The 2020 school year will look different for all of us, regardless what learning method your family has chosen for your students. Pikes Peak Library District has tools and resources to support you in your education journey this year!
Homework Resources Guide
First stop: get your card.
- Either stop by a PPLD facility to sign up, or print out an application ahead of time to bring with you (located here).
- OR
- Apply for a card online!
- You must live within the PPLD service area
- You will need proof of your current address and a photo ID
- If you're 15-years-old or younger, you must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Learn more about the Library's response to Covid-19.
Brainfuse
Live homework help and skills building online with expert tutors in math, science, social studies, and English, plus writing and reading assistance.
Peterson's Test Prep
Study Guides and Practice Tests:
This database provides study guides and timed practice exams for all major college entrance exams and standardized tests, plus college planning, scholarship search, and career exploration tools.
Databases
These platforms provide high-quality educational content and are fun to explore! Access is free with a valid library card and pin number. Databases include:
- Academic Search Premier: Contains full text for more than 2,000 journals, including more than 1,550 peer-reviewed titles. This multi-disciplinary database covers virtually every area of academic study.
- Consumer Health Complete:A comprehensive full-text resource for consumer-oriented health content covering all areas of health and wellness from mainstream medicine to the many perspectives of complementary, holistic and integrated medicine.
- CultureGrams: Includes over 200 reports on countries and cultures and state reports outlining the diversity and history of each U.S. state and the District of Columbia. Designed for upper elementary-aged children
- Gale Virtual Reference Library: Searches our entire collection of Gale eBooks on a variety of subjects, including history, science, government, and more.
- CustomGuide: Interactive online training for Microsoft Office software. Includes Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Windows and Word. New users will need to create an account.
- LinkedIn Learning: Formerly Lynda.com, LinkedIn Learning offers online video tutorials to help you learn software, creative, and business skills.
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context: Explore current events and controversial issues by researching multiple sides of a topic. This database aids students in writing argumentative essays and developing analytical thinking skills.
- Science Reference Center: Provides easy access to a multitude of full-text, science-oriented content. Designed to meet every student researcher's needs, Science Reference Center contains full text for 732+ science encyclopedias and reference books, 195 periodicals, 519 science videos and other sources.
Online Resource Guides
Librarian-Approved Info on Tons of Topics!
Your source for research assistance, subject guides, and library resources.
- Tough topics like mental health, substance abuse, and sexuality.
- Areas of personal growth like exploring career pathways, college financial aid, and ACT, SAT, and GRE testing.
- Beginning the transitions into driving and vehicle registration, including CO DMV practice tests.
Mango Languages
Ready to expand your horizons by learning a new language? Mango Languages features 70 language options, including 21 options for those learning English as a second language. Explore languages from Irish to Punjabi in the comfort of your own home, or download the app to learn on the go! Students can go at their own pace. The courses have been created by expert linguists and native-speaking instructors to ensure that the content is grammatically and conversationally correct, as well as culturally relevant.
Workforce Readiness Training
Get ready to get a job or go to college! Work your way through modules focused on professionalism, communication, social skills, and goal setting to prepare yourself for the next big step in your life. Folks below age 15 should focus on the “basic” training while older youth might find the “intermediate” training more appropriate. Complete the training and pass an assessment to earn 10 hours of volunteer credit!
The Homeschool Hub
The PPLD Homeschool Hub has a wealth of resources and tools to support your learning at home efforts. You can also sign up for their newsletter here. Click on “Resources” to find information on getting started; Colorado homeschool law, online courses, concurrent enrollment, and enrichment programs; tutoring; extracurricular activities; support organizations; and more.
Featured Homeschool Resources Whether you are homeschooling full- or part-time, or simply looking for ways to enrich your child’s education, the online resources featured in this issue provide a variety of elucidating and engaging possibilities.
- Learning Heroes This site provides parents with a picture of their child’s learning needs along with tools to bolster their academic, social, and emotional development. A “Readiness Check” with short questions about reading or math for grades K - 8 will show you where your student stands. You’ll also find learning aids by subject and grade level, ways to identify a child’s character strengths and areas for development, an idea-packed “Anti-Racism Resources Directory,” and more. It’s also accessible in Spanish!
- GreatSchools This resource helps with developing “Emotional Smarts,” learning issues, building character, college prep, and more. A “What Your Child Should Have Learned” section outlines key academic and social benchmarks typical for grades K - 8 along with specific subject check-ins aligned with Common Core State Standards. Short “Milestones” videos clarify grade level expectations by demonstrating what success looks like in reading, writing, and math in grades K - 12. Parents can also access learning activities, vocab words, worksheets, and more by grade level. It’s also accessible in Spanish!
- Khan Academy This site provides free standards-aligned video tutorials and interactive exercises in math, science, and the humanities from kindergarten through the early years of college. The self-paced lessons are organized to build knowledge one concept at a time. Create a free account to track a student’s progress, chart subject mastery, and support their learning needs. Use Khan Academy to tackle new coursework, fill in gaps for subjects already learned, homework help, or as a fun activity. It’s accessible in numerous languages!
- Understood Understood is aimed at supporting kids with learning and thinking differences, like dyslexia and ADHD, by offering customized, accessible resources and a compassionate community. The “For Families” section organizes articles and resources into general topics: understanding and navigating learning and thinking differences; school and learning issues; socio-emotional development; community, including blogs and discussion groups; and “Through Your Child’s Eyes,” interactive simulations to help parents better understand their child’s world. It’s also accessible in Spanish!
