Blog - Sweet 'N' Sauer Firsties

The Magic of Boom Learning

Distance learning definitely has its benefits and drawbacks. However, we can be grateful that we are navigating through this during such a digital age. Technology, as frustrating and time consuming as it can be, has proved to be a savior when it came time for us educators to shift our teaching methods. Personally, I have learned way more about Seesaw than I ever thought I would’ve known, as well as several amazing features Google Suite has. Technology has always had it’s part in our classrooms but now has been the time to really delve in to what these platforms have to offer. Hands down, my absolute favorite platform by far is Boom Learning. It is an extremely incredible program and I HAVE to share with you why it is now a must have in my classroom, whether digital or in person. I’m excited to share the ins and outs of Boom and hopefully convey how COOL it really is! Here you’ll learn about what it is, how to use it, and a lot of the engaging features it has for you and your students.

Boom! What is it?

If you needed to define the Boom Learning platform, the simplest definition is that it houses digital task cards. Now you may be thinking… that’s it? What’s all the hype about a simple old task card? But you know we all love a great task card activity. And with Boom, don’t sleep on the digital part! What you can do with these particular task cards is simply AMAZING. Educators use task cards in so many different ways. They can be used in math and literacy centers. They can be used during whole group instruction to get more practice with a skill. Now with distance learning at the forefront of education, using task cards virtually can be an awesome way to engage students and allow them opportunities to practice skills in a fun way.

How Do I Set Up An Account?

It is super quick and easy to set up an account with Boom! There are paid and free memberships you can sign up for and at the bottom of this PAGE you can see all the different membership options. The basic membership costs 15 dollars per year and you get a 90 day free trial so it’s a pretty good deal. HERE you’ll find an easy to use guide to help you set up your account. This helpful guide also includes some tips and tricks for you. You can even set up a classroom through Boom. HERE you’ll find a quick and easy to use video walkthrough of how to set up your classroom.

How Do Students Log In?

As the teacher, you are able to create usernames and passwords for students. This is nice because if students already have a username and password they are familiar with, you can use that! One super cool feature Boom offers is a QR Code that can be created for students to log in for even easier access. Take a look below at some quick steps of how to create QR Code Sign Ins for your students. HERE is also a helpful how-to as well from Boom!

Assigning Decks to Students

There are a few different ways you can assign decks. You’ll see some different options that include: Fast Pin, Assign, or Hyperlink Play. What’s really nice about Fast Pin is that you can use the FREE Boom Learning account and students DO NOT need to log in! However, you aren’t provided with the data from what your students completed. Assign and Hyperlink Play are options for if you want to track your students’ progress and get compiled data. In this case, you will need to have a paid account and each student will need their own account. When looking for decks, you can search for them on the Boom Learning website or through Teachers Pay Teachers. On both websites you can play a preview of the deck so you know exactly what your students will see and interact with. Boom Cards can be linked into ALL platforms! Whether you use Seesaw, Google, Schoology, Canvas, or some other digital platform, you can link the decks right there for students to access! Here are some visuals to get a better understanding of how to assign decks through Boom. To learn more about assigning decks through Seesaw and Google Classroom, make sure to subscribe and have access to the continuously GROWING How-To video library!

Types of Questions for Engagement

Below you’ll find TONS of different question types to engage students in multiple ways. Again, these are just SOME of the many different types of questions that can be used with students to cover different skills in an exciting way!

There are drag and drop features, matching, and sorting!

There are typing, labeling, and finding!

There are building, listening, and spelling!

That’s the wonderful thing about Boom Cards, the question types are ENDLESS!

Fantastic Features!

One of the beautiful things about Boom is that they can be used in so many different ways for various types of skills. I’ve created Boom cards for an array of skills such as SEL, Math, Sight Words, Phonics, and more. When you find Boom Cards that you want to assign to your students, they are set up in a deck. Typically decks range between 10-30 cards; sometimes more, sometimes less.

Decks might be set up in adventure style like this set:

Or they might be randomly distributed for students to work through like this set:

My FAVORITE feature is that they are SELF GRADING! Google and Seesaw activities are interactive and engaging, but you still have to take the time to go through and grade everything. So naturally, this is a GAME CHANGER! Boom does all the hard work for you and breaks it down by student so that you can see exactly how long a student spent on a deck and the specifics on what they got wrong. Students also get IMMEDIATE feedback so they can see exactly how they are doing and fix their mistakes!

Here are a few more awesome features Boom has to offer:

They are easy to use for students so it’s absolutely perfect for little learners
Decks typically come with both visual AND audio instructions for students (not all decks have audio but I make sure all of my decks include audio)
They are completely digital so students can access them anywhere on ANY device
They can be differentiated by assigning different decks to different students depending on their individual needs
They are ENGAGING and students love “playing” them

Take a look at how to analyze the student data!

Read below some of the wonderful things teachers have to say about Boom Cards!

“BOOM Cards are fabulous! I am super excited to purchase more. I really appreciate the immediate feedback that my students receive.”

“We LOVE Boom Cards! So colorful, engaging, AND helpful! Thank you for sharing.”

“This is an awesome resource. My kids loved using it.”

“It’s a great way to include social skills into distance learning for my special learners!”

“My students absolutely love boom cards – they will be so happy to use this! I loved playing around with it! Thank you!”

“My student is getting great practice in a multisensory way…thank you!”

“Great way to get kiddos to practice sight words on a digital platform.”

“Great resource to engage student learning. – thank you!”

“These are perfect for my center activities. My students really need this practice, but they love the format of boom cards. Thanks for sharing!”

“I love this!! The self-checking aspect of Boom Cards is amazing. Thank you for sharing.”

If you loved the decks you saw, you can check them out by clicking the pictures or learn more about fun and engaging Boom Cards HERE! There is also a YouTube Channel FULL of helpful videos ranging from ‘Boom Cards 101’ to ‘Using Boom Cards with Google Classroom’. HERE you can access that FREE library full of helpful videos!

I hope you enjoyed learning about Boom Cards and why they are such a wonderful resource for students! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! Not only will you get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Subtraction Adventure Boom Cards FREEBIE! But you will also have exclusive access to tons of digital how to videos! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

More Support Options for Boom Learning

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BoomTeachers/

https://www.facebook.com/boomteachers/

https://www.youtube.com/c/boomlearning

Secret Skills Of Reading Success: Blending and Segmenting!

Reading is a powerful, yet complicated skill to master. All the components, phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension all work together to help students become a master reader. We as educators know that all of these components are important, but I have noticed in my years of teaching, that once students master blending and segmenting, the growth is immense. I have so many awesome activities to share with you that are sure to help students master this skill and allow you as an educator to see the growth you work tirelessly for!

So what exactly is blending and segmenting and why is it important for students? Segmenting involves students breaking words down into individual sounds, such as /r/ /a/ /m/ , whereas blending is when those sounds get pulled together to form the entire word. While this is typically a skill developed in kindergarten, there are still students who struggle with this important skill through second grade and sometimes even higher.

But why is this particular skill so important? Think about how you read for a second. When you’re reading, do you have to stop often to decode a word? Most likely the answer is no. When we become fluent readers, we have learned a variety of decoding strategies which allows us to move from thinking about decoding words, to our brains shifting into automaticity so that we can comprehend the stories. This is the ultimate goal of reading. To move past the monotonous task of “reading” to having that movie play in our minds. Visualization is the power.

Now think about your classroom full of students and how many of them have moved past this skill and are able to fluently blend and read CVC words. Maybe you teach kinder and you have a few or you teach first and have quite a bit. Maybe you teach second and almost all do but what about the kids that can’t? Even if it’s just one, or two kids, they deserve the extra support. In my 6 years of teaching first grade, I ALWAYS have had a HAND FULL of students who struggled so much and needed more help. This led me to research and planning.

After years of teaching students who needed more support with this skill, I knew I needed to do something different to help these students. Something more exciting and engaging that clicked quickly. So let’s dive in. First I’m going to briefly tell you about how I construct reading groups, then I’m going to tell you how I make it EXCITING and ENJOYABLE!

Constructing Groups

Small groups were constructed using Jan Richardson’s guided reading program and it was a game changer for me. If you have not heard of Jan Richardson or use her for guided reading, oh my goodness are you missing out! At my last school, we called her “Jan the Man” because boy is she! Her method of teaching guided reading engages students, helps teachers utilize best practices, and the GROWTH I see every year from my students is exponential! She breaks down the components of reading from pre-readers to fluent readers. She’s created ENGAGING lessons that the students LOVE so they can sit and focus. Which is SUPER important when you only have 20 minutes and a table full of 6 year olds covering crucial content! She takes the boring out of reading and keeps it exciting for everyone. She has helped me take students from pre-reading to being fluent readers. In teaching we strive to get our students to specific growth targets over the school year. With Jan’s Guided Reading Program, those targets are capable of being met and then surpassed. It is UNBELIEVABLE how well students thrive. If you want to learn more, I HIGHLY recommend starting with THIS book. It’s a great read and really teaches you what students look like at different reading levels and HOW best to support them.

Bring Back the Excitement!

Play based learning is an amazing way to keep the fun and enjoyment in practicing skills. A teacher can be handed a curriculum and told to teach it, but I guarantee that if you walk in ANY room, EVERY teacher will have a different way of teaching it. That’s one of the great things about teaching- everybody has their own style and flair! Now as I stated earlier, I use Jan Richardson’s Guided Reading Program, but I take her lessons and add in my own elements. Not only am I SUPER passionate about using the “Jan the Man” method, I also STRONGLY believe in hands on and play based learning.

One of my favorite quotes is from Mr. Rogers about play. He says, “Play is often talked about as if it were a serious relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” I realized my struggling students needed their serious learning to be playful. So there was the challenge I accepted. Bring play into learning. Below I am going to share with you 6 activities from a growing bundle full of hands-on segmenting and blending resources that my students BEG to play.

Blending and Segmenting Fun

All of these began with the thought in mind to develop hands on activities for students to practice this crucial skill and HAVE FUN! I started simple with this blending activity.

While these are simple, they are VERY effective for students. Students use colored counters to practice segmenting each individual sound. I then teach students to use the arrow to blend the entire word together. In Jan’s book, she discusses how when students push tangible objects up with their fingers, whether it is letters for sight word practice or counters for letter sounds, the motion locks it in their brain so they can remember it. This activity is effective because it allows students to see visually what it looks like to segment and blend words, while also includes that movement piece for them as well. When students get really good at this skill, I then add in the cards with the boxes for writing in the sounds. This allows students to practice writing the letters associated with the sounds and then blending and reading the entire word together.

After the raving of this activity from my students, I had to step up my engagement level for the next “game”. Make way for the race cars!!

When I brought this out, and gave each kid their own little race car people, the kids went CRAZY! They had a blast “racing” while blending. The best part is they didn’t realize how much they were learning because they were having SO much fun! Just like with the other activity, these mats have the dots at the bottom for students so when they are segmenting and blending, they know where to start, slow down, and stop! These mats also include nonsense words for students to practice those as well!

The next activity is one of my favorites, I learned about these magnetic “wands” and knew they would be a BLAST with blending!

With these magnetic wands and magnetic counters, the students can “magically” blend words together and watch the sounds disappear onto the wand as they say the word! Talk about FUN! They LOVE blending with “magic” and think it is the most fun activity that they BEG to do. Again, just like the first activity, these are differentiated for students working at different levels. No matter where they’re at, they are sure to have TONS of fun!

And as much as kids love magic, they also love being detectives! Here’s an activity for our little investigators!!

Throw in a magnifying glass and boy do you have engagement and fun! I especially like this activity, because the students really have to rely on their beginning sounds to help them determine the letter that goes in the box to spell their word. It is such a fun way to practice and really has students being detectives deciphering the words and it’s beginning sound! When they determine the word, they are always SO excited because they really had no clue what it was! Talk about a fun time!!

