There are many free resources available to schools, teachers, students, and parents to enhance the learning process for those affected by current school closures and participating in elearning. This list includes some free, fabulous online educational resources currently available.
Table of Contents
Health & Wellbeing Educational Videos Educational Websites
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Health & Well-Being
Anxiety and Depression Association of America
The Anxiety and Depression Association of America provides a guide to help educate parents, teenagers, and professionals about evidenced-based treatment options for anxiety in teenagers and children. Founded in 1979, ADAA is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention, treatment, and cure of anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD, and co-occurring disorders through education, practice, and research.
Anxiety in Teens
WebMD provides a medically based article for parents and professionals offering support and interventions for those helping teenagers and adolescents cope with anxiety.
APA: The American Psychological Association
This article covers warning signs of stress in children and teens and provides suggestions for how to manage stress and how caregivers can help.
CDC: Social, Emotional, and Mental Well-being of Young Adults during COVID-19
Beyond getting sick, many young people’s social, emotional, and mental well-being has been impacted by the pandemic. The CDC provides this resource kit with helpful resources.
CDC: Talking with children about Coronavirus Disease 2021
This link provided by the CDC has recommendations to help adults have conversations with children about COVID-19 and ways they can avoid getting and spreading the disease.
COVID-19, Teen Stress, and How Educators Can Support Stress Management Today
XQ Institute is the nation’s leading organization dedicated to rethinking the high school experience so that every student graduates ready to succeed in life.
Cosmic Kids Yoga
Yoga, mindfulness and relaxation designed specially for kids aged 3+.
E.D.G.E.
This resource from Learning for Justice can help students who don’t always know how to help someone they care about who might be experiencing bullying, depression, dating violence, suicidal thoughts or other problems.
Learning for Justice -Supporting Students Through Coronavirus
Learning for Justice developed these resources to support student well-being and learning during school closures, and will keep this page updated as they publish new pieces.
National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Articles, videos and other resources available in both English and Spanish to help children cope with stress.
PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center
PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center actively leads social change to prevent childhood bullying, so that all youth are safe and supported in their schools, communities, and online.
Stories Songs & Stretches
Preschool yoga and mindfulness storytimes.
Yoga for Stress: Teens
A 15-minute yoga class for teens to manage and decrease stress, created for ages 13 – 18 by Brynne Caleda with Yoga Ed.
5 Minute Yoga Routine for Kids: Channel Mum
It’s not always easy getting kids excited about exercise, but this yoga routine will get their imaginations running wild and their bodies moving!
Educational Videos
GoNoodle
Activities, songs, and dances to work your wiggles out for grades K and up. You can sign up for a free educator account.
Imagineering in a Box
Walt Disney Imagineering partners with Khan Academy to bring you a free online program with 32 videos that brings together the diverse talents of Disney Imagineers around the world to share how they use a wide range of skills – from story development and conceptual design, to math, physics and engineering, creating immersive experiences.
SchoolTube
A COPPA and ADA compliant video management platform created to meet the needs of K-12 schools, providing a place for schools to publish videos for free in a tightly controlled space. An upgrade to a paid premium subscription allows ad-free viewing.
TeacherTube
An online community for sharing instructional videos and content for teachers and students.
TEDEd@Home
Free daily lessons, activities, and challenges to support students, parents, and teachers.
VideoLink
Use this website to create safe links to YouTube videos you want to share with your students. It eliminates inappropriate content via unwanted links and ads that can appear with YouTube videos.
Educational Websites
Brainfuse HelpNow
SJCPL’s Student & Teacher Databases offers Brainfuse HelpNow, a unique tutoring and study suite designed for patrons of all ages, they help connect patrons with qualified eTutors.
BrainPOP
BrainPOP is currently offering free, unlimited use of BrainPOP to any school that is closed due to the coronavirus during the period of their closure.
Duolingo for Schools
You can use Duolingo to help your students learn new languages. It’s free, fun, and provenly effective. With Duolingo for Schools, teachers can easily track their students’ progress, run in-class activities and assign homework.
Bendable: SJCPL’s Online Learning Platform
Bendable is a free learning platform that allows residents of all ages to acquire new knowledge and skills through online courses, in-person events, and other learning resources.
