Fun virtual indoor scavenger hunt ideas for kids and other fun zoom activities for students. Includes printable and interactive video.
Games are a tried and true way to engage students. Whether teaching in-person or remotely via a live session like Zoom or Google Meets, teachers know that games, brain breaks, and icebreakers are an awesome way to get students actively involved in learning. With the ever-changing landscape of education, I thought it might be nice to compile some versatile activities that challenge students in really fun ways. Best part? These activities are very low prep and work in a variety of settings. These activities encourage students to listen, solve problems, be creative, and practice critical skills. They're designed to be easy to do with little to no prep. You can easily add one of these games to any lesson as a warm-up, closure, community building activity, or lesson extender. GAMES & ACTIVITIES ⭐How Many? Give students a category and then challenge students to see how many different things they can fit within that classification. At first students will respond with obvious ideas. However, as they brainstorm, their ideas will stretch and their creativity will grow. Students can jot their ideas down on scrap paper and earn points for each unique response when they share out. Here are some categories to get started: occupations, things that are slimy, things that roll, animal noises, articles of clothing ⭐Listen Carefully: Read a short passage out loud to students. Then, have them answer questions based on what they can remember. Make it especially fun by awarding points for every answer that students get right. You can change up this activity by reading two versions of the same story. Mix up some of the details in the second version for students to listen for. Give this activity a try with the passages in this set of FREE Brain Bursts. Add your information below and then check your inbox! ⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟ ⭐Silly Silent Spelling: Practice spelling words in a super silly way. Explain to students that you are going to be giving them a practice spelling test (definitely NOT the real thing). Just like a typical practice test, they'll listen for the word and write it down. However, here's the catch: you're only going to silently mouth the words. Students will need to read your lips to figure out what word they will need to write down. Of course, figuring out a word from a silent cue is not easy. That's what makes this fun. Students will write down some wild guesses as they spell their way through this game. ⭐One Word: Pose a fun question to the class and have them all think of a one-word answer. Then, give every student a chance to share their responses as you call on each of them. Here are some questions to get started: --- If you were a type of dessert, what would you be? --- Where do you feel happiest? --- How would a soccer ball describe its day? --- Where is somewhere that you would like to visit? --- What would be the perfect gift for you? ⭐Mystery Item: This activity is quick and easy to play. To prepare, write 5 or 6 clues about an object. Make the clues gradually increase in their specificity. Then, read the clues to students as they jot down their guesses for the mystery item until you reveal the answer. ⭐Punchline: Start telling a joke to students, and then have them guess the punchline. Find a ton of jokes for kids here. ⭐Strike a Pose: Explain to students that they are going to pretend that they are in a photograph. They will need to imagine that the photo was taken at the height of the event. All they have to do is strike a pose after you give them a situation. For instance, you might say, "haunted house," and then students would freeze in a pose that shows them frightened or terrified. Here are a few situations to try: Dentist Office, Roller Coaster, Last Day of School, Scary Movie, Food Fight, Race ⭐Timed Writing Activities: Engage students with a creative writing prompt. Then, "amp up" the fun factor by adding a timed element. Challenge students to race the clock as they write as much as they can in a fixed time period. Find my favorite prompts here. ⭐And Then...: This is a listening game for the entire class. Students will need to listen to and add to a growing story. You'll start the story with an opener like, "At the zoo, I decided to open the lion's cage, and then..." Next, you'll call on a student to explain what happened next. That student will add one line and the phrase "and then" before selecting another student to add to the story. ⭐Listen and Draw: Students love this activity! To prepare, create a simple illustration filled with shapes and designs. Then, write out the directions for students. Have students complete the activity on a piece of paper. Read each direction to students and challenge them to replicate the illustration you instructed them to draw. (These are included in the exclusive freebie below.) ⭐Class Pet: Pretend that you have a new class pet. Explain to students that they will need to guess the type of animal. Students will need to ask questions and write their guesses on a piece of paper when they think they have figured out the new class pet. ⭐Add the Ending: Engage students as they practice writing and storytelling skills with this activity. First, students will listen to the beginning of a story that you read to them. Then, they'll take over the writing and complete the story. The story starters are a fun way to motivate students to write. ⭐Alien, Tiger, and Cat: Here's an improvisational theatre game that works in the classroom. Explain to students that they can be one of three things: an alien, a cat, or a tiger. If they choose to be an alien, they need to hold their pointer fingers next to their head (like antennae) and say "bleeb, bleeb." To be a cat, they need to rub their wrist along their face (like a cat cleaning itself) and say "meow." Finally, to be a tiger they need to push their hand forward with a claw stance and roar. On your cue, every student will choose and act like an animal. The goal is to get everyone to choose the same animal (which is nearly impossible, but fun to try). ⭐Rapid Recall: Create a list of random words. Then, read the list of words to students. As you read the words, you might have students put their hands on their heads so that you know for sure that they aren't taking notes. Once you've read the words to students once or twice, wait about a minute before letting students write down every word that they remember. (Find ready-made lists in this complete resource.) ⭐Finish the Fact: Share the beginning of a fact with students. Then, challenge them to complete the fact. Have them share their guesses before revealing the complete fact. Find a collection of random facts here. Want a free set of virtual classroom activities designed to be NO PREP and NO COPIES? Just add your name and email below. ⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟⮟ BONUS: Here's one more idea: ⭐Paper Airplanes: Help students practice following directions by challenging them to fold a paper airplane by following your directions. To get started, choose a paper airplane design to have students fold. Then, have students take out a piece of paper. They'll need to listen carefully to each of your directions to make their paper airplane. Wishing you tons of fun in your (virtual) classroom, Mary Beth P.S. Find a TON of ready-made activities HERE.
