Digital Learning

With the spread of COVID-19 happening across the world, many schools are closing and transitioning to a digital learning environment. This is already a very stressful time for everyone, so I thought it would be helpful to pull together a lot of FREE RESOURCES that can be used to teach remotely! This is a working “blog post” so I will be adding more content to it as I find more free resources!

Some of these resources I created myself and others were shared from generous educators across the globe. Aside from just resources I am also including some of my favorite platforms to use for digital learning, as many companies are giving subscriptions to families for free. I will also be sharing lots of information through my Instagram account @thelimitlessclassroom and sharing tutorials for distant learning over the coming weeks. Remember, we are all in this together! Let’s do our best to share resources with each other and support each other through this challenging time! Before I hop into all of that I did just want to share a few reminders to take into consideration before implementing digital learning. ..

Here are two digital writing journals that can be sent to students using Google Classroom for students to complete digitally. These writing pages can also be printed and sent home as packets. Files included are for both upper elementary and lower elementary levels. The upper elementary file has students answering various prompts over the next three weeks. Most of the prompts are more casual questions for students to write about, with an already stressful environment happening around them I wanted students to just be able to casually write. The lower elementary level has just words to inspire students writing (such as family, hobby, place etc.) and then students can use those word categories to guide their writing. There are also completely editable slides where you can change any of the prompts or add as many prompts as you’d like. The great thing about sending these writing prompts out digitally through Google Classroom is all students will get their own copy of the files to type on! When you subscribe to my blog you will gain access to my free resource library where you can download this digital writing journal and all of my other freebies!

Naomi O’Brien and LaNesha Tabb put together an incredible resource to help explain COVID-19 to students. While all of us teachers are scrambling to create resources for students to learn remotely, it’s so important we are helping students understand WHY this is happening with FACTS! Click here to down their What is a Pandemic? And how can you stay safe? Thank you both so much for sharing this wonderful resource with us!

This next resource I LOVE because creating some sort of a routine for kids to follow is a wonderful way to help keep some consistency for them on a day to day basis. Hannah Pace from Miss West Best created wonderful Home Learning Templates to help parents and teachers keep their days organized! There are also several other helpful files to assist you with at home learning so definitely check it out! Thank you so much for sharing Hannah!

This resource is so great! Peyton Curley over at The Social Emotional Teacher created 2 weeks of social emotional learning lessons to use at home! During the Coronavirus / Covid-19 school closures our students/children need this more than ever! Each day includes: YouTube video (embedded in the Google Slides), Questions/prompts for students to think about, an activity that aligns with the video, and best of all it’s fully editable! This wonderful resource is a PDF with 2 pages. The 1st page includes the link to the K-2 resources. The 2nd page includes the link to the 3-5 resource! Peyton you are beyond sweet for creating and sharing this with us THANK YOU!

Nearpod is FREE for teachers and houses thousands of virtual lessons for students to complete. One thing I love about using Nearpod is you can set the lessons for LIVE or SELF-PACED for students to complete. Their platform also integrates collaborative activities, polls, videos, interactive activities etc. making lessons extremely engaging for students. To create your FREE SILVER NEARPOD ACCOUNT CLICK HERE.

Vooks is a streaming library that I have used for the last year and LOVE! They have a FREE subcription for teachers to use so this is an amazing way to get books in the hands of students who have devices at home to access the platform. My favorite part about using Vooks is the stories are interactive and animated! Students love seeing the illustrations come off the pages and start moving! I wrote a whole blog post about using Vooks HERE, and you can sign up for your FREE VOOKS ACCOUNT HERE.

Brooke Brown (The Queen of all things STEM) has created this amazing resource for FREE and includes 3 Weeks of Make Space Stations. You can grab this resource for free using her link bit.ly/freemakerstations THANK YOU BROOKE!!!

Alisha from @missingtoothgrins and Katie from @simplycreativeteaching spent sooooo much time pulling together some quick resources for everyone for free! They are aimed for 1st and 2nd grade students. This outstanding resource contains 40 pages of no prep printables for reading, writing, math, and phonics together! Thank you Alisha and Katie so much!

Libby over at The Primary Partner was so gracious to create and share this amazing freebie for teachers, parents, and students to use during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are amazing resources included with a focus on 1st and 2nd grade in both ELA and Math!

A WHOLE BUNCH of wonderful educators put together this compilation of upper elementary resources that are incredible! Thank you so much to every single educator on this list who created a freebie to share with teachers, parents, and students during this difficult time! Use the link https://bit.ly/UEFreebies2020 to access their amazing resources!

If you are a 2nd or 3rd grader teacher (or have students that age). this resource is perfect for you! Kayla Bernardez from over @theaverageteacher created tons of activities that can easily be done at home! Click the link HERE to access all of her 2nd & 3rd grade at-home activities for FREE. Thank you so much Kayla!

This resource was created by a group of educators who put together some wonderful free resources to use throughout the school closures! Diana from Elementary at Heart wrote a whole blog post where the resources are separated by grade level (so convenient to find exactly what you’re looking). Seeing so many educators come together to help others during this difficult time is beyond heartwarming! Click HERE to check out her blog post Free at Home Activities.

