A Year of Classroom Lessons and Experiences
Cool, Creative, and Connecting Activities You Can Do With Your K-5 Students
Welcome!
Below are some ideas, templates, videos, and examples that I've done with my elementary school class. Feel free to look around, copy any templates or examples that you'd like, and please reach out to me if you have any questions!
Rube Goldberg Machine
Start the year with this project
Students have two weeks to plan, build, and film it in action (using their Chromebook cameras)
Plan using Google Drawings (or a sheet of paper)
answer questions before, during, and after the project.
Videos attached onto Google Classroom assignment
Student Example
Example 2.mp4Reading
Earth Book Reports:
Instead of a diorama, have students create visual book reports through Google Earth
Search for the locations/settings in their stories where the events may have taken place.
Have the students add summaries, questions, descriptions, quotes, etc.
FlipGrid Book Reviews:
I have my students review books that they're reading once a month using FlipGrid. If you're interested in having your students do the same, you can just copy and paste the text on the right.
Pick a chapter book that you've read this school year, and record a 1 to 3 minute book review. In your book review, include the following:
Pick a chapter book that you've read this school year, and record a 1 to 3 minute book review. In your book review, include the following:
1. The title and author of the book
2. A brief summary of the problem the characters in the book are trying to solve. Don't give away the ending, though!
3. Share something about the book that you liked or disliked. This could be a character, a setting, a scene, a quote, or something else. Explain your thinking.
4. Would you recommend this book to a classmate? Why or why not?
5. Give it a rating from 1 star to 5 stars.
Shared Class Poetry Reading
A few times a year, I have my students record different segments on a poem on a Flip. After they finished recording, I put the poem in order for them on the Flip. They can then watch and listen to their poem from start to finish.
On the link below are some graphic organizers, templates, and slideshows that I use in my writing class. They're designed to be used as attachments on Google Classroom assignments. Each graphic organizer is a slideshow with blank spaces for students to plan out writing pieces. There's also Google Doc writing templates to get your students started. Feel free to grab a copy of whatever you'd like.
If you're brand new to Google Classroom, check out the video on the right to see how to create assignments.
Earth Narratives:
Have students type out personal narratives/short stories using Google Docs.
Copy and paste those paragraphs onto a new Google Site.
Have students find the locations/settings of their Personal Narratives on Google Maps/Street View.
The Big Game
Classroom Management
Class Economy
Option One: This spreadsheet
Pass out and "Make a Copy for Each Student" in Google Classroom
Another Option: Mykidsbank.org
Free online classroom economy. No more passing out money each week!
Classroom Store (on a Google Form)
Google Forms to select what they want... like a "Classroom Amazon"
Notifications sent to “tellers” and not me. Automate everything!
Tellers email classmates, set-up times, take out amounts, automation!
Classroom Monopoly
Students choose whether to mortgage or rent their seat at the start of the school year; can change whenever they want, but need to "pay off" their mortgage first.
Pay monthly until mortgage is paid off. I just use a Google Form and take the money out of their bank accounts.
Once they purchase their seats, they then have the option to purchase their classmates seats.
3d Design (on Chromebooks)
CoSpaces Edu:
When I ask my students to prototype anything, I ask them to do it using "CoSpaces Edu" first. This way, it can be shared and viewed by my easily. On the right is a copy a student Rube Goldberg Machine prototype.
The best part? These student prototypes can be viewed AND designed on a phone in Virtual OR Augmented Reality.
Easily Create and Share Anecdotal Notes for parents
DocAppender:
Create a folder and put inside of it a Google Doc for each student in your classroom.
Create a Google Form and run the "DocAppender" Add-On (there's a tutorial video below)
Anytime you fill out the form, the student Google Doc is automagically added on to.
Share the doc with whoever needs access (curriculum coach, principal, parent, student, etc)
Google Slides for Storytelling
Google Slides can be used as ways for your students to creativity tell stories! There's a video on the right that walks you through how to do it. Down below are some other examples that I created for my students this year.
Headset Virtual Reality:
The Next Big Classroom Thing
Virtual Reality has come a long way since the days of Google Cardboard. It is now an immersive experience that will change how, why, and where students learn.
I'm using an Oculus Quest 2 (which is less than the cost of a Chromebook). It does NOT need a separate computer to run.
Teaching Math in Virtual Reality:
Stream the VR headset live to your classroom projector, students can experience live.
Set up the problems in advance, put the headset on students, let them solve each of them.
Project Idea: A Virtual Art Museum
Step One:
Share this Google Photos album of famous works of art with your class. This will give them some background knowledge (and also make it where you won't get 39 copies of "The Starry Night" once the project is completed
Step Two:
Challenge each student in your class to pick one and recreate it in any way that they choose. Just let them know that they have to be able to email a picture of it. Or, iff your school is back in person, you could take the picture for them.
Step Three:
Using CoSpaces Edu, combine all of these famous "works of art" into a virtual OR augmented reality museum that can be shared with anyone. CoSpaces can actually be used collaboratively, so you could have your students upload their own image onto a wall from their own device. Click here to view my class example.
Snack Time Podcast
During snack each day, I have my students listen to a podcast called "Six Minutes"
Think of it like "LOST", but for middle grades students.
Great podcast for discussing theme, foreshadowing, character development, etc.
Be warned: it's addicting!
How do you discuss digital citizenship with your students?
Be Internet Awesome:
Looking for a simple, fun way to teach your students how to be safe online? Check out Be Internet Awesome!
Minecraft: Education Edition
The Education Edition of Minecraft works on Chromebooks now. You do NOT have to be an expert in Minecraft to use this with your class. There are hundreds of pre-made worlds and experiences that you can assign to your students to complete and answer questions on. There's even a "Share to Google Classroom" button!
Example Project: Working together in groups, I had my fifth graders design what their ideal middle school would look like. Feel free to download and explore some of their schools below.
Primary Sources:
Find primary sources with the Google Newspaper Archive
100,000+ articles from all around the world
Great way to have your students explore current events
Drones and Math
To help learn about ordered pairs, we planned the path of our drones using DJ Tello Drones and the "DroneBlocks" app.
