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SCHOOL - HOMESCHOOL 

Classroom Read-Alouds and
Activities to Inspire Screen-Free Summer Adventures
by Brightly - Lindsay Barrett

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Manga - Comics   HELP?

No Flying No Tights
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Diamond BookShelf

​Comics & Graphic Novels Blog-NY Public Library

Free Online Games to Teach Financial Skills to Children:

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The American Library Association (ALA), in partnership with the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, has released a collection of free online games to teach children basic financial skills related to earning, saving and spending money.
The four interactive games — part of a series called Thinking Money for Kids and available at tm4k.ala.org — are designed for children ages 7 to 11 but are appropriate for other ages as well. They include:
  • Earning It: Follow the paths of characters Grace, Emma, and Kenji to see how their childhood interests translate into successful careers and opportunities to “give back” by volunteering.
  • Balance My Budget: Make choices about how to meet basic needs and treat yourself with a splurge here and there, while sticking to a monthly budget.
  • Money Trail: Starting with $500 in your bank account, make decisions about how to earn and spend.
  • Let’s Deal: Hear from buyers and vendors at a farmers’ market as they swap goods and learn about money.
Library workers are invited to use the games for in-person or virtual programming or to share them on library websites or social media. Additional financial literacy resources for library workers, including model programs and professional development, are available at Smart investing@your library.

Virtual Field Trips

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I need a vacation. I need to go SOMEWHERE. Yes–most of us are at this point. 
Melanee Stinnett-Voss a member of Bitmoji Craze for Educators recently shared her virtual field trips in Bitmoji style HERE.

During a recent workshop for educators to improve their virtual program offerings, we went on a field trip to Mount Vernon. Our instructor first gave us a brief overview of how to move around the virtual museum. We were instructed to take a piece of paper and divide it up in four parts and label them Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. See a like document HERE
We were then given time to explore the museum on our own, noting where we found examples of science, technology, engineering and math on our sheet. After the free time, we were brought back as a group and then split up into a team or small group to talk about what we learned and found most interesting. We entered our top finds on a group Google Jamboard. Then we grouped back together for a short recap.

This list was updated on 12/11/20 thanks to website viewers suggestions--thank you Maya, Liam and Andrea!


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Museums​
Tour collections and learn about the history of art and artifacts with these online museum experiences.
  • American Museum of Natural History: Brian Selznick, author of Wonderstruck, leads a virtual tour of the museum, meeting field experts along the way.
  • British Museum: This cool, interactive site lets kids browse the museum collection by time period, not by room, so kids can focus in on the era they’re most interested in.
  • Colonial Williamsburg: Eight different webcams let viewers peek in on what’s happening at places like Merchants’ Square or Raleigh Tavern.
  • Virtual Museum of Galileo: Learn from this Great scientific mind. 
  • Virtual Gettysburg: Battlefield panoramas. 
  • Historic Hudson Valley: This site offers many history-themed online experiences for kids, from “Traders and Raiders,” which looks at the history of pirates in the greater New York Area, to “People Not Property,” which teaches kids about slavery. There are also lots of ideas for at-home historical activities, like cooking with cornmeal or “tinsmithing” at home with aluminum foil.
  • Longwood Gardens: Field trip focusing on plants and botany. 
  • Manhattan Project Field Trip:  Learn about the atomic bomb.
  • Metropolitan Museum of Art: The #MetKids site is geared for little ones, and lets them explore a cute, illustrated map to find treasures in the museum’s collection.
  • Musée du Louvre: The world-famous museum offers virtual tours by subject, from the body in art to Egyptian antiquities.
  • Museum of Science: The #MOSatHome page offers virtual looks at the Boston museum’s exhibits and hosts daily livestreams and webinars.
  • National Baseball Hall of Fame: Browse through the collection of photographs, memorabilia and more to learn more about America’s national pastime. The museum also offers virtual programming on its YouTube page.
  • National Constitution Center: Explore exhibitions about constitutional conflicts through the years, including “Hamilton: The Constitutional Clashes That Shaped a Nation.” For a fee groups can also participate in live, virtual guided tours for up to 300 people.
  • National Gallery of Art: The National Gallery has 50 video tours specifically geared towards kids, focusing on a work and the people, places, and scenes surrounding its creation.
  • National Museum of Computing: Located in Bletchley Park in the U.K., home of the famous WWII codebreakers like Alan Turing, this museum offers a virtual tour that takes visitors through the history of computers.
  • Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History: You can bookmark this one to visit over and over, since it offers virtual version of every exhibition in the museum.
  • The Vatican Museum: You can get 360 looks at nine rooms in the Vatican — including the magnificent Sistine Chapel.
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Farms
See how food grows, is harvested, and gets to your table with these farm tours.
  • American Egg Board: The Egg Board has virtual tours of different egg farms, and many of them let you choose different videos for kindergarten/elementary and middle school students.
  • Bonnie Plants: Home Depot takes kids on a multi-part virtual field trip to this grower, hoping to inspire kids to get into gardening themselves.
  • Bright Farms: A farm grower in Irvington, NY shows kids how food goes from the field (in this case, an indoor grower) to the grocery store. There’s even a quiz at the end!
  • Farm Food 360: Kids can see 11 different sorts of farm and food plants, including dairy cow farms, egg processing facilities and an apple orchard.

