Warning! You may wish to make a tea or coffee before scrolling through this post!
Featured is a BUMPER list of websites and links to support you with homeschooling as many schools are once again forced to close. Teachers setting work for pupils may also find this list helpful. There are links to support children in early years as well as in primary and secondary. I initially created this list during the first wave of closures in March. I have added some new links today (January 1st, 2021) but have not had a chance to double-check that all the resources that were previously available for free still are, so please forgive any inaccuracies. I aim to do a thorough update at the weekend. I have endeavoured to broadly categorise the resources according to subject and have also provided a general list of sites that support more than one subject.
I am also linking some other great resource posts for you. The first two contain lots of links for further brilliant online resources. The second two are packed with suggestions for screen-free activities to conduct at home.
Promoting Speech, Language and Communication at Home
Indoor Activities and Games
Outdoor Activities and Games
With over 200 linked resources, you will have plenty of activity ideas if children claim to be bored!
Mindful of the digital divide that means not all children will have access to laptops / computers / other devices (some families may not have these tools or there may be one between several children who then have to take it in turns to use technology), the unreliability of broadband in many places, and concerns about too much time being spent online, I will be following this post up with non screen-based learning tips and ideas in the coming days. I will also be adding posts discussing how to support children with additional educational needs, highlighting some assessment tools, and sharing some teaching and learning strategies and useful study skills.
Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a post!
ABC Reading Eggs: Free 30 day trial available on this site designed to build children’s reading skills.
Book Trust: Story books to read online.
Breaking News English: access levelled newspaper articles and accompanying activity ideas. The articles provide useful topics for discussion and this promotes oral language development.
Centre for Primary Literacy: offers a selection of free resources including teaching sequences and reading and writing scales to enable you to determine the level your child is working at and the next steps they must take in their learning.
Common Lit: A comprehensive literacy programme. Search the library by book, genre, grade level (3 – 12), theme, literary device or text set. There are activities to accompany each book, related media and book pairings (based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style) that students can use to compare or contrast. Teacher and parent guides are also available, as are resources in Spanish. Would be great for parents and carers also who may be unable to attend their current book club. Free sign-up. Highly recommended.
Children’s Classics PDFs and Audiobooks: 6 free classic stories.
Douglas Wise: Resources for GCSE English and English Literature.
Driver Youth Trust: Free resources for reading, writing, communication, and creative inclusion strategies for whole-school use.
Elementari: Allows pupils to write and code their own stories and is providing free access to the site during Covid-19 closures. Click here for information re. access.
Elevenses with The World of David Walliams: Some clips remains available for a limited time.
English Mastery: free printable primary and secondary work-packs available during this period of school closures.
Epic: Free remote access to digital library books for under-12s. Discuss sign-up with your child’s teacher.
First News: Free issues of this weekly newspaper aimed at 7 to 14-year-olds available during school closures, together with some additional free sample resources.
Kialo.edu: Online debating and discussion club, supporting students to (1.) put their knowledge into action, (2) sharpen their critical reasoning skills, (3.) demonstrate their understanding and (4) engage constructively with each other.
Kids’ Poems and Stories With Michael Rosen: Michael Rosen’s YouTube Channel in which he shares poems and stories weekly.
Kiz Club: free access to simple levelled readers, songs and rhymes, phonics activities, crafts and more. Lots of printables for you to download.
Letters and Sounds: Phonics resources.
Literactive: Featuring a range of reading materials, downloadable activities and worksheets, the materials are freely available but registration is required.
Love my Books: Fun and creative reading ideas. Lots of book recommendations and activity ideas.
Nessy: A useful site for supporting children with dyslexia, a free trial of Nesst Reading and Nessy Spelling is available.
Newsela: useful classroom materials based on current news stories. These are offered for free during the current school closures.
No Red Ink: builds stronger writers through interest-based curriculum, adaptive exercises, and actionable data. Free sign up available.
Myths and Legends: Lots of tales available to read here. As readers can submit their own stories, it is important to check the suitability of contents.
Nosy Crow Books: is providing lots of free activity sheets for some of their best-loved titles, as well as games, craft activities, and more!
Once Upon a Picture: Daily images to inspire.
Open Library: Free access to ebooks.
Phonics Bloom: Lots of games to support phonics development, together with information to help parents.
