PCM Newsletter
March 2020 - Special Edition
Resources now available to support student learning at home
DES MOINES -- The Iowa Department of Education today released a host of optional resources for families and educators to use as they support student learning during school closures due to COVID-19. The resources are available on the Iowa Department of Education’s website and include interactive games, virtual field trips, coding activities and e-books.
The learning resources for students in prekindergarten through 12th grade do not replace what they have learned at school, but instead help students practice or enrich the skills and strategies taught by their teachers.
“While they do not replace classroom learning, these resources are a great way for families, caregivers and educators to continue to engage students in their learning at home,” said Iowa Department of Education Director Ann Lebo. “I am grateful to our partners who came together to provide the content to make this resource page possible.”
The Iowa Department of Education partnered with AEA Learning Online, the Governor’s STEM Advisory Council, Iowa PBS and the Iowa Reading Research Center to provide a variety of resources. The resources cover multiple subject areas, such as literacy, computer science, fine arts and career and technical education. The resources also address mental health and emotional well-being.
The resources to support learning during COVID-19 is not exhaustive and will be reviewed and updated weekly with additional resources.
K-12 Free Educational Resources
Elementary
Go Noodle- Good Energy: App offering free movement, exercise, yoga, mindfulness, and educational videos.
Math Playground: Free educational games, puzzles, and videos. (K-6)
Fun Brain Jr.: Free games, stories, and printables for a variety of subjects.
PBS Kids: Free educational games, videos, and daily activities.
ABCya: Wide variety of educational games and videos. (K-6)
Magic School Bus: Ideas of science experiments and printables related to Magic School bus books and science topics.
Fluency and Fitness (Free for 21 days) Exersizing our brains and bodies, K-2
Starfall: Some free content for K-3rd grade. Literacy, math, music, etc.
National Geographic Kids: Wide variety of science and social studies content. (games, videos)
Study Jams: Math and science topics, including experiments, videos, lesson ideas, extension activities, and more!
Fun Fonix: Free phonics worksheets, printable phonics workbooks, worksheet maker, and printable game templates. Reading skills broken down by phonics rules, and embeds spelling and writing skills too.
Grid Club: Fun interactive learning games and videos for kids. Lots of material on English and math, science, history, languages, geography, health, art, music and more.
Tvokids: Free educational games and shows for ages preschool-5th grade.
Prodigy
IXL
ABCmouse.com (Free 30 Day Trial) https://www.abcmouse.com/
Online Enrichment for Learning at Home Everything! : )
Middle School
Learn how to Draw something cool - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmzjCPQv3y8
Practice your Social Studies, Math, ELA and Science skills and maybe try something new - learn some Spanish! https://www.ixl.com/
Explore the world around you! https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
Play some Math games - https://play.prodigygame.com/
This one requires signup https://www.khanacademy.org/signup
Maybe you love Science and Technology? Try these:
https://www.nasa.gov/kidsclub/index.html
https://www.discoverymindblown.com/
Go on a virtual museum tour -
https://britishmuseum.withgoogle.com/
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour
https://www.louvre.fr/en/visites-en-ligne
Looking for ideas on how to spend your day?
https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/support/learnathome/grades-6-12.html
Interested in how the government works? https://www.icivics.org/games
Love History? This is a website that allows you to react to the past.
https://www.mission-us.org/
Looking for short, quick reads?
This one requires signup - https://www.readworks.org/
This one also might require signup https://newsela.com/
Interactive eBooks-science https://www.nsta.org/ebooks/Grades6-12/
Collections (6-8 ELA curriculum) nonfiction articles https://hmhfyi.com/6-12/
High School
Khan Academy (K-12): Tutorials/lessons in math, science, history, programming, art history, economics and more https://www.khanacademy.org
AEA Resources
As students will be doing more learning and reading from home, there are abundant helpful resources for parents and students through your local Area Education Agency (AEA). Iowa’s AEAs provide a broad variety of digital content for students, teachers and families selected by Iowa educators. Students and teachers are familiar with these vetted, age-appropriate and high-quality digital resources and use them in their daily work. These resources can be found in the Library & Digital Resources on the Heartland AEA website.
There are read-aloud ebooks, ebooks, digital audiobooks, videos, encyclopedias, articles, newspapers and more for our youngest and oldest learners.
Email Kim Pettyjohn at kpettyjohn@pcmschools.org if you need access to a site that requires a password.
Iowa PBS, COVID-19, Educational Resources and Upcoming Events
https://administratorconnection.blogspot.com/2020/03/iowa-pbs-covid-19-educational-resources.html
Volunteers Available to Assist
PCM 2020 Preschool Registration
Four Year Old Program: Your child must be 4 on or before Sept. 15, 2020 to join our preschool programs at PCM. Classes meet 4 days per week, T-F, 3 hours in the morning (8:00-11:00) or 3 hours in the afternoon (12-3:00). There is no preschool on Mondays. If your child will be attending preschool, please go online to the school website www.pcmschools.org.
Click on the Schools Tab
Click on neighborhood school tab (Monroe Elementary or Prairie City Elementary)
Select Preschool and then a link for Preschool Registration
Click on 20-21 Preschool Registration Survey
Complete each question for your child’s information
Monroe Elementary 641-259-2314
Prairie City Elementary 515-994-2377