Today’s Patriot’s Day holiday marks the sixth week of school closures, and the start of April vacation week in Boston. Without formal online learning taking place this week, we’re once again sharing a range of resources and activities to help keep families and students informed, safe, and busy.

We have one news item before we get to resources. After five weeks of negotiation, the Boston Teachers Union and the Boston Public Schools reached an agreement on Friday as to how distance learning will work for BPS students and families.  We will have more information on this agreement, and how it impacts at-home learning, in the days ahead.

Please note that all of our previous updates with coronavirus-related resources are available on the SchoolFacts Boston Blog. Here are several more:

Keep Safe

• Everyone is encouraged to wear face masks when not inside their homes. This New York Times article tells you how to wear one correctly for optimal protection.
• Boston continues to have a voluntary curfew in place for those not providing “essential Covid-related services;” all residents are asked to remain home from 9 p.m. through 6 a.m. each day.

Keep Centered

• With feelings of stress and uncertainty being broadly shared, these 12 tips aim to help keep us centered, calm, and compassionate.
• For when online learning resumes, five great tips on how to keep your at-home learners motivated. 
• From We Are Teachers, eight ideas and actions to promote Social-Emotional Learning at home.
• Blissful Kids shares this mindfulness game for children ages 4 and up. All you need is some space and a few feathers.

Keep Reading and Writing

• Great tips from Facing History & Ourselves on launching a remote learning book club.
• In its ode to April being National Poetry Month, Facing History & Ourselves is also offering three poetry activities to help teens connect with history.

Keep Busy

• The cooking website Delish.com is offering daily online cooking classes for kids, including today’s lesson on how to make a skillet brownie at 1 p.m.
• Need an escape? The Boston Globe suggests these seven virtual trips that entertain and inform, including an inside look at zoo life and touring a battleship.
• For kids who want to code, these one-hour activities from Code.org are perfect for students in Grade 2 and up.
• For the PreK and kindergarten set, Elmo’s Playdate from PBS demonstrates acts of kindness and caring via video.

Keep Active

• Trillfit in Mission Hill is offering some of their sweat-inducing workouts at no charge from their website, including cardio dance.

Keep Connected 

• For parents of students with disabilities, the Federation for Children with Special Needs is hosting regular information sharing events on their Facebook page, including Friday
  Q & A sessions. On Tuesday, April 30, Boston SPEDPAC will host an online meeting via Zoom focused on transition services and a Covid-19 Q & A from 7-8:30 p.m. For more information email@bostonspedpac.org or call 617-297-7335.
• The Boston Globe, through The Great Divide series, has been focused on how students are managing during school closures. Students who would like to receive text updates and opportunities to connect in regularly hosted “town halls” online should text “hello” to 1-833-335-2777. 
• The Boston Public Schools is conducting a district-wide survey to gauge how students and families are managing during the crisis; all BPS families can access the survey available in multiple languages here.
• BPS students requiring Chromebooks or help with internet connections can find help here. General updates and resources from the BPS during school closures may be found here.

Keep informed

• Boston City Hall is operating under reduced hours and will only be open on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you need to visit City Hall for essential services, you must make an appointment. All City of Boston COVID-19 updates are available here. For information on available resources, the non-emergency phone number for the city is 311.
• The state’s unemployment website can now be accessed in Spanish and the addition of more languages is forthcoming.
• State of Massachusetts COVID-19 updates are here. The non-emergency phone number to reach the state is 211.
• The City of Boston’s resource page to access information on emergency meals and housing. 
• If you are worried about eviction, contact City Life/Vida Urbana’s Housing Hotline at (617) 934-5006 (English) or (617) 397-3773 (Español). The city’s Office of Housing Stability is also available to help families find and maintain housing.

If you have additional resources you’d like us to share with other families, please let us know by emailing info@schoolfactsboston.org.