Click the link to find out what supplies you will need. 

Exercise

Make your own obstacle course. Once complete-time how fast your can go through it. Did you improve your time? 

Math

15 Math Games in 15 Minutes or Less from Scholastic 

Diane Massie has created Handling Math to help you teach math at home. 

Print math mashup puzzles to do together. Challenge the kids to make up their own. 

Science

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife had put together a workbook to help teach us about outdoor life in Kentucky. Love this one!

The National Inventor Hall of Fame is offering free resources for all ages and learning levels.  

Reading/Language Arts

Create your own Mad Libs. Mad Libs are a fun game for older kids who know what an adverb is but not so much for younger children. This game is great for kids ages 6 to 12, but really, anyone can play. 

If you don’t already have the Audible app GET IT! Audible made hundreds of titles completely free. Books for people of all ages. The audiobook platform has said that, for as long as schools are closed, anyone can listen to a vast selection of its titles. 

Social Studies/History

Kentucky Derby Museum – Each day we’ll bring you featured artifacts, fun facts, Oral History videos, Educational Lessons, activities you can do at home, and more! 

Fun in the Kitchen

This is a great week to play in the kitchen. You can use food coloring to dye the whites of your hard-boiled eggs. Find out how here.  

These Bunny Pizza Pockets are adorable and are great for lunch. 

Music

Music Together Online (there is a cost associated with this)

Create your own musical instruments at home. 

Week 2

Here is an activity the whole family can do. Find resources in our post below. 

Week 2 Calendar of things to do

Art

Crafting with COLLIDER coordinator Liz Magee and Artist-in-Residence Marlesha S. Woods

Easy fun art class with material from nature from Side by Side Studio. 

Find free coloring pages from Crayola. 

Exercise

More fun with Mrs. Myers. This time the whole family is getting involved. 

Kids Yoga with Ali Griffith

Math

Number of the day is a fun interactive way for your kids to learn math and work on problems. You hit the New Number button at the top of the page and it gives you several math equations. It also gives you the option of difficulty, the number of questions, and a few other options. Don’t worry, it has an answer button too. 

youcubed at Stanford University – Lots of great math resources all in one place. 

Science and Nature

Watch live views of the Georgia Aquarium. 

Teach kids about Germs with this awesome video from Mark Rober. 

On the Farm Series with 4H Kentucky – tune in daily at 2pm from 3/23-3/27 to see different farm animals and learn about life on the farm.  

The Louisville Zoo has a list of animal-related activities the whole family will enjoy. 

Reading/Language Arts

Storytime with Yew Dell Botanical Gardens 

Writing prompt for the week: What are you thankful for? Make a paper chain out of what your family is thankful for and hang it around your house. 

If you don’t already have the Audible app GET IT! Audible made hundreds of titles completely free. Books for people of all ages. The audiobook platform has said that, for as long as schools are closed, anyone can listen to a vast selection of its titles. 

Social Studies

Visit the Frazier Virtual Musem. Each day The Frazier Kentucky History Musem is adding videos about their exhibits. 

Uncle Toms Cabin Fraizer Museum

 

Apps can be fun and educational. Techie Homeschool Mom put together a list of 12 History Apps That Will Get Your Kids Excited About Learning.

Fun in the Kitchen

Make your own soft pretzel dough and let the kids create fun shapes with it. 

Make your own Cookie Cake. 

 

Music

Daily Circle Time with Total Tutoring. Every weekday now until April 3 at 9:30am. Waldorf-inspired songs, phonics and number work, silly songs with the teacher, and 1-2 stories. 

Tune into the The Metropolitan Opera nightly for classic opera performances streamed from their website for free. New postings daily at 7:30pm and videos will stay up for 20 hours.

Week 1

Art

 

Exercise

    • Aerobics with Mrs. Meyer – Wilder Elementary School P.E. Teacher

 

Math

  • Look around your home for anything plastic that you can use as a dry erase surface, if you don’t already have a small dry erase boards. I use sheet protectors and fill with cardstock to make them hold flat. Kids LOVE doing their work on dry erase!

  • Memory is one of the easiest games to make for pretty much any math topic. Whatever your children are learning, ask them to create a memory game on that topic. Make sure they have pairs of cards that match and they can make the game more difficult by making lots of pairs of cards. Kids can do problems matched with answers, two problems that match because they have the same answers, equations with solutions, properties with geometric figures etc. 

  • Use dice to play math. You can do free play and roll dice and talk about numbers like….sums, products etc. You can also make fractions out of dice and then roll again to make more fractions, then add them or multiply them etc. Just do math with dice!
  • There are many great math dice games you can play!
  • Don’t have dice but you have playing cards? Here’s a link to playing card games. 
  • Here’s an awesome YouTube channel full of games with dice and cards

Science

  • Get out in nature! Learn and observe what is around you, how the seasons are changing and discuss what you notice and wonder about nature. These conversations can be adjusted to fit all age groups…..no one knows everything! 
nature bingo

Click to Print

  • The San Diego Zoo has webcams for many of their animal exhibits. Kids can check in throughout the day and see what the animals are doing. Sometimes you take a look and there’s not an animal to be see. Other times, the animal is right up on the camera (the koala camera has a good chance for a close up). Under most of the video feeds there are links to learning opportunities. 
  • The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden will be offering home Safari Facebook Live each weekday at 3pm where we will highlight one of our amazing animals and include an activity you can do from home. Join us starting Monday, March 16 at 3pm for our first Home Safari- featuring Fiona!

Reading/Language Arts

  • Louisville Free Public Library plans to have a daily online storytime. Follow their Facebook page. 
  • Here is a link to the LFPL digital services page that gives you access to an array of options 24 hours a day for FREE! These resources make learning at home more fun. 
  • Find a “pen pal” for your kids. Whether its a relative that lives in another state or a child of a friend across town, kids can write emails to one another and share what they are doing while school is not in session, ideas for fun things to do, or just tell each other things about themselves. 
  • Creative Writing: Imagine what your pet or favorite toy is thinking and feeling about everyone being home during the day instead of at school and work – write from their perspective. 
  • Write an acrostic poem

 

Social Studies

  • TedEd is great for all subjects and getting kids to think beyond what they are usually thinking about. For social studies, there are videos about myths, famous people in history, women’s suffrage and more. 
  • Visit a museum online. Yes, you and your kids can tour museums while you are at home. 
  • Abraham Lincoln or The March on Washington, The Smithsonian Education videos can help kids explore curiosities about history and culture. 

Fun in the Kitchen

Music

 

 

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