Helpful At Home Resources
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PBS.org shares information to help you talk to your kids about Coronavirus. The article includes links to videos of different characters like Daniel Tiger, Curious George, and Elmo showing how to practice healthy habits, like washing your hands and catching your coughs.
HealthyChildren.org gives more information about COVID-19 and outlines the best ways to talk to children about the virus.
The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) released a handout to share the best ways to inform children about COVID-19. This page also includes links to additional resources for dealing with broaching the subject of COVID-19 with children.
KiwiCo created a video to explain why social distancing is so important during this time.
Jasper & Tabatha Play a Trick on the Coronas is a children's book written by a doctor that gives a simple explanition of the virus and describes how children can help fight it.
Coronavirus: A Book for Children by Elizabeth Jenner, Kate Wilson, and Nia Roberts - With great illustrations by Alex Scheffler, this book simply explains how the virus spreads and how children can deal with the unknow.
Sesame Street Caring for Each Other is here to support you during the COVID-19 health crisis, as families everywhere are creating a "for now normal. Their resources aren’t prescriptions you have to follow—just ideas to help your family find ways to breathe, laugh, and play together.
Nick Helps from Nickelodeon helps families stay active, healthy and entertained while staying at home.
The Wiggles: Social Distancing is a catchy song to help explain the concept of social distancing to children.
Comics for Good aims to public weekly comics with fctual information about COVID 19.
A Note to Parents and Caregivers, an eBook from the American Psychological Association. Kids have a lot of questions about the coronavirus pandemic and all the new changes in their lives. This colorful picture book gives them the answers they've been looking for, explaining what the virus is, how it spreads, and what they can do to help, in gentle and simple language that even the youngest kids can follow. "A Note to Parents and Caregivers" offers strategies for helping your kids navigate anxiety they might be feeling around the pandemic.
Our YouTube account features storytimes from your favorites! Read and sing along with Miss Ellen, Miss Debbie, Miss Debbie, and Miss Anne!
PBS Kids- PBS kids offers read-alongs with several celebrities and is updated at least once a week.
Dav Pilkey- Dav Pilkey at home- Get creative and have fun with some of your favorite characters from Dog Man and Captain Underpants! Check back every Friday at 8:00 am to discover new activities, exciting videos, and so much more!
Dolly Parton- #ReadAlong with Dolly and YouTube Kids
Greg Pizzoli- reads during his "Standby Book Club" weekdays at 11 pm.
James Dean- reads various Pete the Cat stories weekdays at 12 pm.
Tara Lazar- live readings weekdays at 12 pm.
Peter Reynolds- live readings weekdays at 12 pm.
Mo Willems- Lunch Time Doodle's with the Kennedy Center's Artist-in-Residence, weekdays at 1 pm.
Dan Gutman- "My Weird Read-a-Loud" weekdays at 2 pm.
Jarrett Krosoczka- watch all of the "Draw with Jarrett" videos on YouTube.
Ben Clanton- draw along with Miximal Mondays, Mondays at 9:30 am, and see previously recorded storytimes on Ben's Facebook page.
Mac Barnett- offers read-alouds and drawalongs on Instagram stories.
Miss Jolie- kids music, movement and mindfulness.
Songs for Seeds- singalongs and musical playalongs
Little Brown Library- offers draw alongs and read a longs with popular children's book author/illustrators Ame Dyckman and Patrick McDonnell.
Storyline Online- home to many videos of celebrities reading favorite children's books
Stimola Live is a website of live stream events for kids, tweens, and teens by professional authors and illustrators Stimola Literary Studio.
Story Time From Space offers videos of astronauts up in space reading stories to kids down here on Earth!
Kidlit TV - Explore the world of children's literature with author interview, video read-a-longs and much more.
International Children's Digital Library - Free online children's books from around the world in many languages for ages 3 to 13.
Many zoos and aquariums offer live feeds of their animals! Check out:
- San Diego Zoo
- Monterey Bay Aquarium
- Atlanta Zoo
- Houston Zoo
- Georgia Aquarium
- Alaska Department of Fish and Game
Tour three floors of the Boston Children's Museum!
The Brookfield Zoo in Chicago hosts a Facebook Live event, Bring the Zoo to You, every weekday at 11! The feature a different animal every day and offer a live Q&A at the end of the video.
Take a virtual tour of the Great Wall of China! This field trip offers great 360 views as you 'walk' along the wall.
Boeing and Discovery Education offer a virtual field trip to the Johnson Space Center! In this field trip, kids will learn some history of space travel, then hear from Boeing employees working to create a new spacecraft.
The Louvre museum in Paris, France offers virtual access to many art exhibits.
Explore the real surface of Mars! Ride along with the Curiosity Rover and get 360 degree views of Mars.
NJ's own Cape May County Zoo is bring the zoo to you weekdays at 11:30 am with Virtual Zoo School. A different animal will be featured every day and a different challenge will be issued to at home viewers!