The next activity involves some fun destruction. What kid doesn’t LOVE Play Doh and smashing things? Let’s be honest! When you pull out Play Doh and tiny mallets, kids just KNOW they’re going to have fun!

This is such a fun way to practice segmenting and blending! Students love smashing out the sounds with their Play Doh and mallets! You can even find green, yellow, and red really reinforce the visual of blending words.

The last activity is one of my favorites, because it involves the nostalgic toy of Slinkys! When you bring these things out, kids think this is going to be SO fun!

Slinkys are fun to use with blending because it shows students how we stretch out each individual sound but then we snap it back together to read the entire word! Another cool feature of this activity is that it allows students the freedom to choose their own picture card, as well as use the letters or write the letters. It gives great student choice!

With all of these activities, I’ve tried to include as MANY different CVC words as possible for students to practice so that they aren’t practicing the same words over and over again. The best part is after practicing ALL of these different activities in small group, they can then become center activities they already know how to play and LOVE! These activities can be used in SO many ways. Students can work on beginning sounds, or work on isolating individual sounds, and of course they can work on blending words together! This growing bundle is the most wish listed and purchased resource in my ENTIRE store. Teachers tell me over and over again how much this resource helps their students and how often they use these activities as interventions for students. Read below some of the wonderful things teachers have to say about these activities.

“This resource is very helpful. I am struggling to get some of my students to meet their goal of reading word family words. This has been very helpful to get them to visually see how they can use the blending strategy to read these words.”

“Great resource for small groups to keep students engaged and excited about their learning!”

“I am excited to begin using these with my students! I plan to use them for small group. So many fun and different ways to target segmenting/blending 🙂 With this bundle I am set for a while!”

“I am excited to use this with my students to help blend words and increase reading skills. I know it will be used often and a go-to for my students. Thanks”

“Lots of creative ways to practice CVC words with your class. Especially great for centers or for guided reading. Thank you!”

“This is an amazing resource to use in my small group!”

“These are great introductory activities for my kindergarten students. We use them for literacy centers with our early literacy teacher during second term. Thank you!”

“This provides plenty of activities to help all of my students with blending. It was perfect for my small group lessons as well as word work activities for students.”

This is also a GROWING bundle because as I come up with more hands on ideas, I continue to add them to the bundle! So each new resource that gets included, you get for FREE! If you would like to learn more about these different hands-on activities, you can watch the video below! To grab the 350 page growing bundle, simply click on the picture!

I hope you enjoyed learning more about segmenting and blending and how to make it fun and enjoyable not only for the students, but for you as well! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the brand new Slide Blending FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Classroom Teacher Hacks and Tips

#fromteachersforteachers

Last week I brought you the Digital Teacher Hacks and Tips! This week I’m bringing to you physical classroom hacks and tips. Again, when asked about the best tips and tricks, I was amazed and awed by the overwhelming amount of responses I got from educators. It takes a village to really have a great pool of ideas so I’ve added links to other teachers’ social media or blog posts. So what are we waiting for?! Sit back and get ready for some awesome teacher hacks!

1. First, an absolute MUST HAVE teacher item… HOT GLUE! Don’t have it? Grab it! Don’t use it? Start now!! Check out what @alliethegypsyteacher has to say about hot glue! Want to know another MUST Have teacher item?! Two words. Packing Tape! @fifthismyjam knows ALL the love that is packing tape! If you don’t use packing tape for pretty much everything… you should check out her page to see why you should!

2. Below are some great ways to motivate students to track while they read! Witch fingers are a cheap and GREAT way to get excited, especially this time of year!

3. Teachers came through with some GREAT ideas and tips for whiteboards, their storage, and eraser! Click on each picture to read more about the specific tip and idea!

Whiteboard and eraser storage! You can also store the marker inside the socks!

An oldie but goodie! Pom poms on the tops of dry erase markers!

Another eraser type… sponges!!

4. Bookmark hack: Laminated Astrobright strips! Talk about an easy, super cute, and INEXPENSIVE idea! Thank you for this wonderful tip @all.about.the.abcs . You could even draw on them, write messages or have students decorate before laminating.

5. Hanging things on different types of walls can be frustrating. Insert wall hanging hacks: Hot glue as mentioned above is usually foolproof, but see the brilliant way @rocketdogteaching does it instead!

6. Who doesn’t love IKEA? I mean everything in there is cute and multifunctional. Here’s a cool and creative way to use the IKEA Tolbsy Frames!

7. Looking for ways for students to manage themselves? Below are some creative ways to have students help make your life a little easier by taking attendance, going to the bathroom, lunch count, and more! Click on each picture to learn more!

Another way is to have a dry erase board on the classroom door- one side kids write their name on if they leave the room & where they are going, the other side for dismissal changes that day. This helps you know where kids are at all times! Thanks! @mrsmamallama

8. Do you hate when you’re trying to laminate small pieces and when you lift the sheet to put it in the laminator, the pieces slide? Here’s a helpful tip- use a little glue from a glue stick on small pieces to keep them from sliding around! If you have not tried this yet, it helps SO much!

9. Some classrooms don’t come equipped with enough bulletin boards. Well you can no longer fret about that! You can MAKE your own bulletin boards!! Say whaaat?!! Watch this video below to learn more!

10. Have trouble hanging letters straight?! Not anymore with this AMAZING hack! Use blue painters tape to get the letters exactly how you want them before stapling them to the bulletin board. You can even step your game up if you hate seeing the staples! Pins and Colored staples to the rescue! Learn more by clicking the picture below!

Is decorating the classroom your jam? Here is a great POST all about how to hang classroom decor easily and with less trouble!

11. Task cards awesome resources and they can be used in so many different ways. Here is an innovative one from @mrs_cornetts_corner! Putting task cards in Dollar Store photo albums! All students need is their book and a marker. You can click on the link to learn even more!

12. Check out this entire YOUTUBE video full of great hacks and ideas such as printing and copying hacks, and one that helps keep desks and tables together!!

13. Face masks are a new way of life for us. Here are a few ways to make you more comfortable with them and save your voice! A face mask bracket gives you more space for comfort and a microphone can help save you from having to speak louder through your mask. I have THIS microphone from Amazon and LOVE it for me and the kids!

14. Command anything is amazing because they’re so quality and how adorable are these command clothespins to hang anchor charts?! Can we say mind blown!

15. Two words…. Trash basket. They can be used in so many ways! Here is a post that show how helpful these little baskets can be!

16. Using pins and binder clips, or clothespins and tacks, to display work on bulletin boards is a great idea! It makes changing things out so much quicker.

17. Not sure where to house with all those adorable classroom pointers?! Look how @kimsteachingcorner stores hers!

18. Another AMAZING hack that I will DEFINITELY use and never thought of… shower curtains instead of fabric on your crate seats!! This is cute and sanitary!! You could probably even get away with a clear liner over your fabric if you already have yours made!

19. This hack is PERFECT for social distancing right now! Use colored tape to help students establish their own space!

20. Word walls are essential but have you ever tried a magnetic one?! It’s a GREAT way for students to be able to interact with the word wall and easily put the words back!! I will absolutely be using this one FOR SURE! Thank you @teach.joyously

21. Trouble making your own anchor charts? Want to make them beautiful but struggle with handwriting and drawing? I know I do! Here’s a great tip for creating Pinterest worthy charts. You can create anchor charts in Google Slides or Powerpoint then project it on the board. Place a piece of anchor chart paper over the top to trace! You can also press the “freeze” button so it won’t move and trace it!

22. Here’s a great and easy way to display standards- Use page protectors to easily change and keep them displayed!

23. Does anyone cringe at the idea of busting open the paint with a classroom full of littles? I’m raising my hand here. However, there’s a great hack for making paint more manageable! Start saving cans with plastic tops, like frosting or peanut cans, and get some plastic sandwich bags. Cut a hole in the top of the frosting can lid. Place a sandwich bag inside the can with the end of the bag folded over the outside of the top. Pour the paint inside the bag and place the lid on top of the can. Kids can dip their paint brushes in the lid hole to paint. When done with painting, place the brush in the sink to be cleaned, take the sandwich bag out and discard, and close it with the top! Still paint left? Simply close the sandwich bag and store it in the paint cup for another time! Easy Peasy!!

24. If you still have virtual students but want students to still participate in think, pair, share activities, how about sending beanie babies, or other small stuff animals, home with your students so they can always have a “partner”. The “partners” can also serve as reading buddies for the year. Thanks! @kellics_firstgrade

25. Want to keep the room smelling fresh but aren’t allowed to use candles, diffusers or plug ins? Check out this wonderful hack from @thelittlelearnmaid ! Keep a cheap can of carpet fresh on hand and sprinkle a bit in the trash bag each morning. Every time a kid throws in trash, it stirs the scent and freshens the room all day!

26. One hack that I use EVERY year is numbering students. If provide students with a number, you can then use that number for just about EVERYTHING- bins, cubbies, pencil boxes, etc. The kiddos learn their numbers easily and the best part is that everything with a number can be reused year after year!

27. Hacks that simply make your life easier is essential in the educator world. HERE is a wonderful post with 10 tips and tricks to make that happen!

28. Want creative and inexpensive ways to decorate bulletin boards? Switch up the old butcher paper with materials like fabric, dollar store table cloths, or wrapping paper! These are just SOME of the many inexpensive ways so can really get creative!!

29. Want a great way to display and organize anchor charts?! HANGERS FOR THE WIN!! Teachers are so smart.

30. Need another wonderful idea to motivate students and get students excited to be called on! Check out how this teacher is using these cute little ducks to do just that!

I hope you enjoyed these teacher hacks! I know I enjoyed learning about some new great hacks and these are absolutely NOT even close to all the cool tricks out there. If you want to continue this learning, @lifebetweensummers shares a #teacherfollowfriday every Friday with a brand new teacher and a brand new idea! If YOU have any additional must know hacks to share, drop them below!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the print and digital Glow and Grow FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!

Digital Teacher Hacks and Tips

#fromteachersforteachers

This is the YEAR for technology. In this post, you’ll learn TONS of NEW digital teacher hacks from some AMAZING teachers! When asked about the best tips and tricks, I was amazed and awed by the overwhelming amount of responses I got from educators. It takes a village to really have a great pool of ideas so while reading you’ll notice some links to other teachers’ social media or blog posts. Some tips were too good not to share the whole thing for you! So what are we waiting for?! Sit back and get ready for some brand new and super tech savvy digital teacher hacks!

1.Having a two monitor setup while teaching virtually. I have heard that this is a LIFE SAVER! By having a two monitor setup, you can do SO many different things. It is really beneficial for multitasking. For example, you can have all students displayed while teaching on another screen.

2. Hack: Here are some serious time saver keyboard hacks to have!

3. Here’s a great Zoom hack from @kissylinao! Using the pin button on Zoom to quickly check a kid’s work!! Spotlight if you want them to be able to share to the entire class ❤️

4. For all you Seesaw users out there, here is a great tip to add audio directions to each slide. Create a blank page, change background color to match the slide you want to add it to, and then click on the microphone. When you’re finished recording, you can drag the corners to resize the image and then copy and paste it onto the slide you want! *Disclaimer: in order to use this feature, you must have the paid subscription. However, you can try it out for 90 days free (and record as much as you want) or you can become an ambassador and get it for FREE! You can learn more about Seesaw HERE!

5. Get the most out of your virtual classroom by heading over to @srta_spanish IG page. In this highlighted story, you’ll learn TONS of tips for Google Slides that teachers and students can use on Edpuzzle, Flipgrid, and Quizizz… oh my! It is FULL of goodies that was too good not to share!

6. This entire blog post from @notanotherhistoryteacher is filled with so many great tech tips! There are great Google Extensions to learn about, as well as some AMAZING platforms to utilize! You can read that post HERE!

