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Hey, teachers. If you have a classroom and a commute, you're in the right place. I'm your host. Rachel and I want to ride along with you each week on your ride into school. This podcast is the place for busy teachers toe want actionable tips, simple strategies and just want to enjoy their job more. Let's go. Well, hey there. Welcome to another episode of the classroom commute podcasts. And although that commute has become a heck of a lot shorter, as we are all social distancing and teaching from home, we are still here for the ride. So thanks for joining me. I'm Rachel, your host. And now that we have been at this for a few weeks now it's starting to feel hopefully a little more normal. Hopefully, you have been able to establish some sort of routine when it comes to teaching online with your students. And hopefully you've been able to navigate some of those technology issues that you were experiencing early on when we began this whole distance learning journey. And I just want to give you a quick reminder that if you do still need some re sources and some assistance in the Technology Department. When it comes to um, assigning resource is to your students and Google and things like that, I do have several. Resource Resource is for you over at the website at classroom nook dot com, and you'll see up at the top are Members Resource Library link, and you can had there to get some free resources that I've put there for you rate at the top of our members Resource library. If you're not already a member, you couldn't sign up easily. It's completely for free, and you'll be able to do that right there on the website classroom nook dot com. And, of course, all the details of what you we will be talking about today will be over at the show. Notes at classroom nook dot com forward slash podcast forward slash 17 So for the past few weeks, I've kind of interrupted my regularly scheduled programming as Faras, the podcast goes, I had several episodes plan for you. That would have been great had you been in the classroom. Put man, what a difference a few weeks will make. And of course, I want to support you as we navigate distance learning together and one of the big topics of discussion that I've been hearing on social media from teachers is coming up with fun and engaging activities to do on Zoom or Google meat or whatever platform you are using to connect with your students over the Internet. And so I have gathered several tips and ideas from other teachers, and I've compiled them for you together in this podcast episode to hopefully give you some inspiration of things that you could be doing with your students. Virtually in all this, I think teachers have really risen to the challenge of keeping things normal for their students and doing things that they would normally do in the classroom and making some of those tweaks and modifications so that they can continue doing those things despite distance learning. And if you did not listen to last week's episode, all about five things that you should continue doing during distance learning, make sure you check that out. I've highlighted a few things that we should keep doing with our students, even though we are not with them physically, so make sure you check that out at classroom nook dot com for it slash podcast forward slash 16. All right, let's dive right into today's topic with fun activities that you can do on Zoom or Google. Meet with your students. The first thing that you can do with your students virtually is Reader's Theatre. If you've been with me long, you know how much I love readers theater because it really packs in a whole bunch of skills with students, and it just makes learning. New Content fund. I have a whole post up on the website all about using readers theaters in your classroom, and I will link to that in the show notes as well. But just because you are working virtually with your students does not mean you still can't do Reader's Theatre. In fact, if you are meeting in small groups with your students over Zoom or Google meat, this would be a perfect thing to do with your students because you can provide them with the Reader's Theatre script. You can assign it in Google classroom, or you can attached as a PdF um, via email her over. However else you communicate with your students and assign students rolls, and you can do this right in Google meat or in zoom. It's the perfect way to get some fluency in practice in and to be able to continue to hear your students reading, even though you're not with them. And if you're looking for some ready to go Reader's Theatre scripts, I have a whole library of them and I will link to those in the show notes. I personally like to use Reader's Theatre scripts to introduce new topics things like the American Revolution or pollination. And I've created Reader's Theatre scripts for these particular topics and many more so again I will link to those in the show notes. Another thing that you can do with your students over a zoom or Google meat is a scavenger hunt. We have the unique opportunity to have our students at their homes while we're learning and teaching so you could send them on a scavenger hunt around their house. You could do this for strictly entertainment purposes and kind of give them an object to go look for in the first person that comes back with that object wins that round, or you could even do it for educational purposes. For example, if you're talking about geometry in math, you can send students on a scavenger hunt to find examples of spheres or rectangular prisms and things like that around their house. The next activity that you could do over resume or Google me is show and tell, and these could be showing tell of different objects. But also now that students are at home, they could show until a pet or a sibling, a baby brother, baby sister things like that. To make it more interesting, you can play games with your students over Zoom or Google meat. I've heard teachers doing things like bingo, and students create their own bingo boards at home. You could do this for again educational purposes or just as a brain break during your time. Together, you can play. I spy by using the backgrounds of your students screens that you see as they show up on your computer. Or you can play simple games like Pictionary or charades with your students. You can also host a lunch bunch with several students per day, or maybe on Fridays, where you invite Ah few students to join you for lunch over Zoom or Google me just the time to chat and hang out with their classmates. You can do ago noodle with your students by sharing your screen with your students and have them do ago noodle together as a class as you would, um, in the classroom itself. You could also do virtual field trips with your students. So many different zoos and museums have posted virtual field trips on their websites. So you could go to a field trip together with your students again by sharing the website on your screen so the other students can see it. And then you can talk about it as you go through the virtual field trip together. And I will lead to some possible virtual field trips in the show notes. See that you can check them out if you want to do that with your students, you can have a Spirit Day or Spirit Week with your students like you may do in the classroom things like Crazy Hair Day, or wear a certain color or costume or dress up like a character. All of those things that you might normally do for Spirit Day invite them to do it while you are meeting together online, the resume or Google meat. You can also have an art show with your students via Google's meat or zoom. Ah, lot of the, um, specials like music and Art and Jim have kind of gone to the wayside a bit here, as we are social distancing and distance learning. So that will be a great way to bring it back in and have students prepare a painting or drawing or some sort of art or craft that they can then share with their students. And then you can have them take turns sharing their piece of work with the other students and, lastly, riel. Simple. One thing that you can do over Google meat or zoom with your students is to have a joke of the day that you share, either at the beginning or the end of your time together. So there you have it. 10 activities that you can do with your students over Zoom or Google meat. Let's quickly review them. We have readers theater. You can do a scavenger hunt with your students, show and tell with an object, a pet or even a sibling. You can play games such as bingo! I spy Pictionary, charades. Things like that you can host a lunch bunch with some of your students each day or on Fridays, you can have a time where you share go noodle over your computer screen. You can go on virtual field trips with each other, have a Spirit Day or a Spirit Week. You can host a virtual art show where students share pieces of art that they're working on at home. And finally, you can have a joke of the day where you share at the beginning or the end of your time together. Ah, funny joke just to keep students laughing during this time. All right, that's it for me today. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your week, and I will be back here again next week with another episode. Don't forget all of the details. Links and resource is will be posted for you over the show Notes at classroom nook dot com. Forward slash podcast florid slash 17. I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of your day. Talk to you soon. Take care