Lockdown Lounge

Whether you want to entertain the kids, educate them or find something to take your mind off the reality of staying indoors for the foreseeable future, we’ve put together a collection of resources that might help.

Little Scribblers

Little Scribblers

This site has loads of ready-to-colour drawings for your little ones to show their thank to key workers.

Show some love by printing these pictures and putting your own stamp on them in an effort to reach out to all those amazing humans risking their lives. Finish the sentence with your own personal message, colour them in, post a picture and tag #thankyouhelpers to show your appreciation.


This Girl Can – Disney Dance-alongs

This Girl Can – Disney Dance-Alongs
This Girl Can – Disney Dance-Alongs

This Girl Can is all about celebrating women getting active, no matter how they like to do it.  Partnering with Disney and real families, they’ve captured some of the ways mums and kids get moving to the songs they love.  You can learn their moves or put your own spin on their routines.  At the end of the day, it’s about breaking a sweat while having a bit of fun.


Mr Motivator in Da House

Mr Motivator in Da House

Mr Motivator on YouTube with a daily exercise routine. What more can we say?


PE with Joe Wicks

PE with Joe
P.E with Joe

Has the lockdown upset your exercise routine? Don’t fancy a jog in the rain? Get your dose of daily exercise without going outdoors with the Body Coach.

The bouncy Joe Wicks has published a daily routine to beat the blues when stuck at home all day. Each episode includes a single, complete routine, including warm-up/down and last around 30 minutes. Do it before your daily Netflix routine, or after to kill the guilt!

Joe’s online routines are suitable for all ages, and there are even some lighter ones for the older generation. So there’s no excuse! And don’t forget the water!


Paths For All – Keeping active at home

Paths For All – Keeping active at home

According to the experts there’s three things all adults should try to do:

  1. Move around regularly. Reduce sitting ‘sedentary’ time throughout every day.
  2. Do some physical activity of moderate or vigorous intensity most days – such as 30 minutes 5 days a week. 
  3. Activities to build strength and improve balance, at least twice a week.

Paths For All have put together some handy tips.


The Maths Factor with Carol Vorderman

The Maths Factor
The Maths Factor

Bring the queen of mathematics into your living room and turn a boring subject into fun.

Carol Vorderman lifts the burden on this important task of teaching your child during lockdown.

For ages four to 12, and matched to the national curriculum, she’s even lifted the £2-a-week charge and made her teachings free, so you can binge teach your little ones. You never know, they could be doing your taxes next.


BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize
BBC Bitesize

You can rely on the good old Beeb to bring you free, good quality educational content.

BBC Bitesize is a free online study support resource designed to help with learning, revision and homework!

Bitesize provides support for learners aged 5 to 16+ across a wide range of school subjects and also supports children and young people’s wellbeing and career choices.

Bitesize guides are written by teachers and subject experts and are mapped to follow the curricula of the UK. Secondary Bitesize follows exam board specifications for the main exam boards in the UK, including for GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and National 4, National 5 & Highers in Scotland, ensuring students are preparing for the right exams.


Cbeebies

Cbeebies Bitesize

More from the BBC, this is aimed at the teeny tiny crew, and it’ll keep them entertained for hours.

Here you’ll find a collection of games, shows, puzzles and quizzes that are guaranteed to occupy the most inquisitive of minds.

You might even enjoy it yourself!


The World of David Walliams

The World of David Walliams
The World of David Walliams

More free fun from the unstoppable children’s author. Here’s a bounty of downloadable activities and resources.

If you’re looking for some exciting activities to keep boredom at bay, then you’ve definitely come to the right place! Scroll down for a treasure trove of fantastic activities, all inspired by David Walliams’ tremendous tales.

Filled with all the wacky and wonderful characters in David Walliams’ books, you can download any of these free activity sheets for hours of fun and learning at home!


Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum
Natural History Museum

Get stuck into nature with the Natural History Museum, with a whole website section called ‘Try this at home’. Teach your kids and have fun at the same time. The Natural History Museum features the following topics:

  • Oceans
  • Human Evolution
  • Space
  • Dinosaurs
  • British wildlife
  • and much, much more

Webcams

Can’t get to the zoo? No problem! Webcams bring live action from three of the UK’s animal hotspots right into your lounge, kitchen, or bedroom. And the best part? You don’t have to clear up after them.


NHS – Get Fit for Free

NHS – Get Fit for Free
NHS – Get Fit for Free

The NHS should know a thing or two about keeping you healthy. This fitness page explains several ways to get fit for free, and although you are only allowed out once a day for exercise, there should be enough activities to keep things mixed up. Here’s a taster of what to expect:

  • Stretch and flex
  • Couch to 5k
  • Cycle to work
  • Stair climbing

National Geographic Kids

National Geographic Kids
National Geographic Kids

National Geographic answers the questions you can’t, including ‘What is the Coronavirus?’