7. Google Hack: Make your file names easily searchable by thinking of every possible thing you might name a file. That way, when you search for it next year, you can easily find it no matter what you search for. Sometimes my file names are 10+ words long because I teach in English and Spanish so I include Spanish and English words in the file names. You can follow Josh at the Picture Book Brain for more great ideas!

8. Let me start this one by saying this: following Virtual Confetti is a MUST DO! This lady right here has the BEST digital teacher hacks. HERE you can learn how to add voice directions in Google Slides which is a GAME CHANGER for primary students. She has also hacked her way into motivating students with her The Wheel of Fun!! You can learn more HERE. If you love this idea, you can download the Decision Roulette HERE for FREE!

9. Another great hack is making SAFE Youtube links for kids! You take your link, paste it onto Safeyoutube.net, and it formulates a safe video to send to kids without having to worry about what may pop up! Follow @third_grade_word_bird for more great ideas!

10. HERE you can learn how to create AND differentiate digital choice boards with Google Sheets!! Talk about amazing! Thank you Google for your awesome tools for digital learning.

11. Whether you’re in person or doing distance learning right now, I think this a GREAT idea for all students! Share weekly assignments through google drive, just in case a student has to quarantine or is absent for any reason. It’s a great way to make sure no one misses a thing! Thank you @iam_elpidia for this wonderful idea!

12. A great Seesaw hack from @teacherauthormom is to download the Seesaw app onto your phone! It’s an easy way to send a picture of an assignment to a specific student. Today it was a life saver because I’m teaching virtually and my power went out! I created a video of the lesson on my phone and pushed it out.

13. For Hybrid teachers, joining the Google meet from a computer and an iPad has been said to be super helpful. The computer displays to in person students while the iPad allows you to walk around and talk to digital students. @simplyacuteideas has great ideas for hybrid teaching!

14. A GAME CHANGER from @theliteracylibrary is splitting your screen in half so that you can simultaneously work on two different applications! Here is how to do that on an Apple device and here is how to on Windows.

15. Not necessarily a hack but more of a tip that I’ve heard from A LOT of educators. BE FLEXIBLE! We are working in unprecedented settings with technology that of course fails… usually when we need it most. Give yourself and students the grace and flexibility!

I hope you enjoyed these digital teacher hacks as much as I did! There are SO many amazing educators out there with SO many amazing ideas! Stay tuned for my classroom hacks post coming next week! If you have any amazing must know hacks to share, drop them below!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the digital Waiting Room Slide FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

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The Learning Path – Mini Lesson to Mastery

This year is a year like NO other. We have had to adapt and change, especially in regards to technology. I’ve been fortunate to have one-to-one devices with my students the past 5 years and I thought I was tech savvy. However, this year technological skills have exploded as we navigate through various models of distance learning. If anything good has come out of this pandemic it’s that our students and us have learned SO much more about technology integration in the classroom and how to use different platforms. One AWESOME and super interactive type of resource I’ve been delving into is ‘Learning Paths’. They are similar to Multimedia Text Sets if you are familiar with those, but if not I’m glad you’re here to learn! These are a GREAT way to get your kiddos from the scaffolding stage to mastery of a skill exclusively using technology! Here you’ll learn all the different pieces of a Learning Path and see how to use them. I will also share with you templates and bundles for you to create your own or use ready to go material in your virtual classroom. I’ve created a Learning Path for Addition Within 10 so you can see exactly how this works for students and how they can navigate through the path on their own. Are you excited?! I know I am! Let’s get started!

The Learning Path Components

Learning Paths are amazing because they could be created for any skill, from literacy to math and all the proficiencies in between that you may be teaching your students. As stated earlier, with this resource we will be taking students from beginning to end of mastery with a skill. The components of the path include a mini lesson, various learning activities for practice, and assessments. In the paths I’ve created, I add in a read aloud piece because who doesn’t love literature?! If you feel emboldened to take on creating a path yourself, I also made an editable template where can house all the specific pieces of your students’ learning. As you can see students will always begin with the mini lesson and end with the formative assessment. The real powerful part are the activities because it allows for ample student choice. Whatever practice activity they choose in between is up to them! Now that you know the components, let’s dive into the specific pieces of the path and what that can look like for students.

Mini Lesson

Starting with a mini lesson provides students with just the right amount of background knowledge and new content for students to understand and interact with. The cool thing about all this technology is that you can get really creative with your mini lessons since engagement over these screens is crucial. There are a multitude of options for creating your own mini lesson for students, such as Google Slides, Tik Toks, Youtube, or Instagram Reels. Platforms such as Edpuzzle and Nearpod have begun to include more engaging tools to use while teaching. When using these platforms you are able to record your lesson in that program and while students are working through your lesson, they can interact with the content while learning! You can add questions for students to answer and even link a quiz for them to take after learning. No matter what tool you use for your mini lesson, make sure they are mini. The reason they’re so important is because they’re MINI. There is significant research that students lose focus after about 6 minutes so make sure your lessons over the screen don’t exceed that before you engage them in some sort of interaction.

Learning Activities

This is the most fun and flexible part of our learning paths because your learning activities can literally be ANY digital activity you want! I love housing my Learning Paths in Google because it is easy for students to navigate to tons of other platforms. As you can see in the path I’ve created, students are utilizing Boom, Google Slides, and YouTube. You could insert a game link to Khan Academy, transport students on a field trip by linking a virtual museum tour, and even lock them into a digital escape room to find clues to breakout! You are only limited by your creativity! Possibilities are endless and you can really gear these activities to cater to all of your student’s interests and modalities of learning. These learning paths help us gain back a sense of flexibility in our teaching and allows for more student choice because they are able to choose what fun activities to engage in to reach mastery of the skill. Take a look below at some of the different activities I’ve created for students to use with Addition Within 10.

Read Aloud

Why not have students always reading?! I’ve chosen to include a read aloud in my path because there are TONS of great books out there that help emphasize skills for just about everything; literacy, math, science, social justice, history, the list goes on and on. Having students consistently engaging with text is so important and I want them to read books as much as I can facilitate for them. But again, the beauty of this learning path is that it is FLEXIBLE! Don’t want a read aloud? Take it out! Include something different! I love how easy these are to edit and make your own to meet the needs of YOUR students.

Assessment

We all know assessment drives instruction and so of course these are a KEY part of The Learning Path and should be completed at the end of learning. After we go through all the hard work of teaching the lesson and facilitate opportunities for students to practice the skill, we need to know that they mastered the skill. We do this with assessments. If mastery isn’t achieved, we can look at the data to see where my students still need some instruction. But how do we assess students digitally? Google Forms are my FAVORITE new way to create formative assessments for students! They take a little time to play around with to learn all the different tools, but are really fairly simple to use. However I must say, the best part about digital assessments is the fact that they are automatically graded for you! And if that wasn’t enough, it also gives you data trends by the entire class or by individual students! I was shocked and amazed to discover this feature. Why have I not been using these sooner?! Here are some pictures below of the assessment I created for Addition Within 10. You can also see how the assessment breaks it down by trend and student.

SAVE YOU SOME TIME!

Sometimes we just want someone to do it for us. That’s why I’ve begun creating these paths for educators. These paths include EVERYTHING you need to teach and assess your students. I’ve started with first grade math standards but will soon be diving into reading standards as well. Have a different grade and skill you want a Learning Path for? Let me know! You love the path but want to use your own mini lesson or activities? No problem! These are COMPLETELY editable and you can keep or take out anything you don’t want or need. Each path will include separate resources that can be purchased individually or as a complete bundle with the whole path. Want to do it all yourself? There’s a completely blank template you can use as well! You can grab just the template to fill in your own lesson, activities, and assessments, or the entire bundle and have all the work done for you! With the bundle you even get an added bonus of a How-To video for teachers to utilize all features of the path! You can also check out my Instagram for in-depth stories on more benefits of The Learning Path.

Something brand new I’m starting is Custom Bundles. You can pick and choose ANY of The Learning Path components you would like and bundle them together at a discounted price! Email me at lindsaynsauer@gmail.com and I will create a custom bundle to meet the needs of you and your students.

Thanks for reading and learning with me here! Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Addition Within 10 Assessment for Google Forms FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

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20ish Awesome Read Alouds to Foster Social Emotional Learning

It’s time for some social emotional books! Here I’ll talk about some of my FAVORITE social emotional books and the skills they help foster. Students can easily connect through literature, especially when characters are humans they can relate to because they are representations of them. I love teaching students skills through literature and there are SO many amazing books being published that cater to social and emotional development. If you’ve read my Social Emotional Education post you know exactly how passionate I am about SEL and why it’s a crucial skill for our little learners.

This list was extremely difficult for me to compile because there were so many awesome options. However, I was able to target twenty-ish (I may have cheated and added more!) of my favorites to share with you! Some of these books will be a repeat from my 25 Awesome Back to School Books post because social and emotional learning must be talked about, especially in the beginning of year. Keep in mind that I teach primary students, so some of these books may be geared towards littles but I do believe that most of the books can be used for any elementary grade student. So…what are we waiting for? Let’s get started!