Explore and learn new aviation arts for making airplane craft with your kids in this extensive article with items readily available at home.
Teaching Kinders via Zoom is no easy task, so we've compiled a list of fun activities that you can do with your students virtually to keep them engaged and learning! These simple yet community building activities are perfect for early elementary students and teachers!
FREE Talk Like a Pirate Sheet
When I said I'd created gifts for the Beaver Patrol, you knew I'd made coordinating cards, right? --------- Dimensional Beaver Cards Materials: brown cardstock white cardstock paper trimmer scissors brown marker black marker craft glue Steps: Prepare the materials. Use the paper trimmer to cut: brown cardstock - 9" x 3.5" white cardstock - 8.5" x 3" With scissors, cut: two white teeth two white eyes two brown ears one brown nose one brown tail Use the brown pen to outline the nose and draw crosshatches on the tail. Use the black pen to draw pupils on the eyes. Fold the brown paper into thirds. Glue two teeth onto the top and two ears on the sides. Center the white paper on the brown paper and glue it in place. It will trap the ears and the teeth. Refold the brown paper, which will add folds to the white paper that is now glued to it. Glue the nose and eyes to the front of the card. Fold a small flap on the end of the tail, then glue that tab to the card. You want the tail to flop down when the card is out of its envelope... .... but fold up for mailing. Quick trivia question: What do you call a group of beavers? Answer: Colony. Steve used all of the beaver cards I made, but I like them so much I may need to make more. Although now that I think about it, are there occasions that really call for a beaver card? International Beaver Day is April 7, so maybe that's just the occasion I need to justify more cards.
Get ready for an adventure in Switzerland! We've got you covered for your adventure with swiss crafts, activities, lesson plans, recipies and fun family movies.
Here is a silly drawing games that is a lot of fun for kids to play. In this drawing game, you use dice to decide what parts of the drawing you will draw. We have included a face drawing game and a landscape drawing game. This is a lot of fun and it helps children who might not be able to draw freely and creatively...this will help them draw more freely and creatively. This will also increase silliness.
Writing- it is such a big part of life. Nowadays students work on their writing skills in most subjects not just writing anymore. This blank …
These fun and easy team-building icebreakers for meetings build rapport and increase teamwork. Contains great options for remote and on-site teams!
Looking for some Harvest Kid Crafts? There are lots of different crafts, and activities for easy fall fun. There are apples, pumpkins, and more.
Want your kids to learn how to be a good friend? This free printable book for kids will help you teach your kids all about good friendship. It may have taken us years to become good friends, but we can start teaching our kids now.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This post may contain affiliate links. See my full disclosures, Terms of Use, and privacy policies on my "privacy" page. Using object lessons is very helpful for kids. Having a picture outside of their situation brings more clarity than the muddied and confused feelings inside. One picture our kids have ... Read More about Anger is like … (an object lesson for Kids)
50+ Simon Says Ideas for kids. Easy ideas for toddlers and older kids! Free printable pdf included with the list of the Simon Says actions.
This shark fin hat craft is a fun activity for an ocean themed unit or shark week. It's easy to put together, and your kids will have a blast being sharks.
The four corners icebreaker game is one of my favorites! It's quick and easy. It will get people up and moving. Read the full directions here.
Inside you'll find an easy step-by-step How to Draw Sunglasses Tutorial Video and Coloring Page. Stop by and grab yours for free.
