Online and E-Resources for Families, Students, and Schools

• Empowering Educators: First Book and Pizza Hut have partnered to develop and offer a new series of free resources designed to help educators and their students explore and have meaningful conversations about race and social justice. The resources include a downloadable guidebook and series of short videos on race and racism.
  Empowering Educators/

• Free homeschooling and other online resources for students and families from ThoughtCo.com: High-quality homeschooling resources are available online at no cost

• Tips for Making Video Content and Doing Storytimes Online: Jester Jim’s 8 tips. For teachers, librarians, and small business on how to make videos during coronavirus
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAXYEDUM9Co

• PBS LearningMedia: As teachers, students, and families deal with school closures, PBS LearningMedia has compiled a special collection of resources organized by grade and subject area. Find videos, lesson plans, and activities that support learning at home.
  https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/collection/emergency-closings-collection/

• Authors Everywhere!: A YouTube channel created and run by children’s books writers and illustrators. Users will find workshops, readings, activities, art projects, writing games, and writing advice that will offer fun and creative distractions during potential school closures and quarantines. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCowhHSUaWp3KJDcuI0nR0vw?view_as=subscriber

• Free resources from American Museum of Natural History: The American Museum of Natural History is sharing a bunch of online content for teachers and families to use during virus days. That includes the “OLogy” science website with lessons on subjects from anthropology to zoology; online science curriculum collections; virtual visits to the museum through its YouTube channel; and massive open, online museum courses delivered through Coursera. https://www.amnh.org/explore

• Jarrett J. Krosoczka—author & illustrator: New York Times-bestselling author and illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka offers an expansive list of tutorials, activities, webcasts, etc. on his YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/user/studiojjk/videos

• Storyline Online: An award-winning children’s literacy website that features videos of celebrated actors reading from children’s books, including Viola Davis, Chris Pine, Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Betty White, and more. Each curriculum was designed by a certified elementary educator that focuses on strengthening reading comprehension, and verbal and writing skills. https://www.storylineonline.net/library/

• ABCya: ABCya is an interactive website with over 400 fun and educational games for grades PreK to 6. Users can play games covering a wide range of topics, such as multiplication, typing, speech and pattern recognition. https://www.abcya.com/

• Storynory: This website features a vast collection of audio stories where children can read along to the text. The website’s library includes original stories, fairy tales, and classics. https://www.storynory.com/

• Starfall: Starfall is a publicly supported non-profit organization that creates free and low-cost online activities and resources for grades PreK to 3. The website was specifically designed to teach children to read but has since expanded to include mathematics and language arts. https://www.starfall.com/h/

As a reminder, the online and e-resources listed on this page of the Summer Reading at New York Libraries site are provided as options and examples only, in an attempt to provide helpful information. The New York State Library does not recommend or endorse any specific program or product. Decisions about the use of a particular product or resource should occur at the local level.