As teachers have moved to distance learning, the demand for online resources has increased dramatically. Being in the classroom, this has been challenging times for all of us. We have been working early in the morning and late at night to convert and create our print resources into digital.

We now have a distance learning bundle that will make it easier for you as your students learn away from school. All activities are compatible with your Google Drive, Google Slides and Google Forms. We even threw in some PDF versions of our popular miss you posters and inspirational backgrounds. There are a variety of activities for you to choose from.

Below, we will outline all that you will get in our growing distance learning bundle.

Genius Hour

Your students will be engaged in an exciting journey to become an expert on a topic they are passionate about. Genius Hour is intended to engage even your most difficult students because it allows them a choice in their learning. Genius Hour is designed to engage all to become passionate learners.

Distance Learning Plan

The purpose of this activity is to encourage your students to organize their day as they are away from school. This resource will provide your students some ideas about their day. Then they will create their day by dragging activity boxes and entering times of the day. This can be changed to fit their schedule for different days throughout the week.

Bored BINGO

The purpose of this activity is to engage your students while they are away from school. This BINGO activity provides 25 activities that your students can do either inside or outside. Students choose which activities they want to participate in to try to get a BINGO (or BORED). Along with the Bored BINGO Board, there are two detailed pages that describe each activity.

Reading Journal

The purpose of this activity is to engage your students in their daily reading through journaling. Students will respond to their daily reading by writing a summary and a reflection. Students also record the date and the number of pages/chapters that they read.

Writing Journal

The purpose of this activity is to engage your students in their daily writing through responding to 25 creative and unique prompts. Students will write a detailed response to each prompt. Students also record the date for each writing response.

Social Studies Journal

The purpose of this activity is to engage your students by having them respond and reflect on eight prompts that relate to the themes of social studies (Current Events, Geography, History, Culture, Government, Economics, Science & Technology, and Citizenship).

Memory Reflections

The purpose of this activity is for your students to reflect on their school year as they learn away from school. This is a 10-page interactive resource that covers several topics such as school memories, teachers, friends, favorites, ratings, writing a quick letter, creating “apps”, and more!

Back to School Get to Know You Form

The purpose of this activity is for you to do a back to school get to know you inventory with your students using a Google Form. This is a simple and easy way where you can gather data on your class and find out quickly some of your students’ favorites. This will be very valuable information to collect.

Back to School Subject Reflections Form

The purpose of this activity is for you to do a back to school subject reflections inventory with your students using a Google Form. This is a simple and easy way where you can gather data on your class and find out quickly how your students perceive various subjects. This will be very valuable information to collect.

Brain Break Activity

The purpose of this activity is to engage your students in a brain break activity that is will challenge them and test their brain. Students are to decode the phone numbers provided to spell out words. Students use the phone provided, which contains the letters for each number on the phone. This is a resource that is not geared toward any subject other than a challenge- and maybe a break from the typical learning.

Daily Check in Form

The purpose of this activity is for you to do a check in with your students using a Google Form. This is a simple and easy way where you can gather data on your class and find out quickly who is doing well and who needs assistance. This is perfect to stay connected with your students.

Inspirational Backgrounds

The purpose of this activity is to provide you with inspirational background images that you could print out and display when you are teaching online. You can also share the quotes with your students using Google.
This will help increase student engagement and to show your students that you care. You post these in your background to students over 30 school days that will provide for motivation during their online learning. We included a “Happy Birthday” one at the end to help you celebrate students’ birthdays too.

Miss You Posters

The purpose of this activity is to provide you with “miss you” statements that you could print out and display when you are teaching online. This will help increase student engagement and to show your students that you care. You post these in your background to students over 30 school days that will provide for motivation during their online learning, or you could hold up as you teach online.

End of Year Reflections

The purpose of this activity is for you to do an end of year reflection with your students using a Google Form. This is a simple and easy way where you can gather data on your class and find out quickly how distance learning went for each student.

Why use this distance learning bundle resource?

• These resource are paperless.
• These resources are easily accessible using Google Drive™.
• Your students will work directly on the digital documents.
• It’s a way to integrate technology into instruction.
• Students will be engaged in their work.

We have made it easy and simple to use these resources by providing a directions page resource. This will help you implement the Google Docs, Slides, and Forms with your students.

SAVE $$$ This would cost you $38 if bought without the distance learning bundle. You are getting a $14 discount!!