Hi friends! I'm super excited to share with you how I made graphing in Kindergarten fun and independent this year! Every year my kids find graphing super fun and engaging but teaching JK/SK (that’s Pre-K/K for my American friends) it was always hard to make this an independent centre. This year I found a solution that worked well! Here is how I taught it: Day 1: Learning Goals & Success Criteria First I introduce the learning goal "We are learning to make graphs". Then we start by talking about the first step in the success criteria: I know I can do this when I can make a question. I give them a few examples first then have the kids share and added their questions to a chart. Then I typed up the questions and laminated a couple copies to keep in our question folder so that the students can reference them if they need help coming up with a question. Day 2: Make a Question and Collect & Graph the Data On the second day, I introduce the rest of the success criteria I can collect and record data on my graph. Data=information Sidenote: I followed some of the kids around as they graphed the first couple of days and asked them questions like "What do you need to do first?" and "How do we record _____'s answer?" etc. to uncover some student thinking. I took pictures and notes as I followed along and then printed a couple out as exemplars for the success criteria "I can collect and record the data on my graph." I can answer questions about my graph using the words most, least and the same. Then we practiced making our graph. I was going to start with a concrete graph (in theory that might be better) but I have a higher group of kiddos than usual this year and I wanted to introduce the graphing papers that we they would be using at the graphing centre so I could open it that day. So I put this graphing paper up on the smart board and we went through the steps together. First we read the question together and I showed them how to trace the question. Then we picked three colours for the choices. We talked about we could do a small scribble with crayon to indicate our colour choices if copying colour words from the word wall was too tricky. I also told them that even if they can copy the colour word to do a small dash of the colour with crayon underneath to help them remember what is what. Then I modelled how to ask the question to each student in the class and add the data to the graph. At the end we talked about which colour was the most popular, least popular and if any were the same. I left out this paper with clipboard, pencils and crayons for the kids to try. Here is an example of a completed "What is your favourite colour?" page. I told the kids that if there were no colours that were the same they could either put an X or write "none". The kids also used these "Photo Class List"'s to keep track of who they've asked. As they asked their question and graphed their data, they crossed out the person they asked. On the third day we made our first concrete graph. First we reviewed that the first step was to make a question. I told them that the question we are going to answer and graph today is "What is your favourite animal?" I then quickly taped 5 different animal pictures around the room. Then I had the students move to the picture of their choice. Then we called 1 group at a time and graphed the kids on the carpet. We have the perfect carpet for this as our carpet is a grid! We had the person at the front hold the animal picture, took a picture with the iPad and showed the image on the SMARTBoard. Then we talked about which one was the most, the least and the same. Here is a sample of an favourite animal graph they could complete at centre time: On the fourth day we made another concrete graph. This time we graphed siblings in our class! We followed the same steps as favourite animal but I taped the signs for "sisters only", "brothers only", "brothers and sisters" and "no siblings" instead. The rest was the same as the third day :) On the fifth day we created our birthday graph! First I had some of my kiddos write the months of the year for me. Then I put them up on the bulletin board. Then I printed out a square picture of each of my kiddos and mounted it on black construction paper. Then we added the pictures during whole group math time and we talked about which month has the most birthdays, which month has the least birthdays and if any of the months have the same. Next time I would have the students write their birth date on a whiteboard and hold it in from of them when I take the picture so that I could easily get that information from this graph. I also used this graph on my graphing wall and put it under "I can answer questions about my graph using the words most, least and the same." Then I put a velcro dot on top of each column and the words most, least and same on a velcro strip underneath. This way, the kids can come and practice identifying which month has the most, which month has the least and which months are the same number of birthdays on the graphing wall. If you would like to try the pre-filled favourite animal graphing sheets click on the button below to download them for free :) All of the printables above can be found in my newest product, Graphing for Little Learners! You can click on the image below to check it out in my TPT store :) My kids are still loving graphing and it is a popular centre every day. How do you teach graphing in Kindergarten? I would love to hear your fun ideas!
Many teachers are now using platforms such as Zoom and Google Meet to reach their students. While many teachers use this platform to teach or review standards with their students, many are also using it for socialization during these times and there are lots of great distance learning activities you can use to engage your
thanks to the fantastic technology we have, we can keep youth activities happening -- remotely over videoconferencing.
