Educational Activities for Home

NMOST listings of activities:

Articles:

American Library Association: Fighting 'COVID Slide': STEM Activities for Kids to Do at Home

American Institutes for Research (AIR): Building Positive Conditions for Learning at Home: Strategies and Resources for Families and Caregivers

Good Housekeeping: How to Homeschool During the Novel Coronavirus Outbreak (Parents who already teach at home offer tips on how to make the transition work.)

Time Magazine: The Secret to Keeping Your Kids Happy, Busy and Learning if Their School Closes Due to Coronavirus

Free Curricula and Classes:

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)

Afterschool Alliance - Bringing STEM learning home during Social Distancing

Air Force Research Labs (AFRL) - The website, NMSTEMNow.org, will keep an updated list of science, technology, engineering and math related activities, virtual and in-person camps and other resources provided by various New Mexico organizations during the summer months.

Asombro Institute: Science at Home - Explore the links for videos and activities that you can do at home. “Asombro” is the Spanish word for “wonder,” which is exactly what the Asombro Institute’s programs bring to the thousands of children and adults who participate each year. Asombro is located near Las Cruces.

CodeWizards is offering Free classes!

Cultivating Coders is offering Free online coding workshops for anyone interested (ages 9 - 99)

Girls Who Code has launched Girls Who Code at Home with free, downloadable activities. They are also offering access to their free Girls Who Code Clubs curriculum. Click here to apply. You do not need to enroll students or launch a Club. This will simply grant access the full curriculum and to prepare in advance if you decide to move forward once clubs are back in session. In the application, please indicate that you want to launch both 3-5th and 6-12th grade Clubs to gain access to both curricula.

Explora is posting information and activities daily through their website and social media outlets:

Facebook: Explora Science Center - https://www.facebook.com/ExploraScienceCenter/
Pinterest: exploranm - https://www.pinterest.com/exploranm/
Instagram: explora_nm - https://www.instagram.com/explora_nm
Twitter: Explora_NM - https://twitter.com/Explora_NM
Printable STEM Activity Cards
Try This at-Home Activities (scroll down)

Math Card Games

Math Snacks is loaded with games that help teach math and math concepts.

Mystery Science - School Closure Planning

Nature Conservancy's Nature Works Everywhere Resources, Lesson Plans & Videos

Nature Matters Academy - NM local. Sign up for the newsletter for free activities.

New Mexico Game and Fish: New Mexco Game and Fish has been posting activities for children and youth that follow an online curriculum. Go here for more information.

New Mexico State University STEM Outreach Center - resources for families.

Northern New Mexico Steam Hub

PBS: 161 science documentaries for at-home learning here.

Science Buddies: 12 lesson plans which require simple materials that you may already have on hand. They also have 12 Engineering Design Challenges you can do at home.

ST Math - Product is available for free until Dec 31st

STEM Career Coalition: On this site you can explore different profiles of people who are using the skills they learned in school to become the kind of problem solvers that make a difference. Portal HERE

STEM Enrichment Activities Suitable for Inclusion with Grab and Go Meals (English & Spanish):

Gravity Drop Activity
Sensory Trail Activity
Migration Adaptation Activity
Make a Cloud Activity
Daily Nature Activities
Bird Basics - Feathers (English only)
Nature Story Activity
Surface Tension Activity (English only)
Math Activities
Backyard Pollinator Activity (English only)
Lava Lamp Activity
Don't Trash our Rio Activity
Soil Composition Activity (English only)
Mud Play Activity (Bonus, pre-school focus)
Speed of Light Activity (involves chocolate!)
Plant Bingo Activity (English only)
Hawks v. Falcons Activity (English only)
Leaky Faucet Activity
Rather than continue to recreate this list, here's the NM MESA STEM resources page which includes all the grab & go activities... and more.

Health and Wellness

Alliance for a Healthier Generation: Listing of Covid-19 resources for parents & caregivers here. Fitness videos, talking to kids about Coronavirus, healthy at home toolkit, etc.

Lifeology: Easy to understand, science-backed courses accessible by anyone from anywhere! Lifeology courses engage lay audiences in health-related science and research via fun, accessible and visual content. Course List

NDI New Mexico is posting dance videos to their NDI YouTube Channel to help keep children and famlies active at home.