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Landmarks
You might not be able to go on your sightseeing vacation at the moment, but these virtual landmark tours are the next best thing.
  • Acropolis:  360° view of this famous landmark in Greece.
  • Buckingham Palace: Go room-by-room and see all of the amazing historical objects in the palace.
  • Easter Island: Most of us recognize the giant stone statues of Easter Island, but what’s the story behind them? Nova’s online adventure “Secrets of Easter Island” delves into the mystery with a virtual tour.
  • Ellis Island: See the island the way the 12 million immigrants did between 1892 and 1954 through a virtual tour with lots of first-hand stories.
  • Great Wall of China: See one of the wonders of the world with this amazing, thousands-year old fortification system known the world over. This virtual tour has three options for touring the ancient structure: Jinshaling to Simatai, watchtower, and winter.
  • Iceland: A virtual tour. 
  • Lincoln Memorial:  Tour the memorial to this highly regarded President during the Civil War. 
  • Machu Picchu: Explore these mysterious ruins in the mountains of Peru. 
  • Mount Everest : Explore and learn what it is like to climb the highest peak in the world. 
  • Mount Rushmore: The virtual tour of Mount Rushmore was created through 3D scans of the mountain.
  • Mount Vernon: Take a look inside George Washington’s home the same way you would click through Street View on a Google Map.
  • Plimoth Plantation: Take a tour of the site of the first Thanksgiving, and learn the history behind the event.
  • Pyramids of Egypt: Tour the famous pyramids. 
  • The White House: President Obama narrates a tour of “The People’s House,” and you can scroll around and click on points of interest.
  • Yellowstone National Park: The first established National Park and popular vacation destination is now accessible to virtual travelers. The interactive maps are a great way to see the Mammoth Hot Springs and Mud Volcano, but we think kids will be psyched about the Old Faithful Geyser live-stream and the opportunity to make their own predictions for its next eruption.
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Zoos and Aquariums
These zoos and aquariums have live cams where kid can check in with the animals.
  • Atlanta Zoo
  • Bronx Zoo
  • Cincinnati Zoo
  • Georgia Aquarium
  • Houston Zoo
  • Reid Park Zoo
  • Shedd Aquarium
  • San Diego Zoo
  • Monterey Bay Aquarium
  • National Aquarium
  • SeaWorld
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Even More Fun
From a candy factory to the surface of Mars, these tours take kids to places that aren’t available to them even in normal times.
  • Boston Children’s Museum: “Walk” through all three floors of the Boston Children’s Museum on this virtual tour. Direct your kids to fun exhibits like Explore-a-Saurus and the Japanese House.
  • Cities from Around the World: Check out places from all over the world.
  • Discovery Education: The site hosts virtual field trips for kids, from engineering plants that make the cars of the future to a lab that researches nuclear energy.
  • Fun with Geography: Have fun guessing where you are.
  • Great Lakes : This virtual field trip from Great Lakes Now has three components: coastal wetlands, algae, and lake sturgeon. Each video is a quick five minutes.
  • History of Music: Interactive site on how different types of music formed.
  • Johnson Space Center: Boeing leads the tour through the Houston, Texas facility, covering the history — and future — of aerospace innovation.
  • M&Ms Factory Tour: The Food Network hosts a virtual tour of the M&Ms factory and shows how the delicious candy gets made.
  • Nature Lab: The Nature Conservancy offers 11 virtual field trips that allow students to do everything from exploring a coastal rainforest while in a canoe to unlocking the secrets of coral reefs in the Dominican Republic. Each video is about 45 minutes long.
  • Outer Space Tours: Kids can see the real surface of Mars, courtesy of the Curiosity rover. NASA also does virtual tours of the Moon, along with the International Space Station.
  • Reach the World: What is it like to live in other parts of the world?
  • Recycling Simplified: Take kids on a tour of a modern-day recycling center or landfill, and teach them about environmental sustainability.
  • Slime in Space: Nickelodeon teamed up with two astronauts on the International Space Station to demonstrate how slime reacts to microgravity and had kids reproduce those same demonstrations back here on Earth. It makes for an amazing 15-minute virtual field trip. Pre and Post activities available.
  • Sơn Đoòng: National Geographic offers a 360-degree tour of the world’s largest ave, situated in Quảng Bình Province, Vietnam. You can even hear the water as it runs over the rocks.
  • Stellarium Web: kids can explore over 60,000 stars, locate planets, and watch sunrises and solar eclipses. If you enter your location, you can see all the constellations that are visible in the night sky in your corner of the world.
Tour suggestions from Good Housekeeping & Weareteachers.com

