For Students, Educators, and Parents
Resources for Educators
Colorado Department of Education
COVID-19 Resources for Schools
Phone: 303-866-6600
Colorado Department of Higher Education
Staying informed about COVID-19
Public health orders and recommendations to protect our communities for schools, workplaces and community
Guidance for Administrators of US K-12 Schools and Child Care Programs
Tips on how to plan, prepare, and respond to coronavirus disease from the CDC
Colorado Department of Education for Educators
News for educators on COVID-19 impact on Colorado schools
Resources for Students
Colorado Department of Education Youth Services Resources
Youth services resources
Just For Kids: A Comic Exploring The New Coronavirus
Comic that includes information from healthcare experts interviewed for an NPR story. Can also be printed and folded into a zine.
Handwashing posters & other materials for children and teens
Center for Disease Control (CDC)
BrainPOP: Coronavirus
BrainPOP is a surprisingly entertaining, at time humorous, basic explanation of COVID-19 and needed precautions for elementary age children and young teens.
Resources for Parents
Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment
What to Do When School is Closed
Colorado Emergency Childcare Collaborative
Colorado Office of Early Childhood
Meal Sites during School Closures
Map and List from Colorado Department of Education
More information on meal distribution from Hunger Free Colorado
Protect Yourself and Your Family
CDC
Talking to Children About COVID-19 (Coronavirus): A Parent Resource (PDF)
Guidelines from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP)
Talking to Children about COVID-19
Messages for parents, school staff, and others working with children
Helping Children Cope
From Ready.gov, how to help children cope with disasters
Parent/Caregiver Guide to Helping Families Cope with the Corronavirus Diease 2019
This resource will help parents and caregivers think about how an infectious disease outbreak might affect their family— both physically and emotionally—and what they can do to help their family cope. (National Child Traumatic Stress Network)
Resources for Families During the Coronavirus Pandemic
Information from Common Sense Media
Digital Learning Resources
Smithsonian Institution
- Smithsonian Learning Lab: A free, interactive platform for discovering millions of authentic digital resources and creating content with online tools. The Learning Lab has an immense amount of content, and the Getting Started guide is a helpful resource.
- Smithsonian Open Access: Allows students to download, share and reuse millions of the Smithsonian’s images without asking permission because they have been released into the public domain.
- Smithsonian Digital Volunteers Program: Allows the general public to make things like historical documents and biodiversity data more accessible. Students can join fellow volunteers to add more field notes, diaries, ledgers, logbooks, manuscripts, biodiversity specimen labels and more to the collection.
- Sidedoor: A podcast for students that enlists the help of biologists, archaeologists, zookeepers and astrophysicists to tell engaging and educational stories.
Library of Congress
- Student Discovery Sets: Puts primary sources in student’s hands by bringing together historical artifacts and documents on a wide range of topics. The Student Discovery Sets are free on iBooks.
- Current Exhibitions: The Library has several current exhibitions available online, including ones on Rosa Parks, the Nineteenth Amendment, comic art and more.
- Digital Collections: Over 400 digital collections are available online, featuring content from U.S. Presidents, musicians, inventors, historic newspapers and more.
- By the People: A crowdsourcing initiative that allows anyone to volunteer to improve access to history by transcribing, reviewing and tagging Library of Congress documents.
- Classic children’s books: Available for free online via the Library website.
- The Library of Congress’ YouTube channel: Contains a wide range of author programming, as well as content from scholars and musicians.
- Ask a Librarian: The tool remains available to the public, with Librarians available to answer questions and provide research assistance.
- The Library’s National Screening Room: Showcases the Library’s vast moving image collection. It is designed to make otherwise unavailable movies, both copyrighted and in the public domain, freely accessible to viewers worldwide.
Ebooks and Audiobooks:
- Capstone Interactive Ebooks: Interactive ebooks for PreK-high school
- TeenBookCloud - A collection of eBooks and educator resources perfect for your middle school, high school, or public library. Find a robust selection of Graphic Novels, Enhanced Novels, eBooks, classic literature, National Geographic videos, educator resources, and audiobooks.
- Elementary Digital Bookshelf: PreK-8
- Secondary Digital Bookshelf: Grades 5-12
- ABDO Zoom Online Database: Grades PreK-2
- Authors Everywhere -- A Youtube Channel created and run by children's book writers and illustrators. With all this talk of potential quarantines and school closures, we wanted to do something to offer relief for parents and kids who might find themselves stuck at home. On this channel, you'll find workshops, readings, activities, art projects, writing games, writing advice, and more. We hope that we can offer you some fun, some distraction, and a creative outlet for any feelings that might come up during this time.
Activities
- Girls Who Code at Home -- A new service of Girls Who Code, which will release activities weekly — some online, some offline, of varying levels of difficulty—over the course of the next few months. Each activity will include a feature of a woman in tech who pioneered innovative technology.
- Free Online Events and Activities for Kids at Home -- List of fun, free activities and live events from Common Sense Media
- Scholastic Learn at Home: Day-by-day projects to keep kids reading, thinking, and growing
- Authors Launch Digital Children's Book Festival -- The Everywhere Book Festival will be held virtually May 1-2 with more than 50 participating authors and illustrators
- Encantos -- Free bilingual activities for kids
Art
- The National Gallery of Art – Learning resources and programs for all ages
- Google Arts & Culture Collections -- Over 500 museums and galleries around the world to bring anyone and everyone virtual tours and online exhibits of some of the most famous museums
- Jarrett Lerner’s Activities Page – Printouts and activities that encourage creativity and story creation
Story Telling
- StoryBlocks -- This one is local! This project from CLEL features short videos of CO librarians demonstrating rhymes and songs with early literacy tips. Videos are available in 7 languages.
- Story Preservation Initiative -- Find a selection of audio stories from three master storytellers on the K-3 Storytelling Learning Lab, found at www.storypreservation.org. To access click K-3 Learning Lab on blue banner. A one-time registration is required and then click on “storytellers” and listen and enjoy at no cost
- Storyline Online -- Actors reading picture books
- Free resources from Pop Culture Classroom -- This one's local! This Denver-based nonprofit provides some of its comics-literacy based materials free.
- Read, Wonder, and Learn! Favorite Authors & Illustrators Share Resources for Learning Anywhere -- Webpage featuring authors reading their own kids' books, with the videos embedded in the page
- "Talking is Teaching: Talk, Read, Sing" Family Staycation Resources
- Story Time From Space -- While in space, astronauts videotape themselves reading picture books to the children of Earth. These videos are being edited and placed on this website -- look under the heading 'Story Time Videos.'"
- Virtual School Activities -- List of free virtual tours and activities from around the world