Free distance learning ideas for teachers and parents of 3-5 graders.
No one is winning right now. Classrooms are empty. Teachers and parents are scrambling to find ways to keep learning meaningful during this unprecedented time. How can we keep students engaged and busy while they are away from the classroom indefinitely? This week I had a friend reach out to me about her middle-grade student. While searching through my files for resources to pass along, I stumbled upon the document I created at the request of past parents asking for ways to keep their children busy during the summer.
This is a list of free distance learning activities and websites that teachers and parents can use to keep the learning going. Below you’ll find meaningful project-based learning ideas that could be spread out over a week or more. You’ll also find short but practical ideas and websites that can easily be incorporated into your assignments or daily routine. Feel free to adjust the ideas to meet your needs!
Free Distance Learning Ideas for:
Math
Research a Trip! – We might not be able to get out of town this spring, but we can dream! Have your student plan a trip. Set a budget and see how far they can go on it. To add an extra challenge, ask them to plan 2 or 3 stops on the way. Have them calculate the total distance and check hotel and flight prices. To add a language arts component have them pretend to go on the trip and have them write diary/Instagram/or blog entries about what they encountered on the way.
Make a Shopping List For a Future Event- Have your child choose an event – a birthday party, graduation party, after-party for a football game, etc. They need to tell you what the event is and how many people they are inviting. Have them create a shopping list using a weekly ad circular (If you’re like me you get 3 million of these a week for some reason – if you don’t have a physical copy Walmart’s can be found here)
Have them select items for their party from only the items in that circular. Then they should write the items and their prices out and add up the total cost. Bonus if they can figure out how much this party should cost per person. Extra bonus if they decide how much they would have to charge to make money off of this party by charging admission.
Create A Real Estate Portfolio – Give students a budget – I usually begin with 1 million dollars (It just seemed easiest to go with a standard teacher’s salary). Have them look through real estate listings, local or at a dream local) and choose 3 houses to purchase. They can not go over budget. This is a great way to practice subtracting across zeros!
At the end I have my students write checks – another wonderful life skill – and have them answer additional questions like what they’ll use their leftover budget for. If you’re using paper listings let them cut out the picture of their purchase or print out the picture from an online listing. I have this as a paid resource in my TPT store, but you can always do this project with good old fashioned graph paper!
Find Fractions Everywhere! – Have students look around their homes to find fractions. Then have them create sentences for the fractions they find. For example, three out of five windows in our living room have curtains or 3/5ths. There are 24 hours in a day and my baby brother sleeps for 14 hours a day or 14/24th’s.
Make Playdough! – You can always bake to work with fractions and measurement, but I prefer making playdough. It’s quick, for our kids with short attention spans, and can be played with for days to come. My favorite homemade playdough recipe can be found here. I promise that even big kids will LOVE this. Maybe more than the littles because it will be such a novelty. Have students take pictures of their creations and/or use the dough to create 3D shapes. They can do a write up of the project if you’re looking for a writing component.
Practice Facts- The number one thing that slows my students down in math class are math facts. Keep your student’s facts sharp with flashcards and lots of practice!
– For online flashcards and games visit:
Free Resources:
- The Over Under Math Game can be found in my free resource library.
- 4th Grade Digital Review for Google Classroom
- Converting Customary Units of Measurement Worksheet
Math Website List:
Overall Practice:
- Prodigy MathThe BEST website for fun math practice that feels like a game. My students beg to play this game.
- IXL (Leveled practice for all math standards.)
- ABCya (Fun arcade style games aligned to concepts.)
- Study Jams (Videos, lessons, and songs)
Geometry:
- Math Playground (Arcade style games.)
Multiplication:
- Multiplication.com (basic facts)
- Math Aids.com (printable worksheets)
- Multiplication Jeopardy
Long Division:
- Kids Numbers.com (Games and printable worksheets)
- Math Aids.com(Printable worksheets)
- Cool Math 4 Kids. (Refresher lessons – all topics- and games)
Fractions and Decimals
- Math Playground
- ABC YA (converting fractions to decimals game)
Rounding & Place Value
Graphing & Data
- Math 4 Children. (Graphing Game
- Abc Ya (Graphing Game)
Reading & Writing
Create Your Own TED Talk: Have your student watch a TED Talk geared towards a younger audience [see linked lists]. Have them respond to the TED Talk in writing – What did they take away from it? Did it change the way they think? Did it inspire them to make a change? Afterward, have the student brainstorm topics that he or she is passionate about. Have them create their own TED Talk. Either have them write it down or record it.
Best Ted Talks For Kids Playlist
Reading comprehension website: Reading.ecb.org is a great way to stay on top of reading comprehension skills! There are lesson plans available to teachers that will work with whatever students are reading at home. Kids can also play games and do activities that reinforce the concepts of making connections, questioning, visualizing, summarizing, inferring and synthesizing.
Podcast Creation: Podcasts are a fantastic way to help students with storytelling. This guide to creating podcast assignments from The New York Times will walk you through it. At the end, it would be fantastic to share the podcasts to help students feel connected to one another again.
Create a Class Blog: Use Edublog to create a class blog! Have students plan out research topics or creative writing pieces to share on the blog. You can approve everything before it’s shared.
Digital Book Reading – This is something I always recommend to students struggling with fluency and is enjoyed by almost all of my students. Have your student record him/herself reading a book. It can be a video or audio recording and can be a chapter of a chapter book or even a picture book. The only criteria is that they have to read the book as if he or she is the author. This means great inflection, pace, and confidence!