The National Park Service offers virtual tours of different attractions in Yellowstone National Park (spread throughout Idaho, Wyoming and Montana), including Mammoth Hot Springs, Mud Volcano, the Upper Geyser Basin, and more!
Get an inside look at the NASA Glenn Research Center! You can tour different labratories, wind tunnels, and rocket hangars.
Digital Giza gives you access to the largest collection of information, media, and research materials ever assembled about the Pyramids and related sites on Egypt’s Giza Plateau.
Cornell Lab of Ornithology's website offers in depth information on different birds. There are project ideas to encourage bird watching and observation.
- iBird- For bird watchers in training! This app helps you identify bird by pictures, songs/calls, text descriptions, or illustration! You can keep track of all of your sights in a bird watching journal!
- Picture Insect: Bug Identifier- Identifying insects has got easier with Picture Insect App. Simply take or upload a picture of the insect, and get accurate and instantaneous results with our revolutionary artificial intelligence technology.
- Nature Guides- The National Wildlife Federation has many different field guide apps that focus on different subjects: birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects/spiders, butterflies, mushrooms, and trees. Download your favorite and get started!
- WWF Together- Swipe through photographs and get bite-size stats on big creatures like elephants and other endangered animals (giant pandas, tigers, sea turtles). You can also learn about conservation efforts and get news about wildlife.
- Picture This- Simply take or upload a photo of any plant, and get instantaneous and accurate plant ID results!
- The Cat in the Hat Builds That- Based on the PBS KIDS series, “The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That,” this app introduces pre-k kids to science inquiry and engineering (STEM) concepts through games tailored to their learning progress.
- Fish School- A playful underwater experience filled with 8 educational activities, this award-winning app teaches children letters, numbers, shapes and colors with colorful fish and friendly sea life characters. Ages 2-5.
- Khan Academy Kids- Inspire a lifetime of learning and discovery with our free, fun educational program for children ages two to seven.
- Play and Learn Science- The Play and Learn Science app contains a suite of educational kids games from PBS KIDS designed to encourage early science learning!
- PBS KIDS Games- The PBS KIDS Games app has over 100 free learning games with your favorite PBS KIDS characters. Kids can play anytime, anywhere!
- PBS KIDS ScratchJr- With PBS KIDS ScratchJr, kids can create their own interactive stories and games featuring their favorite PBS KIDS characters. The storytelling possibilities are endless with this creative coding app for children ages 5-8.
- ScratchJr- Coding is the new literacy! With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) can program their own interactive stories and games. In the process, they learn to solve problems, design projects, and express themselves creatively on the computer.
- Seek by iNaturalists- Get outside and explore the nature around you! Use this free app to identify plants and animals in your neighborhood (while social distancing)!
- States of Matter by Tinybop- Experiment with solids, liquids, and gasses from the safety of your own tablet!
- National Ocean Service- The NOAA Ocean Podcast. Connect with ocean experts and explore topics from corals to coastal science with our audio podcast.
- But Why- But Why is a show led by you, kids! You ask the questions and we find the answers. It’s a big interesting world out there. On But Why, we tackle topics large and small, about nature, words, even the end of the world.
- Ear Snacks- A musical podcast for kids about the world.
- Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls- Based on the bestselling series, each episode delves further into the lives of women from the books, encouraging young listeners to ask questions and explore their interests.
- Kids Ask Authors- Kids Ask Authors is a weekly 5-10 minute podcast where children’s book author/illustrator Grace Lin and a guest author answer one question from a child reader. Most episodes will end with a book review, poem, short story or a joke by kids!
- Kids Listen- Listen and learn about science, history, animals, music, and language, and then make that learning active with hands-on projects and activities.
- Kidz Nuz- Five minutes of today’s top stories, current events, politics, science, entertainment, sports and more — all nonpartisan and age-appropriate.
- Little Brown Library- Booktalks and and interviews with popular children's book authors, like Grace Lin and Peter Brown.
- The Past and the Curious- this amusing podcast features people telling interesting, little-known stories from history with an emphasis on fun and humor.
- Story Time- Do your children like listening to a story? Story Time has lots of great stories for everyone to listen to. Each story is usually less than 20 minutes long, hopefully just long enough to keep your toddler, preschoolers, and little ones engaged. Story Time is a free fortnightly audiobook podcast for children ages 2-13.
In response to COVID-19 and library closures, the NJ State Library has partnered with BiblioBoard to launch a free e-book library of 172 graphic novels and comics available for children and teens in New Jersey. This collection uses geolocation to provide access to any youth physically located in the state of New Jersey. The library includes a limited collection of e-books from leading children’s comics and graphic novel publishers.
JK Rowling presents her newest work: The Ickabog! The Ickabog will be published for free on this website, in installments, a chapter (or two, or three), at a time. It isn’t Harry Potter and it doesn’t include magic. This is an entirely different story that JK Rowling wrote for her children years ago and has decided to share with the public!