Stephanie Schultz from Kinder Shenanigans put together incredible Home Learning Tic Tac Toe Challenges to keep students engaged in home learning for 3 weeks! Best part is, these are printer free plans! Thank you so much Stephanie these are fantastic! To grab her Home Learning Tic Tac Toe Challenges click HERE! Another amazing thing I want to share with you is Stephanie will be will be doing virtual read alouds every morning at 10 AM EST over on her Instagram @kindershenanigans ! She will be reading a book, will have a no-prep activity based on the book, as well as a fun math challenge! She will also be saving the videos to her Instagram highlights so if can watch them whenever it is convenient for you!

Ashley Marquez from over at Teach Create Motivate wrote a whole blog post about some amazing digital learning ideas and included some awesome freebies at the end! If you are looking to send out some word work or reading & writing menus definitely check out her blog post HERE. Ashley you are so sweet for sharing these freebies thank you!

Kayla Topper over at Move Mountains in Kindergarten created these amazing FREE choice boards for parents to help generate ideas on how to integrate writing, math, and reading into your day! She has created choice boards for 2 full weeks which is amazing! Thank you so much for creating and sharing this Kayla! Click here to grab these free choice boards.

Amy McDonald over at The Kinder Life has put together 6 weeks worth of plans for at home learning for kindergartners! Her plans are easy to fall, utilize objects that students most likely will already have access to in their homes, and are lots of fun! Thank you so much Amy you’re amazing!

Ashley Reed has generously put together a packet of 3 weeks worth of PRE-K lessons and home activities for parents! She has given you permission to copy and send this packet home, or you may even email it to parents.  The packet also includes a list of online learning resources including websites, apps, youtube videos, and more! Best of all, she has included a list of 101 fine motor activities children can do at home.  Each of the materials in this packet is designed to give four and five year old preschoolers some fun activities to do at home during a long break. Ashley you are amazing THANK YOU!!!

Amanda Newsome has created an amazing Speech Parent Handout so you can provide parents with easy, practical ways to practice speech and language skills “on the go!” Car rides to the grocery store or the morning commute to school provide many opportunities for parents and students to practice language and articulation skills in a fun and easy way. Click here to download this FREE Speech Parent Handout by Amanda! Amanda is one of my favorite teachers, her resources are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing Amanda!

Emily over at Second Story Window has put together amazing ELA & Math resources for kindergarten through 3rd grade! She wrote an entire blog post about her resources and you can access them HERE!

Megan Siclare over @sparkles_and_pompoms uses digital slides to start off her morning. It is an amazing way to give students a look at what is to come for the day, almost like a mini little agenda with a cute quote of the day! She has created some templates to share with ya’ll for free that could easily be sent out using Google Classroom. This would be a great way to link the resources students should use for the day if they are able! Thank you so much Megan for sharing!

Jamie Sears from over at the Not So Wimpy Teacher created 3 weeks worth of At Home Learning Menus that make it nice and simply to pick some fun learning activities to do throughout the day! The menus are best suited for students in grades 2nd-5th and include fun activities for kids to do around their houses! The activities naturally include reading, writing and math skills, and there is even a little science and geography mixed in! Thank you so much Jamie for sharing these amazing free resources!

Flipgrid is a simple yet engaging and empowering way to use your voice both inside and outside of your classroom by recording and sharing short, awesome videos. This is a perfect tool to utilize when engaging in distance learning. Here are 3 of my favorite ways to use flipgrid with students! To sign up for a FREE FLIPGRID ACCOUNT CLICK HERE.

Another amazing digital library is EPIC! Educators can subscribe to Epic’s Digital Library for FREE and assign books to students to read at home on their devices. The digital library is very user friendly so it’s easy to find the perfect books for your students! The books included are best suited for students ages 12 and under.

Since a number of schools around the world have temporarily closed (or will close) because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic, Book Creator wants to help teachers who will rely on remote technology to continue learning. Book Creator will be supporting teachers in two ways. Firstly, they are going to offer everyone the ability to collaborate together on books in real-time. This is a premium feature that is usually only available with a paid subscription, but they are offering 90 days free use of this tool, to help keep students and teachers connected. Secondly, they have pulled together a list of ideas for using Book Creator for remote learning – ideas that you can put in place today to help keep kids engaged while unable to attend school. To create you FREE BOOK CREATOR ACCOUNT CLICK HERE.

Again, this is going to be a “work in progress blog post” meaning I will be adding more content to it as resources become available. There are so many things going on in the world and everyone is just trying to do there best! I came across this COVID-19 Daily Schedule and wanted to share as routines and structure are so important for our little learners. For more information on how you can support students through the COVID-19 school closures click HERE.

I hope this will be a space where you can find some free and easy to implement resources if you are planning to work with your child at home or for teachers to send home with their students. Stay healthy and safe and know I am thinking of all of you! XO

-Theresa of The Limitless Classroom