Virtual Book Club – This is more of an idea for parents than teachers. It can be challenging for teachers if your student doesn’t have access to a certain book, but can always work with articles or short stories that you send to all of your students. Split the students into groups. Ask them each a different question, then compile their answers (give them the option of opting out of having their answer posted) and send out the answers. You can also assign a student or group of students to come up with the questions for each week to alleviate some of the work.
If you’re a parent, get a group together and choose a book. Each week a different child will be in charge of the book club. They can email questions to their friends for discussion, or assign a little art project to visualize their reading, ask others to dress like a character of their choice, etc. If you can access Zoom video conferencing you can even hold a full virtual meeting. Another option is creating a parent monitored Facebook group where discussion can be held. Hard to get other kids involved? Do it as a family! You won’t regret it.
Weekly Letters – Hold students accountable for their reading by asking them to write weekly virtual letters about what they’re reading. Have them give you a quick summary of their reading, a question they have, and a prediction. As them to include any connections, visualizations, or inferences that they have as well. This doesn’t have to be a book – it could be a virtual article, an old magazine article etc.
If you’re looking for a *paid resource to keep students accountable, check out my digital or printable reading log alternatives. A full school year’s worth of questions that work for any book.
Listen to Podcasts: There are some amazing podcasts for kids out there. 6 Minutes Podcast is a continuous story told in 6 minute increments. Have students listen. They can doodle their visualizations as they follow along, summarize, and/or make predictions.
Sharpen reading skills and build science and social studies interest with online magazines!
Try out some of these great titles online!
- Science News for Kids www.sciencenewsforkids.org
- Time for Kids www.timeforkids.com
- Sports Illustrated for Kids www.sikids.com
- National Geographic for Kids www.kids.nationalgeographic.com
Reading & Writing Websites
Grammar
- Spelling City`(Spelling & Vocabulary – Lists and games. Easy to customize)
- Funbrain (Parts of Speech)
- English For Everyone (Sentence correcting worksheets)
- ABC Ya (Synonyms and antonyms game)
- ABC Ya(Synonyms, antonyms, homonyms game)
Reading
- Reading ECB is a great way to stay on top of reading comprehension skills! Kids can play games and do activities that reinforce the concepts of making connections, questioning, visualizing, summarizing, inferring and synthesizing.
- Brain Pop (Finding the main idea video, lesson & practice)
- Start With A Book.com(Paired fiction and nonfiction texts organized by topic)
- Study Zone (Answering Questions about reading, retelling, summarizing)
- Scholastic Ready To Go Lesson Plans: Free 30 day trial!
Writing
- Boom Writing (A free website that allows your entire class to collaborate on stories. There are also vocabulary activities that allow you to quickly assess your students)
- Scholastic Graphic Organizers(Opinion writing organizers and practice)
- Story Jumper (Allows you to publish stories and create audiobooks of your work)
- Scholastic Ready To Go Writing Resources
Book Recommendations
- The Magician’s Elephant
- Capture the Flag
- Where the Mountain Meets the Moon *
- The Harry Potter Series *
- The Phantom Tollbooth *
- Wonder *
- Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat
- The Crossover
- As Brave As You
- Smile
- The Percy Jackson Series
- Hatchet
- Holes
- The Who Is series
- Pax
- The 39 Clues Series
* Indicates these books would be great as a family read aloud!
Science and Social Studies
Experiments: Science Bob is one of the many websites with at home science experiments. Pinterest is also a great place to find easy experiments to keep the learning going! Teachers – challenge your students to find one experiment that they can do at home. Have them write up the experiment in their own words. They should include a recap of what happened and how they could change or continue the experiment.
Virtual Field Trips! Assign a virtual field trip! Visit Adventures in Familyhood for a list of great virtual field trips and questions you can assign to go with them. This would make for a great longterm project that could take a few weeks to complete all the components.
There is so much you can do with a virtual field trip as a jumping-off point. For example: Visit a museum. Have them find 5 – 10 preselected works of art. As questions about these pieces of art.
Brainchild Videos: Access science free videos and lesson plans for grades 3-5 STEAM lesson plans ranging from space, to social media, and even super heroes!
Magic School Bus Lesson Plans: Scholastic has created engaging lesson plans based on the Magic School Bus crew. Many are easy to implement at home!
Gears and Gizmos! This one is for parents. Have an old electronic at home that is gathering dust? Let your child take it apart and see what goes into making it tick. Challenge your child to take apart and put back together and old clock – with supervision of course!
Tinker Crates – Another great option for parents who are able. I’ve used Tinker Crates in the classroom and the Kola Crates with my Toddler – they were both a huge hit! The kids loved exploring these pre-made science kits. You can buy them individually or as a monthly delivery. http://tinker.kiwicrate.com/
Science & Social Studies Websites
- Brainchild
- Mystery Science: Open and Go Lessons!
- BrainPop
- Science Bob
- Discovery Education Virtual Field Trips
To Connect with Your Students!
- Flip Grid – Grids are the meeting place for your classroom, your school, your department or any learning community to discuss your Topics. Start with an icebreaker, add weekly reflections, share book talks, explore STEM principles, give mini-presentations, and more!
- ZOOM – Meet as a class or in small groups! This is a great way to do live read out loud.
Recess – Just for Fun!
- http://GoNoodle.com : Free movement and mindfulness videos! You can find videos that get kids up and moving or help them focus, reflect, and calm.
If you’re looking for paid resources visit the distance learning portion of my TPT store here.
Do you have ideas for free distance learning ideas or easy to use and assign assignments? Drop them in the comments below. Let’s work together to get through this.
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