1. Bubblegum Brain- This is a great book for teaching growth mindset to students. It’s fantastic because it shows two different mindsets of students and how they choose to grow… or not. One student in this story scores well on a test without studying and doesn’t think he needs to do anything different. But by the end of the book, he realizes that we can ALWAYS do better. Understanding we should always continue to grow is such an important message for our kids! Growth mindset is a huge SEL concept so I can’t help but add a few more in here. Other favorites for having a growth mindset are The Bad Seed, Giraffes Can’t Dance, and Jabari Jumps and below is one my favorite growth mindset activities to do with students.
1. I Can Do Hard Things- This book is awesome for helping students build self confidence. It provides the vocabulary of YET and opens up discussions about being able to do any and all things they put their minds to. To continue to work on confidence, utilizing positive affirmations is a great way to talk to yourself and build on that self-assurance. I Am Enough is an awesome book that provides positive affirmations when things get challenging.
1. The Girl Who Never Makes Mistakes- It is HUMAN to make mistakes and that is how we grow and learn. This wonderful book promotes mistake making, especially for those students who tend to want things to be perfect. This book aims to help all students know it is OK and EXPECTED that we make mistakes! Another great book for this is The Good Egg.
1. Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen- This is my favorite book to help students understand the importance of listening to others. They get to hear and learn about how to listen in a safe and funny way. This helps students understand the importance of listening, not only for themselves, but also for the people around them. Some more great titles for this skill are Why Should I Listen? and Listen Buddy.
1. Each Kindness- I cannot say enough great things about this book. This book is very impactful for students and teaches them that even small acts of kindness can have. a HUGE impact. It also touches on how bullying can really hurt in ways we don’t understand. Random Acts of Kindness has an simple yet sweet activity that involves a jar and small rocks to put inside for every small act of kindness the class does and when the entire jar is full, the class gets a kindness party! This is a great way to kick start kindness in the classroom and help promote those small acts that have a huge effect. Some more books that teach about kindness are Be Kind, The Last Stop on Market Street, and Those Shoes.
1. Say Something– This helps show students the importance of standing up for others and speaking up. This is absolutely an essential skill that is SO needed right now in our country’s climate and we have to teach students to always do the right thing, even when it’s hard and scary. This book can help students find their voice and understand how important it is to SPEAK UP. Some more books are Juice Box Bully, Speak Up, and Say Something.
1. A Little Spot Books- These are a set of eight wonderful books all focused helping students understand their feelings and emotions in a way that makes sense. These books can help facilitate conversations about our emotions and healthy ways to express them, as well as help recognize what our body looks and feels like when we are overwhelmed. They can help students learn it’s ok to have big feelings and that we can help them learn how to cope with them. These are also great books to introduce a calm down spot in your classroom. Check out this Signs of Tension chart I love using with my students. Another favorite for feelings and coping is Howard B Learns It’s OK to Back Away.
1. Do Unto Otters- This a fun way to introduce and discuss how to be a good friend and how we all get along with one another. It also goes over kindness and how we respect one another.
1. Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon- Molly Lou Melon shows students that it’s ok to be themselves, even if that means they’re different that everyone. It shows students how to stand up for themselves and to be brave. I Like Myself is also a great book to help students appreciate that it is GOOD to be different because our differences make us who we are!
1. The Most Magnificent Thing- This girl shows students that even when we have an idea, things may not go how we planned but we must NEVER give up. It’s a perfect lesson to build flexibility and patience in students and to help motivate them to keep striving when things aren’t going like they thought it would during a project. It shows students how to be resilient and persevere through! I also love using this to introduce STEAM in our classroom. Some more great books that teach perseverance are Salt in His Shoes, A Chair For My Mother, and The Dot.
1. How Full is Your Bucket?- This is a great book that provides a creative metaphor for students to see how their actions impact others. Using this language helps students understand others’ feelings that can be used for the entire year.
1. Teamwork Isn’t My Thing and I Don’t Share- Teamwork is essential to a successful classroom. This book depicts a group work situation to help students see the importance of teamwork! It shows what it looks like to work together and HOW we can do it. Another great one is Same, Same But Different.
1. My Mouth is A Volcano- This is such a fun book to teach students about learning how know appropriate times to speak, or as this book puts it to calm their ‘volcano mouths’. I love to relate this one back to The Interrupting Chicken because both titles bring fun discussions that students love when it comes using their voice at the right times.
1. The Recess Queen- This is a great book I love to read before sending students outside to recess for the first time. It’s all about how people may be going through things we don’t understand and to show them kindness anyway. The best part is that it helps students see that even when someone is unkind, we can STILL show kindness to them and try to befriend them. Some more like this are Carla’s Sandwich, Enemy Pie, and The Invisible Boy.
1. What if Everybody Did That?- This is a great story that helps paint the bigger picture of how our actions affect others at school and in our community. It challenges them to see how collectively we can make a positive impact on our world. Another one by the same author is, What if Everybody Said That?
1. The Way I Feel- This is a wonderful book that opens up discussion on how children can feel and the range of emotions we have. It takes time for students to understand their feelings and then to be able to name them. When reading books about different feelings, they can begin to understand the WIDE range of emotions we all have. Another one by that same author is The Way I Act. This book discusses different ways we act and behave and what it looks like to be responsible, capable, persistent, and so much more.
1. Little Monkey Calms Down & Little Mouse Says Sorry- These life skill books are adorable and amazing. Emotions and feelings are big concepts to tackle and these are some of my favorite books to teach students some important life skills. We as educators have to help students recognize and deal with emotions and these books open up great dialogue about conflict management.
1. Belly Breathe- This book talks about mindfulness and looks to help students learn self-calming techniques when they feel upset and overwhelmed. This book, coupled with others listed earlier, help students learn to recognize those signs of tension in our body and how we can try to calm our bodies when it feels anxious. It’s important to not only help children recognize those feelings, but to also teach them that THEY can calm themselves down when they feel that way. Other great ones for this skill is Breathe Like a Bear, Breathe with Me, and B is for Breathe.
1. Ruby Finds A Worry- A brand new favorite of mine! This book helps students understand what it feels like to have a worry that won’t go away and how we can deal with it so it doesn’t continue to get bigger and bigger. We need to acknowledge the fact that our kiddos have big feelings and worries just like we do. We need to help them understand that it is OK and here is how we deal with it. Some more are Wilma Jean Worry Machine and Wemberly Worried and What Do We Do With a Problem?
1. I Have Ants in My Pants – This is a book about a boy who just can’t seem to get his wiggles out no matter what. Know any students like this? How much would it help them to hear a story about someone with the same struggle and understand that this is OK while hearing ways to cope with it?

These are just SOME of the amazing SEL titles. The list is truly endless. You can find a book on just about ANY topic you are looking to teach. I would strongly suggest using literature to help you teach those heavy topics. Especially with diverse humans that students can connect with and begin to understand on a deeper level. If you have any more MUST HAVE SEL books, please share them below! I am always looking to add more to my collection too!

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Digital Learning – Google Classroom 101

Are you seeking ideas on how to be organized, easily communicate, and manage students? Then you need to get started with Google Classroom! Google Classroom is a platform that does it all for teachers, especially during a time of digital learning. The online platform streamlines the sharing of documents or assignments between teacher and student and provides an easy way to keep communication and feedback (in real-time) flowing between teacher and students. Parents can also join in to track student assignments and grades. Google Classroom even gives the teachers the ability to maintain records of completed work, missing assignments, and stay organized between classes or subjects. During this time of remote learning, this tool is priceless because it is a platform for sharing “paper” seamlessly.

Google Classroom is compatible with the whole G Suite, which includes Google Docs, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Meet, Google Drive, Google Forms, and more. Google Classroom is also compatible with several other educational websites for student learning for seamless sign-in. This walkthrough of Google Classroom, from start to finish will help you get organized for a tremendous year with students.

Where do I Begin?

To begin, you will need to be part of the G Suite for Education at your school to be able to utilize Google Classroom. If you aren’t already a Google school, reach out to your technology department to get set up! Google Classroom is a free tool, but only works when teachers and students have a Gmail (email) account!

Now Let’s Set it Up

First things first! Let’s set up Google Classroom using your Gmail account! Simply go to Google Classroom on your Internet browser. You will need to choose your Gmail account to sign in with. If you are like me, you have more than one, so make sure you are signing up with your school district email. Once you are on the platform, it is time to set up some classes! You will see the + in the top corner and that is where to begin!

Follow the prompts for creating a class, including the class title and subject, and your new classroom will be created! Google is often very user friendly and will give you tips along the way!

You can see the tip in the image above about inviting students! Let’s do that next! There are two ways that you can go about getting your students to your class.

Option 1: Click on the “People” tab on the top of your classroom screen. Next, add the email address of each of your students, and click invite when you are done. When your students go to the Google Classroom website, they will see your class and just hit JOIN! Easy peasy! The students will also receive an email inviting them to join also. I highly recommend this option for elementary age students.

Option 2: This option relies on students typing in a unique code with numbers and letters. This works best for older students, so there is less confusion using the random letter and number code! Your unique code is easily accessible from your teacher screen right under your name and class description. Once you have secured your code to share, have students go to Google Classroom website, hit the plus sign, and add the class code.

If you have multiple classes/subjects to create, follow the same steps from above to create all them all!

Stream!

The Stream is what you and students see when signing into Google Classroom. You can add assignments, announcements, ask questions, and even have conversations or discussions.

To start using the Stream, follow these quick steps:

Click on “Share with your class.” It will open a window with a bunch of options.
Select your class, or from the drop down, select multiple classes you want to share with at once. You can also choose to post to all students or individuals.
Type your announcement or question in the box.
There is also the option to “Add.” Here you will see the options of attaching a file from your computer, a file from Google Drive, YouTube, or a link to a site.
Lastly, you simply hit “Post.” Students will then see your message in their “Stream.”
In settings, you can control what is seen within the “Stream.” You may want to choose for students to only see announcements, instead of all the assignments too.

Classwork Tab!

Now, this tab really gets you organized! In this tab, you will have the option to “+ Create.” Here you get a menu to use to create assignments for the students, ask a question, or post material that you would like students to have access to during the school year. Let’s take a closer look at the options in “Create.”

Assignments

Assignments is where, you guessed it, you post assignments!

Create a title and instructions for your assignment and then look for “Add.”
In “Add,” you can add any file you want students to work on. It can be a Google Doc or Google Slides.
You can then choose to allow students to just view the file, edit the file (if students are working collaboratively), or my favorite, make an individual copy for each student! When you do this, the students get a copy of your file saved to their Google Drive to edit and complete.
When students are done, there is a cool feature where they get a button that says “TURN IN” to show their teacher they have completed the assignment.

Other Options:

You can also choose to attach links to various websites that integrate with Google Classroom like Quizziz.com or Edpuzzle.com. More to come about that when we get to grading!
There is an option to choose a due date. If students turn in the assignment late, it will say “Turned in Late” helping with record keeping. Google Calendar will also keep track of these due dates!
Create or add to a “Topic” you want it organized in. (Scroll down for more on “Topic.”
If you choose, you can even add a grading rubric!
Lastly, don’t forget to assign the points the assignment is worth, (it defaults to 100) or the assignment can be left ungraded.

Quiz Assignment

The difference between “Assignment” and “Quiz Assignment” is simple. Instead of attaching any file, when you choose this option, it automatically creates a Google Form, which is a blank quiz for you to edit and use with you students. Since Classroom is compatible with Forms, once students complete the quiz, all you have to do is click, “Import Grades,” and the grades will populate for you in Classroom from the Google Form! This is an incredible time saver! The data can be instant!

Question

This option is exactly what it sounds like- ask a question! This question can have short answers or multiple choice. During distance learning, I love to ask questions like, “How are you?” and use emojis for the students to answer! You can also add files or YouTube videos. Some other ideas to use would be asking a question about a story, or having a student do a warm up math question. Students can respond to one another here having your very own virtual discussion!

Material

Materials is the category where you can add your anchor charts, or reference sheets. This will take the options for points and due date away, but keep the add menu! Materials can also be sorted by topics.

Reuse Post

If you have multiple classes and wanted to use a post you created previously, all you do is click “Reuse Post.” It will prompt you to choose which other class you want to reuse the post from, and it will copy it, so you don’t have to create it again! You can even reuse a post from archived classes (classes from previous school years).

6. Topic

My favorite part of classwork is the “Topics.” When you create an assignment or a material, you can add them to a “Topic,” which organizes your posts neatly for ease of use for you and students! If you teach multiple subjects, you could have a “Topic” for ELA and a separate “Topic” for Social Studies.

Grading

Now you have created an assignment, students have completed it and turned it in so now you would like to grade it! Grading in Google Classroom works in a few ways!

First, choose the assignment that you would like to grade and check the stats. You will see “Turned in” or “Assigned.” If it is after the due date, you will also see “Missing” under student names. If you graded any of the assignments and returned them, you will also see a number for “Graded.” Keeping organized is so amazingly helpful! No more tracking down kids after a few days of collecting a paper assignment because they did not complete it! You will know your stats immediately on the due date! As you grade, the assignment will keep track of what is turned in, assigned, graded and returned.

If the assignment was a Google Doc or Google Slides, clicking on the student’s name that turned it in will open their document in a new window. There will be a drop down menu with all of your students from the class. Once you assess the assignment and give it a grade, you can also add private comments to post to the students. Only one more thing to do…return the work! Simply click the “Return” button so the student is notified that they have a grade to review. The dropdown arrow next to “Return” will give you an option to return multiple assignments at once, as well as to individuals. I like to grade all the assignments at once and then return to all the students at the same time.

Students will have the opportunity to “resubmit:” assignments and they would come up as “Resubmitted.” It is up to you as the teacher how you handle those re-submissions!

Grading Tab

The last tab on the top of our Classroom menu is “Grading.” Once you have a few assignments, you will be able to access this tab to see an overview of completed, incomplete, graded and returned assignments from your whole class. Think of it as a virtual gradebook!

Google Calendar

Google Classroom is compatible with so many websites and has so many add ons. Even better, access to Google Calendar and Google Drive are available right in your Classroom! Your calendar and drive are always accessible from your home screen where your classes are listed when first signing in. Assignments with due dates will appear on your calendar automatically.

Your Google Drive is always connected when you see the file folder. A folder is always automatically created for Google Classroom and assignments are organized there as well!

Why Google Classroom

Google Classroom is such a great way to work with students and stay organized. We started at the beginning with set up, made assignments, graded them, but what happens at the end of the year? You archive your classes! Simply click the three dots in the upper right hand corner of your class on your main screen. A menu appears and archive is one of the options! Archive just means you won’t see the class everyday, but it doesn’t mean it gets deleted! You can always go back and access is if you wanted to see what you have done in years past!

Google Classroom from beginning to end has so many amazing features and so many ways to keep connected, organized, and available to students. Now that you are set up, check out the different settings and see what you like and what you don’t! Have an amazing school year with Google Classroom making your year a little more seamless from start to finish!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the digital daily template created just for this post for FREE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

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Digital Classroom Management

Classroom management is key. Every educator knows this. And every educator knows how hard, overwhelming, yet important this task is. So of course it’s natural if we’re having slight anxiety on how to do this virtually. One of the biggest things I believe will make an impact on classroom management is by loving your students and building a community and you can find some ideas for doing that virtually HERE. I think spending the time building that community… even at a distance is going to be one of the BEST classroom management tools you have. Another huge factor is supporting our student’s mental health. You can check out some ways to support their mental health HERE. But what are some strategies to manage student behavior during distance learning? The first is by giving yourself and your student’s grace. This year is unprecedented and we’re all learning. Know that this journey together may not be the easiest, but it will certainly be memorable! We are ALL a community together and the best places to learn this year will be from each other. But there are some strategies that can help ease going into this new and for this post I’ve teamed up with some great educators to ensure I’m providing you with ALL the tips…. which means this post is a little lengthier than normal. Feel free to skip around to sections specific to your needs or read it in its entirety! With that, let’s get started!

Engaging Students

It’s obvious one of the most important things to manage our classroom this year over a screen is going to be by engaging our students. Thankful for us, we live in a generation where we have some AMAZING new technology tools at our fingertips!

Tik Tok– Although this company is facing some legal issues, we can currently still use this as a tool. I have seen SO many creative ways to engage students with Tik Tok. @the_renewed_teacher had a GREAT way to introduce herself to her students using Tik Tok. Check out her video HERE! After watching that, I thought about how engaging it would be to make a Tik Tok as a lesson or challenge students to create their own to demonstrate their understanding of a topic.
Reels and Flipgrid– These platforms are a couple more cool tools I’ve seen as well being used to engage students. We have to relate to students on what they’re interested in and I would bet they would be much more engaged watching you teach using a Reel or a Flipgird, as opposed to sitting and listening to you every now and then. You have to switch it up as much as you can and using these platforms is a great way to differentiate.

There are SO many creative ways to engage students and we just have to think outside the box and let their OWN creativity shine through. Heck, we know they are more tech-savvy than we are so encourage and facilitate them to lead! There are so many cool tools my students have taught me about. Let’s teach them how to use technology in a creative and responsible way. We have to shift our mindset and use this technology in our favor. Some other great and engaging tools are Boom, Digital Escape Rooms, and Kahoot. If you have not heard of Boom, I promise you are MISSING out! I am obsessed with how engaging it makes learning for students. The best part is that students get immediate feedback and YOU get to see all that data as well! Digital Escape Rooms are such a fun way to have students practice skills, combining it with a fun and suspenseful way to interact with the content. They are also great for supporting teamwork at a distance. Check out this Back to School one HERE!

Kahoot is another fun tool that you can use with your class while teaching. It turns learning into a game! What’s more fun than playing while you learn?! No matter what, let’s embrace the technology we have in front of us even when it’s overwhelming and scary. This is our superpower. To do what we have to do when we know what’s best for kids.

Parent Engagement/Support

We know it takes a village. We can’t just engage our students and leave their families out of the loop. It is FOR SURE going to take all of us working together this year to support these babies learning at home. This is another piece of the puzzle that deserves grace. Our student’s parents may not be as familiar with the different types of technology that their children and we are using. Some of us aren’t even as familiar! So we must ask ourselves- how can we support them and their child? Online office hours will be a great tool for parents and students to reach out for support they may need. You can create helpful videos that not only support your students’ learning and understanding, but also their parents so they can be a helpful support contact. Additionally, having a folder for families to access when they need to refer back to specific information about online learning is also a great idea. This folder can contain things such as a class schedule or your contact information. This digital slides resource is something that can be used to provide families with all the must know information that they can keep for the entire year.

Another great idea is hosting workshops to support parents. Workshops can be designed to focus on a specific skill, how to use a specific platform, or another other immediate need your class requires. Remember, we not only need to support our students, but also their families just as much to help their children be successful at home. Be sure to provide space for ample communication with parents so they can help you teach your students. However, at the same time, don’t forget to set boundaries for yourself as well. Your time is valuable too and as much as parents may need support, they also need to respect your personal work and family time.

Communication

Communication is a CRUCIAL piece to the supporting of everyone. There are SO many amazing digital communication tools out there. Class Dojo and ClassTag are great tools to motivate students and communicate with parents. Remind is another great communication tool I have used and loved in the past. SignUpGenius is an awesome way to have parents sign up for an event digitally, such as virtual conferences or one-on-one help sessions. Google Classroom and Seesaw both have a great tool for announcements. You can easily send out class wide announcements to families that parents and students can see. No matter what platform you use for learning, I would absolutely make sure that parents sign up so that you can easily reach all of them. These editable flipbooks are a great way to share important learning information with families that they can refer to for the entire year.

This is something that can easily be housed in a folder as aforementioned if parents forget a frequently asked question. As with our students, at the start of this school year, I would set up very clear and specific ways to communicate with parents. Ask yourself- How will they get a hold of you? When are you available for them? Let them know up front what your expectations are so they know when and how you will communicate.

Organization/Scheduling

Structure is key in having a well-managed classroom. Our structures start from our organization and scheduling skills that are consistent so students know how to keep upholding our expectations. I have seen so many amazingly beautiful and detailed weekly schedules out there for teachers and families. I love the idea of having a very detailed and organized weekly schedule to share expectations and what’s to come for families. You could have weekly slides for students to access their work or an agenda of what they can expect to see in coming months. This is a great way to clearly express expectations and prepare students early. Here you can find a FREE template!

Expectations

Just like we have expectations in our classrooms, we MUST set clear and specific expectations for our students working virtually. Again we must reflect and ask ourselves some questions that have answers that require meticulous planning. For example- what expectations do we need to have in place for students to be successful? What will be their expectations for working? What will you deem as quality work? We need to set SPECIFIC expectations for the quality work and how will we be turning in that work. In order to do that, we should provide TONS of quality work examples for students to know exactly what their work expectations are. In my classroom, I love using Microprogressions to set very clear expectations of student work. Below you will see some examples of what those can look like.

This year, now more than ever, we have to ask ourselves many different questions to get ready for our year. How will students access learning materials? Will they be expected to show up at a certain time? Will their work need to be turned in by a specific time? These rules or norms could also be created together. In the classroom, I like to think through what specific rules I will have in place but actually create them with students. What do the students need? What do they think is important to help them learn? Do we really care how they are dressed or where they are working if they at least show up and want to learn? Must they be in a specific environment or do we really just want them to show up. You may have specific ideas on your expectations for attire and work spaces but ultimately, let’s be happy when they show up! Check out this editable rules template I created to help students! What’s even more fun is after going over rules and expectations, students can practice with these interactive Boom Cards!

Routines, Procedures, & Structures… Oh My!

Just like expectations, we must deeply think through those daily routines, procedures, and structures we will have in place for students. These important things go hand in hand with expectations. We need to think about what the procedures are when we learn together and how we are respectful learners, and now also what routines we follow when logging on for our learning daily. What platform will students access their work in? What procedure will they use to check for new communication from the teacher? What structures will we have in place for learning? Will there be live learning or small group work time? These are all things to think about when preparing for online learning. It’s just like being a brand new teacher again and planning for the unknowns as much as possible. But ultimately, you know what best practices are. Whether students are in front of you on a computer or in person, what is going to be best for those babies to learn? How can we set them up to help them establish schoolwork routines at home? Is it realistic to expect students to sit down and work as if it were a normal school day? No. It’s not the same thing and we shouldn’t expect or want students to be on technology for that long. So think about how students can be most successful and HAPPY while learning at home. We want to encourage healthy realistic routines so that students feel comfortable and know what to expect. Communicate with parents and help them establish their “school routine” at home. HERE is another great resource for Teaching Digital Routines to students!

Platforms for Student Work

There are SO many amazing platforms to house all of the students’ work and learning how to use them is going to be so important for us as teachers, our students and their families. Knowing how to use the platform and being able to troubleshoot for families is going to be a key component in digitally managing your classroom. No matter what platform you use with your students, make sure that you allow ample time for students to practice navigating through that learning space and learn about all the digital tools they need to be successful. Just like in the classroom, students need to have routines and procedures for digital learning as well. How do we get help? What are the tools I have? How do I log in? Think of everything you can think through while setting up a successful virtually learning space for your students. Seesaw is one of my favorite tools to use with primary learners. You can check out a detailed Seesaw post HERE! Google Classroom is another platform that is really cool to use because you can house all of your important documents and links for the entire year! In Google Classroom, you can set up a specific spot for students to go if they are unsure. You can add things like office hours, contact info, daily schedule, and so much more. This is a great way for students to go if they forget something or have a question without relying on you constantly. Designing a Bitmoji classroom is definitely the new thing! With these you can embed links for so many other platforms, such as Epic or Vooks, into your classroom for your students to access.

Google Slides

And while we’re on the topic of Google- let’s talk about how Slides is AMAZING for SO many reasons. As stated earlier, I love that Google can house so many resources and tools for students to use. I have reached out to a wonderful teacher friend who is currently teaching exclusively online and did so this summer as well. Here is what she said to say about Google:

“The most helpful thing for me when remote teaching was to have everything I needed on Google Slides (learn more about using Google Slides HERE). I made a slideshow where each slide held a different part of the morning meeting routine: the greeting, share, activity, and morning message. During the meeting, I share my screen with my students to help guide us through the meeting, share visuals with the students to help them focus, and have all the links and videos I need in one spot! Some things that work well for digital greetings are songs, chants, guessing games, and greetings in other languages. I always had the words of the greeting and/or a visual to signify the greeting on my Google Slides to help students know what was coming, to help other teachers or parents supporting students, and to help myself remember the greeting! It also serves as an extra practice for reading fluency.” – Zeba

Goal Setting

Setting and reaching goals is a great way to manage your classroom because it opens up doors for growth mindsets, perseverance and excitement when you reach your goals. Helping students sit down and think through what they want to accomplish this year has the power to be one of the biggest motivators for students. These goals don’t necessarily need to be academic, though they can be. By helping students set goals for themselves, you can help motivate them to want to be successful even while working at home. Check out this digital goal-setting sheet that I love using that can absolutely be used virtually. I love using this to set a reading and math academic goal, as well as a SEL goal. It’s also a great tool for students to reference throughout the year and update it when they surpass their goal! Once each student sets a personal goal, you can set class goals and earn rewards as you meet them!

Incentives

Meeting goals usually comes with incentives because we like to be rewarded right? However, this is yet another thing we have to figure out how to do digitally. How can we excite, engage, and incentivize students virtually? I have already seen SO many creative ideas that teachers have! If you subscribe, you will have exclusive access to this digital choice board FREEBIE to help motivate students!

One cool idea is using a digital class marble jar! The students earn marbles for any expectations they meet! It could be things like showing up to a Zoom call or turning in quality work. This is a great way to have the students work as a team and earn a reward they would all love to have!

Other incentives could be to work towards a wacky hat or mismatched day or even a socially distanced picnic with select friends. Whatever motivates them! Using a survey would be a great way to get to know your students and what motivates them. I have some digital forms you can use HERE!

Digital Stickers are all the rage right now! There are SO many amazing stickers out there to motivate students to turn in quality work. I have seen many cute ones that let students know they need to try again or that they’ve done a great job! HERE are some of my favorites from @creating4theclassroom.

Reward coupons are another great way to recognize a students’ hard work! There are TONS of easy CHEAP ways to reward students. Check out these brand NEW digital reward coupons from @theprimarypartner HERE! She also has this amazing digital management FREEBIE that can be found HERE!