- Wide Open School This site offers engaging, high-quality online learning experiences for kids pre-K - 12. Parents can access the content by subject, or plan a full school day by grade level. Other sections are dedicated to virtual field trips, art and music, physical activity, emotional well-being, English-language learners, learning differences, and more.
For Fun AND Learning!
eLibrary: More than Books!
This is the place to go for thousands of free digital materials. First, you'll need to create an account using your library card number and pin. Some services in the eLibrary include OverDrive (eBooks, eAudios, eVideos), Hoopla ( eMusic, eVideos, eComics, eBooks, eAudios), AudioBookCloud (eAudios), Freading (eBooks), Freegal (eMusic), Kanopy (eVideos), and more.
PPLD Kids
You can find plenty of PPLD resources here! Explore:
- Homework (search by subject to find databases, recommended websites, and more),
- Read (access booklists by grade level, genre, online resources, and more),
- Create (hands-on activities and websites),
- or Parents & Educators (curated information source for adults).
PPLD Teens
Get homework help, book recommendations, virtual programs, research resources, and more!
Tumble Book Library
eBooks for Kids!
This curated database of children’s eBooks offers over 1000 titles for kids in grades K - 6. Included are animated talking picture books, read-along chapter books, National Geographic videos, non-fiction books, literacy puzzles and games, books in Spanish and French, and graphic novels (a fan favorite!). Younger kids will enjoy listening to the stories while perusing the illustrations, while older or more accomplished readers can choose from the collection of read-along books featuring narration, sentence highlighting, and automatic page-turning. Each book is accompanied by a reading level, Lexile level, and grade information, plus an optional quiz. There are no limited check-out times or wait lists, so every item is always available to everyone.
Supplies:
- Tall, clear glass cylinder vase or container (preferably straight)
- Food coloring
- Measuring cup
- Order of liquids needed for this density "burrito" (but you could do less liquid choices, but make sure to start with a heavy liquid and end with the lightest liquid):
- Honey
- Corn Syrup (add a couple drops of food coloring)
- Maple Syrup
- Whole Milk
- Dish Soap
- Water (add a couple drops of food coloring)
- Vegetable Oil (add a couple drops of food coloring)
- Rubbing Alcohol (add a couple drops of food coloring)
- Lamp Oil (DO NOT add food coloring to this liquid - it's doesn't mix in.)
- Tray
- Turkey Baster
- Items to sink or float: ping-pong ball, plastic beads, metal bolt, grape or cherry tomato, etc.
Directions:
- Determine how many ounces your container holds with room to spare at the top. Round up or down to a number that can easily be divided your number of liquid layers. Measure the exact amount of liquid ingredients into separate containers. (My large container held about 32 oz. leaving room at the top, so I divided 32 by 9, and then rounded the number down to a 1/3 c. of each liquid to make it easy to measure. Have a grown-up help you, especially with the lamp oil.)
- Place the large container on the tray.
- Add the liquids IN ORDER (they go from most dense to least dense).
- Starting with the honey, pour it very slowly so that it doesn't touch the sides of the container.
- Next, very slowly, dribble the corn syrup on top of the honey. Don't let it touch the sides of the container either.
- Again like the first two, slowly dribble the maple syrup into the container on top of the corn syrup.
- Using the turkey baster, add the milk very slowly. Now it helps to pour the liquids slowly down the sides of the container as you add them. You will add the next five liquids in the same manner.
- When all the liquids are in place. Add items and watch them sink or float or get stuck, depending on their weight and the density of the liquid where it stops.
Watch this project at: https://youtu.be/QjEYa6xBVRQ?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu
Supplies:
- 3 chenille stems for each figure
- 1 wooden bead big enough to be the head – 5/8 to 3/4 inch
- 1 or 2 regular-sized colored plastic drinking straws for each figure
- 5 pony beads for each figure
- Small wire cutters
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Permanent markers for the face
- Glue
- Optional: Yarn, extra chenille stems, felt scraps, or other decorative items
- 3 chenille stems for each figure
- 1 wooden bead big enough to be the head – 5/8 to 3/4 inch
- 1 or 2 regular-sized colored plastic drinking straws for each figure
- 5 pony beads for each figure
- Small wire cutters
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Permanent markers for the face
- Glue
- Optional: Yarn, extra chenille stems, felt scraps, or other decorative items
Directions:
- Take one of the chenille stems and twist it around the other two about 2/3 of the way up; twist about three times, or enough so that they will not unwind. (See #1 picture below)
- Slide 3 pony beads over both of the “legs” up to the twist you made.
- With the permanent marker, draw a face on the bead; then slide the bead down over the middle two stems.(See #2 picture)
- Cut off some of the excess stem above the bead, but leave enough to coil it into a bun. Use a little glue to glue the bun flat to the “head.” (Alternate method: Cut several strands of yarn for hair and twist the excess stem over it to hold it in place.)
- With the scissors, snip eight sections of colored straw about 1 ¼ inches long.
- Slide two of the sections over the “arms.” Twist the part of the stem that is sticking out to form mitten-type hands with thumbs. Tuck the excess stem back into the straw. (See #3 and #4 pictures)
- Slide a section of the straw over each “leg;” add a pony bead, and then the other section of straw. Form the part of the stem that is sticking out into a big foot so your figure can stand up. Tuck the excess stem back into the straw.
- If you want, you can decorate your figure with extra chenille stems, felt, yarn, or whatever you happen to have. You can make warriors, princesses, superheroes, knights – anything you want! (See #5 picture)
Watch this project at: https://youtu.be/UnGxbypCuBw?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu