Educational Ideas for Kids Stuck at Home

If your students or kids are stuck at home because of school shutdowns, during long holiday breaks, during the long summer break, they're sick for a long period of time, or for homeschoolers, kids will need some ways to keep themselves busy. I have over 20 ways that will keep students busy at home using educational ideas. Most of these ideas can be done independently and will use very little material. I also linked a few ideas where you can purchase these ideas but ALL of these ideas listed below can be done without purchasing any products listed. They are ONLY suggestions.
  

Here is my list of ideas:

1. Play games like Monopoly and Yahtzee that teach a skill like money or addition. Play games that teach a strategy like Chess or Connect 4. Stay away from the video games as much as possible. Video games do not help the brain advance forward or learn new things. Board games and strategic games enhance our brains. Click here to read a blog post I wrote about how we should be playing games with children.
2. Find some paper and staple together to make a journal. Use a notebook or 3-ring notebook, anything will work for a journal. You can do a ton of things in a journal. Write down 10 things you did that day, make a "To Do" list and stick to it, write sentences using the letters in your name, write a paragraph about your day, write poems, or write your opinions and thoughts down. Anything goes. Just write! Click below to see ways to get students to write differently everyday. There are over 80 ideas to journal about. These prompts are great for any grade level. 
   
3. If you get grocery ads, have students plan out a meal or a party using the food in the grocery ads. Have them calculate how much it would cost to plan a meal or even a party. Pick out 10 items in the ad and multiply them by 6, 7, or 8 to practice multiplication. Use division to find out how much each unit is in the pack. If you get 10 drink packs for $4.87, how much is each one? Students can make a list of items in the ads to categorize by fruits, vegetables, meats, junk food, drinks, ect. Grocery ads can be used in a variety of ways.
4. Research the state or country you live in. There are hundreds of places to research. Once you finish one, start another. Find the state bird, state flower, population, rainfall, climate, and/or historic places of each state. Make a book about each flag for all the states or countries. If you don't want to do a state, then research an animal or person. There are hundreds of ideas to choose from. Research Reports can be done on any subject or person and are never ending. My Mini-Reports, below, will help students get started. These are great for research or final presentations. There are 4 reports to choose from; Biography, Country, State, and Animal.  
    
5. READ, READ, READ. As a teacher, I cannot stress enough how IMPORTANT it is to read. You learn a lot when you read. You comprehend, pick up new words, sequence in your mind, and make predictions. Reading helps in ALL subject areas. The more you read, the better you get at it! Practice reading all kinds of genres too. 3rd graders and up should be reading chapter books and nonfiction material. Just sit down and read. If students are out of school, they should be reading at least 60 minutes a day. Complete a book report when finished reading a book or write a summary of each chapter you read. All you need are paper and pencils to describe the story. Stories always have a who, what, when, where, why, and how in them. Students could also come up with questions about the story and then answer them too. Book Talk, below, is loaded with over 90 pages of ideas to do with books. It keeps the conversation going about any book they are reading.  
   
6. Let your kids help you follow a recipe by measuring ingredients. Students will learn a lot when they see cups, 1/2 cups, 1/4 cups and measuring spoons. Find recipes they would be able to make and have them write the recipe out on a recipe card. They can make an album of their favorite foods and start saving recipes. Some will need help in the kitchen but there are many recipes kids can make that don't require the stove, oven, or using a knife to cut. If you don't want them in the kitchen, use the measuring cups and teaspoons to play with. They can fill a tub with water and measure using bowls to see how many 1/4 cups can make a 1/2 cup?
7. Find some worksheets or review books geared to their grade level to complete. You can find many workbooks at Costco or Sam's Club or even Walmart and Target. I've even found them at the dollar store. Assign pages for them to do everyday. Here are some of my popular worksheets: 
   
8. Watch a tv program or show and then write a summary about it. Include characters, the setting, the problem in the show, and how it was solved. Write a sequence of events; what happened first, second, and so on.
9. Make a calendar of the month. Put in important dates, appointments, birthdays, ect. Get to know the calendar. Know how to spell the days of the week, months, and holidays too. Know how many days are in each month, how many weeks are in a month, and days in the year. Click the picture below to start learning the calendar.  
   