Phonics Comics: Comics based on each phase of phonics.
Phonics Play: Providing discounted phonics resources at present.
Pobble 365: A daily image to discuss, together with a story starter, a sentence challenge and some “sick sentences” that must be fixed.
Project Gutenburg: access free e-books on this site.
Quill: aimed at improving writing skills, this website is suitable for older learners. To begin, it is useful to undertake the diagnostic assessment provided. Thereafter, users can work through lessons aimed at specific target areas, sentence-joining activities, grammar and proof-reading tasks.
Radio Blogging: Each morning in the UK during the March 2020 lockdown, Pie Corbett and friends hosted a daily literacy show with lots of ideas for children. The archived episodes remain available.
Raz-Kids: Online levelled reading resources. Subscription service, but free trial available.
ReadingIQ: provides access to thousands of library books for pre-readers to independent readers (aged 9-12). Currently, these resources are available to US citizens but are set to be made available worldwide shortly. Details here.
Reading Realm: Free home learning packs and other reading resources.
Reading Rockets: Lots of information and resources to support the teaching of reading.
Read Write Think: lots of classroom resources (which may be sorted by grade level), interactive games and prompts and calendar-inspired activities.
Scholastic Book Clubs: resources can be found here to accompany various books.
Serial Mash: Provides an online library of reading resources, with a new chapter for every week of term, together with writing activities and guided reading resources. Learn about access here.
Spelfabet: provides phonics resources and spelling lists.
Spellodrome: Online interactive spelling activities, games and challenges based on personal word lists. Free 48 hour trial available.
Spelling Frame: children can choose a spelling rule and then choose to either practise the spelling or take a test with those words. All words are read aloud and provided within a sentence for context.
Spelling Shed: free 30-day trial available on this site to support children’s spelling.
Spelling Words Well: Grade level US spelling lists.
Spell Zone: Online English spelling resource. Free trial available and the company are pledging to support schools and families during school closures.
Storyline Online: Books read aloud for children and complete with comprehensive activity guides.
Story Prompts: Generate 2 images here on which to base a story.
The Literacy Shed: this site provides video stimuli to serve as writing prompts.
The Training Space: Jane Considine issues a daily super sentence stackers writing challenge on YouTube. A film prompt is shown at 9.45 am (GMT) with a teaching demonstration and a writing challenge for children issued at 10.30 am. Children are encouraged to upload their submissions to be stitched together into a longer story, shared at 3.30 pm.
The Writing Revolution: Apply here for access to writing resources based on the Hochman Method.
Unite for Literacy: Access to an enormous range of reading materials in English and Spanish, sorted by theme, with the option of having these narrated to your child in a range of different languages.
Vocabulary.com: Develop vocabulary with this responsive site. Students can enter word-lists of their own to study.
Vooks: A kid-safe, ad-free streaming library of read-aloud animated storybooks. Free one-year membership available to teachers and homeschoolers.
World Book: Collection of over 3,000 ebooks and audiobooks available for free.
World Book Day: find lots of free resources for nursery, primary and secondary pupils.
** In relation to read alouds, Penguin Random House have authorised the reading aloud and sharing of their books on educational platforms such as Google Classroom, Schoology, Edmodo and Discovery Education, in order to replicate the book-sharing that would normally take place in school See here. Chris Grabenstein has also authorised this 🙂
Arithmetic Test Generator: Use this test to generate questions based on previous KS2 SATS tests.
Beast Academy: An interactive online platform for children aged 8 – 13, featuring puzzles and problem-solving, to support mathematical development. Please note: payment is required.
Bedtime Math: aimed at supporting children to use maths in their daily lives, this site features maths games and a nightly mathematics question to be discussed before bed. There are also suggestions for activities to do that do not involve screens (Cabin Fever Math).
Cool Math 4 Kids: Play games, take quizzes, use online manipulatives, attempt brainteasers, and undertake a series of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fractions lessons.
Corbett Maths: Provides videos, worksheets, quizzes and useful 5-a-day levelled calculation questions.
Diagnostic Questions (White Rose): a useful tool for teachers in particular to gauge where children are at (sign-up required).
Digit Dog Challenges: Maths investigations for young learners featuring ‘Digit Dog.’
