BBC Learning Hub
Bored? No worries! Simply close your eyes and wiggle your fingers round and round. Whatever activity you land on is what you do today!
Sand sculptures, tide pools, shells, and a sunset. Kick off summer with your friends Sarah and Duck!
Costa Rica is a wildlife paradise with a variety of unique species. Read all about it at Level 1, 2, or 3!
Science/Environment
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The greatest stories of all time are true.
Discover the wild side of the underwater world in this video playlist! Meet the ocean's most unusual characters — from glowing anglerfish and toothy piranhas to spiky lionfish and balloon-like pufferfish. These 10 short clips from BBC favorites like Deadly 60 and Blue Planet reveal the surprising ways these strange fish hunt, hide, and survive. Packed with fun facts and jaw-dropping moments, it’s perfect for curious kids and adults alike!
Invite your students to explore the life cycles of common organisms with these life cycle sequencing cards. The cards cover the bean plant, butterfly, birch tree, apple tree, honeybee, ladybug, and frog. They come already mixed up, so kids can color, cut, and put them in order. Use as an introductory task, check for understanding, center activity, or study guide!
As you introduce life cycles, focus on key concepts such as stages of growth, changes in form and function, and the idea that all living things follow a pattern from beginning to end. Encourage students to ask questions, make predictions, and notice patterns across plants and animals.
Teaching life cycles in elementary school is not only standards-based, it's also a great way to help students understand how living things grow and change over time. At this level, students are ready to explore clear, observable stages — like seed to plant or egg to adult—and begin comparing similarities and differences across species.
In The Great Hammerhead Shark, naturalist Steve Backshall uses bait to entice great hammerhead sharks to swim near him. This video is excerpted from BBC's Deadly 60, an award-winning nature and adventure show for kids in which narrator Steve Backshall has one mission: to travel the globe in search of 60 of the world's deadliest animals.
The greatest stories of all time are true.
Discover the wild side of the underwater world in this video playlist! Meet the ocean's most unusual characters — from glowing anglerfish and toothy piranhas to spiky lionfish and balloon-like pufferfish. These 10 short clips from BBC favorites like Deadly 60 and Blue Planet reveal the surprising ways these strange fish hunt, hide, and survive. Packed with fun facts and jaw-dropping moments, it’s perfect for curious kids and adults alike!
Invite your students to explore the life cycles of common organisms with these life cycle sequencing cards. The cards cover the bean plant, butterfly, birch tree, apple tree, honeybee, ladybug, and frog. They come already mixed up, so kids can color, cut, and put them in order. Use as an introductory task, check for understanding, center activity, or study guide!
As you introduce life cycles, focus on key concepts such as stages of growth, changes in form and function, and the idea that all living things follow a pattern from beginning to end. Encourage students to ask questions, make predictions, and notice patterns across plants and animals.
Teaching life cycles in elementary school is not only standards-based, it's also a great way to help students understand how living things grow and change over time. At this level, students are ready to explore clear, observable stages — like seed to plant or egg to adult—and begin comparing similarities and differences across species.
In The Great Hammerhead Shark, naturalist Steve Backshall uses bait to entice great hammerhead sharks to swim near him. This video is excerpted from BBC's Deadly 60, an award-winning nature and adventure show for kids in which narrator Steve Backshall has one mission: to travel the globe in search of 60 of the world's deadliest animals.
History/Global Studies
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Take a trip around the globe and make stops at six famous world landmarks — a joyful adventure into new places, people, and cultures. Let's go!
Meet the Icons of the 20th Century. From brilliant scientists and inspiring activists to legendary athletes and artists, these remarkable individuals changed the world in powerful ways. In this video playlist of clips from BBC's Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century, meet Muhammad Ali, Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Pablo Picasso, Jane Goodall, Pelé, Billie Holiday and others — each a trailblazer who shaped history through courage, creativity, and conviction. A perfect playlist to inspire young minds to think big and act boldly!
Turn your classroom into a global exploration hub! This country report template invites students in Grades 3–8 to become curious investigators — uncovering what makes each country unique and sharing their discoveries in creative ways.
Designed with flexibility in mind, the resource includes two approachable formats:
- Snapshot Style: A lively, visual option that’s perfect for quick learning or younger students. Learners can sketch, label, and highlight key features — like flags, landmarks, foods, and traditions — while building confidence with short responses.
- Explorer Style: A more in-depth format for students ready to dig deeper. It guides learners through topics such as geography, wildlife, culture, and history, helping them organize ideas and develop clear, informative writing.
Best of all, this template pairs seamlessly with BBC videos — bringing countries to life through real-world sights, sounds, and stories. Students can watch, wonder, and then weave what they’ve learned into their own reports.
