What should you do with your class on a Zoom call or a Google meet type conference call during distance learning?
In our district, we are not teaching live to our students on Zoom or Google Meet. Instead, we are prerecording our lessons and uploading the videos to Google Classroom. Many students are going to daycare during the day or being shuffled to different caregivers so we have tried to be as accommodating as possible.
Each week I try to meet with my students as a class in hope to help continue to facilitate the classroom community that we spent all year building. During these meetings, I try to keep it fun and light hearted so that my kids will laugh and continue to come back! I have a great attendance rate. I typically have 14-17 of my 18 students on any given day…and everyone has attended several of these meetings!
If you are looking for some fun activities, I am going to share my favorites with you along with a few freebies so that you can print and go!
True or False
This is a super simple game and you can ask whatever type of questions you want. You can ask trivia about students in the class, about curriculum, about sports, animals, etc. I chose to use a mixture of statements and it went really well. It allowed kids to get more correct. All I had to do ahead of time was send my students a message to bring two papers to the meeting. One should say “true” and one should say “false.” Then I printed out a list of true/false statements. During the meeting I had everyone stay muted and then hold up their answer as I read the statements. If it was a “false” statement, I often called on students who knew the correct answer. They just unmuted, shared, and then muted again. It was great and there were a lot of amazed faces and laughs. If you want to play this, you can get my list of questions here for free, or you can make up your own!
Classmate Trivia
This activity was really simple too. I sent out a message 3-4 days prior to our meeting. In it I asked students to submit a few statements about themselves, being sure to omit their name. They could reply to my email with their statements. I copy/pasted these into a document and printed them. Then at the meeting, I read each person’s statements (while everyone was muted) and they raised their hands if they wanted to guess. It was great! I called on one student at a time and they would guess which student I was talking about. Here is an example:
I am 9 years old. I love spaghetti and playing soccer. I have a dog and 2 cats. I love to go on vacation in Maine. I also love to play baseball with my brother.
Two Truths and A Lie
This was quick and easy. I messaged my students a few days before out meeting and told them to bring a paper that had three things written down. They needed to write down two true statements about themselves and one lie about themselves. This was really fun because each student was able to share their own truths and lie. Then they could call on a classmate to guess which statement was the lie.
Scavenger Hunt
Having things for students to go find while on a video conference is a great way to get them moving and to have fun too. In my son’s preschool class, they focused on simple things like “everyone go find something purple” or “go find something that starts with the letter t,” but this could easily be modified for older kids too. You could read each item you want them to find or you could email them a list of things to go find. Some ideas could be:
- Find something with 3 syllables
- Find something that shows something about your character
- Find something that can demonstrate a verb
- Find something that has made you who you are
Choosing A Theme
Our classes have enjoyed things like crazy hat day, crazy hair day, school spirit days, etc. These make for a fun looking computer screen when all of the little boxes are full of silly looking kids.
Cooking or Baking with Your Class
I haven’t tried this one yet, but I think it would be kind of fun. If you can pick a recipe to do that anyone could make at their house, it would be fun to make it together. I have seen people send out the recipe ahead of time so that people are prepared. Then going step by step during your conference would be a lot of fun. The only thing that I think might be tricky is if some students don’t have the things in the recipe at their homes. Something like trail mix or a smoothie might be more inclusive. Students could be encouraged to bring 4-5 different ingredients they might have at home.
Directed Drawing
The final activity that I am going to talk about is completing a directed drawing-type activity with your class via video conference. You could tell them to get a piece of paper and a pencil. They you could do it one of two ways. The first way would be to model step by step how to draw an item of your choice. You would draw one part and then would mimic you.
Another more interesting way to complete this would be to NOT show them your drawing. You would be making sure to be as explicit as you can with your verbal directions. This would lead to more laughs at the end when everyone shows their pictures. You would be saying things like, “In the middle of your paper, draw a circle the size of a quarter. Above that, draw two smaller circles and shade them in.” This would lead to really silly pictures.
If you are looking for more ways to go digital with your class or want to talk about ways to use technology to reach your students with others in the same boat, check out the Upper Elementary Digital Inspiration group on Facebook.
Wishing you all the best as you are coming to the end of your year. Thank you for all the you are doing for your students. Remember that YOU are ENOUGH!
~Heather Johnson