10. Have the students make an agenda of what they are going to do for the day. They should incorporate time which will help them learn about the clock. How many minutes will it take to get these tasks done? Use the clock to write in how much time it will complete each task. For example, from 7:30-7:40 eat, from 7:40-8:00 get dressed and brush teeth, from 8:00-9:00 a.m read. Stick to the schedule. When students know what their day looks like, they will be organized and motivated to complete tasks likes chores or school work. It's good for them to make their own schedule but you can help.  
11. Take a walk in your neighborhood. Write down things you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. When they get home, write sentences about each feeling or sensory. Take a walk on another day. Compare what you see from day to day. Write about what was the same or different from each day. Make a Venn Diagram to show the comparisons. What are other things you can compare?
12. Find a picture on your phone for them to write about it. They should be using paragraph form to write about the picture, or they can write captions for the picture. They should include a who, what, when, where, and why for each picture. The packs below extend more writing. Click the pictures to learn about each one.
    
     
13. Write a letter to someone in your family or to your friends. Stuff the letter into an envelope, address it, put a stamp on it, and mail it. Or just deliver it to their bedroom door and tape it to their door. Everyone loves to get letters.  
14. Students can pick out 20 words from a book they are reading and find the definition of each word and write them in a sentence. Many dictionaries are online or using a real dictionary would also be great. Make a crossword puzzle for your vocabulary words, put them in ABC order, separate them from syllables, and/or separate from long and short sounds. You can do a lot with a list of words.
15. Write directions for a game you play or come up with a new game to play. Students can write step by step instructions on how to play the game and the materials used to play.  
    
16. Write directions on how you go to school, or to a friends house, or to the store or mall. Pretend you are GPS and instead of saying the directions out loud, write them down. You can find google maps of each city and state online. Once you teach them how to read a map, they should be able to write down any directions to any place. This will help them learn about their neighborhood and state too.
17. Have them measure all the rooms in the house. Get out a tape measure and find the area and perimeter of each room. Make a map of your house listing all the measurements for each room. Measure in inches, centimeters, and/or feet. Then, they can order the rooms from smallest to largest. This pack below has some fun ways to use area and perimeter by building rooms.
     
18. Make a list of ways to help people. Once finished, have them draw or make a posters of the items on their list. Make posters about life skills or ways to be a good reader or writer. Anything goes.  
19. Make a set of flashcards on paper or index cards. What do your kids need to work on? Math facts? States and capitals? Vocabulary words? Students can write the word or fact on one side of the card and the answer on the back. Flashcards are great for kids to do independently. They are self-checking and keeps the learning going and active.
20. Count coins. Empty your purse and pockets and get students to practice counting coins. Have them make word problems using money too. For example; If I have 2 quarters and 3 dimes, how much money do I have? Or if I have $0.36 and spend 2 dimes, how much money will I have left? I have a set of coin counting worksheets and I have a FREE money board to help students count coins. Click the pictures below to read more about them. 
     
21. Know those high frequency words (HFW)! Students should be able to read and spell the HFW by 5th grade. There are so many ways to use these words. Write the words in a sentence, use the words to write a story, put 10 words in abc order, look up each word in a dictionary, separate the words by vowel sounds or nouns, verbs and adjectives. Get creative. Write the words on little sticky notes and post all around the house.  Have students go around the house to find all the words to read. Let students look in newspapers or magazines to find words and cut them out. This pack of high frequency words go all the way to 1,000!
    

Hopefully there are some ideas you can start using right now to keep kids active and learning at home no matter what the situation is arounds us. Below is a Choice Board of the ideas above. Click the picture to download for FREE!

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