22 Engaging Distance Learning Resources
It is the phrase that we all dread “Your class has to go on quarantine for the next (insert number) days.” We have to prepare to continue instructing our students during the quarantine time. Right now, teachers have enough to stress over! Let Education to the Core help alleviate a little bit of that. With our 22 Engaging Resources for Distance Learning, you have student digital activities right at your fingertips if you have to close your classroom for a couple of weeks. AND, we have included tons of FREEBIES!
Distance Learning Activities
1–Make sure that you all take “brain breaks” throughout the day. Schedule some physical exercise for the students (and yourself) to let off some steam and get some fresh air. We have a list of some excellent Brain Break Videos you can use to get your kiddos moving and having fun at home.
Brain break videos are something that your students need throughout the day to stay engaged in the academic lessons you are teaching. Put on a quick video or song and have your students get up and move around. They get their wiggles out, blood gets flowing again, and afterward, they can come back and focus on new learning. Don’t spend your time searching for brain break videos; save this list and have immediate access to 25 videos you can play today.
2–Connecting with our students during distance learning has been a struggle for many. As teachers, we have an innate tendency to nurture, praise, and engage with our students daily. Distance learning does not easily lend itself to making these connections. Many of us are searching for ways to continue to reach our students and help foster their growth academically, socially, and especially emotionally during this difficult time.
Free Distance Learning Resources
Team Education to the Core wants to help in any way that we can, so we have put together FREE Distance Learning Grab and Go Packets for your students to work on while they have to remain at home.
In each packet, you will find activities from our most popular resources. NO PREP required! Print the Grab and Go Packet and make copies to send home, or email the packet as an attachment for parents to print at home.
3–Our Kindergarten Grab and Go Packet includes the alphabet, counting, CVC words, fine motor, and fluency practice activities. Your kinders will have lots of hands-on practice with these skills. This packet will keep them busy while having to be at home.
4–The First Grade Grab and Go Packet contains activities to practice CVC words, addition and subtraction, fluency and comprehension, and sight words. We’ve also included some of our best-loved morning work pages that contain essential skills your firsties can review each day.
5–In the Second Grade Grab and Go Packet, you will find fluency and comprehension, addition and subtraction, sight words, and writing practice activities. Your second graders will have plenty of work to do while at home with this packet.
Additional Distance Learning Resources
How are you going to start your morning every day? Teachers can readily display Morning Meeting slides through screen sharing while students answer the prompts in notebooks. They will practice math, word work, phonics, writing, and social & emotional skills every week. If you don’t want to display the slides, you can print them for students to answer.
6–Grab the K/1 set here and receive 225 No-Prep Morning Meeting slides!
OR
7–Or for the older grades, we have a 2/3 set as well!
8–If displaying slides every morning isn’t for you, here are two weeks of printable morning work for grades kinder-2nd. This freebie is a lifesaver. Just print, make your copies, and have your first two weeks of morning work all done! Each page builds upon the skills of the previous ones and gives your students math, phonics, and writing warm-ups every day. BUT, if you love it, snag the Morning Work Bundle!
Morning work has been a lifesaver for me and should 100% be on your list of easy things you can use for distance learning! These Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade sets have 180 days of math, and ELA Common Core focused work to get you through the entire year. Give your students a predictable morning routine and yourself a chance to get done what you need to get done each morning by prepping these now. Below is an example of a page from the Kindergarten Morning Work, which is also available as a Premium Member!
Some Distance Learning Resources That are READY TODAY
9–For our younger students, this set of Printable Zoo Animal Activities is an excellent way to explore more about animals.
10–Older students can learn more about them with our Digital Zoo Animals Fluency and Comprehension set.
Hands-On Resources
11–Yes, distance learning has become a norm during this pandemic and will continue to be in those districts remaining at home. Still, I am ready for my children and my students to practice skills in hands-on activities instead of only through technology. So I started thinking about how we could accomplish long distances.
The dilemma of giving our students and children hands-on learning right now is a big one! But, I may have a solution for you: TA-DA!!! – No Prep 1:1 Centers for Virtual Learning. Check out the Blog to see how you can turn our No Prep Individual 1:1 Centers into distance learning activities! Did you know we now have No Prep Centers Volume 2? Pop-Its are King!