This is where you can also discover some of the coolest facts for kids from around our planet. From animals and geography to science, nature and history, there are so many amazing facts for kids just waiting to be discovered by young explorers like you!

Uncover curious creatures from both land and sea, ancient mysteries and civilisations, incredible destinations and natural wonders – prepare to be wowed by our wonderful world.


School of Sign Language

School of Sign Language
School of Signing

Free learning resources available and amazing interactive online learning programme from Primary Sign.

The School of Sign Language and Primary Sign vision is to inspire schools to embrace the opportunity to deliver a truly bilingual philosophy – treating the learning of British Sign Language (BSL) and English with equal importance. 


Save the Animals

Save the Animals
Save the Animals

Put on your hiking boots and safari jacket; you and the safari team are going to save animals in the big jungle. You can cross the jungle by solving all the multiplication table sums with the safari team. The safari team has also provided you with a map including all animals you have to find in the jungle.

Before you can start looking for the animals, you have to select which times tables you want to practice. You can choose from 1-12 and also practice multiple multiplication tables at once. Once you’ve chosen the multiplication tables, you can set the difficulty for your journey. The difficulty level determines how many sums you need to solve to complete your level and the speed at which the water will rise.


Family Zone

Family Zone
Family Zone

As a response to school closures, Family Zone has developed a comprehensive web portal for parents, to support you during this time.

Split up by age groups, you will find ideas and guidance for simple activities that will engage your children at home, while also benefiting their reading, writing and language development.

You’ll be able to access free reading and writing resources, audiobooks, videos, competitions and reading challenges. Every resource is available for free, although to access some you may need to create a free account.


Learn a language with Duolingo

Duolingo
Duolingo

Duolingo is an easy way to get started learning a language.

Learning with Duolingo is fun and addictive. Earn points for correct answers, race against the clock, and level up. Our bite-sized lessons are effective, and we have proof that it works.

Learning a language on Duolingo is completely free, but you can buy Duolingo Plus to get rid of ads and support the free version. First seven days are free. Use the website or the app on your phone.


VE Day celebrations with PoppyScotland

PoppyScotland
Poppy

The 75th anniversary of VE Day on 8 May won’t be the grand outdoor celebration that was planned. But PoppyScotland still has a huge amount of learning resources taking you back through time to 1945. Take a look at the wonderfully inspiring, highly informative and fun activities.

A Gaelic version of the learner activities is included.


Fun Family Crafts

Fun Famly Crafts
Fun Family Crafts

Amanda Formaro has been creating craft projects on the Internet for more than 20 years and as time passed it seemed they were spread far and wide.

Here she has collected a vast amount of craft ideas by other crafters too.

Fun Family Crafts only links to other projects. Visitors will enjoy a one-stop-shop type site that will host the best kid’s crafts around.


Little Cooks Co

Little Cooks Co
Little Cooks

The goal of Little Cooks Co is to help families make healthy choices for their children and themselves and remind them that nutritious food doesn’t have to be boring!

Most importantly, it is about the time spent with your little cooks, creating those happy memories in the kitchen that will stay with them for life.

This site contains hundreds of easy and fun recipes.


WOW Science

WOW Science

Wow Science was created by Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) in collaboration with Learning Science Ltd.

The site provides links to the best primary science learning materials on the web, helping children to enjoy science both inside and outside the classroom.

The resources, which cover a broad range of science subjects and are suitable for all primary ages, can be an excellent tool for teachers, students and their parents.

All the resources have been approved by the PSTT for quality and suitability, ensuring the content we promote is accurate and useful to learning.


Scouts – the Great Indoors

Scouts – The Great Indoors
Scouts – The Great Indoors

While we normally love the great outdoors, we’ve pulled together some inspired indoor activity ideas (if we do say so ourselves) to keep kids entertained while schools are closed due to coronavirus. Keep your kids learning new skills and having fun (and avoid hearing ‘I’m bored’ every 30 seconds) all in #TheGreatIndoors.

We know that the social and economic impact of Covid-19 on young people will be significant. These activities are free – of course! – but if you like what you see and you want to keep young people learning, connected and helping others during this period, please consider making a donation.


Barefoot Computing

Barefoot Computing

Computational thinking is about learning to solve problems, with or without a computer.

These problem solving skills not only support the computing curriculum in primary school, but also play a part in other subjects, from maths to PE, and can even be applied in everyday life!