Dr. Frost Maths: An online learning platform, teaching resources, videos and a bank of exam questions, all for free.
Figure This: Some great maths challenges to develop mental calculations, thinking skills, and mathematical reasoning.
First for Maths: have made available a series of maths tasks for completion at home – many are linked to real-life activities. (Sign-up to the site is required).
Go Teach Maths: Resources to teach KS2/3 and GCSE maths, sorted by topic. The site has PPT demonstrations, worksheets, additional activities and materials for teachers.
Greg Tang Math: Features games and resources. I particularly like the word puzzle generator.
Hegarty Maths: A teaching, assessing and tracking platform for pupils from Key Stage 3 to GCSE and IGCSE. Schools must sign up for this.
Illuminations by NCTM: This site has lots of lesson ideas, interactives and some fantastic brain teasers.
I Love Maths Games: lots of maths puzzles available here.
I See Maths: features daily maths tasks (corresponding to UK curriculum and school calendar) and has lots of games and resources to support primary learners. Particularly useful are those targeting development of early number sense.
Mangahigh: Features lots of online mathematics activities for number, algebra, geometry, measurement, statistics, probability and coding. They are offering free access to support schools during the current closures.
Math Game Time: Play maths games, watch videos and download maths worksheets here. Sorted by grade level and topic.
Math Planet: High school math courses for US students (pre-algebra, algebra, geometry, plus SAT and ACT prep) but may be useful to students in other countries also.
Mathematical Association: Try the challenging puzzles in Mathematical Pie and in Symmetry Plus. These are for older learners.
Mathematics Mastery: free printable work-packs for pupils from reception to KS3.
Mathematics Shed: Huge collection of resources to support maths teaching.
Mathletics: Online interactive maths activities, games and challenges. Free 48 hour trial available.
Maths Genie: KS2, GCSE and A-Level revision by topic.
Maths.Life: Ideas and activities to support children in exploring maths and learning at home.
Maths on Toast: A website to promote a love of maths in the home.
Mathseeds: Free 14-day trial available on this site to support children aged 3-9 with learning maths.
Mathster: Unlimited access to all assessments, online assessments, printable worksheets, and maths videos for students for a year.
Mathsticks: lots of games, puzzles and activities to support learners from EYFS to KS3.
Maths Website: Access over 1,000 videos on various topics fir KS3, GCSE and A-Level maths, as well as solutions to past papers, revision checklists, and exam resources.
My Mini Maths: Learning packs for pupils in years 3 – 6.
National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics: This website has the UK National Curriculum for maths mapped out and accompanying resources available for free. Search by stage (EYFS – Post 16) or topic to find these.
National Numeracy: Access free resources for children categorised by age group.
NRICH Maths: Packed with activities, games and problem-solving tasks, NRICH maths is a wonderful site for boosting mathematical thinking and reasoning.
Prodigy: A site for self-paced mathematics practice for 1st to 8th graders in and out of school.
SplashLearn: Interactive maths games for elementary students.
Sport Maths: try these problem-solving investigations with a sports theme.
Study Maths: GCSE maths revision.
Sumdog: Offering activities to support maths for 5-14 year olds, parents or teachers can sign up for a free account during the present school closures. Please note: there are paid subscription options available on this site for spelling and grammar practice also.
TeacherLed: a helpful site for teachers, featuring free interactive whiteboard resources for teaching maths.
The Maths Factor by Carol Vorderman: Sign-up fees are suspended during school closures for this primary school maths teaching site. Children can access lessons, games and fun activities while parents can track their child’s progress on the site. Why not sign your child up for a 30-day maths challenge on here?
Transum: Love this site for a variety of starters of the day to get the brain focused on and thinking about maths and problem-solving. You can search by category for tasks relevant to your lesson or use this option to find appropriate retrieval tasks, supporting your child to recall material that has been previously taught.
Webmath: A maths help website offering solutions to questions input by the user.
White Rose Maths: Provides free planning and resources to support the UK maths curriculum (EYFS – Year 8). The summer planning is now uploaded to support children currently learning at home. Pearson have made the accompanying textbooks available for online access. Worth checking out also are the problems of the day.
Youcubed: Lots of great investigations to try.
Have your child practise their tables and maths facts on:
Collins Times Tables Test Simulator
Complete Maths
Maths is Fun
The School Hub I prefer to use this site with the sound off!