Liberty Science Center has an "in the house" section of their website with ideas for trying at-home experiments, animal live cams, and inspirational links!
Paper Planes- How to make 5 easy paper planes.
Go Noodle offers hundreds of at-home activities, including how-to videos for anything from drawing to cooking to making slime! There are also many videos to get you up and moving!
Tynker is offering free coding lessons while schools are closed!
ABCya offers learning games for children.
Make music with some of your favorite characters at PBSkids.org!
Jumpin' Jamie! - Fun and educational music videos from our friend, Jumpin' Jamie!
ESL at Home - Links to activities in 20 languages for students in grades K through 8. They require only paper and pencil, and some materials that can be found around the house.
Teach Your Monster to Read - The ground breaking game that makes learning to read fun!
National Geographic Young Explorer - Read issues of National Geographic's Scout and Voyager editions online.
Coloring Book- Print out individual coloring pages- or the entire book! The book contains art by 23 celebrated illustrators, in honor of Children's Book Week.
Harry Potter at Home- Here you’ll find all the latest magical treats to keep you occupied - including special contributions from Bloomsbury and Scholastic, nifty magical craft videos (teach your friends how to draw a Niffler!), fun articles, quizzes, puzzles and plenty more for first-time readers, as well as those already familiar with the wizarding world. We’re casting a Banishing Charm on boredom!
Glazer Children's Museum has a list of fun things to do at home, including tips on making the best forts, ice cream in a bag, and making a rubber band car!
Tiler Peck, Prima Ballerina who's been a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet for over a decade, teaches ballet classes on Instagram Live every weekday at 1 p.m. ET.
Drawing for Kids with Lisa Condon is 5 part video series that helps children understand the basic aspects of drawing with plenty of fun activities.
Cooking with Kids - How-to videos educate and empower children and families to make heathy food through hands-on learning with fresh, affordable food.
#ScratchAtHome provides children, families, and educators with ideas for engaging in creative learning activities using the free Scratch coding environment. This page will be updated weekly with new activities!
Khan Academy Kids Over the past few months, Khan Academy has created remote learning resources to support parents, families, and teachers during school closures. These resources include a new Khan Academy Kids YouTube channel with Circle Time videos, parent webinars, launching new Teacher Tools, and more.
This week, we’re challenging you to get coding and create a Scratch project. With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations, and share your creations with others in the online community. It’s easy- and free!
Follow this step-by-step tutorial to animate your name. You’ll learn how to make each letter change colors, move around the screen, and more! If you’d like to share your finished projects with us, email them to ber-childrens@mainlib.com. We’d love to see your creations!
We’re back with another Scratch coding challenge! With Scratch, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations — and share your creations with others in the online community. It’s easy- and free!
This week, let your imaginations run wild with the project “Imagine a World”. Follow this link and click on the “Imagine a World” block. What will you create? If you’d like to share your finished projects with us, email them to ber-childrens@mainlib.org. We’d love to see your creations!
We’re back with another Scratch coding challenge! This week, create an interactive pet that can eat, drink, and play! Follow along with this step-by-step guide to create a pet, make it move, and make it react when you feed it a snack or water! Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org- we’ll also feature your projects on our website!
Are you ready for our new coding challenge? This week, you’ll bring characters to life by coding your own animation with the “Code a Cartoon” tutorial. Make your characters talk, jump, fly, or anything else you can imagine. Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org and we’ll feature them on our website!
We’re back with another Scratch challenge! This week, you’ll make your own video game! Follow this link and choose a game tutorial- Pong game, Chase game, or Click game. You get to decide the rules, points, and how to win! Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org and we’ll feature them on our website!
For our week 6 Coding Challenge, we challenge you to make some music! Find the Make Music tutorial here. For an added challenge, create a band of Sprites with different instruments!
It's a great time to let someone know you're thinking of them! Use what you’ve learned over the past few weeks to make an animated greeting card. See some examples here. Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org and we’ll feature them on our website!
Calling all comedians, jokesters, and hilarious Scratchers: this week's Coding Challenge theme is for you. Create a silly comedy project! Use this project for inspiration, then create your own. Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org.
June 8th is Best Friends Day! To celebrate, make a Scratch project for your best friend- an animated card, a cartoon, or whatever you think will make your best friend smile! Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org.
Bring your favorite book to life with Scratch! Animate your favorite scene, record dialogue between characters, or anything else you can imagine! Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org.
Make a game where your sprite catches things falling from the sky! Follow along here, or try it on your own! Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org.
Celebrate July 4th by making virtual fireworks! Check out these projects for some inspiration. Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org.
Want to share your favorite character with the world, or imagine a brand new one? We'd love to meet them! Get inspired by these projects, then create your own. Share your project with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org.
Design your dream park! Get started with the “Imagine A World” tutorial.
Create mesmerizing artistic animations in Scratch with your Sprites! Check out this project for inspiration! Share your art with us at ber-childrens@mainlib.org.