Social and Emotional Learning at Home

CDC Healthy Schools has information, resources, and tools on social and emotional climate in schools, including resources to support nutrition education, physical education, and out-of-school time. Below are a few resources listed on their website to help assist families with extending social and emotional learning at home during this time.

Wellbeing at School and at Home in New Mexico (WASH NM): The faculty and students of the Department of Individual, Family and Community Education in the College of Education and Human Sciences at the University of New Mexico would like to offer to all New Mexicans thoughts, ideas, and resources from ourselves and our areas of study and work -- counseling, educational psychology, family & child studies, and nutrition -- to enlighten, soften, and aid the COVID-19-related transitions. We intend to make this offering monthly, each with a theme relevant to our times. Read More

The YMCA is offering on-demand video exercise classes for all ages.

Literacy

Albuquerque Public Library Digital Resources

Eastern New Mexico University's "ENMU Reads" Program - ENMU Reads website with additional information on summer reading, including age appropriate reading lists and links to their partners at the state's libraries. Also, check out their Facebook page for free lectures, concerts, virtual story times and virtual tours of museums and TV studios.

Free e-Book sources:

Scholastics Learn at Home website

Spanish Children's Stories: For well known children's stories translated into Spanish and spoken by a native Spanish speaker, go here

General

4-H at Home: Check out fun, educational activities for kids and teens while they're home from school. HERE

Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Authority: With local kids on lockdown and quite possibly looking for things to do, the Water Authority reminds parents and teachers that the Water Authority's website includes a section dedicated to providing educational resources for students of all ages.

Gifted and Talented Enrichment Support Materials: Kentucky Association for Gifted Education - Material for grades K-12

Lakeshore Learning (Printable worksheets)

PBS is a great source of educational materials and activities, including PBS Kids: lots of great videos and educational games for children. You can also sign up for their daily newsletter to keep on top of available options.

PBS Learning Media including interactive lessons. Check here for further information about these interactive lessons.

Smithsonian Learning Lab: Distance learning resources from the Smithsonian. Resources. Training. Support.

Twirl: Masks are our reality right now. Twirl Taos and partners have taken that reality and to explore deeper into the rich creativity, history, culture and emotional significance of mask-making and wearing. By taking a more expansive view of “the mask”, they hope to add depth and positivity to a topic that is pervasive and at times divisive in our lives today. This project provides a playful, creative, fun exploration of masks, past and present. It offers tools for checking in on our feelings and an outlet for expressing them. It culminates in a community creativity project to connect, uplift and inspire us all in these isolating times! Twirl has created five pathways of learning and creative mask-making for children, parents and teachers.

Public Schools:

APS At-Home Resources: For a list of other sites and resources, go here.

APS Chromebook checkouts - APS is checking out Chromebooks to families who don't have a computer at home, starting with high school students.

APS YouTube Channel - educational programs will be posted on the APS YouTube Channel starting April 6th.

Capitan Municipal Schools: The Internet is bursting with more information than we can possibly comb through in a lifetime. To help you sort through the mountains of information out there in cyber-space,The Capitan Municipal Schools have provided links to some of their favorite websites. They have found these to have educational value and to be safe, secure, and reliable for children to use. Resources for Parents, Students and Teachers

Other:

Education sites offering free subscriptions: A number of education sites are offering free subscriptions during this time.

This article has a fairly comprehensive list.
Compilation of sites with free educational offerings. Public Facebook group version.
National Wildlife Federation: Free digital subscription!

Free streaming and other on-line options:

NM Thrives and the Center for Non-profit Excellence is compiling a list of resources here.

Partnership for Community Action - resource listing, including activities for home, with some each in English & Spanish

Santa Fe Children's Museum: The museum has Museum from Home programs, as well as virtual field trips so you can visit from your living room.

The Walking Classroom: Acces 26 FREE educational podcasts for learning at home.

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About NMOST Network

The New Mexico Out-of-School Time Network (NMOST) brings together policymakers, educators, childcare providers, youth development workers, and other stakeholders interested in ensuring positive youth development opportunities and outcomes through out-of-school time programs.

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