I know I shared this one before but I just LOVE yard signs! They are such an inexpensive way to motivate students! Just think how excited they would be to be the Student of the Week and wake up to a yard sign!

Having a Student of the Week is another great motivator I have seen teachers using. They get a special digital form to complete about themselves to share with the class! This is such a fun way to get to know each other and motivate students to do well.

Another great idea I’ve seen is called Secret Message. Whenever students are following online expectations, they earn a letter. When they reveal the whole word, they get to vote on their virtual reward! How fun would that be?! Check out @thesouthernteach to learn more.

I’ve also included TONS of digital learning rewards in my Classroom Community blog post HERE! When it comes to incentivizing students, remember to reflect on the definition of equity. HOW we go about motivating students is just as important as doing it. Be mindful of your students’ living situations and what THEY are able to do. It’s one thing to reward students for turning in quality work, but it’s another to expect them to do something they are not able to while rewarding another student. For example, I do not believe in expecting students to complete work at the same time as others or requiring students to be on a Zoom call in order to receive a reward. Think about catering your incentive rewards to your students just as you would cater differentiated lessons based on their skills. Here is what another wonderful teacher friend had to say about incentives:

“When students turn in activities assessments and things like that in Google classroom or seesaw I always make sure to comment on them. Whether I’m typing a comment as a private message in google classroom or I am recording my voice to reply to them on Seesaw. I’ve also used flip grid and the students can record videos there and I will record a video response back to them and they seem to be loving that as well. Not only is This great for communication but it also builds community and our classroom not just between me and the students but between me and the families as well. As far as incentives go right now I’m really focusing on positive reinforcement and calling the kids out when I see them being the best they can be. A lot of the times I feel like the kids just want to be seen and they want to be told that they’re doing a good job.” – Stacey

Follow Stacey for more amazing ideas @mrsrappsclass

Hand Signals

I LOVE using hand signals in the classroom. They are a great way to communicate with each other while minimizing the interruption of a lesson. Using signals is an awesome classroom management practice and they could easily be used in a virtual classroom as well. I specifically created these visual reminder cards for online learning HERE!

Check out what @kindergartencafe had to say about hand signals too!

“I also like to use the “me too” non-verbal signal. It is the same as the American Sign Language symbol for “me too”. Thumbs and pinky are out straight, other fingers are tucked inside, and then you move your hand from your chest to straight out in front of you. I have the students use this when they agree with what someone is saying, if they wanted to say the same thing, and/or if they had the same experience. For example, if someone said that over the weekend they went to the park, anyone that also went to the park could show that by using this symbol. Similarly, I like to teach my students the ASL symbol for “different” so that they can show when they had a different experience or they respectfully disagree with someone. To make this sign, you put your two pointer fingers out crossed on top of each other and then slide them across each other.” – Zeba

Mini Lessons

How we go about our lessons are going to be crucial in maintaining a productive classroom environment. Lessons in general are obviously going to look MUCH different and delivering mini lessons over a screen are going to be so important. For starters, the reason they’re so important is because they’re MINI. There is significant research that students lose focus after about 6 minutes so make sure your lessons over the screen doesn’t exceed that before you engage them in some interaction. I’ve seen that platforms such as Edpuzzle and Nearpod have begun to include more engaging tools to use while teaching. For example, you record your lesson through that platform and while students are working through your lesson, they can interact with the content while learning! You can add questions for students to answer and link a quiz for them to take after learning. This can help break up your lessons into more digestible chunks. Be sure to teach a mini lesson on live lesson expectations! There are things that will need to be explicitly taught and practiced to make sure your lessons run smoothly, such as, muting microphones, sharing video, sharing screens, and typing in the chat room.

Here again is where we need to think about equity. We know it’s important to know the type of home environment our students go home to. But here we must think that many of our students are going to be working from home and we need to ask ourselves some questions before we set our expectations. What is their home life like? Will they have their parents supporting them daily? Are they going to be working by themselves at home? Will they be in the same room as other siblings doing virtual work? Do we expect students to log in all at the same time and work at the same time? Is that fair? This is just something important to think about when planning HOW to teach students in the parameters you are given. If you are currently teaching a hybrid model, @simplyacuteideas is doing some great things!

Asynchronous Learning

A new topic I’ve recently heard of is asynchronous learning. This is when you pre-record a lesson, have students access the learning independently on their own time,and allow them come back to you with questions at a pre-scheduled time. I’ve also seen teachers that actively sit on a Zoom call or Google hangout as a support while they have students work through the lesson independently. This is definitely a new way to think about teaching but I see how it could be very beneficial for students. There are lots of different ways to conduct teaching digitally, but I think with freedom allowed, trying different types of ways and seeing what works best for your students, and ultimately YOU, is going to be your best bet. Digital learning paths are something I’m super excited about creating that will include everything a student needs to learn a skill. It will be a tool that houses teaching resources, activities for students to practice in engaging ways, and assessment components… all in one place! If you have any specific skills you would love to have for your students, please let me know!

Small Groups

When you have no idea what your classroom will look like, it’s hard to think about what small groups will look like. In the classroom, we know the kids will definitely have to be socially distanced but think about all the space they’ll have to work! We need all the positive thoughts right? Virtually, this could work out pretty nicely too. Especially with new BREAKOUT ROOMS! Zeba also added some really important reasons why to use small groups while teaching virtually.

“I also would add that as much as possible, offering small groups is the best way to get to know your students and to give them a chance to get to know each other. This way they don’t have to mute and unmute. They can just talk with each other! You can hold optional groups based on interests and then let the students actually talk to each other. You can be there to support their conversational skills. This is the kind of thing they would normally get to do during snack or lunch, but won’t be able to do this year.” –Zeba

Stay tuned for future posts that dive into more detail about teaching literacy small groups virtually!

BE PRESENT and Flexible

I’ve said before but I’m going to say it again, we have to be present. I believe this is one of the most important ways to manage your digital classrooms. Connection is key and it’s already a struggle to build connections solely on a screen. Fostering that connectedness can be done by staying present and limiting as many distractions as you can. I know this will not be possible all the time but try to be present with students as much as you can. And be flexible! This year may not go the way we hope but give yourself and your students the flexibility to make mistakes and grow together. We are all doing the best we can to navigate through these crazy times. But just think about how much stronger our students and we will be when we can be back together in the classroom equipped with so many cool new techy skills! Stacey had something really powerful to say about connectedness.

“When we have our “recess breaks “during zoom I tell the kids they can get up, go to the bathroom, get a drink of water, get a snack stretch but a lot of them like to sit and chat with me. And at the end of the day we come together in zoom I tell them a plan for the next day and together we say “don’t forget to be awesome “. They usually exit out but they also like to stay a little after class and chat. I’ve met little brothers and sisters, seen Lego builds and Barbies. I don’t mind staying after to chat with the kids because it just brings us closer together as a classroom family.” – Stacey

We have the opportunity this year to get to know our students on an even deeper level. It really is going to take a village this year. But we CAN and we WILL make this the best year EVER for our students. They deserve it! I hope these ideas sparked some things to think about when managing your classroom digitally and you feel a tad less overwhelmed going into these never before experienced school year! If you need anything at all please don’t hesitate to ask. I am working tirelessly to support YOU this year!

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Social Emotional Education

Social emotional learning is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. I had a reminder this week of why the explicit teaching of these skills is so important for our kiddos, especially in these crucial younger years. During the quarantine, my son switched to an older preschool room and we were not allowed in the building. A staff member would come to get him and contact was strictly email, conference calls, or texts through an app. When he switched classrooms, we also had to deal with no longer having outings to museums, parks, or libraries because of the “virus”. Add on top of that, he had to adjust to a new baby sister that joined the family. This all happened within a span of a few weeks. Needless to say, we had a hard time, at home and at school. School behaviors were a tad unacceptable, so naturally explicit social emotional teaching was key in our home. And this week, for the first time in MONTHS, I was able to meet his teachers. And of course, all that teaching paid off.

We sat in this meeting to hear that our son is such a caring and compassionate child. We were told that ANYTIME a friend is hurt he goes right over to check in with them. Anytime he does something to hurt a friend intentionally he immediately apologizes for his actions and checks in. This. This is why we teach social emotional learning. After leaving that meeting, my husband asked me why the majority of the conversation was spent discussing his social skills instead of academics. I told him that in these early years, and even throughout high school and college, it is our responsibility as educators to ensure we are taking time to teach children how to interact and problem solve. We must spend the time helping children build empathy for one another and being a kind human to ALL. I walked out of that meeting today feeling so proud of my son for being a kind human. I also walked out of there knowing how important this work is and exactly how much children need this from us, especially now. This made everything finally feel worthwhile.

We have had to work SO hard at home to build empathy and compassion for others. We work tirelessly to teach kindness and build capacity for this tiny human to solve problems on his own and basically be awesome independently. Now I’m not saying this to brag about my kid or my parenting but to show the importance of the type of teaching it took and the benefits we reaped. We as educators owe dedication to social and emotional learning to every tiny human we have the privilege to have in our class. Most days it feels like we get nothing in return. It feels like we are not doing enough and that we are failing as parents but we’re not. These social emotional skills are crucial in the classroom, even if you are learning digitally, because no matter where your students are they need you and your support. Think of all your students and what they’ve gone through these past few months as well. My son has a loving home with two parents who care deeply for him and he STILL struggles SO much on a daily basis. Unfortunately, many of our students might not have this same set up and some of these babies have been through so much. Without the right supports, they probably can’t even begin to understand how to effectively navigate through all their emotions, feelings, and behaviors. I hope this post can give you some ideas on some great ways on how to add this necessary piece in your classroom. First is by building a loving community with your class. I’ve talked in a previous post on how to virtually build your classroom community and you can read that HERE.

Just like we teach and model expectations, we must also teach and EXPLICITLY model behavior as well. Imagine your new group of students you have or are about to have in front of you. Would you teach them the procedure for using the bathroom or how to get a pencil? Of course! And of course we must teach them how to express themselves and show kindness to everyone. I am a HUGE proponent of explicit modeling for students. I believe that no matter the skill students are being taught, we must model for them what it looks like and what it sounds like. In order to do that, we must think through what we need to model. Think about how we communicate, how we calm ourselves when upset, how we work together, etc. While teaching, I model, model, model, and model some more. And then provide opportunities for them to practice what we’ve learned. Just like practicing routines, we practice our social emotional routines as well. We must allow ample practice time for students to work through these skills in order for them to become successful at doing it. You also want to show what it doesn’t look like so that they see when they need to redirect. While students are practicing what it looks like, they get to watch YOU practicing what it doesn’t look like. This is always the fun part because they love watching you make mistakes or be silly and they love to correct you. But you NEVER want students to practice what it doesn’t look like. We want them only displaying the modeled correct behavior. Doing this from a distance is definitely going to be a challenge, but what’s a teacher’s job without challenges right? Here you’ll read about ways to bring forth discussions, important topics to explicitly teach when thinking about all that encompasses these social and emotional skills, and some strategies and resources to utilize with students. I hope these ideas can help inspire you to take this challenge head on for the benefit of all the tiny humans in your class!

Using Literature

I LOVE using literature to teach different skills and topics to students. There are so many wonderful books to help students relate to and understand big and heavy topics in a safe way. Read alouds allow us to facilitate great conversations, discuss misconceptions, and open up for so many other companion activities to help practice skills. There are SO many amazing Social Emotional books out there and the list just keeps growing and growing! Usually, Google and social media platforms are some of my favorite ways to learn about and find new books. Keep a lookout for an upcoming post covering some of my favorite SEL books and what great topics they cover! I would definitely check out @diversereads as a start on the journey to finding books you’d love to use.

