Local Organizations
Blue Bear Music: Online Music Lessons. Online, private lessons for a ton of different instruments, from piano to ukulele. Lessons for recording, mixing, and production are also available.
Children’s Creativity Museum. The Children’s Creativity Museum features innovative multi-media art and technology experiences for children ages 2-12.
Contemporary Jewish Museum. The CJM offers a wide variety of accessible and engaging arts events and programs for adults, teens, and families.
de Young Museum. The Fine Arts Museums’ Department of Education offers free community art making and art talks for adults, children, and families!
Handful Players’ Online Performing Arts Programs. Handful Players has created 40 unique and entertaining instructional videos in puppetry, clowning, storytelling, dance, hip-hop, rap, and theater-based games designed for youth and families in our community.
KQED Education. Free media literacy teaching & learning hub for educators and students. Professional development courses, classroom resources and unique tools that allow students to practice critical thinking, media making and civil discourse.
RAFT: Resource Area for Teaching. RAFT leverages community donations and bulk purchasing to offer a wide range of low-cost materials, hands-on teaching tools, and school supplies. Online resources include content to help meet the needs for a wide variety of subjects, standards, and curriculum.
SF Arts. Excellent calendar of arts-related events for children & youth.
San Francisco Arts Commission. The San Francisco Arts Commission serves as a resource hub for the San Francisco arts education community, providing arts access for youth and families. Education opportunities include workshops, grants, online resources and convenings.
San Francisco Ballet. SF Ballet education resource guides provide audiences with an opportunity to explore, investigate, make connections, analyze, and reflect about dance and SF Ballet performances.
San Francisco Film Society’s FilmEd. Teaching tools, lesson library, video channel, and opportunities to connect with other interested educators and organizations.
SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). When you can’t make it to the museum, SFMOMA’s teacher resources help you bring art into your classroom.
SF Opera. Explore articles, attend workshops, special public events and more.
SF Zoo’s Wild About Art & Science Lesson Plans. Use these lessons to enhance student learning in science and provide an outlet for artistic creativity. Each lesson is designed to meet Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and provide grade-appropriate lessons and activities that focus on California biodiversity.
Websites
Activity Village. Over 10,000 pages of free children's activities.
Art for Kids Hub on YouTube. Our family loves making art together and hope you’ll follow along with us. Many of our lessons are perfect for any age - all you need is a few supplies!
Art Projects for Kids. Blog with tons of arts and crafts project ideas.
Audiojack. Take back your imagination with audio-based movies! An Audiojack is made with with no words, no music, and no video. Hundreds of sounds are layered together to create a story for your mind with no wrong answer! Listen, create, and enjoy the show! The app is free and exercises are included.
Blinds Chalet. Instructions for creative window decoration craft projects, including stained glass, sun catchers, window hangings, and more.
Crayola for Educators. Free lesson plans, (including Common Core lesson plans), craft project ideas, and professional development resources.
Face Music. Free catalog of traditional music from all over the world.
Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems (Kennedy Center Education Artist-in-Residence at Home). Learners worldwide can draw, doodle and explore new ways of writing by visiting Mo’s virtual studio virtually. Grab some paper and pencils, pens, or crayons and make art together.
PBS LearningMedia. KQED and PBS-curated FREE, standards-aligned videos, interactives, lesson plans, and more just for California teachers.
Peace Corps Educators. The third goal of the Peace Corps is to teach Americans about the world by providing educational resources to promote global competence. Includes activities, lesson places, a list of the Peace Corps’ partners, and more.
PlanetPals. Arts and craft lessons using recycled materials.
Radici Studios. Free coloring pages, Zoom-based classes, and other resources for making art. Bonus: Zoom-based Art Happy Hour for Adults 21+!
Rainforest Alliance. Games, activities, articles for kids, and more. Have fun while learning all about rainforests and the people and wildlife that call them home.
San Francisco Arts Commission’s Art Education Directory. Comprehensive directory of agencies that provide art education programming in San Francisco.
San Francisco Symphony Teacher Resources. Lesson plans that explore subjects such as reading, math, social studies, and science through the lens of classical music.
Smithsonian Distance Learning. Access to millions of digital resources from across the Smithsonian's museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and more. Pre-packaged collections that contain lessons, activities, and recommended resources made by Smithsonian museum educators and thousands of classroom teachers.
Teaching Tolerance. From film kits and lesson plans to the building blocks of a customized Learning Plan—texts, student tasks and teaching strategies—resources that will help you bring relevance, rigor and social emotional learning into your classroom for free.
The Broad Stage Learning Hub. Catalogue of arts-focused Learning Guides focused on dance, theater, and music, plus video workshops and full show performance videos from past student matinees at The Broad Stage.
Twig Education. Thousands of videos in English and/or Spanish that include lessons, activities, and visuals.
Worldmapper. A collection of world maps, called cartograms, in which territories are re-sized on each map according to the subject of interest. Warning: major rabbit hole (in the best way)!
Field Trips
Since real field trips are gonna be a no-no for a while, check this out: The 50 Best Virtual Museum Tours Around the World.
Are we missing something? Let us know! Email info@dcyf.org