Independence Academy Charter School

Elementary Resources

Below is a wealth of free resources to help encourage learning at home. Games, mini lessons, articles, virtual tours, and more - the list will only grow!

Literacy

Mesa County Library	One stop shop for library events, resources, and of course, finding the perfect books to borrow
Rocky Mountain PBS	Standards-aligned interactive lessons, videos, and games
Storyline Online	Videos of actors reading childrens’ stories
ReadWriteThink	Resources for parents to support lessons and activities for students
Sports Illustrated Kids	Student-friendly sports articles
Tween Tribune Junior	Student-friendly news articles by Smithsonian
Teaching Tolerance	A great resource full of lessons and articles to help students explore identity and diversity, recognize injustice and learn to take action.
Newsela	News following current events and special interest. All articles can change lexile, making it easier or more challenging to read. Students can also take a short comprehension quiz and answer a writing prompt.
The Reading Bridge	A great resource for bridging the gap between home and school for reading. This includes activities focusing on phonemic awareness, fluency, phonics, vocabulary, and more.
Genre Wheel	Expand your student's reading genres with this genre wheel (pdf)
Comprehension questions	A great list of questions to help facilitate discussion and understanding of any book your student may be reading. (pdf)

Math

Practice pages	A mix of games and printable pdfs separated by skill and grade. Comes with answer keys.
Arcademics	Full of fun games based on math skills
Youcubed	Creative resources and lessons for math enrichment
Math Learning center	Math units and additional resources such as games organized by grade and skill.
Math at Home	Practice sheets, activity of the day, family games, and online games, all organized by grade level!
Math Manipulatives	Digital math manipulatives to help students solve math problems - includes fraction pieces, pieces for probability, place value, and more.
Polypad	An easy math manipulate for using different shapes. It also includes a digital protractor students can manipulate!

Social Studies

Museums of Western Colorado	Virtual exhibits and resources from the Museums of Western Colorado
Colorado State Facts	Pictures and facts all about Colorado National Geographic for kids
Financial Fables	Stories focused on personal finance and economics - students can read to themselves or be read to on the site!
iCivics	Full of interactive games to help students understand how their government works
Museum of Western Art	Resources focusing on the art of the West.
Interactive US history map	Different interactive games and maps of the United States that focus on different parts of history.
Money ideas to discuss with children	Resources for building up your child’s financial smarts, including ideas on saving, earning, planning, and more.
Ben’s Guide to the Government	Articles geared towards different age groups that explain the workings of the US government
USA interactive geography games	Interactive games on US geography
Colorado History	Online exhibits all about the history of Colorado.
Explore with National Geographic	Resources, articles, and lessons all curated for different age groups from National Geographic
Virtual Tours around the world	An extensive list of virtual tours of museums, libraries, and live/360° cam views of zoos and aquariums.

Science

National Science Teaching Association	Daily-dos from the NSTA that focus on engineering and scientific thinking.
Mystery Science	Short lessons and activities for students, separated by grade level.
Virtual Field Trips	Virtual field trips hosted through Discovery Education
Nature Lab	Lessons and activities hosted by the Nature Conservancy. There are also links for self-guided ‘summer camps’.
Science Articles	Written by scientists and reviewed by kids!
Museum of Natural History	Virtual tours from the Museum of Natural History.
Museums of Western Colorado	Virtual exhibits and teaching resources from museums of Western Colorado.
The Kid Should See This	Free science-based videos
Eureka!	Homepage for the McConnell Science Museum in Grand Junction, complete with parent resources.

Health and Wellness

Active Play Active Learning Brain Breaks	A list of General and subject-based brain breaks and how to play them. (download)
20 Three-minute Brain Breaks	A list of brain break ideas
Go Noodle	A great resource for brain break videos, even for older kids!
Would You Rather	In this video, participants get to choose between options and do the corresponding exercises (7 minutes)
Fitness Videos for Kids	A series of youtube video workouts based on superheroes, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and other pop culture icons.
Alliance for a Healthier Generation	A great website for overall health and nutrition ideas and resources. (free account)
Kids workouts to do at home	A series of youtube workouts geared towards kids.
Cosmic Kids Yoga	A series of yoga videos based on stories, video games, and movies
Action For Healthy Kids	Ideas and resources on fostering mindfulness such as journaling, breathing exercises, and other social/emotional practices.
Choose my Plate	Activity sheets, videos and songs, and other resources focused on healthy eating habits.
Kids Health	A great wealth of resources with sections for parents, kids, and teens.

Other

Typing	Typing games to help students hone their skills
Music Play	Games and online learning for music including resources by grade and lessons for ukulele, guitar, and recorder.
Khan Academy App	Khan Academy kids is a great app full of educational games and even has books on the students level that they can read or have read to them, word by word!
Math Apps	List of math apps from the math learning center
Bedtime Math App	Short stories perfect for bedtime that enforce mathematical thinking