READ ALOUDS
Kid Lit TV: Listen to Read Out Loud or the Kid Lit podcast, or children can meet the author with StoryMakers, and watch Illustrators draw book characters and scenes on Ready Set Draw. Parents take a look at the crafts and activities or the Grownups page with lots of book suggestions!
Storyline Online: Streams videos featuring celebrated actors reading children’s books alongside creatively produced illustrations. Each book comes with activity guides for parents and teachers.
Children’s Book Council: Features children’s reading lists, reader resources, book awards, and more.
Choice Reading Lists: The International Literacy Association features downloadable PDFs of Choice Reading Lists for children, teachers, and young adults.
Common Sense Media: Independent reviews, age ratings, & information about all types of media from books to movies to video games.
Illinois Reads: The Illinois Reading Council provides annual book list for Birth through Adult readers.
Kids Reads: Reviews of new children’s books, info about upcoming titles, author interviews
Read.gov: The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress invites people of all ages to discover the fascinating people, places and events that await you whenever you read.
Scholastic Book Lists: A great resource to help find books on topics or themes that interest children. Includes summaries of the books as well as recommended grade level.
EDUCATION
ABCmouse: ABCmouse.com is a global education initiative of Age of Learning, Inc. Its goal is to help children build a strong foundation for future academic success by providing a comprehensive and engaging online curriculum to greatly assist early learners to succeed in pre-k, kindergarten, and early elementary school programs. Available for use only on Columbia Public Library computers.
Cool Math: Experience “math for ages 13-100” – explanations that are easy to grasp on topics like algebra, pre-calculus and more.
Cool Math 4 Kids: For our 12 and under users, an amusement park of math, games, and more, designed to teach math and make it FUN.
Cool Math Games: Brain-training site, for everyone, where logic & thinking meet fun & games.
iCivics: Play fun games that transform abstract concepts into real-life problems. Learn how government works by experiencing it. Step into the role of a judge, a member of Congress, a community activist, even the President of the United States – and do the job they do.
Math Game Time: Free math games, worksheets, and videos for students in PreK – 7th grade to excel in math.
Nick Jr.: Children PreK – Kindergarten can play games and watch videos about their favorite Nick Jr. television characters.
PBS Kids: Children PreK – Grade 3 can explore the games, stories, clips, music, and printables of their favorite PBS shows.
Sparky® (National Fire Protection Association): Learn about Fire Safety from Sparky the Fire Dog. Play games, watch videos, read an eBook, and print off activities.
DISCOVER & LEARN ONLINE
DKfindout! Search, learn, and explore information on a safe and secure site. Perfect for help with homework, covers many subjects and includes quizzes, videos, and animations. There are articles for parents to explain the curriculum to their child and ideas on how you can help them.
Duolingo: Free online language learning program designed to be fun and accessible for everyone around the world. Built to feel like a game, users can learn 30+ different languages as they compete with each other as they learn. Lessons are “bite-sized” which means they can be picked up any time or taken on-the-go in 5 minutes at a time.
GCFLearnFree.org: Learn the essential skills you need to live and work in the 21st century. From Microsoft Office and email, to reading, math, and more –
GCFLearnFree.org offers more than 200 topics, including more than 7,000 lessons, more than 1,000 videos, and more than 50 interactives and games, completely free.
HippoCampus: Middle school to college aged students can explore over 7,000 free videos in 13 different subject areas.
How Stuff Works: Read, watch, and listen to easy-to-understand answers and explanations of how the world actually works.
National Geographic Kids: Discover more about animals, science, space, the United States, and the Native Americans with articles, videos, games, fun quizzes, and science experiments.
Typing Club: A full range of experiences from games, videos and different typing challenges makes learning fun for children learning to type.
We Love Weather TV: Learn about weather science and safety via articles, videos, photos, a podcast, and fun quizzes.
Wonderopolis ®: A place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages. Each day, we pose an intriguing question – the Wonder of the Day® – and explore it in a variety of ways. Created by the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL).