Celebrate the winter season with these virtual class party ideas. Of course being in person is amazing, but if that's not possible, there are some fun remote options. Check out these ideas and see which ones will work best for your class.
Come and join in on the fun on Facebook, or watch the recording of this episode.
Virtual Class Party Ideas | Watch the recording down below:
Here are the key takeaways from this episode:
Virtual Class Party Ideas | Gift Wrap STEM Challenge
This will take a tiny amount of prep before the party date. All students need is wrapping paper, tape, a ruler & a small box. You can also print the Engineering Design Process notebook beforehand or just share digitally; up to you! One possibility is have a pick up station at school a few days before the party with the supplies. Make sure students know to not get into the items before the party.
In this STEM activity, students will determine the most effective method for wrapping a gift. There are three video tutorials included that students can watch and rewatch to help them wrap their box. Afterwards, they will unwrap the box and make some math calculations such as the area and perimeter of the paper used and pieces of tape.
Set a timer for students to choose their method and wrap their gift. After making their calculations, students can share out their findings using the discussion questions provided.
I used this lesson with my 4th and 5th grade classes and was successful. A lot of kids actually appreciated they knew how to properly wrap with wrapping paper too!
There is nothing wrong to having a classroom party being a bit educational. A virtual field trip can be a fun way to explore the world and have a shared experience. Below are some winter themed explorations that would be great for a holiday party.
Get kids up and moving with a scavenger hunt and some competition. Before starting, the teacher will explain the rules and guidelines of the game. For an element of competition, the teacher can split the class up into teams and each team gets a point if every member finds the item. Or, it can be individually scored.
Next, the hunted item is displayed along with a timer. Students have the set amount of time to collect the item and bring it back to the meeting space. Be prepared of lots of laughter and creativity in this game!
Like the Gift Wrap Challenge, sending home materials a few days before the party can be helpful. All that is needed for this Sleigh Makerspace challenge is thin cardboard, straws and tape; which can commonly be found at home. While the challenge is to fit as many presents as possible in the sled by using unifix cubes, students can always make presents or fit various small toys they have instead.
As a class, students will learn about sled design and the difference between a sleigh and a sled. Next, students will have time to build their sleigh and make modifications based on the checklist provided.
If possible, create virtual breakout rooms where students can share their sled designs.
Again, games are such a hit at children's parties! Try a virtual game of bingo. There are a few ways this can be delegated to your class depending on their age. When there is a winner, you can always send them a sheet of stickers in the mail, which would be fun to look forward to.
Using this Virtual Bingo Card Generator, you can type in your own list of words and it will create 30 different cards that you can send to your class using the provided link. Send this in your party chat box when ready to play.
2. This website also allows you to create a custom board or search through ones already created. Picture versions are included. You can only download 8 different boards, so there will be a few winners at the same time.
Consider sending the individual boards to students using Seesaw, Schoology, Google Classroom or the LMS your school uses.
3. Have students create their own boards! Model how to draw a grid and provide a word bank for students. They can fill in each of the spots by drawing and/or labeling.
Virtual Class Party Ideas | Holidays Around the World, Rotating Rooms
Have a team that you love planning with? When I taught 2nd grade my first couple years of teaching, this an idea we used while teaching in person. Try rotating rooms, virtual style. Benefits to this is the teacher only has only activity to worry about and switches into the Zoom code, which the kids stay where they are. It's a nice change to meet with other kids and also make your experience amazing since it's the only one you're teaching.
The above activities can be hosted in each of the rooms or even a Holidays Around the World Experience could be meaningful.
Each teacher would teach about a different holiday from around the world. This can be done by:
short video clip
reading a story about the holiday (there are many options on Epic! Books)
playing a game as a class from the holiday
participating in a short craft or directed drawing experience
This graphic organizer can be a way for students to keep track of their learning through this cultural experience. There are printable and digital options.
Help mom feel special with these 3, kid made Mother's Day gifts with a STEM & Tech twist. All of these activities are low-prep and can be down in-person or virtually.
#1- Kid Made Mother's Day Gifts: Social Media Themed Card
Using a phone template, insert a cute photo and write a caption underneath. This option works well since it can be printed out or left in a digital format on the computer.
#2- Kid made Mother's Day gifts: Cardboard Flowers
Real flowers are beautiful, but make something that will last a bit longer. By using cardboard already in the house, create a 3D flower. While building, learn basic engineering techniques such as: a L-brace, flanges and creating symmetrical designs with a pattern.
Want to create something else but don’t know where else to begin? Use this Mother’s Day themed Engineer Inspiration board. By using any items available in the classroom or at home, create the different objects presented on the board.
These boards can be printed in color or black & white. Digital versions are also available and can be shared digitally with students.
You might be finding yourself in a situation where you have to adjust your teaching practice for home learning. Or, you might be looking for strategies to help flip your classroom. Either way, I am going to give you some tips for how to teach online for home learning.
The majority of these tools I also used in my general education classroom and my STEM classroom. These practices can definitely be applied to any type of classroom aside from home learning.
Create a daily agenda
With all of the teaching strategies I will be sharing with you, it’s important to create a daily agenda for your class. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy, but something students can see in one place what they need to complete.
I would suggest creating a Google Slide with the share settings as ‘Anyone with the Link can View’ and share that link with students. Add a new slide on the top for each day. That way, students can see the changes you make in real time, but have no need to edit this slide.
If you can make it printable, this might be helpful as well for families to check off the tasks as they go.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #1: Screencasting
Here are the main features you should know about this extension:
Record just your computer screen, computer screen & face, just face
Record up to 5 minutes/video with the free version. (Unlimited video time with paid version)
Videos recorded save automatically to your Google Drive. You can download videos if you need
Once recorded, there are multiple sharing options: Shareable link from your drive, Google Classroom and YouTube
How to teach online for home learning Tip #2: Consistent platform for posting
Find an online platform or two to streamline and post your students’ work. Too many platforms are hard to keep track of; for both teachers and students.
Some of my ultimate go-to’s for elementary students are Google Classroom and Seesaw. These tools allow teachers to post different types of digital files that students can access in one place.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #3: Digital Interactive Notebooks
Interactive notebooks don’t always have to be printed. I typically make my digital interactive notebooks in Google Slides for easy sharing in Google Classroom.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #4: Digital Choice Menus
Choice menus are a great way to give students voice and choice with their learning about a given topic. When creating a digital choice menu, try keeping it concise on one page so the choices aren’t too overwhelming.
The great thing about having a digital choice menu is you can link websites, examples, and resources within the menu that help guide students to complete the activities.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #5: Digital Journals
If you’re expected to be out of school for a long time, those classroom relationships are more important now than ever. In fact, you can still connect with your students virtually.
Create a digital back and forth journal that you can learn about your students’ days and keep tabs on them.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #6: Online Morning Meetings
Did your class typically start with the morning meeting? You can still do this! Continuing those positive routines for kids is so important.
Here are a few things you can easily do at home during this time:
Calendar (so many printable options online)
Weather
Show & Tell (schedule a day where students can share one item from their house)
Quote of the day (something positive to keep them going)
Question of the day (students share their response)
Kindness Chore of the day (students report back the next day if they completed the task)
You can pre-record your morning meeting with Screencastify (mentioned above), or you can go live using Zoom. Students can see you and each other in real time.
Other similar platforms are: Microsoft Teams & Google Meet/Hangouts
How to teach online for home learning Tip #7: Create with technology
There are a lot of websites out there for students to “sit and get” information. However, when students are learning at home, think about what they might be doing before they are coming to learn.
Oftentimes, they might be playing video games and watching TV. Give students opportunities to interact and create their learning experiences.
This could be a good time for project based learning, research projects and collaborating with other students in their class.
Seesaw, Flipgrid, Pic Collage Edu (app) and Shapegrams are just a few platforms where students have the opportunity to create and demonstrate their learning.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #8: Digital Breakouts
The beauty of digital break out boxes is there are no locks to set or materials to print beforehand.
Definitely creating your own using multiple online tools, like Google Forms, is possible. Or you can grab some that are ready to go on Breakout Edu.
If you want to make it more competition based for your class, set a timer and send the breakout link. Students will have that amount of time to work on the challenges. This can be a great opportunity to get siblings involved as well!
How to teach online for home learning Tip #9: Virtual Field Trips
Currently at the time of this blogpost, there are a lot of zoos and museums offering opportunities for students to go on a virtual field trip.
Depending on the site, students can see what’s happening live. Some of the virtual field trips are in virtual reality form. This means it feels like they are in that digital space and pan around the room to get a closer view.
This is a great opportunity to add in reflection questions about their experience.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #10: Video Creation
Kids LOVE making videos. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard students say they want to be a YouTube Star when they grow up. (and they aren’t joking).
Give students an opportunity to create a video with purpose. It can be a topic that you are teaching them about. Or, since they will be home for awhile, they can create a video to teach someone about a talent they have and others can learn how to do it by watching their video.
You can also create fun reading challenges or tic-tac-toe boards for students to complete.
Some fun things to add could be:
create a fort to read your book in
read outside
read to your favorite stuffed animal
How to teach online for home learning Tip #12: Show math work
Again, there are plenty of websites that allow students to practice quick facts and keep up with important basic skills.
Continue to help students show their math work virtually. GoFormative is a great way to assign questions to your class and students can show their work in a variety of ways, including drawing.
Students can still even solve problems on paper! Have them share their work by taking a photo in Seesaw.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #13: Video Conferencing
Continue to conference with students one-on-one virtually. Pre-record your videos and send them the link (Screencastify) or connect with them live (Zoom).
Make a schedule of conferencing times so students know when to check in. Connect with your students personally and also how they are doing with their work. This will help continue to build those relationships you’ve worked so hard on all school year.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #14: Virtual Class Party
When I was a classroom teacher, we would always have an incentive that our class was working hard towards with great behavior and work ethic. Typically, the incentive was in the form of a class party.
Continue to encourage that collaboration virtually. Create a slide that graphs the progress on turning in assignments on time (or another goal you can think of). If your class reaches that goal, host a virtual party! Host your class party using Zoom.
Here are some virtual party ideas:
Pajama & stuffed animal
Snack party (everyone brings their favorite snack)
Fort party (everyone build a fort and attends the party inside)
Costume party
How to teach online for home learning Tip #15: Live Science Experiments
Kids LOVE science. I do too, hence, I became a STEM teacher. Mystery Science right now is opening up access to their content and you can share with students.
Do you have science materials at home? Host a live science experiment in front of your class! Before, during and after, have them go through the Scientific Process or Engineering Design Process. Then, demonstrate the experiment on camera for them and keep checking in on the progress the following days.
Test student predictions as well! Write down what they think might happen. You can create a makeshift anchor chart by taping a few pieces of paper together and hanging it up on the wall behind you.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #16: Educational Shows
The kids are probably watching a lot of TV and movies right now. Why not suggest some educational ones that go along with what you are learning about in your virtual class?
How to teach online for home learning Tip #17: Pen Pals
Make writing time fun and personal by creating pen pals. They can be virtual pen pals or real paper ones. If you make the pen pals virtual, make sure you can see what the kid’s write first, before sending.
As the teacher, try and send at least one real piece of mail to each student. This can be an exciting thing for them to look forward to.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #18: Podcasts
Podcasts are a great way for students to build their listening comprehension and visualization.
When I introduce podcasts to students, I have them draw the pictures they are seeing in their brain. Again, this drawing can be done virtually on a platform like Seesaw or real paper.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #19: Inside Recess
For the days that don’t have great weather to play outside, encourage active inside recess.
My go-to favorite is GoNoodle, which they always have home-access for students.
You can have students log into GoNoodle on their own. Or, you can do a class inside recess. Have kids take turns each day to choose the video. From the teacher side, share the video on your screen on Zoom. That way everyone is participating at the same time.
How to teach online for home learning Tip #20: Digital Worksheets
This is an easy way to assign work digitally for students. This is something you would share in a platform like Google Classroom since it can automatically make a copy for each student.
However, how do you assign a worksheet that’s a PDF and it doesn’t give students spaces to type?
How to teach online for home learning Tip #22: Read Aloud
There are a lot of great websites that have online read alouds for you to share with students: Vooks,Epic! Books, Storyline Online and even YouTube offer a variety of books.
You can even be the one reading your book! I would suggest recording ahead of time (with Screencastify) and schedule the link to be pushed out at the same time each day on Seesaw or Google Classroom (or the platform of your choice). You can get all your read alouds done in one day and planned out for a couple weeks!
What will you try?
Overall, I know that it can be a hard transition from face-to-face to online teaching. However, you are still using your great teaching skills, just in a different way. A silver lining to this is you are most likely strengthening your technology skills which in turn, can be used in your regular classroom.
What else would you add to this list? What would you continue to do and take back to the regular classroom? Feel free to direct message me on Instagram, @naomimeredith_ and I would love to chat with you!
Other blogs about how to teach online for home learning to check out:
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