Ways to reach out and work together: 

*See side story  Underlined-Click on for linked story
​​Adult Learner Services*
​Book & a Bite Summer Food followed with Healthy Activities  (Libraries and Summer Food)
​Pop-up Summer Library *
​
Proctor Exams*
​Reading on the Road *
Shared Library Card System*
State Book Award Promotion *
Teen Internship @ the Public Library
Public Library & School Library Collaboration Took Kit by AASL, ALSC, and YALSA

​K-12 Guide to UWF Libraries

Free Digital Books for Kids

Epic
Harper Kids
LibriVox
Loyal Books
Oxford Owl
PBS Kids
Storyline Online
Storynory
Vooks



Digital Librarian's Survival Toolkit & Epic Ebook of Web Tools & Apps--FREE crowdsourced guides.

​The Epic Ebook of Web Tools & Apps is a 250+ page FREE guide crowdsourced by 50+ educators. Please use this static link to share the book:https://librarian.rocks/epicebookofwebtoolsandapps

The Digital Librarian's Survival Toolkit is a 200+ page FREE guide crowdsourced by 35+ school librarians. Please use this static link to share the ebook: https://librarian.rocks/digitallibrariansurvivaltoolkit
​

Both resources are filled with video tutorials, text, screenshots, and links.You can find more free resources on Kristina Uihlein Holzweiss's website: http://www.bunheadwithducttape.com/



Adult Learner Services

At the Weeks Memorial Library in Lancaster, NH they collaborate with North Country Education Services to offer the following free of charge:
*GED Preparation
*Sessions to build basic reading, writing and math skills
*ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages)

STEM 

Exploratorium - The Tinkering Studio Experiments with science, art, technology and delightful ideas.
Makers in the Library Resources to create a makerspace with and for your community - on any budget!

Show Me Librarian - All Things STEAM  a resource for offering library programming in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.
​Smithsonian Learning Lab is your destination for millions of carefully curated, easily accessible, customizable, and shareable open educational resources.
Looking for vetted STEM activities–check out StarNet’s STEM Activity Clearinghouse. There is even a Take & Make category.
http://clearinghouse.starnetlibraries.org/

STEM Gems are short discovery-based experiences from the National Afterschool Association. You need to be a member but membership is free. 

