Number Sense Routines have become my passion. Over the past couple of years, I've been exposed to more and more websites with so many free resources. Now, I am obsessed! There is so much variety. I love how these routines and puzzles teach students so many skills. Most of these could be used in an online environment, so no matter how you're teaching this year, these will work for you!
As a camp counselor, lover of morning meeting games, and lover of improv games like from the TV show "Whose line is it anyway?" I've curated several fun but structured games to use with students that can be done with social distancing and zero materials other than people and imagination. Have fun!
I love games and activities in morning meeting! While I know that carpet time may be gone as we re-enter classrooms, there are so many possibilities for maintaining connection and community even with physical distance.
Below are songs/chants and activities that I think would work well while staying at a desk space. These could make for great energizers or brain breaks as well. While many of these require standing up and sitting down, they should be able to stay in their area.
Podcasts will be an ideal resource for teaching this year. Whether you're teaching in person with distance and looking for varied independent work or online and have run out of audiobook links, podcasts could make for great independent learning.
If you teach elementary, you're likely familiar with the idea of a morning meeting or class meeting. This is typically a time for community building and connection. When we had to switch to online learning in Spring 2020, I knew I wanted to keep elements of morning meeting. Here are 5 ideas (picture prompts, collaborative google slides, partner games, whole class games, and Flipgrid) for building connections online.
Want to view how I did science labs for online/distance learning? I heard from many parents and kids how much they loved having Science this spring. I hope this gives you some ideas of what you could model at home or record and post for students asynchronously.
My personal journals had always been something of a mix of scrapbooking, diary entries, flaps of papers with short stories, pasted in notes, etc. The rise of Bullet Journaling speaks to my love of creativity, planning, and writing. In fact, my favorite subject to teach is Writing. When you google bullet journals, though, you’ll see layouts that make you cringe under Pinterest Pressure. Smashbooks, on the other hand, are meant to be messy. They went through a quick flash of popularity some years back; here’s theK&Company introduction to the smashbookif you want to see a video of the idea. The description at the front of my K&Company smash book says:
“It’s OK. Just smash it in. There’s always room, just like the junk drawer.
Nothing’s right. Nothing’s wrong. It’s all YOURS. We say glue in the gladness.
Google Slides are great for Collaborative Work! Think about collaborative story writing, number sense routine discussions, jigsaw reading, and more! See my periodic table project for one such idea.
I wrote a letter to my class the day that school closed for the year. It made me cry a little so I didn’t send it off. Everything was sad enough. I added a piece today because we had a great (3/4 of a) year together and this journey online is a bit unforgettable too. My class this year is fun online; I feel lucky that I get to do this with them. At the same time, my heart aches for their losses as the capstone year of elementary school. It may not compare to the loss of graduation for a senior, but their young hearts are broken nonetheless. Many have waited for these special events since Kindergarten. Their life will move on for sure, but there’s so much loss tied up in this pandemic. This is just a little slice.
Charmed by Challenge 