Times Tables
Times Tables Rockstars: Free 60-day subscription for all schools currently closed due to Covid-19. Pass this information to your child’s teacher as only schools can avail of this offer.
XtraMath:
Actively Learn: Access texts for pupils in grades 3 – 12 based on English, science, social studies as well as news and updates. Content is based on the US curriculum but the news and articles section will be useful for all. The reading passages are accompanied by a teaching guide and extension videos. Free access currently available.
Amoeba Sisters: As well as a YouTube channel sharing science videos, their website offers additional handouts and resources. Please note, some must be purchased.
Ask About Ireland: Learn more about Ireland’s history, geography, nature and culture.
Camp Wonderopolis: has a range of STEM activities for you to try. The associated wonderopolis.org allows children to pose questions (or wonders) and receive answers. Why not make your own list of ‘wonders’ and see if you can find some answers to them?
ChemMatters: Suitable for older students, access chemistry videos and articles here.
Code Combat: Teaches students code as they play online games.
CodinGame: Older students can solve puzzles, compete in coding battles, contribute to multi-player games, and learn coding in various languages including C++, HTML, Java, Python, Ruby, Swift, and more.
Codemoji: Learn the basics of web development and coding, including HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Code Monkey: Children practise coding using programming language to solve a variety of progressively more challenging puzzles. Free 30 day trial.
Code.org: Access computer science tutorials, watch videos about computer science concepts, and take a weekly Code Break while schools are closed. Computer and smartphone options available.
Code Wars: Designed to enable older pupils and college students master a range of coding languages. As pupils progress, they undertake challenges of increasing difficulty.
Crash Course Kids: Science videos on a range of themes uploaded twice weekly to YouTube.
Crunchzilla: Learn to code with Code Monster and Code Maven and understand statistics with Data Maven.
Cultural Jambalaya: Designed to promote global learning, this site provides photos and videos of children around the world.
Curiosity Stream: A paid subscription service providing access to a range of documentaries across a range of categories (Science, History, Technology, Nature, Society, Lifestyle and Kids).
Ducksters: provides history, geography, science, biographies, games and jokes.
Engaging Data: Lots of data visualisations on a range of topics. The maps section is useful for geography.
Finding Stuff Out: Lots of videos based on learning more about science and the world around us.
Flagpedia: Features all the flags of the world and quizzes based thereon.
Geek Gurl Diaries: Science videos and tutorials aimed at promoting science and coding for girls.
Geography Education (Scoop IT): Curated by Seth Dixon, this site provides articles on a range of topics, e.g., agriculture, industrialisation, world politics, economic development, population and migration. Suitable for older pupils.
GEOgraphy Focus: Watch videos about different countries in the world.
Glitch: Build fast, full-stack web apps in your browser for free.
Grasshopper: Teaches children to code using Javascript. Available on iOS, Android, and all web browsers.
Horrible Histories: Based on the best-selling series by Terry Deary, access the Horrible Histories sketch shows here.
iCompute: provides primary computing schemes of work covering the National Curriculum for Computing at UK Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 (pupils aged 3-11). Get free access during Covi-19 here.
Info Please: Lots of information on a range of subjects including the world, history, people, maths and science, fun facts, together with a range of useful tools including an atlas. encyclopedia, dictionary and thesaurus.
Kids Discover: A subscription-based online library of science and social studies materials. Teachers can apply for 3 months access during school closures.
Mapping our World: Mapping Our World allows learners to flatten a globe, turn a map into a globe, and merge different map projections.
Mystery Science: Free science videos and lesson ideas for elementary students.
NASA Kids Club: A large collection of science resources and games. Teaches children about each of NASA’s missions.
National Geographic: Learn about the world through the eyes of explorers, photographers, journalists, and filmmakers. Use the articles as comprehension pieces and each ‘photo of the day’ as a discussion prompt.
National Geographic Kids: Learn about animals and explore the wider world. Features games, videos and brain boosters.
National Park Service: Learn about America’s parks, explore nature and discover history.
Purple Mash: enables teachers to embed technology across all subjects. Free access is being offered to Purple Mash during school closures. See here.
Seterra: Online geography games and printables. Available in 36 languages and works with Mac and Windows, as well as on iOS and Android devices.
