It’s back to school time again and this year looks NOTHING like we have ever seen before. As summer comes to a close teachers are preparing for that big first day of school. Only this year, for many of us, it’s going to be in a virtual classroom.
If you are going back to school in-person chances are you will still be doing some sort of remote learning in the future. Or perhaps your instruction is a hybrid of in-person teaching and distance learning.
But one thing we know is true, no matter where you or your students are learning from, those first few weeks of school are crucial for community and relationship building. Lucky for us, many of the beginning of the year activities you know and love can be done in a virtual classroom!
Below we have curated over 75 back to school activities for the remote learning classroom. Scroll down for tons of ready-to-use lessons along with tutorials, templates, and examples to make planning this year a little easier.
What are your back to school ideas? Please share them in a comment at the bottom of the post!
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75 back to school activities for the remote learning classroom
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Preparing your online classroom
Create a Bitmoji or virtual classroom.
Bitmoji classrooms are all the rage on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Creating your own virtual classroom can help you feel a little bit more “at home” with distance learning. The resources below (including 200+ ready-to-use templates) will help you create your own.
Tutorials and templates for making your own Bitmoji classroom:
Gamify your syllabus!
Create instant day one engagement. John Meehan’s Class is Lava gamfied syllabus is great for physical school OR distance learning. Hit the ground running with student centered autonomy, agency and purpose.
Check out Class is Lava! by John Meehan for directions and the FREE template!
Use our simple “drag and drop” back to school planning doc!
Sometimes too many ideas can be overwhelming, especially when you’re reading through a post with over 50 activities to go through! A simple planning template can be helpful when sifting through resources. Just drag and drop the activities to a time slot on the planner. Make a copy of an activity you want to do more than once or if you want to give students multiple days to work on it.
This planning template was created using the Google Slides sticky note brainstorming template and has a link to 16 of the activities listed in this post. There are 8 more blank notes to add your own activities or add more of the activiites you find in here. Of course once you make a copy of the presentation you can edit any of the activities to swap out or change the ones that don’t work for you or your class.
Note: The links to the activities take you back to this blog post so that you can grab the resources you need to assign to your class.
Remote learning community building lessons
Find out “What makes you unique?”
This lesson uses the book “Chrysanthemum” to encourage students to share about their unique qualities and what makes them special.
What make you unique? Flipgrid Disco Library topic
Share your Hopes and Dreams for the year.
Start the year off by having students share their hopes and dreams. This HyperDoc is a great one to share at the beginning of the year then go back at the end of the year and read what you wrote!
Hopes and Dreams HyperDoc created by Rachel Marker and Karly Moura
Create a collaborative Slides or PowerPoint “This is us” presentation.
Use this HyperDoc to build community in your classroom! It creates a space for each student to share about themselves asynchronously.
This is us HyperDoc created by Nicole Beardsley
Pitch (and code) your passion.
Get to know what your students really care about AND integrate computer science into your classroom. In this CS first lesson students will build a project about an idea, activity, item, or cause they feel strongly about. You can have students share a link to their project and describe it on Flipgrid.
Try a team building digital escape room.
Digital escape rooms are super fun and kids love a good challenge! This escape room’s theme is teamwork and students can and should work together to figure out the clues. Utilize the “breakout rooms” feature in video calls to put kids into teams to work together and escape!
Exit: A teambuilding experiment digital escape room created by Lisa Guardino
Want to use digital escape rooms to spark your students’ imagination? Check out our Getting Started with Digital Escape Rooms mini course. Enroll today and your students will be using digital escape rooms tomorrow! Click here to learn more.
Social Emotional (remote) Learning
Try weekly check-ins with Flipgrid.
Weekly check-ins are a powerful way to keep in contact with your students. It give all of your students a chance to touch base with you and hear your voice and see your face as you respond to them. You can make this more manageble by giving each student a specific day of the week that they know you will be responding back to them. Or leave it open and let students drop a video to you whenever they feel the need.
Try Good, OK, Bad with Jamboard.
Using this template will help you to know about where your students are at and allow you the opportunity to follow up with any issues. Now more than ever, it is important to be mindful of our students social emotional health! This template works best if you complete their activity as a class.
Check out this template plus 9 others in 10 Jamboard templates for distance learning by Kris Szajner
Do a daily check-in with forms.
A Google (or Microsoft) form makes it simple and easy to get started connecting with all of your students. Ask your students to fill out the form as they are logging in for the day. You can review their answers while they complete a digital warm-up or between video calls.
Check out Daily Check-in With Google Forms by Mari Venturino for a template and examples.
Do a quick check-in or check-out with Mentimeter.
Mentimeter allows you to create interactive presentations that can poll your audience in real time. Try using the ranking option to see how students feel at the beginning of the day or lesson. Or utilize the word cloud feature as an exit ticket to see how students feel at the end of a lesson.
25+ SEL activities shared by educators
Mr. Gupton posted this tweet in mid-August asking educators to share their first week SEL activities and the response was amazing. We have curated many of the responses into a Wakelet collection and have embedded it below. Be sure to check out the original tweet for recent additions and give Mr. Gupton a follow on Twitter!
