The Socially Distanced Classroom: Learning Activities that work with Social Distancing

 

When I first imagined a socially distant classroom, I had an overwhelming sense of sadness. I was flooded with images of classrooms under "normal" circumstances. I had flashbacks of kids rotating through fun learning stations, playing games together, reading in small groups, completing learning fact hunts, doing hands-on projects, and getting imaginative with their learning. For an instant, I felt like those days were over. 

Then, I remembered the most fundamental truth about educators: "Teachers are innovative." 

I knew it was time to think creatively about instruction. So, I took a deep dive into some of my favorite ways to get kids learning, and guess what? With small tweaks, we can still make learning engaging, motivating, and meaningful...and if it means that kids will have to do it 6 feet apart, no problem! The learning activities may be a little different, and we may need to get a little creative, but I'm hopeful that you'll be able to find some ideas below that just might work in your socially distanced classroom.

I love fact hunts! They're a great way to introduce or review material with students. Under "normal" circumstances, you would hide a ton of facts around the classroom or school. Then, students would rotate around and collect the information. Since students move around freely to collect facts, I thought that this might not work in a socially distanced classroom, but then I realized that with a few more parameters and a bit more planning it could work. Here's how:

• --- Write facts about a topic on 1/2 sheets of paper.
• --- Tape the facts around the classroom or along a hallway, spacing the facts at least 6 feet apart.
• --- Explain to students that they will be collecting facts as they rotate around the classroom.
• --- Designate where each student will begin.
• --- Then, after collecting the first fact have students move on your cue to the next fact as they rotate through every fact.

Adding a little movement to learning is a powerful and easy way to make learning fun. I've created fact hunts for back to school, literary devices, ancient civilizations, and holidays. They're always a blast. Check them out here.

Let's be honest, kids are always requesting to have class outside. Now is the perfect time to do just that. To prep, just set out flags, blankets, or cones to designate where kids can work while remaining socially distant. Then, have students bring their work outside. 

Since the kids are outside, they can also be a bit louder, so you can make it especially fun by...

• --- Letting students shout their spelling words
• --- Challenging students to read out loud in a way that everyone on their blankets can hear them
• --- Creating cheers to help remember important content
• --- Teaching new information and encouraging students to yell their responses

One of the troubling things about the socially distanced classroom is the fact that kids will have less opportunities to collaborate and work together. However, interacting with peers and working together is such a powerful part of the "normal" classroom. That's why this next idea is perfect! 

Jenny from Art with Jenny K and I created a series of collaborative anchor charts. Each student is responsible for creating an element of the chart independently. Then, the teacher assembles the collaborative anchor chart. The cool part is that not only is it creative and collaborative, it is also a powerful way for students to learn. When they see their own work as part of the chart, they're more connected to the learning.

We've created anchor chart parts on Finding the Main Idea, Sequencing, Summarizing and Growth Mindset.

I know what you're thinking, "Learning stations in a socially distant classroom?! Yeah, right!" I'm with you. At first, I thought learning stations would have to go away. But, then I realized that it's still possible to do the fun and engaging learning station activities with a small tweak. Specifically, instead of setting up different learning stations and having students rotate to each one, everyone in the class could stay in their seats and work on a single station's tasks at the same time. In other words, on the first day, everyone would complete station one. The teacher could serve as the "leader" of the station, reviewing the directions and ensuring that students have the right materials. 

While the rotations would be gone, many of the benefits of learning stations would remain because they still keep students engaged while chunking instructional material. Since stations also include a variety of activities, students will still be able to learn in various ways.

Some of my favorite stations teach critical study skills, reading comprehension, social studies, and even celebrate holidays. You can see them all here.

One of the concerns about socially distanced classrooms is that students will have to learn in a "sit and get" environment. As educators, we're always striving to move away from traditional lectures. That's where 3-D projects come in. When students can turn their learning or research into a 3-dimensional project engagement and buy-in soar. 

Here are some simple ways to make learning a little more 3-dimensional:

• --- Have students turn their notes into paper airplanes.
• --- Turn a single piece of paper into mini-books filled with notes.
• --- Let students create cootie catchers to review important concepts.
• --- Provide students with interactive notebook activities.

I love making learning more hands-on. Some of my favorite lessons are back to school mini-books, 3-D monuments for ancient civilizations, 3-D research projects and even 3-D writing lessons.