Science Channel: Access a range of science-themed videos.
Science Kids: Science experiments, games, facts, quizzes, projects, lessons, images, and videos searchable by topic.
Science Max: Videos of science experiments and chemical reactions on an enormous scale!
Science Sparks: Activities, experiments, and challenges to make science fun for children.
Scishow: An large collection of videos answering questions about the world around us.
Scishow Kids: Science videos for younger children.
Scratch: Learn to code and create stories, games and animations.
Simple History: History videos for children. I recommend watching these in advance to ensure suitability for your child as some of the details and descriptions may are quite graphic. Moreover, the video ‘What Killed more People than WWI in 1918?’ may be very frightening as it discusses the Spanish Flu.
The Institute of Engineering and Technology: Offers free home learning teaching resources and activities for 5-16 years old (Key Stage 1, KS2, KS3 and KS4) including lesson plans, handouts and videos.
The World Factbook: Provides information on the history, people and society, government, economy, energy, geography, communications, transportation, military, and transnational issues for 267 world entities.
ThoughtCo: provides articles on a range of subjects under the following categories: Science/Tech/Math, Humanities, Languages. For example, within Humanities, ThoughtCoGeography features articles, fact sheets, maps and other resources that explore landscapes, peoples, places, and environments both near and far.
True Size of: Enables students to compare the size of countries.
Tynker Coding for Kids: Children can begin coding for free as Tynker has offered open access during the Covid-19 school closures.
UNICEF Stories: Featuring stories from around the world about the work of UNICEF. The plights of many are distressing so checking of content is recommended. Useful for older pupils however.
Vidcode: Courses teach computer science, object oriented programming, web programming, design, & JavaScript. Apply for free access during school closures here.
Virtual Museum Tour: This article contains links to many of the world’s most famous museums. Another article with links can be found on Top 10.
Wild Earth: Why not take a safari trip here?
Woodland Trust: Learn about British trees, plants, and animals.
World Geography Games: Available in several languages, content is divided by continent and is designed to teach some key facts about each one.
World Population Review: learn about population size in various countries and continents.
Wow Science: Games, activities, apps, videos, website and experiments to support science learning.
**See the Art/Craft and Music collection for song videos related to this category.
AHC Arts and Crafts: Find crafts by theme, idea or holiday.
Artbar: Lots of creative art and play ideas for children during this quarantine period.
Art for Kids: Arts and crafts videos available on YouTube. Site features lots of ‘How to draw’ lessons.
Crayola.com: Download free colouring pages and get lots of DIY craft inspiration here.
Craft Whack: Art techniques and ideas, free printables and lots of creative inspiration on this site.
Creative Bug: A potentially useful site for parents and carers as well as children to learn a new skill or practise a hobby during this lock-down period. A free trial is available, enabling you to access a range of creative classes on hobbies such as knitting, crochet, art and design, paper, sewing, quilting, jewellery, kids, food and home, holiday and party.
Darrell Wakelam: An artist specialising in making things out of recyclables. He is uploading project ideas to Twitter (linked) daily.
Deep Space Sparkle: Access free lesson ideas organised by grade, technique and subject.
Digital Concert Hall: Enjoy free music concerts and films.
Disney: Free colouring pages.
DLTK’s Crafts for Kids: printable children’s crafts, colouring pages, worksheets and activities.
Easy, Peasy and Fun: art and craft ideas for children.
I am an artist: Comprising 30 short TV programmes, an interactive website with slideshows, lessons, weblinks and interactive games, this site provides a stimulating collection of curriculum-mapped resources for empowering and supporting the teacher and pupil.
Little Kids Rock: Supported by some of the world’s best known artists, there are free music lessons available on this site.
Kids Learning Tube: This site has lots of songs on various themes, including one on Corona virus! Be warned, ads featuring Kids Learning Tube merchandise are run at the beginning of the videos.
Kinderart.com: Art lessons for children arranged by grade. Includes features on various artists.
Mike Likes Science: A collection of maths and science raps.
Moving Art (Netflix): Experience nature’s art as filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg highlights the beauty that lurks in oceans, forests, deserts and flowers. Accompanied by calming music. (Might also be useful for mindfulness).
Redtedart: Lots of simple arts and crafts ideas for children.