Connecting with families remotely
Send home a “welcome box” or “welcome bag” to your students and families.
If your school has some sort of registration day or walk through before school begins you can put together a welcome box or bag for the famlies to pick up.
Ideas for items to add:
- A letter or postcard from you to the family.
- A list of usernames and passwords students will need and where to go on the first day.
- Offline learning games students can play at home (try to find games that use items students may already have like cards or dice).
- A list of supplies they might need for the year. Or if you are fortunate enough to have those available for students you can send them home in the box too.
- Materials for a project that gets the whole family involved.
- Resources for parents to help their child be successful. A link to your class website, your contact information, list of helpful websites for parents. In this digital world families still appreciate something they can stick on the fridge.
Host one-on-one family video calls before school begins or during the first week.
During the week before school or over the course of the first month try giving your students each 15-20 minute time slots to meet with you along with their family members.
Make a hub of resources for parents and students.
Keep a consistent place (website or even a published Google Slide) for students to access assignments for parent to find resources and announcements. You can add a welcome video and tutorials for help.
Examples:
Use the Talking Points app to communicate with ALL families.
Talking points allows you to communicate with your families. You write your message in your home language, families respond in theirs and it is translated automatically. Teachers can use the web-browser or mobile app, families can use text messages or a mobile app.
Create a Flipgrid topic to host “office hours” for families.
You can create a separate Flipgrid topic for each family (in elementary) or each class (in secondary) to offer asynchronous office hours. Families can use their topic to get in touch with you and ask any questions they need. Remember to keep the videos moderated if more than one family is accessing the same topic.
Check out Connecting School + Home for a guide to setting up your grid
30 beginning of the year activities from the #Ditchbook community
Below you will find 30 beginning of the year activities that you can use right away. Also, be sure to visit our back to school Pinterest page filled with ideas from the #Ditchbook community.
1. Complete a G Suite tools refresher HyperDoc (click here for even more).
A2- I created a hyperdoc for my students as a refresher for @gsuite. It will allow me to be freed up to continue building relationships. #ditchbook https://t.co/Kqli3jx4hh
— Mr. Meyer (@54Mr_Meyer) August 9, 2019
2. Learn to be a Chromebook Lifeguard then have kids create their own meme!
A1: I cover the Chromebook rules with my students the first week of class, and they then make memes out of those rules. It’s a really engaging way to begin and the Ss absolutely love it! #ditchbook
— Evan Mosier (@emosier3) August 9, 2019
3. Gauge tech skills with a 3-minute challenge.
Here’s my slide that I use to gauge student familiarity with technology and also talk about that my class is more about learning HOW to learn than anything else –Nate #ditchbook #newteacherpodcast pic.twitter.com/d4v12ZhTd7
— Nate & Angie Ridgway (@TeachFromRidge) August 9, 2019
4. Become Digital Citizenship Superheros.
A2.b I love going through this Digital Citizenship Superhero Training HyperDoc with the kids at the beginning of the year. Sparks great discussions! https://t.co/4OkujCSqcN #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/0jlFjtAcvj
— Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) August 9, 2019
5. Teach students proper email etiquette.
A2: I watched this video recently on @TeachingChannel of lesson on email etiquette and the difference formal and informal emails. I love that it is with younger students. https://t.co/Bl7WPXZcgf#ditchbook
— Trina Serrano (@TrinaSerrano79) August 9, 2019
6. Go on a Google Docs Scavenger hunt!
A3: I modified a Doc Scavenger hunt based on a template from @catlin_tucker Here is my link. I really like how it covers so many of the basic features so quickly & Ss jump right in & get started. https://t.co/x4lPIPcxN3
#ditchbook— Vicki (@33heupel) August 9, 2019
7. Review or teach Chromebook policies (and play a fun Kahoot!)
A2.a We show this Chromebook care presentation in every class before we get started with our devices. https://t.co/sFHF3J5hsX And we play and accompanying @GetKahoot! https://t.co/DsQHMbfR06 #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/4f2mZHS04A
— Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) August 9, 2019
8. Create an “All About Me” poster with Adobe Spark.
Have Ss create an All About Me using @AdobeSpark or another topic, safety, etc #ditchbook
— Marcia Carrillo (@MarciaMentor) August 9, 2019
9. Complete the TLAP Play-Doh challenge HyperDoc.
Check this out #ditchbook https://t.co/gNxfd9cyTg
— Rayna Freedman (@rlfreedm) August 9, 2019
10. Create identity silhouettes.
A4: My students will be creating identity silhouettes in our journey of exploring mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors in ELA & SS. #Ditchbook https://t.co/Ga093ljCxY pic.twitter.com/EtqH9EAq4I
— Chanmi Chun (@mrschun) August 14, 2020
11. Try visual learning selfies.
A4. I love doing visual learning selfies I learned from @MindWise_CK https://t.co/lm6egSMBrq #ditchbook https://t.co/73nJVFzJTp