Quick Teacher Tips: Use country studies as a springboard into wider learning across subjects:
- Geography: Map skills, climate zones, landforms, and ecosystems
- Language Arts: Informational writing, summarizing, note-taking, and presenting
- History: Key events, timelines, and how the past shapes the present
- Math: Population comparisons, distances, currency conversions
- Arts & Culture: Traditional patterns, music, celebrations, and food
- Current Events: Tie in informational reading and media literacy by exploring what’s happening in that country today in an age-appropriate way.
In The Rise of Greek Civilization, archaeologist and historian Richard Miles explains how the Greeks benefitted from the Phoenicians and transitioned from the dark ages to the foundation of a remarkable culture. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Ancient Worlds, an epic series with archaeologist and historian Richard Miles as he explores the roots of civilization from Mesopotamia to the fall of the Roman Empire.
Take a trip around the globe and make stops at six famous world landmarks — a joyful adventure into new places, people, and cultures. Let's go!
Meet the Icons of the 20th Century. From brilliant scientists and inspiring activists to legendary athletes and artists, these remarkable individuals changed the world in powerful ways. In this video playlist of clips from BBC's Icons: The Greatest Person of the 20th Century, meet Muhammad Ali, Helen Keller, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Pablo Picasso, Jane Goodall, Pelé, Billie Holiday and others — each a trailblazer who shaped history through courage, creativity, and conviction. A perfect playlist to inspire young minds to think big and act boldly!
Turn your classroom into a global exploration hub! This country report template invites students in Grades 3–8 to become curious investigators — uncovering what makes each country unique and sharing their discoveries in creative ways.
Designed with flexibility in mind, the resource includes two approachable formats:
- Snapshot Style: A lively, visual option that’s perfect for quick learning or younger students. Learners can sketch, label, and highlight key features — like flags, landmarks, foods, and traditions — while building confidence with short responses.
- Explorer Style: A more in-depth format for students ready to dig deeper. It guides learners through topics such as geography, wildlife, culture, and history, helping them organize ideas and develop clear, informative writing.
Best of all, this template pairs seamlessly with BBC videos — bringing countries to life through real-world sights, sounds, and stories. Students can watch, wonder, and then weave what they’ve learned into their own reports.
Quick Teacher Tips: Use country studies as a springboard into wider learning across subjects:
- Geography: Map skills, climate zones, landforms, and ecosystems
- Language Arts: Informational writing, summarizing, note-taking, and presenting
- History: Key events, timelines, and how the past shapes the present
- Math: Population comparisons, distances, currency conversions
- Arts & Culture: Traditional patterns, music, celebrations, and food
- Current Events: Tie in informational reading and media literacy by exploring what’s happening in that country today in an age-appropriate way.
In The Rise of Greek Civilization, archaeologist and historian Richard Miles explains how the Greeks benefitted from the Phoenicians and transitioned from the dark ages to the foundation of a remarkable culture. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Ancient Worlds, an epic series with archaeologist and historian Richard Miles as he explores the roots of civilization from Mesopotamia to the fall of the Roman Empire.
BBC Newsroom
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Are you watching the 2026 World Cup?! We hope so, because it’s a big one. The biggest one, actually. It’s the first with three countries co-hosting (Canada, the U.S., and Mexico), and it’s been expanded to 48 teams (from 32).
But the size of the tournament isn’t where the differences end, not by a long shot! This year, the World Cup is also introducing new rules, like a possible red card for players covering their mouths! If you gasped and covered your own mouth, don’t worry. First because you’re probably not playing in the World Cup (yet), but also because this penalty is only given to players who are being confrontational.
Other additions include the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) getting the power to check second yellow cards and corners, a 5-second countdown on goal kicks and throw-ins, and a rule that players being subbed will have just 10 seconds to leave the pitch. No time for dilly dallying, we’ve got 16 more teams to watch this year!
Don’t you hate it when you’re late for work, but you just can’t find your bone and lunch bag of kibble? That may be the case for a group of dogs in Gulu, Northern Uganda, who work as therapy dogs, helping people with tough upbringings navigate their trauma and adjust to a happy life. To support a population that grew up in a war (and the unsafe conditions that came with it), a charity has paired them with dogs.
What’s better? The dogs benefit, too! We’re not talking about an end-of-the-week paycheck or big office parties, but something better: overdue love and affection. All the dogs are former street dogs, so they weren’t properly cared for, and these have helped more than 120 people and dogs find healing bonds with each other.
Feeling stressed? Try reading this out loud!