Rob Biddulph: Follow the #DrawwithRob on Twitter where he shares draw-along videos to keep boredom at bay when children are stuck at home.
Science with Tom: Mainly songs about Science (some explanation videos and interviews with scientists are also featured).
Smarthistory: Offers a mix of essays and videos on art history (from prehistoric to contemporary times).
Smart Music: Teachers can request a free subscription until June 30th.
TeachRock: Founded by Stevie Van Zandt, TeachRock is a standards-aligned, arts integration curriculum that uses the history of popular music and culture to help teachers engage students. Access lesson plans and multimedia resources to support teaching and learning across subjects from social studies and language arts to geography, media studies, science, general music, and more.
The Artful Parent: 500+ Kids Arts and Crafts Activities
Will Sliney: Learn to draw with cartoonist Will Sliney and share using #wewilldraw.
123 Homeschool 4 Me: Provides worksheets, activity ideas and lots of preschool content for homeschoolers.
ABC Mouse: Lots of activities for children aged 2 – 8. Free 30-day trial available.
ABCYa: Lots of games, aligned to the US Common Core Standards, to support learning. Many are free, however, a premium paid service also exists. You may find the story games, featuring text that may be read independently or read aloud to pupils, useful.
Adventure Academy: Suitable for students from 8 – 13, they can play games on a variety of topics (language arts, maths, science and social studies), create their own persona and interact with others. Free trial and discounted subscription available.
Arcademics: lots of online games to support learning across a range of subjects.
Babcock LPD: are providing weekly differentiated maths challenges. They have also compiled links to English resources.
BBC Bitesize and BBC Teach: Learning and revision tools for primary, secondary, and post 16 pupils. BBC Teach also features Skillswise (English and Mathematical skills for adults) and has a teacher support area.
Brainpop: Featuring English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Art & Craft, Health and Social & Emotional Learning, Engineering and Technology and ‘New and Trending’ resources, and including resources sorted according to age category, Brainpop has lots to enable you to support your child during these Covid-19 closures, and they allow you to subscribe for free during this period.
Britannica: Online encyclopedia.
Buncee: activities to support learning at home.
Children’s University of Manchester: Activities to support history, art and design, languages, science and more.
Classroom Secrets: Access to online resources and learning packs (UK primary curriculum) here.
Cognito: Online GCSE maths and science videos.
CJ Fallon: This Irish publisher has made their books available online until the end of term.
Crickweb: Free resources for primary children, including 252 interactive resources, 84 games and over 170 additional linked resources.
Curriki: resource library of US-aligned curriculum materials.
Discovery Education: is making their resources available to U.S. schools closed due to Covid-19. Parents may wish to bring this to the attention of their school principal.
DK Findout: Information, videos, quizzes and fun facts on topics galore!
Dumond Education: lots of learning resources now available for free in the shop, including the popular CardEd series to support language, maths and thinking skills. See the blog for more information, teaching tips and ideas.
E-learning For Kids: A plethora of free games, sorted by grade, to boost maths, science, environmental skills, computer skills, health, language arts, and life skills.
Edco: Access Edco’s learning platform, with resources for Irish schools, by clicking the link provided and using the following access codes.
Primary Username: primaryedcobooks
JC Username: jcedcobooks
LC Username: lcedcobooks
Password for all: edco2020
EdHeads: Online educational resource providing science and maths games and activities that promote critical thinking. Available for free until April 6th.
EdHelper: Lots of worksheets across a range of themes available here.
Edmodo: Access free distance learning resources here.
Education Place: Some free text resources for reading, spelling, maths, science and social studies resources. There home activity centre features 10 categories (e.g. nature, celebration, games) with 2 or 3 activity ideas within each one.
EPforLearning: An online learning platform supporting several subjects and providing free access during these Covid-19 closures.
Every School: Free online educational activities and games aimed at UK primary school children.
EYFS Home: Lots of activities and ideas to support learning at home for our youngest children.
Fact Monster: Learn about the world and a variety of people and subjects here. Features a games section and a useful tools section (almanac, atlas, calculator etc.)
Flocabulary: Use this site to build the vocabulary needed to access topics across a range of subjects. 60 day access for teachers is available for free. Parents may find some of the complimentary videos on the site useful.
