Tag: K-5

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Digital Breakout Vault

This is a fantastic website for teachers!

A digital breakout is much like the in-person physical breakout done in the classroom. The main concept is to solve clues to unlock all the components in order to solve the main breakout mission. The digital format requires the internet, a device connected to the internet, paper and pencil for working out the clues, and critical thinking skills for solving clues.

As presented at the VCEC Convention 2022, Shellye Wardensky created a Google Site called Digital Breakout Vault with over 60+ breakouts she created to share with teachers and their students. She also posts breakouts created by other teachers who also want to share their work publicly.

These are just a few of topics included: Egypt, Animals, Continents, States of Matter, Famous Americans, Ancient Civilizations, Solar System, Colonial Virginia, Civil War, Reconstruction, Ocean Floor, Outer Core of the Earth, Plants, Black History Month, and Plagiarism.

https://sites.google.com/view/digitalbreakoutvault

If you have a breakout that you’ve made and want to share it on the Digital Breakout Vault website, please email Shellye at: swardensky@ycsd.york.va.us She will see that you get credit for your work.

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Kids Edition of the Nightly News

NBC NIGHTLY NEWS: KIDS EDITION is a digest of the top headlines, broken down for kids to best understand the world today. Lester Holt hosts this once a week edition of topics in today’s news. Each episode runs approximately 15-20 minutes. Well worth the time to watch!

Check out the January 27th edition and kids will gain a better understanding about inflation. They will also learn about the hippopotamus born 6 weeks prematurely. Find out what the word hippopotamus stands for. These are only two of the topics covered.

February 3rd edition covers the winter Olympics, Willow the new Whitehouse pet, body temperatures, and friendship on display with inspiring kids.

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Wide Open School

Curated by the editors at Common Sense, this resource is a must share with your student’s parents! Wide Open School helps make learning from home an experience that inspires kids, supports teachers, relieves families, and restores community.

Wide Open School is a free collection of the best online learning experiences for kids organized by 25 reputable organizations so teachers and families can easily find it and plan each day. 

Wide Open School offers many resources that can be completed offline and on smartphones, as well as bilingual and English-language learner resources.

Example of K-5 menu.

Daily Schedule, Emotional Well-Being, Field, Get Started Learning at Home, Live Events, Math, Reading + Writing, Science, Social Studies, Special Needs, Access For All Students, English Language Learners, Get Moving, Life Skills, Arts, Music, DIY, Virtual Classroom Setup.

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Be Internet Awesome

February 5th is recognized as Safer Internet Day. Google partnered with experts from iKeepSafe.org to develop a curriculum that teaches digital safety and citizenship fundamentals for elementary students. Topics include:

  • SMART – Share With Care
  • ALERT – Don’t Fall for Fake
  • STRONG – Secure Your Secrets
  • KIND – It’s Cool to be Kind
  • BRAVE – When in Doubt, Talk it Out

Curriculum Resources
Interland – Adventure-packed Online Game

Resource link to Interland can be found on the student menu on the my.ccps.us intranet site.

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Epic! Reading Challenge K-5

Join the Epic! Classroom and be automatically entered in the fall reading challenge for a chance to win prizes. Contest runs Monday, October 1st – Friday, October 5th. That’s just a 5 day week to read, read, and read.

Epic! is free for educators with access to 25,000 books. If you don’t have an account, sign up today and be ready for the challenge. You can monitor your classroom’s progress after logging in and clicking on the Epic! Reading Challenge button.

Epic!’s digital library includes many of the best kids books, popular ebooks, and videos such as Fancy Nancy, Big Nate, Warriors,  and National Geographic Kids.

10 Creative Ways to use Epic! in the Classroom

  1. Use Epic! for the “Listening” portion of Daily 5 using Read-to-Me and Audiobooks
  2. Project Epic! on your interactive whiteboard to teach a specific skill or strategy
  3. Use non-fiction books for research projects, such as reports on animals
  4. Students create a “wish list” of books and then partner up to explain that list
  5. Epic! is perfect for Read Aloud, Shared Reading & Independent Reading Time
  6. Students create book reviews and recommend favorites to classmates
  7. Expose students to different expressions and intonations using Read-to-Me books
  8. Perform experiments using ideas in Epic!’s STEM books
  9. Create book commercials using multimedia tools such as iMovie, Telestory or ChatterPix
  10. Compare two books by the same author