Researchers have found that reading together can help strengthen bonds and reduce stress. In a recent study, families were asked to read together while wearing a brain monitoring cap that tracks activity over time. The results suggested that moments of shared reading can sync brain patterns between two people, which then suggest that the experience of reading books together helps parents and children connect.
Furthermore, the importance of stories themselves can’t be ignored. Stories are how people explain the world and their lives to one another — the decisions you make and the person you become are partially influenced by the stories you’ve read or heard. The research is very new, but studies of this sort can help us understand why reading together builds empathy, focus, emotional well-being, and might support children’s development and encourage a lifelong love of reading. And not just because a good story might distract two siblings for long enough to stop flicking each other’s ears!
To help your students dive deeper into news content, we created this bundle of news story response worksheets. We designed these worksheets to be used with any of our news videos and to keep students focused as they watch and enhance comprehension and retention. (Please note that some worksheet types are better fits for certain content and grade levels). Assign students the same one, mix them up, or let them choose!
Are you watching the 2026 World Cup?! We hope so, because it’s a big one. The biggest one, actually. It’s the first with three countries co-hosting (Canada, the U.S., and Mexico), and it’s been expanded to 48 teams (from 32).
But the size of the tournament isn’t where the differences end, not by a long shot! This year, the World Cup is also introducing new rules, like a possible red card for players covering their mouths! If you gasped and covered your own mouth, don’t worry. First because you’re probably not playing in the World Cup (yet), but also because this penalty is only given to players who are being confrontational.
Other additions include the VAR (Video Assistant Referee) getting the power to check second yellow cards and corners, a 5-second countdown on goal kicks and throw-ins, and a rule that players being subbed will have just 10 seconds to leave the pitch. No time for dilly dallying, we’ve got 16 more teams to watch this year!
Don’t you hate it when you’re late for work, but you just can’t find your bone and lunch bag of kibble? That may be the case for a group of dogs in Gulu, Northern Uganda, who work as therapy dogs, helping people with tough upbringings navigate their trauma and adjust to a happy life. To support a population that grew up in a war (and the unsafe conditions that came with it), a charity has paired them with dogs.
What’s better? The dogs benefit, too! We’re not talking about an end-of-the-week paycheck or big office parties, but something better: overdue love and affection. All the dogs are former street dogs, so they weren’t properly cared for, and these have helped more than 120 people and dogs find healing bonds with each other.
Feeling stressed? Try reading this out loud!
Researchers have found that reading together can help strengthen bonds and reduce stress. In a recent study, families were asked to read together while wearing a brain monitoring cap that tracks activity over time. The results suggested that moments of shared reading can sync brain patterns between two people, which then suggest that the experience of reading books together helps parents and children connect.
Furthermore, the importance of stories themselves can’t be ignored. Stories are how people explain the world and their lives to one another — the decisions you make and the person you become are partially influenced by the stories you’ve read or heard. The research is very new, but studies of this sort can help us understand why reading together builds empathy, focus, emotional well-being, and might support children’s development and encourage a lifelong love of reading. And not just because a good story might distract two siblings for long enough to stop flicking each other’s ears!
To help your students dive deeper into news content, we created this bundle of news story response worksheets. We designed these worksheets to be used with any of our news videos and to keep students focused as they watch and enhance comprehension and retention. (Please note that some worksheet types are better fits for certain content and grade levels). Assign students the same one, mix them up, or let them choose!
Explore More
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Easy, joyful activities for kids ages 4–7 inspired by Bluey and her family.
In our fast-paced world, where information is constantly being shared and consumed, our students need media literacy more than ever.
Snip, stick, and design your very own Numberblock Fair! Cut out and arrange fairground rides and stalls to create a play space for Twelve and the Numberblobs to explore. Perfect for math centers, small group work, or a fun Friday activity.
Watch full episodes of Numberblocks on their official YouTube channel!
If humans have the Olympics, robots have their own ultimate showdown: the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing, China. It’s a high-energy mix of sport and science where humanoid robots sprint, box, and compete in athletic challenges designed to test just how “human-like” they really are.
But this isn’t just for fun (though it definitely looks fun to watch). Engineers use the competition to push their robots to the limit — testing speed, balance, coordination, and decision-making. Every stumble or success helps them figure out how to build smarter, stronger machines for the future. There’s prize money and recognition on the line too, which helps fuel a fast-growing robotics industry already backed by billions of dollars.
And no, this doesn’t mean robot athletes are about to take over your school sports day. Experts say humanoid robots are still mostly heading toward factories and specialized jobs — not everyday life. So for now, the biggest robot “athlete” you’ll probably meet is still your vacuum cleaner doing laps around the living room.