TinkerLab Free hands-on art and science activities for Pre-K & up
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FREE COMPUTER SCIENCE ACTIVITIES FOR STUDENTS, EDUCATORS, AND PARENTS

They release activities bi-weekly— some online, some offline, of varying levels of difficulty. Each activity features a woman in tech who pioneered innovative technology.
We are passionate about inspiring the next generation of scientists. We typically work to accomplish this through a variety of programs including SPARK™, Curiosity Labs™ and the Curiosity Cube®, but as many families are home for a prolonged period of time, we wanted to help bring a little curiosity to you at home.
We’ve created a number of easy and educational science experiments that can be completed at home with materials typically found around the house.
​Mizzen by Mott partners with the out-of-school time community to provide high-quality resources and experiences for youth-serving professionals that spark curiosity, joy and a love of learning for children and youth. Supported by the Mott Foundation, Mizzen is available at no cost to those who are empowering young learners everywhere!
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Videos on Supporting Physical and Outdoor Play  Eastern Connecticut State University


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Reading on the Road - Books on School Buses 

​Reading on the Road is a student run program at Keene High School. Their mission is to collect children’s books and then distribute them onto elementary school buses in the SAU 29 school district. They currently have over 550 books circulating on buses that serve elementary schools in the Keene School District. This encompasses Symonds School, Fuller School, Wheelock School, and Franklin School. Each box is full of books for ages 4-12 and kids may browse the books while they ride the bus or take them home to keep. Reading on the Road encourages healthy reading habits, decreases disruptive behavior and provides easy access to books for children who may not have this otherwise.
Shedd-Porter Memorial Library in Alstead helps to supply the boxes with donations and children’s library discards. The program has received such positive feedback that collection boxes in local churches, bookstores and neighboring libraries donations are helping to fill the boxes and expand the program to a neighboring school district. CLiF (Children’s Literacy Foundation) recently sent a box and is featuring the Reading on the Road program on CLiF’s blog.
You can follow the project on Facebook    https://www.facebook.com/Readingontheroad.khs/  To contact Reading on the Road email Amelia Opsahl at  readingontheroad.khs@gmail.com.
 
~Alyson Montgomery
Director
Shedd Porter Library
Alstead NH 
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Cole Middle School, East Greenwich RI - Girl Scout Troop 855

Girl Scouts Catherine Anderson and Eliana Goldwasser have installed a new Little Free Library at 2880 South County Road in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Both girls are members of Girl Scout Troop 855 in East Greenwich.A Little Free Library is a free book exchange for the local community.  Everyone is welcome to take something they want to read, and to donate reading materials they are ready to share.
“We chose this project because we care about child literacy. We want the kids in this neighborhood to have access to books right where they live,” said Eliana Goldwasser.  The two Girl Scouts plan to stock the library with lots of childrens’ books and supplies, as well as some adult books.
Catherine and Eliana are working on their Girl Scout Silver Award. For this award, the highest a Girl Scout Cadette can earn, the girls wanted to do something that would have a long term impact on their community. Reading is something that both girls are passionate about, and the Little Free Library is a great way to share books with local residents.

“It took us a lot longer than we thought it would. We had to learn how to use power tools and we were both nervous about that!  The design is based on a Little Free Library plan. We wanted the library to look like a schoolhouse,” said Catherine Anderson
The girls asked Shelley Avarista, the Cole Middle School Librarian, to be their Project Advisor.  Ms. Avarista advised the girls on which books to place in the Lending Library as well as helped to provide some books that will no longer be in circulation.
“We’re really proud of the Library.  It was a lot of hard work.” said Catherine Anderson

Shelley Avarista
Library Media Specialist
Cole Middle School
East Greenwich, RI 

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Abbott Library, Sunapee NH - Sunapee Middle and High School

In Sunapee all middle and high school students are required to take Reading Counts tests over the summer. Teachers publicize a reading list, students read and then take a test that is hosted by Scholastic.com. Previously students had to go to the school to take these tests and the school was only open during the summer Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 1. A few years ago, we offered to proctor these tests for the students. The school agreed. We then pulled all of the books on the middle and high school reading lists that Abbott Library owns and put them on display. It's one of those great instances when the school, patrons and the library all benefit!

