Winter at Home

Looking for something to help keep the kids (and you) from succumbing to COVID cabin fever? “Winter at Home” is a new interactive learning guide for young students.

We are excited to tell you about another installment in the ongoing collaboration between the Office of the Under Secretary for Education and the Office of Communications and External Affairs. Today we are launching “Winter at Home,” a learning guide aimed at elementary and middle-school students. Following the success of our previous joint efforts with USA Today, “Summer Road Trip”and “Yesterday, Today,” we again teamed up with the national newspaper to distribute this guide to students across the country.

“Winter at Home” is a 40-page print activity guide that uses the vast collections and expertise of the Smithsonian to inspire K–8 learners, allowing them to see their homes and neighborhoods in new ways during the winter months. Chock-full of activities and stories, the guide will engage young minds with robust content in STEM, history, and the arts. The guide also features bilingual Spanish/English language content.

In March 2020, when schools began closing due to the coronavirus, our educators sprang into action to provide distance-learning resources to students, parents, and educators. Much of that is online, but many students, especially those most at risk from an interruption in their education, lack home access to computers or reliable Internet connections. The education team has worked to bridge this digital divide by creating an impressive array of high-quality, no- and low-tech educational materials that all learners can access. “Winter at Home” takes content and collections from across the Institution to create a comprehensive and multi-disciplinary experience that could only come from the Smithsonian.

To best serve our audiences, we know that strong outreach and marketing are just as important as content. That is why we are so excited to again partner with USA Today on this project. USA Today printed and distributed 165,000 copies of “Summer Road Trip” to Boys & Girls Clubs of America and several of our affiliate museums across the country; “Yesterday, Today” reached an impressive audience and was distributed via 1.7 million Sunday newspapers nationwide. We hope to attain even greater audiences with “Winter at Home” and future projects.

Through USA Today’s national print and distribution network, we have been able to expand the Smithsonian’s reach beyond what was possible on our own. This collaboration exemplifies the power of working with external partners to broaden our influence and connect with audiences in different, creative ways.        

This is part of a continuing collaboration and we look forward to sharing more editions this year as we continue to create tools and materials that help students across the country and during these extraordinary times. 

Ruvi Neuhold-Ravikumar
Acting Under Secretary for Education

Julissa Marenco
Under Secretary for Communications and External Affairs
Chief Marketing Officer

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