Free Rice: There are a variety of games in various subject areas available on Freerice. As questions are answered correctly, advertisements appear on your screen, triggering a financial payment to the World Food Programme when these are seen. No inappropriate advertising content should be shown.
Free School: videos on a range of different topics and themes.
Funbrain: Features maths and reading activities, together with games and videos. Please note, there are quite a few pop-up ads for related content.
Gary Hall: Gary has collated a range of resources and websites to support maths, ENglish, computing and other aspects of the UK curriculum. Particularly helpful are the 3,000 or so links to maths resources.
GCSE Pod: Learning and revision resources for GCSE students.
Get Revising: Revision tools and past papers to support GCSE, A-level and IB students.
Great Schools: Provides lots of information on all matters education as well as giving access to free worksheets here.
Hamilton Trust: Free (during school closures) learning plans and resources for maths, English, science and a range of topics.
Homework Elephant: Over 5000 carefully selected resources to assist with your homework problems.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: Free maths and reading resources and a helpful blog to support at home learning at this time.
Hungry Little Minds: Activities for under 5s.
IXL: A database of resources spanning a range of subjects and grade levels. Free at-home learning resources are now available.
Kapow Primary: Lots of primary school subject resources, together with wellbeing resources. 14 day free trial available.
Khan Academy: a wealth of free resources across a range of subject and age ranges.
Learning A-Z: Reading, writing, vocabulary, science and ELL (English language learning) resources. Subscription service but free trials available.
Legends of Learning: Already offers lots of math and science games for elementary and middle school students but now offering access to all materials (upon application) during Covid-19 school closures.
MobyMax: A differentiated learning platform for elementary school students offering maths, language, reading, writing, science and social studies materials. Learn how to apply for access here.
Oak National: At the time of writing, there are almost 10,000 free UK curriculum lessons available for primary and secondary pupils (including a number of therapy-based lessons and resources for occupational, physical, sensory and speech and language needs).
Outschool: provides live online classes for 3-18 year olds and is free to access during the present school closures.
Oxford Owl: find a range of activities to support children with various aspects of English and Maths.
PDST: Resources for primary and post-primary teachers in Ireland.
Pebblego: Online research resources on 5 themes (biographies, animals, science, social studies and dinosaurs) for children from kindergarten to grade 3. Talk to your school about signing up for free remote learning.
Plan Bee: offering free home learning packs and teaching resources during this period of school closures.
Scholastic Learn at Home: Daily lessons, sorted by grade level, freely available during these Covid-19 closures. Access to some fantastic reading material and super suggestions for further “deep dive” activities based thereon is provided. A very good resource if you are a parent/carer feeling unsure where to start when it comes to homeschooling.
Seomra Ranga: Subscription site but there are lots of free resources available tailored to the Irish curriculum.
Show Me: Games, collections, videos, stories, homework help and family days out from museums and galleries.
Softschools: Resources across a range of subject areas. The timelines are particularly useful I feel.
Starfall: Most widely known for reading resources, Starfall now features maths, language arts and music resources as well for children from kindergarten to grade 3. A subscription site but some free resources are available.
Student Guide: provides links to websites across a range of subejects, e.g., Student Guide (Geography) has a BUMPER list of links to useful websites for geography, while Student Guide (Online Mathematics) has links to oodles of sites to support learning in maths.
STEM.org: resources to support maths, science, D&T, and computing. This site has a specific section featuring family activities to do at home. I particularly like the STEM conversation starters.
Teacher Vision: Free access available to a range of resources until March 31st. Search by subject, grade, theme or holiday.
Teachers Pay Teachers: a range of free resources available here.
TES: a range of free resources available here.
The Brain Scoop: A huge collection of videos featuring the work and research of natural history museums.
The SchoolRun.com: free 14-day trial available. Search by subject, school year or topic for resources.
Top Marks: Lots of free games for primary children and an advice section for parents.
Toy Theater: provides interactive educational games for primary students in maths, English, music, art, puzzles and games. The teacher tools section of the site is worth checking out for the brilliant range of resources to support maths teaching in particular.
Turtle Diary: Games, videos, quizzes, printabless and teaching tools for primary students across a range of topics and themes. Many available for free. Subscription service also exists.
Twinkl: this resource site has made available a wealth of home-learning packs for use during school closures.
