• Miami-Dade WIC April Updates
• Miami-Dade WIC Locations

From Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS)  and COMCAST:

• M-DCPS Provides Support to Students and Families During School Closures- Digital Connectivity Efforts
• Beginning Monday, Comcast is offering free WiFi via Xfinity hotspots where Xfinity service is available for 60 days. This is in addition to the Internet Essentials Program, normally $9.95 per month that will provide an in-home modem and 60 days of free service for eligible low-income M-DCPS families. Participation in this program is strongly recommended for those in need. More information about the free internet service can be found at http://distancelearning.dadeschools.net/ . Access to free WiFi connections via hotspots should be limited to educational use or other essential health and safety functions. Comcast has also agreed to provide flexibility on late fees and payment options. Those struggling to pay for internet service should contact 1-800-Comcast. https://www.internetessentials.com/

Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) Schools Open For Meal Pickup

Spring break is over for Miami-Dade students, and “Grab-and-go” meals will be distributed at 50 select school sites throughout the district. Beginning, Tuesday, March 31^st, meals will only be served from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. to ensure that the virtual instructional day is not disrupted. MDCPS Student Meals Distribution Sites

Indoor Activities: Indoor Treasure Hunt | Super Cool Lava Lamp Experiment (science)

Stress Management and Musical Activities: Make Your Own Stress Ball | Music Games

Outdoor Activities: I-Spy Workout | Kick the Can

Arts & Crafts: Magazine Boxes | Toilet Paper Roll Crafts

Websites: Pre-K, Kinder, 1st Gr Website | Elementary and Middle School Website | Parents Only – Self-Care

Junior Achievement is offering support to students, parents and teachers during this period of uncertainty. It is providing access to learning experiences that students can do on their own, with a parent or other caring adult or with teachers via a digital/virtual environment. Resources are organized by school level and focus on financial literacy, workforce readiness and entrepreneurship.

Virtual Field Trips (Miami venues, Attractions go Virtual)

• Vizcaya Museum and Gardens presents its free Online Experiences, which includes virtual tours, video lectures and performances. Explore areas of Vizcaya that visitors rarely get to see, such as the stone barge and the swimming pool grotto. Find out how a lost manuscript by James Deering’s assistant shines a light on life at Vizcaya. Watch past performances from artists who participated in Vizcaya’s Professional Arts Workshops for three consecutive years. Also available are lectures, expert interviews, archive content and behind-the-scenes moments.
• Deering Estate’s learning team is providing a “Science @ Home” virtual series featuring at-home science activities for parents and children. Follow @DiscoverDeering on Instagram and Instagram Stories to try your hand at indoor experiments. Adults also can follow @DeeringEstate and join Deering’s curatorial team on Instagram and Instagram Stories for a virtual tour that explores the estate and relates its special history and past events.
• Bass Museum is offering virtual tours of its current exhibitions, streams of its “Curator Culture” talk with artists sharing insight into past exhibitions, as well as “Art Camp from Home” for kids.
• Jungle Island is offering programming for kids age 5-12. Find daily lessons and themes starting at 11 a.m. Monday through Friday via their Facebook and Instagram pages.
• New World Symphony known as America’s Orchestral Academy, is presenting a series of online performances and musical insights via streaming partners Medici TV and IDAGIO. Watch as Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas leads the symphony in past performances, as well as upcoming chamber music concerts and the web-based series NWS Archive+.
• HistoryMiami Museum offers virtual looks at current exhibitions, both permanent and traveling as well as their archives collections. The Museum’s local historian Dr. Paul George is hosting “Miami Moments with Dr. George” traveling throughout South Florida’s historic neighborhoods. Tours are weekdays at 3 p.m. via their Facebook page.
• ICA Miami in the Design District has plenty to offer online including musical performances, poetry readings and talks with curators.
• Miami Beach Botanical Garden on Miami Beach is offering virtual yoga classes and garden-related activities via their Facebook page.
• Miami Children’s Museum wants to bring their great museum experience to you and continue providing the best possible environment for children and families to play, learn, imagine and create.
• Frost Science Museum lets you look behind the scenes with videos and walk through virtually via their Frost Science blog, FrostScience@Home.
• MOCA located in Downtown North Miami has gone virtual and is showcasing a tour of the exhibition “Cecilia Vicuna: About to Happen.”
• Perez At Museum Miami offers a look inside its massive space and current and permanent exhibitions, as well as art talks and children’s programming.
• The Wolfsonian – FIU is showcasing their exhibitions via virtual tours, the more than decade-long blog by their librarian and video of artists discussing their work.
• Frost Art FIU has virtual tours of three of their exhibitions, along with video montages of current exhibitions and a look behind the scenes with Museum staff.
• Miami New Drama is offering a series of free online virtual classes on writing, acting and creating and directing a musical.

