With schools closed for distance learning or only partially open, Evan-Moor Educational Publishers has solutions to provide children with quality practice and review of grade-level skills, as well as sanity-saving ideas for parents!
School closures can be a challenge for parents and students alike. Keep reading below for fun ideas to keep kids engaged at home, free downloadable activities, and suggested resources for learning at home.
Hands-on Math Activities for Learning at Home
Free Download: Hands-on activities help to keep children engaged and learning at home. These Home–School Connection Activity Pages are from Evan-Moor’s Daily Math Practice series. Each grade level includes five activities that students can do at home with their parents to apply math skills.
*Teachers and parents: these pages are not for re-sell but may be shared with a single classroom (printed or shared via a school’s secure network).
Art Projects Using Items from Around the House
Art projects using items you actually have around the house: includes simple paper crafts and a template for making paper tube zoo animals out of toilet paper rolls or paper towel rolls.
Pop Art Posters – How to Teach Pop Art: includes a free download with steps for making pop art from Evan-Moor’s How to Teach Art to Children book.
Reading, Book Report Projects, and Vocabulary Journals
Reading during a school closure is ideal for keeping students in the learning mindset. Students can stay engaged in their reading by keeping a vocabulary journal and completing creative book reports at home.
- Ask students to keep a Vocabulary Journal. This can be on lined paper stapled together, in a notebook, or in a composition book. Provide guidelines for students, such as:
- Introduce a word: Write it.
- Define the word: Give the definition.
- Discuss the word: Is it an adjective, verb, or noun?
- Apply it: Use the word in a sentence or draw a picture.
- Provide students a Book Report Project(s) based on a novel or story of their choice. Here are a few ideas for creative book reports:
Book Report Project Ideas: includes downloadable book report forms for a character trading card project, a book mobile, and a pop-up book.
How to Make Books with Kids: includes a free download for The BFG book report.
Greek Myths and Percy Jackson Lessons and Activities: includes ideas for making a cereal box book report on Percy Jackson.
Recommended Daily Practice Activities That Connect School and Home
Evan-Moor’s Daily Practice series provide short, daily learning activities that are already formatted to use Monday through Friday. Each Daily Practice resource reviews skills that children are expected to know for each grade level.
For review, students can begin with Week 1, or a teacher can direct students which weeks to complete. (Daily Practice resources are paced for 36 weeks.) Each week will progress in difficulty, mixing in the appropriate grade-level skills and concepts.
Here are suggested resources for each grade level. Purchasing the e-book version gives a teacher a license for single classroom use, meaning teachers can print pages for a packet or share the pages on a secure network with students.
Grade 1
Daily Phonics
Daily Math Practice
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Grade 2
Daily Phonics
Daily Math Practice
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Grade 3
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Math Practice
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Grade 4
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Math Practice
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Grade 5
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Math Practice
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Grade 6
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Math Practice
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Grade 7
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Grade 8
Daily 6-Trait Writing
Daily Language Review
Daily Reading Comprehension
Other recommendations:
Daily Science e-book – provides inquiry-based daily activities that get students thinking about the world around them. Each daily activity is tied a “big idea” question and science standard.
Another resource for learning at home
TeacherFileBox.com is Evan-Moor’s online library, with lessons and activities from over 600 Evan-Moor books. Teachers or parents can subscribe for a low monthly rate, which includes a 30-day free trial. It’s a treasure of learning activities that includes hands-on activities, skill practice, science experiments, art projects, and much more!
Additional Ideas to Help Parents and Children Cope
Going Stir Crazy? 5 Fun Ideas to do with Your Kids at Home
Let’s face it: we all need some inspiration to avoid going stir crazy with children at home over an extended period. Share this article for simple and fun activities to do at home – perfect for unexpected school closures, spring breaks, and summertime, too.
5 Social and Emotional Strategies to Help Your Child Cope with Stress
Are your students or children stressed by recent events? Read this article for tips.
Please leave a comment if you have other ideas to share with our readers, or follow Evan-Moor on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest for more ideas and free resources.
Theresa Wooler has more than 10 years’ experience in K–6 classrooms as a parent volunteer and homeschool educator, has taught high school English, and is currently involved in education through Evan-Moor’s marketing communications team.