Kentucky Education Television (KET)
This section of the Kentucky Educational Television (KET) website has content devoted specifically to young learners. They also provide links to parent resources for supporting healthy development and learning for children.
KET Education: Activities for Exploring at Home
This additional Kentucky Educational Television (KET) resource is specifically designed to encourage summer exploring and learning at home for students Grade PreK-3.
PBS Learning Media
PBS Learning Media is a vast collection of videos, images, articles and more that are often used by K-12 teachers throughout the school year. However, these same resources are a great source of educational content parents and caregivers may use to meet the learning needs of children at home.
Kentucky Virtual Library
The Kentucky Virtual Library (KYVL), a program of the Council on Postsecondary Education, is a consortium between Kentucky K-12 schools, universities and public libraries. It provides access to dozens of databases covering a wide range of information, including access to digital magazines and books. During the summer, your public library can help you access content available through KYVL.
Library of Congress
This section of the Library of Congress website has links and resources geared specifically to help families learn together, including activities, read alouds and more.
National Geographic Kids
National Geographic Kids is an excellent print publication, but their free online resources are useful for quick bits of summer learning. The short nonfiction articles are high-interest and make a great source for quick summer reads.
Wonderopolis
Wonderopolis, a program of the National Center for Families Learning, is a collection of interesting articles designed to get kids to question, think and explore. Each article contains great vocabulary, images and links to other reliable information on the Internet. To learn more about how families and teachers can use this free resource at home to build knowledge and wonder, watch our guest webcast below featuring Wonderopolis.
Sync: Audiobooks for Teens
Sync is a summer program sponsored by AudioFile Magazine. Teens can sign up to be notified by text each week when two FREE audio books are released. These can be downloaded during the week and listened to any time through the OverDrive Sora app. Audiobooks are great for some reluctant readers but also just another way to read and consume great literature.
Storyline Online
Storyline Online is a collection of children’s books being read aloud by well-known actors along with professionally produced displays of illustrations.
Storynory
Storynory is an online collection of over 600 free audiobooks.
Scholastic Summer Reading
From Monday, April 26 to Friday, September 3, kids can participate in the Scholastic Summer Reading Program where they will be encouraged to read, celebrate their achievements and help increase access to books for their peers.
Read to Me
Read to Me offers some great tips and ideas for reading aloud to young people. Workshops, readings lists, activities, videos and more can be found on their resources page.
Reading Rockets
This specific page on the Reading Rockets website offers a wide variety of information, support, resources and research for parents who want to encourage reading and learning for their children.
Tween Tribune
Tween Tribune is a great collection from Smithsonian of nonfiction articles that are leveled for K-4, 5-6, 7-8, and 9-12. There is also a collection of articles in Spanish and articles can be browsed by topics and Lexile levels.
Unite for Literacy
Unite for Literacy is a free collection of narrated picture books and nonfiction books for young readers. There are books about animals, feelings, colors and more.
Lexile Find a Book for Summer Reading!
Research has shown that students who do not read consistently over the summer can lose momentum in maintaining the progress they made during the school year; this phenomenon is known as the “summer slide.” This year, as we continue our recovery from the pandemic, the loss could be even greater.
To encourage children and families to read independently throughout the summer, MetaMetrics—an educational research group—offers the FREE, research-based tool “Find a Book” to help students create a personalized reading list and then locate those books at the nearest library or bookseller.
Ready to get started?
- Download a two-page flyer (in English or in Spanish) to share with students and families.
- Visit “Find a Book.”
- Go to hub.lexile.com/fab.
- Enter the child’s Lexile measure or grade level.
- Pick subject categories that match the reader’s interests.
- View and refine the search results. Access the four-minute video for more information.