Mindy Atwood, Director
Abbott Library
Sunapee, NH 

Hartford Public Library, Hartford CT - Hartford Public Schools

In 2013, the Hartford Public Library and the Hartford Public Schools came together to develop a shared
vision and charge to cooperatively provide effective school and public library services. In this process, a
multiyear plan was developed to articulate a focused partnership on “providing an equitable, accessible,
and coherent system of relevant resources, programming, and services for Hartford students and
families that supports their current and lifelong learning.”
Four categories for collaboration were developed after a review of the services and programs that were
being delivered by both the Hartford Public Schools and the Hartford Public Library to identify
redundancies, gaps and possible overlap. The categories are as follows: school readiness, library services
and access, programming for students and families and programs and wrap around services for the
entire family.
Through Boundless, both institutions have been working closely to achieve the following outcomes for
Hartford students: Increase reading levels, reduce learning loss, support meeting academic benchmarks,
and increase student and family awareness and perception of the school and branch libraries as
welcoming places and valuable resources through three strategies:
• A block collaboration strategy
• A partnership communication strategy
• A technology, resource and access strategy

The Boundless card was piloted at 12 schools during the school year 2018-2019. The card:
INCREASES access students and families have to high quality public and school library services and
materials for children Pre-K to 12.
• PROVIDES access for students enrolled in Hartford Public Schools to resources and materials at
both Hartford Public Schools’ school libraries and the Hartford Public Library.
• COMBINES student’s library activity from both institutions in one account.
• ACCESS to print and digital materials that require a library card number.
• USE this Boundless card in all Hartford Public Library locations or at your school library.
A physical card was issued using each student’s ID number. After the pilot year, we realized the
expensive of keeping up with the printing of new and replacement cards was too expensive. We are
going to launch virtual accounts for all HPS students this coming school year. All students can log into
and check out materials with just their student ID number, no card needed.

Since 2013, a menu of programs has evolved that allow for flexibility in developing an action plan for the
block that caters to the individual school’s needs. Outside of story times, tours and activities, Hartford
Public Library Youth Service Librarians provide the schools in their block options for programs and
services that include teacher professional development, materials that support lesson plans and
professional development for both School Media Specialists and Youth Service Librarians.
The vision for this partnership is to formalize a strong school and library partnership that promotes
increased student academic achievement. Through Boundless, we are working towards:

Combining school and public libraries that provide library services from a single facility with HPL
providing and managing the infrastructure to support School Media Specialists and support staff in
addition to expanding the base of users through technology, programmatic and electronic access and
HPS providing the infrastructure to support and manage operational needs.
In the fall of 2018 we launched the Boundless Library@ Rawson. The library at Rawson School had not
had a library media specialist in over a decade. It was sitting unused. We retrofitted the space for school
and for public use, updated a collection that was over 20 years old, staffed the location with an HPL
Library Media Specialist that works closely with teachers, school administration, and HPL Youth Services
staff to continue to support the learning needs of the students, families and the community at large,
updated technology and most importantly use of a space and materials that are now circulating. We are
now seeking funding to keep the location open for at least three more years.
Since 2017, we have expanded zones (every school is paired with one of our locations) , executed a 5
year MOU with the Hartford Public Schools, developed the communication plan with intentional focus
on families and students, completed the branding process and collaboratively developed the Boundless
website, http://www.boundlesshartford.org/
​
brochure_boundlessr3.pdf
File Size: 1245 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Marie Jarry
Director of Public Services
Hartford Public Library
Hartford, CT 
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  • Home
  • PD
  • Media Literacy
  • Bibliotherapy
  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Arts & Crafts - Grab & Go
  • Nature Based Programs
  • Early Learning
  • Young Adult
  • Community
  • School/Homeschool
  • Government Agencies
  • Plan/Manage
  • Contact