I have been using Zoom for a little while now for distance learning – and I really enjoy using it. I’ve had a lot of messages on social media asking for ideas to use to make online lessons fun and engaging. So today I’m sharing a bunch of Zoom distance learning lesson ideas that you can use with your students.
Morning Meeting
I don’t know about you, but my students love morning meeting/circle time in the classroom. Being able to offer this online is great for consistency and being able to provide them with something to start their day. Read my blog post here all about morning meeting for distance learning.
Story Time
There are so many benefits to reading to our children, and having story time is a great addition to their day. Many of our students may not have access to books at home, or they may only have a select few. So you being able to offer story time can be huge for their online learning.
Don’t forget, you can also record yourself reading stories – use props for extra fun – and upload them to your Google Classroom for students to click and watch them whenever they want.
This is a great opportunity to include your assistants too. Ask them to record themselves reading stories at home – or even take over this for you so that your students will have access to stories while you’re working on other things.
Music / Dance Party
There’s nothing more fun than having a dance/music party. Ask everyone to think of their favorite song and then play them. Give prizes for the best dancer, craziest outfit etc. It’s a fun way for you all to relax, loosen up and have fun. It’s also a great workout to get everyone moving.
Directed Drawing Activities
These are perfect for doing over Zoom and asking everyone to show their pictures up at the end.
Pet Show and Tell
Ask everyone to take a moment to introduce their pets. Let’s face it, I think most of us have been interrupted recently with our students pets – and now is the perfect time to work on that. Ask our students to describe them, talk about them and then fetch them to the camera. This is a great way for your students to take guesses on what type of animal it is.
You can then turn this into an extra task afterwards – write about your pet. What do they eat, draw them etc. If they don’t have a pet – they can base it on someone else’s pet or their favorite animal.
Teddy Bear’s Picnic
My younger kids LOVE this. Everyone has to make a hat for themselves and their favorite teddy bear and fetch it to the Zoom call for a teddy bear picnic. You can make it as big or as small as you want. Everyone can bring their favorite snack with them and talk about it to the group. You can get them to do a journal entry talking about the teddy bear’s pincic and what they liked the most. The possibilities with this are endless.
Talent Show
Give your students 90 seconds or 2 minutes for their slot each, and ask them to share a talent. They could sing, dance, share a joke etc. Anything that can be shown on camera. This is a great way to compliment and praise each other and help us all raise the positivity right now too.
Virtual Field Trip
There are lots of places online now offering virtual field trips. Just type in Google what you’re looking for, or scout out your favorite educational websites and see what they’re offering.
Bingo
Send home bingo boards for parents to print if possible, and then take part in Bingo. You can do themed ones like Spring, Summer etc. and work on vocabulary – or do CVC words, sight words etc.
Bring a Family Member
Another fun introduction activity is bringing a family member along and introducing them to to the group and talking about them. This can be like career days where family members talk about their career as well. Our kids love the novelty of seeing their friends family members.
Write the Room
Get your students to get a pen and paper or whiteboard and pen and send them all into one room of the house – i.e. the kitchen. Then, they have to write down a word that they see in the kitchen and fetch it back to the group.
PJ Party
Hold a PJ party towards the evening. Everyone shows up in their PJs, ask them to fetch a drink and then read them all a story. You can make it as fun as you like, get students to talk about what they did that day etc.
Treasure Hunt
Send your students on a treasure hunt around the house and ask them to fetch the item back to the screen to show everyone. This can be simple like ‘Fetch me something red.’ ‘Fetch me something that starts with the letter a.’ etc.
Fitness
Once a week do a fitness class together – it doesn’t have to be anything complicated. Just a fun session to get everyone moving and exercising.
Pirate Party
We recently had a pirate party and we had the MOST fun so far. Everyone dressed up as pirates – either from costumes they had or by making their own pirate hats and accessories. On the Zoom call, I read them ‘Pirates Love Underpants’ and then we finished up by sending them some pirate themed Boom cards. (Check them out here.)
What are some fun lessons you have been doing on Zoom with your students? Let us know in the comments down below. This is new to so many of us, and it’s a great chance for us to all share what’s working to get new ideas for our students.
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