Udemy: Suitable for older pupils, Udemy offers online courses in Business, Design, Photography, Development, Marketing, IT & Software, Finance & Accounting, Music, Marketing, Teaching and Academics, Personal Development and more. Payment required.
Committee for Children: Learn what SEL is and access resources.
Headspace: Teaches children mindfulness.
Health for Kids: Teaches children about ways to stay healthy, what happens as they grow and facilitates the exploration of character education. The site has a section for children and for adults. The section for adults features articles and stories to help keep children healthy and happy.
Nomster Chef: a site to promote meal prepping, family bonding, healthy eating, and learning and featuring lots of recipes for children.
Soul Pancake: Featuring videos on the themes of art, culture, science, philosophy, spirituality and humour. Many are aimed at teenagers and young adults, but younger children may enjoy the Kids President ones.
Teachthought (SEL): List of links to resources for SEL.
Cúla4.com: Irish resources and programmes for children.
Conjuguemos: Supports the learning of Spanish.
Duolingo: available as an app and a website, this is the world’s most popular additional language learning tool, offering a variety of languages to learn and site languages to select from.
EAL Hub: Provides reading packs, vocabulary packs, comprehensions and video stories to support EAL learners. These resources are also useful for children with additional educational needs.
ISL Collective: Lots of free resources (including PowerPoints, video lessons and printables) available.
Learn English Kids (British Council): lots of games and activities for English language learners.
Lingo Hut: an excellent site for vocabulary development with lots of games and supporting activities available.
One Third Stories: Stories for 4 – 9 year olds that start in English and end in French or Spanish. Subscription Service.
NATRE: RE teaching resources.
REOnline: Comprehensive essays on each of the world’s religions, as well as a resource area.
RE Council of England and Wales: Provides links to websites about different religions and also has a resource section.
Now might be a good time for pupils to learn the skill of typing. Try these websites:
BBC Dance Mat Typing
Kidz Type
Typing Club: Aimed at young children from pre-k to grade 1.
Typing.com
Typing Test: Assess your child before beginning and allow them to track their improvements.
Boromi: Daily play activities. This is an archive of activities shared during the first school closures.
Breakout Edu: A gaming platform, requiring pupils to use the 4 Cs (Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Creativity, and Communication) to solve puzzles. The link takes you to games the company has provided for free during these current school closures.
Cosmic Kids Yoga: Yoga, mindfulness and relaxation videos designed specially for kids aged 3+.
Discovery Education’s Puzzlemaker: Create all sorts of puzzles (wordsearches, mazes, math squares, criss cross, letter times and many more) here.
Frugal Fun for Boys and Girls:Access 100+ Lego building ideas here – many are STEM aligned.
Go Noodle: lots of movement breaks and activity ideas.
Highlights Kids: Enjoy games, activities, jokes and listen to podcasts on this site.
Jumpstart Johnny: Lots of movement challenges, downloads, and mindfulness activities available.
Lego Building Ideas: Get new ideas for using the Lego your family already has. They may also enjoy Lego and Lego Discover videos on YouTube.
Montefiore.org: List of physical activity websites for children.
PBS Kids: Play games here. Please note, video content is restricted to residents of the US.
P.E. at Home: are uploading to Twitter weekly differentiated activity challenges for pupils from EYFS – KS4.
P.E. with Joe: Children are invited to exercise along with Joe on YouTube every Monday to Friday at 9 am (GMT) from March, 23rd.
PH Sports: are uploading weekly P.E. activity plans with suggested modifications such that these can be used with items you might typically have at home. They also post a weekly Facebook challenge.
PJ Masks: Colouring and make and do activities for fans of PJ Masks.
Switchzoo: lots of animal games available here.
That Brick Life: 30 Days of Lego Building Challenges
The PE Hub Portal: pulse-raising activities and challenges and fun games to play!
So there you have it – my EPIC list of educational resources. I have checked them out and found them to be suitable for homeschooling use (with the caveats I mention above). As always, care should be taken with YouTube as ad content and some videos targeting children can be unsuitable.
Please let me know if there are any brilliant sites I have overlooked. Please also let me know if you find any errors in the links I have used. If you are a parent/carer who needs help or advice with any aspects of teaching and learning (primary and early years), do not hesitate to reach out and I will do my best to help.
Image Source: Pixabay
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