— Rayna Freedman (@rlfreedm) August 9, 2019
12. Create an icon board.
A fun, very visual way to start the school year …
Use this “icon board” template to let students share about themselves and their goals for the year …https://t.co/dLAzwZBff0
Post: https://t.co/T7Bba6FI2R#DitchBook #googleedu #gttribe pic.twitter.com/CO5G86LAvR
— Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) August 9, 2019
13. Have fun with a beginning of the year QR Break-In!
A1: I’m doing a QRBreakin @MeehanEDU and a hyperdoc about the students th first week. #ditchbook
— Heather Stringham (@hsengteach) August 9, 2019
14. Create Vision Boards (blog post by Kasey Bell).
A2: At the beginning of my Forensics class I Ss make Vision Boards in @googleslides Thanks @ShakeUpLearning for the idea! 2-3 personal goals & 2-3 in class goals. We spent lots of time brainstorming possible areas of interest in Forensics first. #ditchbook Here is 1 example. pic.twitter.com/B0kjZJu2M1
— Vicki (@33heupel) August 9, 2019
15. Practice following directions in Google Drawings.
Here is a 1st Google Drawing activity for I would do with my 4th grade students. It was a great lesson on following directions and being creative.
Many Ss liked to take what they created and use as chromebook wallpaper #Ditchbook https://t.co/OpERi18bfZ pic.twitter.com/NhB2FTw9vb— Sean Fahey (@SEANJFAHEY) August 24, 2018
16. Get to know your students with a 360 spreadsheet.
I use #googleforms to create 360 spreadsheets that help me get to know about my Ss. I refer to them all year long when building relationships. #ditchbook
— Nicole Nowlin (@nicole_nowlin) August 9, 2019
17. Start the year off with One Word.
Some amazing “get to know you” ideas for back to school:
> Flipgrid meet-and-greets
> Shared slide presentation: 1 kid per slide, webcam pic with details about themselves
> THE @SEANJFAHEY One Word Hyperdoc (https://t.co/WAkWu1sRnH)#DitchBook— Matt Miller (@jmattmiller) August 9, 2019
18. Play “Two Truths and a Lie” on Flipgrid.
A1: I love @FriendsinFourth’s @Flipgrid idea of “Two Truths and a Lie.” What a great way to start the year! #DitchBook https://t.co/LCJlMJr2IU
— Joe Merrill (@MrMerrillsClass) August 9, 2019
19. Get to know your classmates with the “thin slides” Eduprotocol.
THIN SLIDES @eduprotocols @jcorippo
name
Word
Picture
(Fav food)&…….
All on the same slide deck.
Make 1 slide 3 min-6 sec to present #relationships— Marcia Carrillo (@MarciaMentor) August 9, 2019
20. Frayer a friend (Google Drawings template).
#EDUProtocols Here is a Frayer A Friend Template I made in Google Drawings. Feel free to make a copy for yourself for your use! https://t.co/3FN7ge2EVt
—
BRIAN ROSS21. Try a “Who Am I?” activity on Google Slides.
A3. This is such a great question… Considering what I am calling a soft start and holding off on curriculum start for a while. One idea I got from @gcouros is something like this: https://t.co/wpL3Dfdnms #ditchbook https://t.co/1bhhZLOl0I
— Stephen Chapin (@stephenchapin) August 14, 2020
22. Get to know your students with a Google Form Survey
A4: I gather info via Form to use throughout the year in an end of class activity. I’ll also either (or maybe both) do the Get To Know You Collaborative Slide or Locker Collab Slide.https://t.co/CqTSb3KtzA#ditchbook https://t.co/gNjQKmFrwP
— Mandi Tolen (@MandiTolenEDU) August 14, 2020
23. Have students create their own island.
Ss create a 2d/3d island that represents them and their interests, values etc.
Ss label physical features of the island creatively, choose colors, shapes and landforms etc that are all about them. #ditchbook
Autobiographical is a better descriptorFrom pinterest pic.twitter.com/rViId0zBhl
— Eric (@eric_falls) August 9, 2019
24. Introduce the design process with a watercraft challenge.
A4 LOVE, LOVE, LOVE @PBSKIDS Design Squad watercraft challenge! Such a great way to jump into design thinking right at the beginning of the year! https://t.co/xK0iNlQNAV #ditchbook pic.twitter.com/hvl6NHDpIc
— Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) August 9, 2019
25. Get to know each other with a “mystery person” activity.
Q4. We do a ‘mystery person” activity w a fun fact about themselves that others don’t know — like ” I can jump a rope 40times in a minute” on a blank card. Mix them up and find the mystery person who matches the fact the card. Intros to the class to follow. — Angie #ditchbook
— Nate & Angie Ridgway (@TeachFromRidge) August 9, 2019
31. Challenge your students to a GIF battle!
32. Begin each day with community circles.
33. Get back to school with G Suite from Shake Up Learning.
34. Start the year off with a back to school HyperDoc.
35. BONUS! Check out an entire FOLDER of back to school resources!
BONUS 2! Check out an entire PADLET of back to school resources from Krista Harmsworth!
What are your back to school ideas for remote learning? Please share them in a comment below!