Hi friends! I'm super excited to share with you how I made graphing in Kindergarten fun and independent this year! Every year my kids find graphing super fun and engaging but teaching JK/SK (that’s Pre-K/K for my American friends) it was always hard to make this an independent centre. This year I found a solution that worked well! Here is how I taught it: Day 1: Learning Goals & Success Criteria First I introduce the learning goal "We are learning to make graphs". Then we start by talking about the first step in the success criteria: I know I can do this when I can make a question. I give them a few examples first then have the kids share and added their questions to a chart. Then I typed up the questions and laminated a couple copies to keep in our question folder so that the students can reference them if they need help coming up with a question. Day 2: Make a Question and Collect & Graph the Data On the second day, I introduce the rest of the success criteria I can collect and record data on my graph. Data=information Sidenote: I followed some of the kids around as they graphed the first couple of days and asked them questions like "What do you need to do first?" and "How do we record _____'s answer?" etc. to uncover some student thinking. I took pictures and notes as I followed along and then printed a couple out as exemplars for the success criteria "I can collect and record the data on my graph." I can answer questions about my graph using the words most, least and the same. Then we practiced making our graph. I was going to start with a concrete graph (in theory that might be better) but I have a higher group of kiddos than usual this year and I wanted to introduce the graphing papers that we they would be using at the graphing centre so I could open it that day. So I put this graphing paper up on the smart board and we went through the steps together. First we read the question together and I showed them how to trace the question. Then we picked three colours for the choices. We talked about we could do a small scribble with crayon to indicate our colour choices if copying colour words from the word wall was too tricky. I also told them that even if they can copy the colour word to do a small dash of the colour with crayon underneath to help them remember what is what. Then I modelled how to ask the question to each student in the class and add the data to the graph. At the end we talked about which colour was the most popular, least popular and if any were the same. I left out this paper with clipboard, pencils and crayons for the kids to try. Here is an example of a completed "What is your favourite colour?" page. I told the kids that if there were no colours that were the same they could either put an X or write "none". The kids also used these "Photo Class List"'s to keep track of who they've asked. As they asked their question and graphed their data, they crossed out the person they asked. On the third day we made our first concrete graph. First we reviewed that the first step was to make a question. I told them that the question we are going to answer and graph today is "What is your favourite animal?" I then quickly taped 5 different animal pictures around the room. Then I had the students move to the picture of their choice. Then we called 1 group at a time and graphed the kids on the carpet. We have the perfect carpet for this as our carpet is a grid! We had the person at the front hold the animal picture, took a picture with the iPad and showed the image on the SMARTBoard. Then we talked about which one was the most, the least and the same. Here is a sample of an favourite animal graph they could complete at centre time: On the fourth day we made another concrete graph. This time we graphed siblings in our class! We followed the same steps as favourite animal but I taped the signs for "sisters only", "brothers only", "brothers and sisters" and "no siblings" instead. The rest was the same as the third day :) On the fifth day we created our birthday graph! First I had some of my kiddos write the months of the year for me. Then I put them up on the bulletin board. Then I printed out a square picture of each of my kiddos and mounted it on black construction paper. Then we added the pictures during whole group math time and we talked about which month has the most birthdays, which month has the least birthdays and if any of the months have the same. Next time I would have the students write their birth date on a whiteboard and hold it in from of them when I take the picture so that I could easily get that information from this graph. I also used this graph on my graphing wall and put it under "I can answer questions about my graph using the words most, least and the same." Then I put a velcro dot on top of each column and the words most, least and same on a velcro strip underneath. This way, the kids can come and practice identifying which month has the most, which month has the least and which months are the same number of birthdays on the graphing wall. If you would like to try the pre-filled favourite animal graphing sheets click on the button below to download them for free :) All of the printables above can be found in my newest product, Graphing for Little Learners! You can click on the image below to check it out in my TPT store :) My kids are still loving graphing and it is a popular centre every day. How do you teach graphing in Kindergarten? I would love to hear your fun ideas!
Sometimes finding volunteer ideas for kids can be difficult. But if you make it a family activity, volunteering opportunities are all around us and the effects can be long-lasting. Grab your children and try one of these volunteer ideas today.
Learning about butterflies lends itself nicely to teaching symmetry! Watch this video to see how to do an easy butterfly symmetry lesson and craft.
Virtual Party Games for Online Parties - Looking to have some fun while hosting a party online? Here are virtual party games to play with family and friends
This Matthew 28:19 Printable is a simple printable to get children thinking and chatting about what the Great Commission actually means.
Paper Bag Dramatics: A fun activity for Team Building and Developing Community. Here's an idea that can be used just about anywhere at any time. It encourages groups to solve problems, think creatively, and work as a team.
Look below at 10 creative show and tell ideas for kids, so your child can shine at Show and Tell and have fun showing off something unique and fun.
Hello, how are you today? Welcome to our blog About Painting and…