Big History Project
An innovative way to teach foundational concepts in history, humanities, and critical thinking for grades 9 -12. Sign up for free to access content.
Common Sense Media
This nonprofit organization rates movies, TV shows, and books to help parents and educators make good choices for their kids. Common Sense Media also offers a digital citizenship curriculum for educators. Information is available in Spanish under the Latino tab.
Critical Media Project
A free media literacy web resource for educators and students (ages 8-21) that enhances critical thinking and empathy, building on their capacities to advocate for change around questions of identity. Most lessons are particularly relevant to high school students.
Elementari
Elementari is a K-12 online platform to read, write, code, share, and remix interactive stories using professional illustrations and sounds. Turn writing assignments into something amazing with the illustrations, animations, and sound effects. Kids can even write their own choose-your-own-adventure story! Educators can create 1 class of 35 students for free.
ESL Guide for Teachers – Study.com
This guide from Study.com offers curriculum planning tools, tips for in-class and at-home activities, a list of professional ESL organizations, and information on how to become an ESL teacher. Study.com is a subscription-based learning resource for students, teachers, parents, and tutors. Content may be most helpful to high school and college students. Subscriptions for individuals range from $39.99/mo. to $199.99/mo. You are able to access some Study.com materials for free with your library card through our online learning platform, Bendable.
Favorite Authors and Illustrators
Kate Messner, a former classroom teacher, forever-educator, and the author of more than three dozen books for kids has put together a list of resources, including a list of authors with lessons and videos.
Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls
This website was created by a homeschooling mom, and includes LEGO, STEM, and other learning activities.
Indiana State Library Inspire
Inspire is a lifelong learning resource provided by the Indiana State Library. Inspire provides free online access to educational resources and databases for all ages, Indiana history and genealogy, and test and career preparation including high school equivalency, college admissions test prep, and U.S. Citizenship resources.
Khan Academy
A nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. Educators can create free accounts to support their classroom. (también en español)
Kahoot
A game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, work, and home. Kahoot! offers free and paid plans designed for use in the classroom, at work—whether in-person or virtual— or at home for social use or self-study.
Math Games
Games and apps are guided by the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics. The difficulty changes with the student’s strength, to try and ensure players don’t get frustrated or bored. There are ads that pop up on the free version.
Mommy Poppins
50+ science-y activities you can do with household items.
Newsela
Access high-interest, nonfiction news content. The same content can be customized for different students’ reading levels. Access to news content on Newsela is always free. Additional content, standards, instructional resources, and insights are available for purchase with their core subject products.
NOVA Education
NOVA Education tailors NOVA’s digital resources for educators in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Their free educator library is produced according to teaching standards and includes videos, audio segments, lesson plans, and interactives designed to facilitate effective classroom integration.
PBS Kids
A collection of valuable learning resources for young children covering a wide array of topics.
Rated Reads
This website focuses on young adult books (this broad category includes middle-grade books as well as books aimed at older teens) published more recently, providing detailed information about language, violence and sexual content so you can make a good judgment about whether they are appropriate for your readers.
Ready Set Kindergarten!
The Brooklyn Public Libraries offer videos for parents of preschoolers in many different languages to help develop reading readiness skills.
SJCPL’s NovelList K-8 Plus
SJCPL’s Student & Teacher Databases offers NovelList K-8 Plus with fiction and nonfiction reading recommendations for grades K-8 and teens.
Teaching High School Students with Learning Disabilities Online – Study.com
This web page from Study.com, offers information and tips for helping students struggling with learning disabilities. Study.com provides access to more than 35,000 lessons for students, teachers, parents, and tutors with paid subscriptions. You are able to access some Study.com materials for free with your library card through SJCPL’s online learning platform, Bendable.
The Kennedy Center Educator Resources
Free digital resources for educators looking to infuse the arts into their educational practices.
Virtual Zoo Field Trip
Visit the San Diego website’s live web cams and videos of favorite animals.
We Are Teachers
350+ online learning resources. This list of online learning resources is growing; some companies are choosing to make their products free for schools, teachers, and students.