Doodling is a great way to engage students (even when they are socially distanced). Give students an opportunity to doodle during the school year and watch their engagement soar! Not only is doodling fun, it’s also been shown to help our brains process information. 

You can have students create doodles to showcase their learning at any time. Let students create doodles:

• --- To help them learn vocabulary
• --- As a way to review for a test
• --- For a book report
• --- As they learn about a new topic
• --- When they answer a test or quiz question

You might want to introduce Doodle and Do resources into your classroom. First, students complete doodle-style notes. Then, they practice their learning as they "do" different activities. You can get students doodling as they learn new vocabulary, nonfiction text features, study skills, novel studies, fact hunts, and even reading skills. 

The fact is, doodles are so adaptable and fun! Get inspired RIGHT HERE. 

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I hope you've found a few instructional ideas to bring into your socially distanced classrooms. These sure are challenging times for educators, but there's one thing we all know for sure: Teachers are innovative! I know that your students are so lucky to have you! If there's anything I can do to help, feel free to reach out to me at brainwavesinstruction@gmail.com.

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary Beth

Connecting with our Community - How to Create a Robot Hunt

My family needed a project. Nearly a month into social distancing, it was time to figure out a way to connect with the friends that we all missed desperately.

So, I recruited our two boys and my husband to create a robot hunt. I thought we could make some robots, hide them around our town, write some clues for the hidden robots, and share the Robot Scavenger Hunt with our friends. 

Turns out, it worked! Our friends and their families got outside, hunted down some robots, and shared photos with us along the way. We had such a great time doing it, I thought you might want to try it in your own community.

(Click HERE to download the Robot Hunt template for FREE.)

Here's how we put together our Robot Hunt.

First, we gathered some materials. We scoured the house for bits of junk (there was plenty of that), scraps of wood, nails, screws, and rope.

Then, we spent the good part of an afternoon building robots. It was so much fun! It was incredible to see how each robot seemed to get more creative or whimsical as the day went on.

Here are some of the things we used:
--- Wood - 2 x 4, 2 x 1, 1 x 1
--- Wooden dowels and PVC pipe
--- Hardware - screws, gears, nails
--- Small bits of things like golf tees, clothespins, paper clips, keys, buttons, beads

Tools
--- Drill
--- Hammer
--- Hot glue gun

We also labeled each robot with a number. We used an old set of leather punches. However, you could easily designate each robot by writing numbers on them, painting them different colors, or just letting their individually differentiate them.

By the end of the afternoon, we had 10 robots ready for the robot hunt.

The next day, we gathered the robots and took them to our village. We brought some rope and scissors to secure the robots in place. We also brought some paper to write down clues for each robot as we went. 

We hid the robots in a single "loop" around the village to make it manageable for our friends. However, we also hid one off of the beaten path as a BONUS.

Since we were conscious of germs, we made sure that all bots could be visible and no one would need to touch them to see the numbers or write a description. 

Oh, and since we have a canal in our town and bridges, you know that my boys were very into the idea of having one robot "bungee jump" off a bridge.

After we hid all the robots, we typed up the robot clues for our friends. 

We also included some directions for our friends. These included:

--- Where to begin the hunt. 

--- Places to write their "start" and "end" time.

--- A note about recording their answers.

--- Instructions to take a group selfie with at least one robot in the background (and who to share the selfie with - which was us, of course!)

--- A reminder not to touch the robots.

If you'd like to use the template we created, you can download it for FREE here. There are blanks so that you can customize it for your community.

This was the best part! Once the Robot Hunt was ready, we couldn't wait to share it with our friends. We placed the directions and clues in some of our friends' mailboxes. We texted photos of the hunt to some other friends. We even created a PDF that we could email to some other friends. 

Then, the photos and texts started rolling in. As our friends completed the hunt they sent photos of their papers and their cute faces with robots. They all commented on how much fun they had. 

Connecting with them made our hearts burst. It was so nice to "play" together - even remotely!

If this inspires you to put some robots around your town, we'd love to hear about it! Connect with us by...

• - Posting images on social media with #robothunt2020
• - Tagging @brainwavesinstruction
• - Emailing updates to marybeth@brainwavesinstruction.com
• - Adding comments and/or images to this blog post

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Mary Beth

P.S. If you're looking for another way to get creative these days, check out this "Watch and Write" video. Kids can watch a short video for creative writing inspiration. My sons helped me with this too!

