Some schools have set up classroom calming corners, places where students can be taken for a brief period of time to relax and decompress from over stimulating activity or frustrating tasks. At VariQuest, we offer the Cutout Maker 1800, a reliable and effective digital die cutting machine that may be used by teachers to help students learn in a visual manner through the production of shapes, letters, numbers, bulletin board items, and manipulatives that are automatically cut. These items and others may be used in calming corners to help students relax and learn at a slower pace for a period of time.

There's so much to learn from this worldwide pandemic. And the questions multiply faster than the answers. One of the more prominent topics, is how to keep ourselves and others healthy and safe, when disease-spreading is at risk. Mask-wearing and social distancing were concepts we hadn't considered even one year ago, and now they are commonplace. We're all doing our best to help young people understand these strange new "norms." When learning must go on and education isn't confined to the classroom, educators may be searching for creative ways to help students understand the WHY behind our current precautions. And you may also be looking for ways to reinforce these precautions within your school buildings.

In a year seemingly ruled by "Murphy's Law" - you're looking at supplies for your school that you've never had to before. And when you think about using precious funding dollars on tools you'll need during a time of a global pandemic, you might also wish they'll have longevity in use for the years of (hopefully) normalcy to come. Safe school elements you might be looking at would include capabilities to make posters, floor markers, personal protection and property labels, wipe-clean surfaces, and cleaning supplies - but how do you translate this need for now, with your needs for learning - both distance and in-person? Let's take a look at 3 "now and then" solutions for your school that will be a great fit whether you're navigating a pandemic, or not.

With the return of students to classrooms during this pandemic, 2020 has provided a robust amount of talking points and learning opportunities surrounding important topics such as race, inclusivity, safety and mental health. So how do you equip your teachers to address these topics with their students? How do you empower them to build substantial understanding and empathy towards their fellow classmates, neighbors and community members?

As adults, we've had many years to learn and grow in processing our feelings of worry, doubt, fear, loneliness, sadness, anger, and all the other emotions brought up by the isolation and uncertainty during this pandemic. But our students have had far less experience in learning about those feelings, and it's our responsibility as role models in their lives to help them through. As educators, we teach our students to use the tools they're given to work through problems and find solutions. Giving them resources to develop traits of kindness, courage, respect, and cooperation is just as important in equipping them for the real world as reading, writing, and arithmetic. And now more than ever - they need these tools. And you could use the help in providing that for them.

Students sometimes lose interest in lecture-style presentations, particularly those that lack the element of interactive teaching. Through interactive teaching styles, information is presented in an interesting and exciting way that garners attention and participation. At VariQuest, we offer a wide range of learning tools to help enhance classroom teaching and learning experiences. Our interactive learning tools for teachers and kids are designed to help children enjoy a more fulfilling and successful educational experience.

"...in the time of COVID." An addendum to many sentences these days as we all learn to navigate a new normal, this phrase is used for the flexibility, adaptability, and patience we've accepted as our most crucial character traits in recent months. As this has been a scary time for everyone, especially students, you may need to welcome everyone back with some social-emotional learning lessons and activities - to discuss worries and feelings. If your school is planning to welcome back students to the building soon, you might need posters, floor markers, and labels to help keep everyone safe. You might also need some ideas for personalizing students' belongings and creating disinfect-able learning materials. The Curriculum Corner has some of those ideas for you! In this latest video they've created in partnership with VariQuest, Jill and Cathy share their tips for showing strength and readiness through these strange times, to welcome students back to learning, wherever it may be occurring, with the help of the VariQuest Motiva®, Cutout Maker, and Perfecta® utilizing Engage Every Learner™ Content!

You've got a big job to do. And like always, we want to help. You're preparing for a new kind of year. You might be welcoming students back to your school building with brand new safety precautions, continuing distance learning for the foreseeable future, or a hybrid of the two - but your teachers, students, and staff will need new resources to adapt to the changing times. And so, we pledged to give you new content - for education on virus prevention, directional crowd control, and social-emotional wellbeing - on TOP of tons of new pieces for traditional and virtual instruction! We've delivered. Exclusively for the VariQuest 8.0 Software, this content update is packed with over 2,500 NEW and revised templates, cutouts, graphics, fonts, and collections - bringing our grand total to over 22,000 content options for our nation's best educators to create with. And it's FREE for our customers!

With all of our advances in the science field and access to more research tools than ever before, we have come to learn more about our human activities' negative impact on the earth. So how can we teach our students to preserve and protect it for future generations? Ecosystems is a science unit that will spark a child’s interest in our earth and the ever-present need to make it better for all living creatures. Complete with a "write-the-room"-style assessment and “All About” posters to create and share with others, students will participate in discussions on ways the class can work together to have a positive impact on the earth. As we at VariQuest put a spotlight on kinesthetic and project-based learning, this unit provides hands-on activities and games that will make the discovery of ecosystems more meaningful.

As adults, we imagine relaxing activities in the context of going to take a walk surrounded by quiet and nature, or soaking in a bubble bath with soft music and candles. We seek calm in a place of our own, free from distractions and unwanted noise. For many students, school is a safe and familiar place where there are established routines and food is a guarantee. And unfortunately, we know there are students whose homes are sometimes not any of those things. So while we as educators make every effort to mentor and support our students in a safe environment in every way possible, we must also consider how to create personal spaces for when the world becomes too overwhelming. On top of all of this, we're in the midst of a global pandemic. Enter the Calming Corner.