Expressing Yourself

Reading books can help provide students with language they can use to express themselves effectively. Expressing yourself is a super important skill when it comes to social and emotional well-being and we’re not born knowing how to do it in an effective and respectful way. I want you to think about your students again and their background. Do they know how to effectively communicate? Have they ever been taught how to express themselves? Maybe. However, some adults are still learning how to do this so we of course have to teach the littles our expectations. As with every other expectation, we must MODEL and PRACTICE over and over again. So how do we begin expressing ourselves in conversation? One of my favorite ways to teach young learners how to let someone know that something has upset them is by reading, A Bug and a Wish by Karen Scheuer. This book is also a great way to introduce the concept. It teaches a very simple and effective way to say, “Hey. I don’t like that. Please fix it.” Check out the poster that I love using below. It provides students with the language they need so that they can begin to express themselves in a respectful way.

Introducing I Statements is another great tool for students to use while communicating how they feel. Here’s an example, “I feel sad when you say things about my shoes. I want you to stop doing that.” Or “I feel angry when you don’t include me. I want to play together.” These respectful, direct statements help students express how they feel and state what they want. Anchor charts are a great way to give students a constant reference when learning how to express themselves. I keep our behavior charts up the entire year for students to refer back to when expressing themselves and solving problems. Providing students with sentence stems scaffolds learning and helps to build the capacity to learn how to express feelings independently.

One activity I love using at the beginning of the year is Emotions Uno. It is a fun way for students to begin learning how to express themselves and know that they are in a safe environment to share their feelings.

Solving Problems

We need effective communicators so that we can solve problems. The goal is to teach students to know how to solve problems independently, or at least attempt before a meltdown or seeking an adult. A great lesson I facilitate with students at the beginning of each year is about Big and Little Problems. We discuss the difference between Big and Little Problems and ways we can independently solve our little problems. If you have taught primary students you know exactly how exhausting it can be to help solve ALL those little problems they have throughout the day- “She’s looking at me.” “I lost my pencil.” “My crayon broke.” The list goes ON and ON. I love using this lesson HERE to help work through problems and learn to be independent problem solvers. By subscribing, you will have EXCLUSIVE access to the Size of the Problem DIGITAL Sort pictured below as well as my entire FREEBIE resource library!

Team Building

In class we have to solve problems together. But of course we have to teach expectations for how we work together. How are we a team? What does that look and sound like? Well we know that we HAVE to learn to work together since we are spending the entire year together learning and growing. Again, there are some WONDERFUL books that we can use to learn why it’s important to be a team. One of my favorites to use is, Teamwork Isn’t My Thing and I Don’t Like to Share. We read this book together and discuss the importance of teamwork and why we are a team. Then comes the fun part, team building activities! Below I’ve listed just a few of my favorites. These can all be easily adapted for social distancing by just a few masks and a couple gloves.

Cup Stacking- Students start in their table groups just stacking cups to make one structure using their hands. Give them about 5 minutes then each group talks about how they worked together and what they made. The 2nd time they are not allowed to use their hands to move the cups. We give each table group a rubber band with pieces of string attached and they have to use that to move and stack. Afterwards talk about the difference and how they had to work together to get the cups stacked.

Worm and Lifesaver- This is prepped with a gummy worm, a gummy lifesaver, a plastic cup and 4 paper clips. The cup is flipped over and the lifesaver is inside it, with the gummy worm on top. The students have to get the cup off the lifesaver and the lifesaver around the gummy worm without touching either of them. Teamwork is key!

Hula Hoop Challenge- Students hold hands in a circle, put hula-hoop on one student’s arm and they have to get the hula-hoop all the way around the circle without letting go of each other’s hands and whoever can do it the fastest wins. If anyone lets go, then we will start over.

Lily Pads Game- Students are split into 4 Groups of 6 (or the closest you can get to this with your class size). Each student in their group will get only ONE piece of paper (so that they will each have 6 pieces of paper). As a group they will have to make it from one side of the carpet to the next by only stepping on their paper. Their entire team has to make it across the carpet to win. This activity always challenges students to determine how to work together to get everyone across the carpet!

Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship- Students pair off to play a game of rock, paper, scissors. When they lose, they become a cheerleader to the person they lost to. The winner will then find another opponent. By the end, there should only be two players left but they each have a TON of cheerleaders! It’s such a fun way to cheer each other on and have fun!

Something really important after completing activities like this is to have a debrief but what we thought and why we do this. You can Think Aloud “I really liked”…. or “I thought”….. “What Did You Think?” and have students share as well. This fosters more effective communication and great social skills.

Apologizing

Another crucial communication skill is knowing when and how to apologize in a meaningful way. This has to be explicitly taught. How many times have you encountered a kid doing something to upset someone else and their way of apologizing is by mumbling, “sorry.” This is where we step in by teaching them what it looks and sounds like to apologize. I like to use this poster to help students effectively apologize in a way that matters. Just like everything else, we MODEL and PRACTICE. We must create a safe space for students to express themselves. Setting expectations for an environment where your peers are communicating, problem solving and apologizing when their wrong is how we create that safe space. We must teach them how to do it and why it matters. If you spend ample time at the beginning of the year, you will be amazed at how students are able to effectively communicate and solve their problems. Take the time to act out scenarios and role-play.

Morning Meetings

These gatherings are the perfect way to kickstart your day and continue to grow together and learn more about each other. Morning Meetings can help you gauge how your students are doing each day and have important discussions about social and emotional skills, expectations and goals, or just to talk about the exciting things you’ll learn that day. I would suggest beginning each morning with a meeting together. There are tons of different prompts out there for you to have deep and meaningful conversations. These meetings don’t have to be long but it’s a great way to continue to build those connections and be a community together. Morning Meeting Book is a wonderful resource to learn more about the impact of these meetings. As overwhelming as it is to think about how to make all these classroom moments happen virtually, try not to let the digital aspect of your teaching stop you from what you know is best practice. I have seen SO many amazing digital resources for Morning Meeting so be sure to do some research!

Connection Circles

Connection Circles are an amazing way to….you guessed it- CONNECT! This is a part of our morning meeting and we have one at the beginning of each day. Once we’ve created our safe haven, we can all begin to truly connect with one another. This is a sacred time together that MUST happen everyday if you are committing to build the classroom community best for learning. By beginning your day with a group meeting, you’re setting the tone for your classroom that each morning we will come together to be heard. This gives students time to know that ALL of their voices are valued. This also sets the expectation for communication and collaboration. While I never force students to speak on a topic, I do prompt to give the opportunity to do so twice. We may discuss things such as favorite things, how we’re feeling, or would you rather scenarios to talk through some things. By having a consistent daily time, it gives students a structure and routine where they can interact respectfully.

Restorative Circles

Restorative Circles are much different than your daily connection circle. Everyone still sits in a circle but in this circle, but this is to help regain calm in the classroom. These meetings are a wonderful tool to use when there have been behaviors displayed that have disrupted the safe space of the classroom. This helps to restore the trust and confidence to share about their feelings. What might this look like? Let’s say that someone has been stealing from classmates. The restorative circle is a way to communicate that the displayed behavior is not tolerated in our classroom. It also gives the victims a way to share how it has made them feel without singling anyone out. We give students the language to express themselves again. For example, “My new brush was stolen from my backpack and it really makes me sad.” This way the student states how they feel about what has happened to them and lets the person who stole know how that made them feel. Restorative circles can be used to manage lots of different types of conflicts between students. They can be used with the whole class or even just two students. To learn more about Restorative Justice Practices, this article is a great place to start. If you would like to learn more about having a Responsive Classroom and Morning Meetings, check out this post HERE.

Calming Strategies

Even when we know how to express ourselves, sometimes the feelings are too big for the moment. So what happens when someone or something makes us angry or sad and we are SO upset that we are not ready to learn? How do we handle our big emotions in a safe way? Two words: Chill Zone. There are lots of different names for it: Chill Zone, Peace Place, Calm Down Corner, etc. No matter what you call it, this is a designated space students can go and learn how to manage their feelings. There are a few books I love to read when I introduce the calming space to students. Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns It’s Ok to Back Away and Little Monkey Calms Down are great for learning to understand when our bodies are tense. After reading, together we create a Signs of Tension Anchor Chart. We discuss that when our body feels this way, we need to use strategies in our space to regulate our bodies before we are ready to learn again. You can see the anchor chart below. You can also see different calming tools I have in my “Chill Zone” that can be used. How to use this zone is another piece that is EXPLICITLY taught and modeled. Because there are lots of “fun” tools that we can use to calm our bodies, expectations MUST be taught. We also must learn how to time ourselves and how much time we spend calming. And of course we PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Now we have a designated space and strategies to manage our feelings and calm our bodies to be ready to learn again. Remember though- This space is NOT a TIME OUT or PUNISHMENT. This is a tool for self-regulation so students learn to recognize when they need to calm down, and as teachers we can help students recognize if they are upset, so we do not force students to use this place. If ample time is spent practicing and modeling, this space becomes a very effective way for students to learn how to manage their own big emotions. I love this Calm Down Spot kit found HERE!

Growth Mindset

Learning to express yourself, apologize, and calm down are all really tough skills and a growth mindset ensures that we’re confident enough to pick yourself up and try again if you get it wrong the first time. There are ENDLESS books that cover having a growth mindset that really helps students connect and understand what it means to have one. In addition to great literature, one of my FAVORITE tools to teach growth mindset is with The Class Dojo mini series! These are 5 short videos that can be watched over a week’s time that can lead to some great discussions about having a growth mindset. I also love using this anchor chart pictured below along with goal setting! The two topics really go hand in hand and help students recognize that we are ALWAYS learning and growing. My favorite is when students start to learn about having a fixed vs growth mindset, and start to recognize it in themselves or each other! Teaching students this vocabulary and creating a supporting environment can really help students grow in their social and emotional health. It allows them to push themselves and others to continue to get better. It is truly a beautiful and magic thing that can be created in your classroom.

Check Ins

All of these skills tie into our crucial mental health. Simple mental health check-ins is a great easy way to gauge where your students are at and plan how to address feelings that need support. Maslow must always come before Bloom. If students aren’t having their basic needs met, how on Earth could we expect them to be ready to learn? Check-ins can be conducted at the beginning and/or end of the day and can be as simple as having students mark on a board their feeling. If you have a student who is really struggling, check-ins could be required more often. You also might need outside resources to check in. Maybe your student doesn’t feel comfortable with you yet or maybe they have a really strong connection with another adult in the building. Collaborate for the sake of your student’s mental health. Direct them to a trusted individual so they can feel safe and supported. Educators know that we are ALWAYS better together. USE your resources. Reach out to colleagues to give a helping hand with students who are really struggling or ask them to help you if you’re ever struggling to make a connection with a particular kid. Help foster those other connections and help your students be comfortable sharing their feelings with someone, even if it’s not you.

Virtual Emotional Support

Support shouldn’t stop inside the classroom. If you’re totally virtual or using a hybrid model, you still must facilitate that support while they’re at home. Doing this could look like designated SEL office hours for students to check in if needed. You could create a separate support room for students to log on and help each other. Whatever you do, I think this will be CRUCIAL to ensure your students are feeling supported while at home. Set expectations and boundaries for kids to understand that feelings and emotions should be felt and expressed but in a positive way. Are they struggling with the new classroom? Hop in the support room and we can talk about it. Are they sad that they can’t see their friends? Invite some kids to the digital office and hang out. Are parents feeling stressed and the kids can tell? Invite the entire family in there to relax, talk and collaborate on some ways to relieve stress. Creating this specific time of support is bound to have students feel safe and they’ll learn so much more throughout the year.

