Digital Tap to Reveal & Scratch Offs

 Meet the Teacher is right around the corner and this year ours is completely virtual! I usually put a small "treat" out for students with a punny note. I can't do that this year but since I'll be online with my students one at a time in Zoom, I thought why not let them choose their "treat".

I found an awesome template from SlidesMania. I tweaked it to create a Tap to Reveal your prize. I'll share my screen with students and let them choose the treasure chest they want. Of course, students can't tap themselves, but I think it will be fun nonetheless. I created a different template for my Face2Face and remote students. 

Click here to grab a copy for Face2Face learners.

Click here to grab a copy for remote learners.

Feel free to change the "treats" for whatever your students like. 

I love the scratch to reveal postcards and made my own digital version. If a student can't attend one of the virtual Meet the Teacher times, I will be emailing them one of these. That way they still receive some love and a "treat" from me before school starts.

Students will just drag the top layer to the side and see their "treat". I will just share one slide with the student. Feel free to grab a copy here and make it your own.

I hope you have a great Meet the Teacher virtually or in person!

Lead4ward Digital Activities

The Lead4ward website has many amazing resources available to educators. If you have never checked out their website you need to, like right NOW!!

My favorite resource on the website is the Instructional Strategies Playlist. I suggest bookmarking this page!! I use it all the time. These activities promote student engagement, collaboration, and critical thinking. I use many of these activities on a weekly basis. 

I am going to share some of their strategies that you can adapt for any content and how you can use it digitally with your students. Any of these activities could be uploaded into Google Classroom, Schoology, or Learning Management Platform. 

1. Mystery Bag

You can use the mystery bag with any content as a preview for your lesson, read aloud, exit ticket to encourage student discussion, add ideas, clarify confusing parts, and make connections. Instead of using a real paper bag and students touching items, you can reveal one image at a time using this Google Slide.

You could use this activity in whole group, small group, and even partners. 

Click here to make a copy!

2. Stop, Plop, Roll

Stop, Plop, Roll is one of my students' favorites and is a great activity to engage students in a practice/reflection activity. I have included math, reading, get to know you examples, and a blank template as well. I also linked some digital dice for you. 

You could use this in a Future Ready station, partners, small group, or even individually. 

Click here to grab a copy!

3. Fact or Fib Showdown

 Facto or Fib Showdown can also be used with any content and are great for critical thinking and require students to justify their thinking. I made this a drag and drop activities. Students will read the two statements you create on the topic (or they could create two statements for a partner) then decide which one is the fact and which one is the fib. There is also a place for students to write their justification down. This could be done as a whole group, in a future ready station, or individually as well. 

Click here to grab a copy!

Hope you can use these templates with your students! I'll be back soon with some more Lead4ward (Goes Digital) activities!

Digital Get to Know You Activities

                                  

I know we are all thinking about how to get to know our students virtually and help them make connections with one another. I decided to make some digital templates that could be shared with students via Schoology (or whatever your Learning Management Platform is) and used with both Face to Face and Remote instruction. With all of these activities students can complete them, present and share in the classroom or via Zoom whole group or in break out rooms. 

 Here are a few activities I came up with:

Emoji Mingle

This activity allows students to share their favorites with you and their classmates but in a language they love; EMOJIS! 

Click here to grab a copy of the template.

Digital Bingo

This is your typical Find Someone Who activity. I thought it would work well in an Inner Outer Circle 6 ft apart and rotate in the classroom if students all have devices. Virtually you could use in Break Out rooms, switch a couple of times, and then students could all come back and share who they found.

Click here to grab a copy of the template.

2 Truths and a Lie

For this template, I used Meredith Aker's Mystery Reveal for a fun spin to this activity. Students will create their 2 Truths and one Lie. I gave directions on the slide, but you may need to model how to keep the truth and lie answer hidden.

This activity may be best if the student shares their screen and then reveals the answers as others guess, or if you compile all the slides together and then share for the students. You may want to share 2-3 a day as an opener or a closing to your day.

Click here to grab a copy of the template.

Google Forms

I plan on sharing this form with students to fill out individually, to get to know them a little more. They will have the opportunity to share privately any information they want with me as well.

 I'll follow up with a personal letter or video to them to start building a positive relationship.

Would You Rather...???

Who doesn't love Would You Rather??? Mentimeter would be a great resource to poll students and get responses quickly as a group. You could have a couple students share what they picked for each question and why. They also have word clouds, scales, open ended question types. Check it out.

What other ideas do you have for Getting to Know students digitally?