virtual learning Archives - Teacher's Brain

Creative Spring Activities for Kids That Students Will Love

March 24, 2023 teachersbrain Science, Teacher's Pay Teachers, Writing

Happy Spring!

This is such a wonderful time of year. The sun starts to shine again and flowers start to bloom. It’s definitely worth celebrating in the classroom. If you’re looking for spring activities for elementary students, you’re in the right place. I’m sharing some fun and engaging spring activities you can do with your students to welcome the season!

How do you celebrate spring with kids?

Whether you want to have a spring party with your students or just sprinkle some spring-themed activities into your lessons, these spring activities for school will get you started.

Planting: You can teach your students about plants and gardening by having them plant flowers or vegetables in the school garden or small pots in the classroom. This can be a fun and interactive way to teach kids about science and nature. For plant-themed resources, check out my resource here and here!
Nature Walk: Take a nature walk with your students and have them collect different types of flowers, leaves, and other items found in nature. Once back in the classroom, students can use these items to make art projects or create a nature journal.
Spring-themed Art Projects: There are many fun spring-themed art projects that you can do with your students, such as creating paper flowers, making spring-themed collages, or creating birdhouses or nests. Check out this adorable flower glasses craft!
Reading: Have students read spring-themed books and discuss the different aspects of spring, such as weather changes, new growth, and baby animals.
Science Experiments: You can do science experiments with your students, such as creating a rain gauge or exploring the different parts of a flower. Here is a fun resource to try!
Spring Poetry: Teach your students about poetry by having them write their own spring-themed poems. I love this fun and creative way to teach them about language and expression. Here’s a fun poetry resource to try!

These are all wonderful ideas, but my favorite activity is definitely my Spring-Themed Would You Rather resource.

This is a fun and creative way to get your students excited about writing. Would You Rather Prompts are great conversation starters, ice breakers, or writing prompts.

Use these interactive, editable Google Slides to easily have students show one or two fingers to share their choice. Then, they get to explain why they chose it by writing it out!

What is in this download?

53 Google Slides with a moveable highlighter to share your favorite or the class’s most popular choice.

50 Colorful WOULD YOU RATHER Slides
1 Digital Writing Prompt Paper
2 black and white ink-saving slides for handwriting practice

If you want to do this activity virtually, it’s totally possible and fun! Students can simply share a 1 or a 2 in the chatbox.

You can delete slides you don’t want to send to students and add your own directions or images to the sides of the slides to personalize. One of my favorite things about this resource is it can be used for any grade level!

Love this idea? I actually created it for every season too in this Seasonal Would You Rather Bundle.

You’ll get the spring resource plus the ones for summer, fall, and winter too!

What is in this download?

200+ Google Slides with a moveable highlighter to share your favorite or the class’s most popular choice.

This resource is great for virtual or in-person teaching

200+ Colorful Would You Rather Season-Themed Slides (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer) 4 Resources Bundled
4 Digital Writing Prompt Paper
8 Black and White Ink-Saving Slides for Handwriting Practice.

Check it out here!

What are your favorite ways to celebrate spring in the classroom? Let me know in the comments!
Looking for more spring fun? Check out my post on Easter activities here!

How To Create A Fun And Easy Virtual Calendar For Your Classroom

July 9, 2021 teachersbrain Classroom Decor, kindergarten survival, Teaching Tips

If you know me, you know I just love calendar time. It is such a great way to gather with kindergarten or first grade students, go over the calendar, review some concepts, read stories, listen, share, and maybe even sing some songs. For more info on why I love it so much, check out my post here.

I adore my traditional Calendar Time area. This fun beachy-themed calendar area has always been my favorite. Recently, however, I have been exploring Google Slides more and more and have found that it is the perfect tool for creating a virtual calendar easily!

Here are some benefits of using a virtual calendar in your classroom

It can be used in person or virtually. After the last couple of years in the classroom, we are realizing the need for resources that can be used in the classroom AND virtually for distance learning. Teaching resources that are versatile enough to be used in both is essential these days.
They are easily customized. Google Slides are so easy to play around with and make it your own.
It can be easily reused year after year. While you can reuse physical products too, reusing digital items doesn’t require you to store anything or take up extra space. It can also be edited and personalized each year to fit whatever theme you want.
It saves money. If you are printing your resources, it will save you money on paper and printing costs to just do it virtually. Saving money in the classroom is always a plus!

Ready to explore virtual calendars yourself? I have you covered! I created this Virtual Calendar template for teachers who want to simplify Calendar Time in the classroom.

These colorful Google Slides templates make it easy for you and fun for your students. They can easily be edited to add your own personal touch. This calendar comes with Google Slides to help you review time, days of the week, months, money, share your morning messages, birthday shoutouts, and more!

Check out my virtual calendar tutorial here!

Here’s what’s included in this calendar resource:

21 Colorful Digital Calendar and Math slides. Includes time, days of the week, months, money, a spinner game, morning messages, birthday shoutouts, patterns, shapes, and tally marks.
2 Review Pages (one digital and one black and white to easily print for pencil to paper)

Ready to get started with your virtual calendar? Check it out here!

Morning Calendar Activities for Kindergarten to 2nd Grade

August 12, 2020 teachersbrain Back to School, Teaching Tips

Classroom calendar activities might look a little different this school year for teachers. With so many teachers teaching virtually, in the classroom or a mix of both, having resources that will help teachers in both situations is essential. Math concepts are a perfect combination to use during morning calendar time. The best bet you will have to reach all students in my opinion is using Google Slides to introduce concepts to students. Google slides make editing and sharing simple. This way you can use the slides during class in person or in a virtual meet up.

Tips and Topics for Morning Calendar Time

Have a slide that has a blank calendar template so you can update it easily each month.
Add holidays and celebrations to the calendar to hit social studies.
Make it a point to teach students about the UNDO button if they are the ones manipulating moveable parts on the slides.
Create a daily morning message slide to greet students each day. This can include a link to a good morning song. I like to use Jack Hartmann’s songs.
Discuss yesterday, today and tomorrow each day so the students see the pattern.
Include a letter of the week, sight words, weather or patterns in your presentation.
Number of the day, tally marks to mark how many days in school, telling time, greater than, less than and counting money are great math concepts and options to include.
List the months of the year out of order. Have a student put time in the correct order.
Seasons are great to cover each morning so students can grasp the length of a season.
You can find all kinds of great free spinners on the internet to make learning feel a little like a game.
Birthdays are always special days in the classroom. You can add music or photos of the children to a slide.
Include a review sheet for students to digitally send to you to see if they comprehend concepts.

No Time to Create Google Slides

Don’t worry! I have you covered! This is where TpT resources come in handy. Here is the pre-made and editable Google Slides for a Virtual Calendar that you can use at any elementary grade level for your classroom needs. No paper to print! (There is one page that is black and white for a review that you can print out for students who are with you in person.) Use what you like and delete the slides that you don’t want included in your morning calendar time.

$Virtual Math Morning Calendar$

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