Other Social Emotional Resources

As we’ve talked about, ample practice is the key to truly building these skills. There are some really great resources that open the space to form these habits. Boom Cards are a super engaging way to practice skills and I have created two different sets of SEL Boom Cards: Kids can engage in activities such as How to Be a Good Friend and Making Good Choices. This week I’m introducing a brand new set: Big and Little Problems! If you would like any other SEL skills for Boom Cards please drop a comment below! Another great resource that supports SEL in the classroom is Random Acts of Kindness. It is a great and FREE curriculum that can really make a difference with your students. The best part is they now have distance-learning lessons!! I have used the lesson ideas along with my own resources to support students. The Responsive Classroom is an additional wonderful tool to use while teaching Social Emotional learning to your students as well. You can also check out @the_active_educator also has AMAZING SEL resources!

I hope it shines through how passionate I am about social emotional learning. This is a LIFE SKILL that students need to know. Of course we need to teach them to read and how to do math, but it is also just as, if not more important, to teach them how to build social and emotional health. They need to learn how to communicate, how to ask for what they need, how to manage their emotions and learn how to solve their problems. If you utilize these strategies, you will see just how amazing your students are at becoming masters of their emotions and social relationships!

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Ways to Help Build Your Classroom Community Virtually

Rules and procedures are the backbone of your classroom. In my opinion, first you have to LOVE your students, then you have to teach them about what you expect from them, and then you can teach them everything else. It is my belief that if you hold your students to the highest of standards they will absolutely meet them. If you think they can’t, they won’t. It is important as an educator, as your student’s teacher, and cheerleader that you do just that. They are YOUR students and may be the only cheerleader they have, so do it! Cheer for them, challenge them, push them to be their best and you will be amazed at what they can do. But first- LOVE them!

This year ALL of us of have struggled. COVID has thrown us through a loop personally and professionally. As an adult it’s been crazy so just think about how those tiny little humans must feel. What have their families been going through? What have they been going through? One thing is for certain- we all have had super limited human contact for months, especially from our friends.This year more than ever, our students are going to need to be loved. It is going to be CRUCIAL, whether you are teaching digitally or in person, to help those babies feel safe, welcomed, and supported. The real question is how? How is it possible to build connections and establish a community digitally? In this post I’ll share some ideas to help kickstart your classroom community for your digital classroom. So let’s get started.

Happy Mail & VIP Packages

Who doesn’t love getting mail- especially kids?! Sending them mail is the perfect way to begin building connections in a fun and engaging way. I have seen SO many amazing ideas on Instagram, from postcards to where you can scratch and reveal a picture of your teacher, to QR Code videos introducing yourself. There are plenty of ways to connect with students and we just have to be creative. VIP packages are another way to make connections as well as motivate students to do well digitally. You could choose a student of the week that works the hardest or stays connected and mail them a package containing fun little items from the dollar store! You could even skip the trip for yourself and Amazon Prime them a cool little item with a gift note inside because who doesn’t love an Amazon package outside their door?!

Digital Get to Know You Activities

This is going to be SUPER important for digital classrooms this year. Who are we individually and together? Digital classrooms have the opportunity to get to know each other in the deepest of ways. You will be working from your home and what is more personal than that? Below are just SOME of the few activities you could do to get to know one another.

Virtual Just Like Me- this is one of my favorite BTS games. Normally, it’s played with everyone sitting in a circle. Someone says something they love. For example, “I love to eat ice cream.” Anyone else that loves ice cream would then jump up and shout, “just like me!” It’s a fun way to get to know one another while getting some energy out. This game can easily be adapted to a Zoom call. Everyone can sit with their device and still jump up and shout while playing. You can give everyone at least one opportunity to share something they like and begin to build your community.

Would You Rather- I have seen SO many digital would you rather activities for Google Slides. This is a fun way to work together and get to know each other. These slides can also be used on a Zoom call where everyone can choose which option they would rather have. You can even have students buddy up with someone and discuss what they would rather have and why. @elementaryatheart has some great ones HERE!

Find A Friend Bingo- While together on a call, you could virtually provide students with the Find A Friend Bingo Template and have students take turns asking questions on the template. Again, the students could work specifically with a buddy or a group to try and learn more about one another to achieve BINGO! I always try to encourage students to get a blackout by completing the entire form.

Virtual Tours- How fun would it be to have students give a tour of their workspace or their bedroom? This is a great way to also help students build their communication and presentation skills. You could provide a dialogue for students to use while sharing with the class. In the virtual tours, students could share SO many things such as their favorite reading spot, their favorite stuffed animals, etc. The possibilities are ENDLESS! But what a great way to get to know one another on a personal level, while working on communication skills. This should ONLY be done if students feel comfortable sharing this!

Digital Who We Are Book- Complete a class book together that can be shared and saved all year. Check out the book HERE! Students can each complete a page about themselves that can be compiled into a book that can be read over and over again! It can also be saved on your classroom website or Google Classroom so that students can always have access or it can easily be added to for new students!

Zoom Hot Seat- This is another BTS favorite that can easily be adapted for online learning. This game is typically played where each student takes a turn in the “Hot Seat”. Each student gets 3-5 minutes depending on time. While in the hot seat, students take turns asking as many questions as they can to get to know the student. This can be done in many ways. You could have students raise their hands while the hot seat student picks who to call on. You have students just shout out their question. It’s totally up to you! This can also be played over multiple days.

Eliminate It- This is a fun activity that can be completed in groups or with partners. You present the students with four picture options and they have to work together to choose one option to eliminate. The best part is that this can be easily adapted to be used in a simple fun way or you can shift it to cover some academic material.

An example might be you showing four different types of candy and as a group, the students have to work together to decide which one they wouldn’t want. It’s a great way for students to work together and get to know each other’s preferences.

Get to Know You Activity/ Bags- I love using All About Me bags every year. It is such a great way to get to know the students on a deeper level. Students gather together things on a list to tell about them, similar to an extended show and tell. I share one as well so they can get to know me too. This is another way that students begin to work on their presenting skills. This can easily be done digitally! A new one for me this year is the Get to Know You Activity I created specifically for digital learning. They can fill in the template with information about themselves. Whether you use Google Classroom or Seesaw, students can post this activity to their feed and students can like & comment with things they have in common or more questions they have. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to get to know one another and learn more about the different digital tools! Best part? When you subscribe, you can grab both of these activities for FREE!

Yard Signs

Yard Signs were HUGE in the spring! I saw so many different kinds everywhere! How much would kids LOVE having a sign in their front yard? You could create welcome back to school signs, weekly super student signs, birthday signs, and SO much more! I just know the kids would absolutely love to wake up to a yard sign in their yard about how much they mean to their teacher/class. Talk about a great way to make those connections and build your community. SSS Teaching has some GREAT yard signs!

Virtual Spirit Week

I know my favorite weeks of the year are spirit week! How fun would it be to plan those virtually? The kids are always so creative and would love getting to dress up while at home. You could even plan for Fun Fridays every week where you do something special. In my class, we used to have Flashlight Fridays where we would get cozy and read in the dark with a flashlight. This could totally be done with everyone at home! A Zoom call with everyone all snuggled up with their favorite book reading in the dark sounds like a perfect Friday activity together. You could even have a virtual fire for everyone!

Share About YOU

We know that in order to make deep connections with our students, we also need to be open with them and share who we are. Kids love learning about their teacher and who they are. There are SO many ways for you to share. You could share a welcome newsletter, a presentation about you,or as stated earlier, a postcard with a QR Code for them to watch a video about you. There are so many fun ways for you to share yourself with your students. Remember it’s just as important for them to learn about you just as much as it is to learn about each other.

Morning Meetings

Morning Meetings are HUGE! I absolutely love starting my day off with these crucial meetings. They are the perfect way to kickstart your day and continue to grow together and learn more about each other. Morning Meetings can also help you gauge how your students are doing each day and have important discussions about social and emotional skills, expectations and goals, or just to talk about the exciting things you’ll learn that day. I would suggest beginning each morning with a meeting together. There are tons of different prompts out there for you to have deep and meaningful conversations. These meetings don’t have to be long but it’s a great way to continue to build those connections and be a community together.

Check Ins

Mental health is HUGE. And we’ve all suffered a bit in this area during this year. Your students’ mental health is so important but now more than ever. We have to make sure students know that we are there for them, even if it can’t be in person. Mental health check ins are a GREAT way to gauge where your students are at. We know that Maslow always comes before Bloom. If they aren’t having their basic needs met, how on Earth can we expect them to be ready to learn. This could easily become part of your daily routine so you immediately know how students are feeling and which students will need some extra love and support for the day. In my classroom last year, it was always how we started our day. The students chose a feeling word to put under their name each morning and it helped me quickly see who to check in with. Look for my digital mental health check in resource coming next week!

Virtual Emotional Support

Let’s talk about how to get support for our littles at home. You could set up support multiple ways. You could create SEL office hours for students to check in if needed. You could also create a support room for students to help one another as well. Whatever you do, I think this will be CRUCIAL to ensure your students are feeling supported while at home.Set expectations and boundaries for kids to understand that feelings and emotions should be felt and expressed but in a positive way. Are they struggling with the new classroom? Hop in the support room and we can talk about it. Are they sad that they can’t see their friends? Invite some kids to the digital office and hang out. Are parents feeling stressed and the kids can tell? We’ll get the entire family in there to relax, talk and collaborate on some ways to relieve stress. Creating this specific time of support is bound to have students feel safe and they’ll learn so much more throughout the year.

Virtual Team Building

We know in our classroom that students MUST be a team together. Well how in the world does that work long distance? Two words. ESCAPE ROOMS. There are TONS of digital escape rooms that students work together in pairs or teams that teach them the importance of teamwork in a fun and exciting way! Check out this special Back to School Escape Room to help students work together and get to know each other!

Socially Distanced Dates

At this point, we are all social distance experts. Have you had a socially distanced date yet? How fun would it be to get together and have a socially distanced picnic in the park or a read aloud together? We’ve got to find creative ways to get together while remaining safe. These socially distanced dates are a fun way for you to get together while still being safe together!

Social Emotional Boom Cards

At the beginning of the year, I spend SO much time discussing how we are a team together and how we treat one another. We practice these skills EVERY SINGLE DAY so that it becomes part of who we are in the classroom. But how do we do that behind a screen? Well I’ll tell you one way is utilizing the amazing platform Boom! Boom Cards are a super engaging way to practice skills. SEL skills to be exact- BOOM! (See what I did there?) So far, I have created two different sets of SEL Boom Cards. How to Be a Good Friend and Making Good Choices. Both of these are crucial skills for students to learn. These decks help them practice those skills in a fun and engaging way! If you would like any other SEL skills for Boom Cards please drop a comment below!

BE PRESENT

Last, but certainly not least, be present. I know this will not be possible all the time but try to be present with students as much as you can. Obviously it’s going to be easier sometimes or most times to record lessons and push it out to students but whenever you can, physically just be there. If you’re at home, make it an expectation for yourself and family to give your students your undivided attention. Whether you have certain times students can check in or if you can call and check in with students, just be there for them. This is going to be a trying year for us all. Be there for these littles and let them know how much you care… even at a distance.

This year we are going to be challenged and pushed as educators now more than ever. We are forced to make learning more engaging in ways we never have. We have to make connections and support students without actually seeing their faces in the classroom. Now more than ever these babies will need us to support them in SO many different ways. But it is this that makes us grow and do better. It is these challenges that we will rise up to like we always do to make a better future for our students. You may not hear this enough but you are AMAZING. You will do AMAZING things this year and your students will love you for all the hard work you put in. Thank you for doing what you do for the future. It is this year that we are going to need ALL the passion and creativity we have in our tool boxes to make a difference for these kiddos. We truly are better together. If you have any more wonderful ideas to share or are looking for something else to make life easier, please share in the comments below!

Don’t forget to subscribe to my email list! You will get the most up to date tips, tricks, and classroom projects… and of course more fun FREEBIES including the Day You Begin digital FREEBIE! If you would like to learn about this and other things happening in my classroom follow me @sweetnsauerfirsties on Instagram.

To follow me on TPT and get all the latest updates on HALF OFF new products, click HERE!