At VariQuest, we are your source for the tools and resources you need to enhance your ability to teach students in your classroom. The goal of interactive learning is to increase the attention and retention of students, increasing their overall knowledge and comprehension in various subjects. One device that can help teachers convey important knowledge to students in the classroom is the cold lamination machine.

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, has been celebrated for thousands of years. It is one of the most important holidays widely celebrated in many Asian countries and territories including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Thailand. Usually falling between January 21st and February 20th, this year's start of the Chinese New Year will occur on Friday, February 12th, and is the Year of the Ox. The celebration lasts for about 15 days. Gung Hay Fat Choy is a common Chinese New Year’s greeting in Chinese Cantonese, which means “wishing you great happiness and prosperity.” On Chinese New Year, the themes of happiness, wealth, longevity, luck and good fortune are celebrated. Some of the traditional celebrations include family gatherings, visiting friends and relatives (baai nin), exchanging “lucky money” contained in red envelopes (lai see), decorating homes with paper decorations and scrolls, lion dances, and fireworks. Chinese New Year is a special holiday to celebrate with your class while teaching them others’ cultures and comparing them to American traditions. We have put together a collection of fun, hands-on and Common Core-aligned lessons and activities, classroom decorations, and craft projects for you to explore and enjoy with your class, and I want to share them with you!

CARES, ESSER, HEERF, GEER....is your head spinning with letters? With additional funding for education to assist with planning in light of the COVID-19 Pandemic, there's a lot to process in terms of what is meant for which purpose, and we're here to help. Below you'll find some explanations, links, and a downloadable resource to help guide you through the COVID Funding for Education "jungle" and offer some suggestions on investments that align with the funding to enhance learning and safety today, tomorrow, and beyond!

At the close of a year, we talk a lot about new year's resolutions - and how we want to better ourselves in the "fresh start" of a new orbit around the sun. But after the 2020 we had, it feels more important to look ahead to the possibilities of the future and frame "betterment" in a new light - in the form of hopes, dreams, and visions for what could be.

This wintertime at school looks stranger than it ever has and it is vital that students and school staff feel safe when coming into the classroom. At VariQuest, we’ve stood with educators via our Visual & Kinesthetic Learning Suite to help schools all across the country address the needs of the whole child through blended learning and differentiated instruction. Our visual machine learning tools have helped students feel supported throughout the years and in this ever-changing, tumultuous time, these tools are here to help make the transition back to school as smooth as possible.

There's no doubt about it, most of us are spending more time at home these days. And when we spend lots of time at home, we tend to have more time to think. This year, there has been a lot to think about. We wouldn't be able to teach history in our classroom if no one had documented it, and because no two experiences are alike, it is a valuable exercise to encourage our students to document their own experiences at 2020's end.

We're moving towards holiday break, and we don't need to tell you that it has been one crazy year. Whether your students are heading home for their break early in distance learning, or they're only apart from the classroom for the holiday, send them off with a "Flat Stanley"-like cutout of their favorite teacher (that's you!) and a fun assignment to document your (their) experiences while you're in two different places! With social-emotional support at the top of every educator's mind during a trying year, what better way to remind your students you're always with them, than a small cutout take-along of yourself!

It's well known among educators that in the learning pyramid, students learn a small percentage of what they see, hear, and do - but they learn the most from teaching others. In this activity to practice math skills, students in grades 1-8 will put together their own game - helping them learn during its creation, and when the game is carried out, they're teaching others how to follow by the rules they designed!

2020 is almost behind us, and the holidays are looking different this year. But one thing that will not change is the spirit of giving - and we'd like to give back to you. In a year of in-person, distance, and hybrid learning, you've adapted your teaching in a thousand different ways. Thanks to technology, our world has gone on - but children still require hands-on activities to grow their minds, and our VariQuest team, many of whom are former educators, truly believes in the VariQuest Suite whether learning is occurring virtually or in the classroom. So we turn to you - our nation's best educators, to find out more about how you are, or would, use the VariQuest Suite of Tools and Content - when students are learning from home - and in exchange we're giving away lamination tools to protect your materials and make them "sanitize-able"!

Introducing a new learning concept with students may feel like a daunting task - with the uncertainty of the coming weeks top-of-mind. In the year that keeps us on our toes, we can still rely on those teaching strategies that are tried-and-true for classroom instruction, but quickly adapt them for distance learning when we have the right tools. The Y-Chart is one of them. The concept of a Y-Chart is likely not new to you, but thinking of ideas on how to make this group discussion concept work in a hybrid or distance learning environment, might be. We've again partnered with Cathy Henry from Free Word Work and The Curriculum Corner to put together some tips and activities that you can use, especially for distance learning.