P.P.S. Here's a quick photo of my boys, the dog, and I while we were hiding the robots.

Oh, and don't forget to grab the printable Robot Scavenger Hunt materials HERE.

Tips for Learning at Home - From a Teacher-Mom

I don't know about you, but it felt like Remote Learning came into our household like a tsunami. When we first got word that schools were closing, there was that brief moment before the tsunami hits. It was that strange calm when the ocean recedes, and for a moment, I was like, "OK, yeah, we've got this!" I mean between my husband and I, we have over 30 years of teaching experience. So, while I knew we were going to be faced with the challenges of the new routine and all the sad ripple effects of the pandemic, I felt like the "home school" element was definitely within our wheelhouse. I had visions of home school being just like this...

And then the tsunami waves came crashing down on us. Reality hit hard. Day one of home school actually looked like this:

Yes, that's our son wrapped in a blanket refusing to do any more work. As you can imagine, he's crying. I'm yelling. My husband is demanding. Our other son is giggling. The dog is barking. It's chaos. The storm has hit!

Day one was a disaster, but I did come to one realization:

It's HARD to teach your own child. All of the patience that I normally have with every other child on the planet goes right out the window when my own children write in a sloppy manner or rush through their work. I needed to get a system together so that we could all be successful...and fast!

So...little by little, we made changes. We're inching towards success. We're not there yet, our home school days are still not perfect, but there are moments that give me hope! Here's what we're trying now.

1. Set a Schedule 

I thought we could be carefree about home school, but that doesn't work for us. So, we put "school hours" in place. The boys each get to work when they wake up and they can access their technology once "school" is over. We work in the morning and "play" in the afternoon. Our oldest writes his schedule out in his school planner each day. So far, so good!


2. Get Organized 

When we were one week into home school, I realized that we needed to create a portable "learning zone" and get organized. Here are some of the items that are helping us stay sane:

1.  White Board with Markers    2. Pencils    3. Supply Box    4. Pencil Sharpener    5. Clipboard    6. Hanging File Folder Box and Folders     7. Storage Bin   8. Erasers

3. Give them Choices 

As a teacher, I know all about the power of "choice." So, I decided to give our own kids choices, too. When putting together their daily schedule, they chose the order that they wanted to do their subjects. 

I also wanted to give them choices while they worked, so I put together a reading response choice board for our sixth grader. Each day, after he reads, he can choose which prompt he responds to. For our eighth grader, I made a set of writing prompts filled with choices to complete. The choices give them a say in their learning, and that helps so much! 

If you want to give the reading and writing choices a try, download the FREE reading response choices here and the FREE choice writing prompts HERE. 

4. Have some fun!

1. Free Silly Task Cubes    2. Fake Glasses   3. Grips   4. Witch Fingers    5. Read Aloud  6. Flair Pens

It didn't take us long to realize that we needed to "amp up" the fun factor while learning at home. So, I got out some of my old classroom motivators to try out at home. The silly task cubes are FREE and they're perfect for spicing up a regular assignment. Kids just roll the cube and complete their work in a fun way like writing behind their backs. Speaking of writing, our boys' handwriting is a mess! So, I put grips on their pencils to help them get back on track.

The fake glasses and witch fingers make reading more fun. Let kids put them on and you'll love how excited they are to work.

I've included a book because our family has started reading a book together every night. It helps with the long days at home. We're reading Fort by Cynthia DeFelice right now. 

Oh, and flair pens. Do not underestimate the power of colorful pens when trying to get kids to work!


5. Snacks and Stretches 

While teaching our boys at home, we've realized that we need to take some intentional breaks with them. So, we've instituted "snacks and stretches." During their "school day" we like to put out snacks for our boys. Also, we pause their learning occasionally for a little stretch break. You could even take this one step farther and have a moment of mindfulness. Here are some free quotes and activities to get you started.

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So far, we've grown a lot from this experience. There are still so many things that we can improve, but for now, we're going to take it one day at a time. I hope you know that you're not alone. If you're a "mom on the edge" like me, then at least we're in this together!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary Beth

P.S. - I've put together a BUNCH of "Learning at Home" resources for teachers and parents. Check them out right here!

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