FROM THE CHILDREN’S TRUST

• How to Deal with the Panic Pandemic / The Mental Toll of Coronavirus on Kids 
• Making the Most of the New Normal (Working at Home with Kids)

FROM MIAMI-DADE LIBRARIES 

All libraries are closed to the public. 

Due dates for all materials, as well as pickup dates for requested materials on hold, have been extended until regular operations resume. Please do not worry about returning any library books or items that you have checked out. No late fees. · The online library remains always open and accessible from anywhere. A wealth of digital options are available to patrons for free with their library card, including eBooks, eAudiobooks, digital magazines, movies, music, online learning, tutoring and more. · Those who don’t have a library card can apply for an eCard online at ecard.mdpls.org or through the MDPLS mobile app. 

The Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Customer Care team is available by email at customercare@mdpls.org Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. 

Many people rely on access to our MDPLS Wi-Fi. As an alternative, Xfinity has opened its Wi-Fi public hotspots to everyone for free. Go to the Xfinity website and enter your zip code to find a hotspot near you.

Unplugged Activities for Children at Home

• Terrarium note card 
• Send a hug
• Children can send cards/ letters to nursing homes
• Make comic books
• Sing a heritage nursery rhyme and share the video
• Pick a book, recording you reading it aloud and send to a nursing home or hospital
• Tell knock-knock jokes; or jokes in different heritage languages video
• Have a movie marathon.
• Play board games and card games.
• Do a puzzle.
• Put on a play.
• Make your own music video.
• Write letters to friends and relatives.
• Have your children help you cook something simple in the kitchen.
• Plant a garden.
• Help with chores.
• Set up indoor hopscotch with tape
• Encouragement jar
• Do origami
• Build paper polyhedrons (download worksheet)
• PBS activity finder 
• Toilet paper rolls crafts ideas 
• Frost science museum stargazing activity
• Frost Science activities

Arts and Science Ideas

• Make similar videos with children dancing with significant music for our community:
• Video Happy with children around the world. Be strong get through this and we will see this happening again!
• Dancing Around the World
• Kid power movement initiative – enroll
• https://www.unicefkidpower.org/
• Melted crayon art piece
• Juice gel bubbles
• Gondola message
• Wind powered car 
• Cards or gift tags 
• Playdough stamps
• Origami paper bracelets
• Kids at home hub 
• Scholastic PreK-K 
• Scholastic learn at home I-2 graders 
• Scholastic 3-5 
• Make your own board game
• Make an elephant toothpaste
• Kids under 5
• Free podcast 
• Frost Science Museum virtual tour 

Unplugged Activities for Children at Home by Themselves

• Sink or float
• Go for a length hunt 

Global Field Trips (virtual)

Virtual trips to Museums with Google

• https://artsandculture.google.com/partner
• Guggenheim Museum virtual visit
• Van Gogh Museum
• Louvre Museum 
• Houston Zoo Web live cameras 
• Virtual tour to Yellowstone Park
• The Great Wall of China virtual tour 
• Boston Children Museum Virtual tour 
• Explore Africa nightlife live camera
• Oddizzi virtual trip around the world 
• Met Kids
• Virtual tour British Museum 
• Expedition insects 
• Take a virtual glider around the world 
• Virtual trip to Alaska
• Visit Zion National park 
• Beluga webcam at Georgia Aquarium 

Children can navigate by themselves in these Educational Websites: 

• Reading aloud series
• Cosmic Kids Yoga 
• Learn something about art everyday 
• Global Newspaper Headlines 
• Story Pirate podcast 
• Story time from space 
• How to draw tutorials 

Digital libraries

International children’s digital library

• English
• Spanish
• French
• Time for kids free digital library 
• Visit Seuss Ville 
• Start your own book club 
• Digital library
• Portuguese
• Deutch
• Navigate and watch Bil Nye the Science guy 
• Learn a language  
• Free news and games about the corona virus 
• Young Writers program
• Science Friday website 
• Cool Math for kids 
• How stuff works 
• Illustrator Mo Willems art classes 

Free Coding Programs for Children

• https://code.org/
• http://www.crunchzilla.com/
• https://scratch.mit.edu/