Passages Resources for Distance Learning
12-15–Fluency passages allow students to practice oral reading fluency at their reading level while tracking the number of words read, and any errors made. Education to the Core has put together four different levels of passages (Practically First, First Grade, Second Grade, and Third Grade). Each grade level set has a mix of 10 fiction and nonfiction passages per month for 120 passages for the year.
Grab the mega bundle, which includes all four sets and has 480 passages ready to use for your students. (Great for differentiation when it comes to reading fluency.) And even better, every fluency passage comes with its own set of text-related comprehension questions!
You can also show your parents how to help monitor fluency goals and progress by sending home a fluency practice kit. This kit would be the passage for the week and a sand timer. Parents can track one of two ways depending on how the teacher wants to use the passages for home.
They can track the number of words their child reads correctly in one minute (using the sand timer). Or, they can have their child read the entire passage and only record the number of errors, if any, their child had while reading. The goal is to have fewer errors each day they read the passage.
Even More, Resources that are Print and Go!
16–Are you looking for some ideas for extra practice that will pair well with your lessons? Education to the Core has some great answers for you! I am obsessed with my Premium Membership because I can find the one worksheet or activity I want to assign for practice. Print it off and send it home!
17–Maybe you like the idea of thematic teaching each month but are looking for resources beyond fluency practice. We have monthly packets for Kindergarten, First Grade, and Second Grade. These packets include themed worksheets for the month covering phonics, math, writing, grammar, science, social studies, and more.
18–If your students need more practice with words, maybe these sight word booklets and passages would be ideal for them. Each booklet focuses on Fry’s first 100 sight words and comes with a corresponding passage! Practice sight word identification, fluency, and comprehension with foldable booklets or one-page passages. Your students will also be excited to take home their mini-book to read to a loved one at home. Grab four of these best-selling booklets here: Booklets Freebie.
BUT, HOLD UP!!!!!! ETTC also has booklets and passages for the 101-200 and 201-300 Fry words too!
19–Teaching phonics is a necessity during your reading blocks. We can help you get your phonics worksheets printed and ready to go for distance learning. This freebie set focuses on the five short vowel sounds. Each booklet covers one of the sounds, and the poems complement the booklets.
Writing Distance Learning Resources
20–Want a quick no-prep way to set up your students for journaling success? Try our Journal Prompts sampler. The Journal Prompts include five different prompts your students can easily read and complete. If you love it, you can grab the entire bundle, which has 180 different daily prompts for the ENTIRE school year!
These 180 Journal Prompts are something you can easily incorporate for distance learning. Make it even easier on yourself and have your students journal in a store-bought notebook while you share the prompt on a digital whiteboard, and you don’t need to do ANY prep!
21–Our Directed Drawing is a freebie your students will be begging to do day after day! Hook them into the learning by drawing fun and simple 6-step images, then adding to the scenery. After they draw their picture, they get to write about it, use new image-specific vocabulary, and practice essential phonics skills. Win-win for you both: they are having fun, and you are fostering learning and enjoying a lil’ bit of quiet time.
22-Let’s say that we combined our journal prompts with directed drawings to create this fabulous freebie, Transformation Station! You will be amazed at the pictures your students create from one little shape or squiggle. Then watch it come alive through their written story.
2 Bonus Resources for Distance Learning
The Word Work no prep print and go activities are a one-pager with various activities. These include rainbow writing, letterboxes, writing practice, spin and write, and draw and label – which keeps students engaged and gives them multiple ways to practice the skill. The set comes with two pages for each focus skill (two pages of ch, two pages of bl, etc.), so you will have plenty to choose from to send home.
And check out some of these Reward Ideas for Distance Learning with your class. There are so many great ideas!
I would not be lying if I said I hope none of you have to use these resources because your classroom is all in the big Q! But with that being said: our resources are perfect as distance learning resources AND as in-class resources! Looking to have unlimited access to all our great resources? Become a Premium Member today!
WRITTEN BY – SUZANNE KELLEY
At Education to the Core, we exist to help our teachers build a stronger classroom as they connect with our community to find trusted, state-of-the-art resources designed by teachers for teachers. And, we aspire to be the world’s leading & most trusted community for educational resources for teachers. Plus, we improve the lives of every teacher and learner with the most comprehensive, reliable, and inclusive educational resources.
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