Do not pass up on this great deal for online learning in your classroom. You can purchase the distance learning bundle here.

If you are not implementing Book Club in your upper elementary or middle school classroom, you need to do so now!

Traditional reading class in elementary and middle school has usually consisted of teachers self-selecting books for students to read. Whether it be a whole class novel or leveled books for guided reading, the choice has always been with the teacher. Yes, finding books at students’ reading levels is important, but by taking away choice, you are taking away student interest and engagement. Book Club is a time when students self-select books to read and discuss in small groups. And this should be happening in your classroom now!

How to Start Book Club

Before starting Book Club in our classroom, we select about 6-7 books that we feel are good titles for the students to choose from and that have a wide variety of reading levels. We can use our school and district libraries to find multiple copies, besides our own classroom library. Once we have the titles, we like to read the book jacket aloud to the students so they know what the book is about. Often, other students will chime in if they have read the book too.

Next, we have students sign up for Book Clubs. See our Editable Book Club Group Template handout that is included in our Book Club unit for  helpful organization of groups. We like to have at least three students per book. If there are only two, and one student is sick, that Book Club group would not be able to operate. Before starting Book Club, we also send a letter home to families so they know what Book Club is all about.

How to Engage Students

After we have gotten the students excited about their books and are ready to begin, we show them the Book Club Introduction Slideshow. It talks about the purpose, expectations, tools that will help them, and how to experience success. This is a perfect lead in to the Book Club contract that we want them all to sign.

We then hand them out the bookmarks. The students get into groups and decide on the number of pages to be read each day. We try to have all book clubs finish around the same time (about 12 days). This allows for differentiation and flexibility with all groups. As teachers we tend to help out students with a lower reading level decide on pages to read. You will want to use the Editable Book Club Schedule to record the pages the groups select so you can track what groups are reading daily. Below is an example of the bookmark your students could use.

What to do for Daily Work

We have included some different options for daily work that you can pick and choose from. The daily assignment and daily assignment reflection allow students to reflect on their reading. You will want students to have the Author’s Craft and Reflection Guide handout to help them. We also have a Main Character Study activity to help students dive deeper into the main characters in the book.

How to Assess Students

We have included multiple forms of assessment for you to choose from. We have a daily grading rubric, a discussion rubric, a group self-assessment rubric, and an end of book club reflection. It is important to hold the students accountable for their work. Below is an example of our daily grading rubric.

How to Work with Struggling Students

Book Club should provide motivation for your students, but like any activity, there will still be some students who have a hard time getting started and working each day. These students will need your guidance. Here are some tips on how to connect with your struggling students:

• It will be important that you are as excited as you can when helping these students on their daily tasks. Showing them that you care about the book they are reading will hopefully help burn a fire within them!
• Check-in with your struggling students daily. They may need guidance on where to begin and how to work each day.
• Allow your struggling students to do partner reading and work with a classmate to do the daily requirements.
• Be there for them through the entire process. Your struggling students will notice the interest that you have in their learning!

We highly suggest your start implementing Book Club in your classroom. Our Book Club resource will get you on the path to higher student engagement and success with your class!

Fasten your seat belts! We have a game changer for your Writing Workshop classroom!

We all know that at the beginning of every school year our students come to us with gaps in what they should know in regard to writing. For example, they forget the steps of the writing process. They are terrible at conventions (periods, capital letters…). They do not know what figurative language is, much less the difference between a simile and a metaphor. And getting them to write a structured paragraph, much less identify a topic sentence are out of the question.

Well, after a combined teaching record of over 50 years, we finally realized that students need these basic skills and concepts front loaded to make it a successful school year in writing.

So, we have developed a Writing Workshop Escape Room that is sure to be a hit with your students. Your students will try to become Writing Wizards through 6 different challenging missions.

In order to be admitted to the Writing School of Wizardry there are some requirements.

Students will have to:

• figure out the order of the steps of the writing process
• use flip cards to identify nouns, adjectives, and adverbs
• be able to identify the different types of figurative language
• find errors in punctuation
• identify topic sentences
• determine the structure of sentences in a paragraph

Below are some examples of the missions students will need to complete.

This School of Writing Wizardy resource will have your students begging for more! No longer does the teaching of basic skills and concepts for writing have to be boring!

Watch student engagement soar with this Writing Workshop Escape Room!