Education Resources Blog

In this time of virtual learning, many educators are dedicated to finding content that all students can access and participate in at home. It may sound simple, but why not start a journaling activity?  Have each student complete one page per day, divided into three sections about what they're reading, feeling, and learning. This can be used for any age, making prompts as complex or as simple as you'd like. Have students submit entries they're particularly proud of, for sharing with the greater class, and use all students' reading, feeling, and learning entries as opportunities to foster larger lessons and discussions with the class. It's crowdsourcing, for your virtual classroom!

Trustworthiness: deserving of trust, confidence, or reliability. As babies, our first experiences with trust come from our caregivers - in trusting that they'll feed us when we're hungry, clean us when we're dirty, and rock us to sleep when we're tired. As we grow, trust evolves even more into continuity and reliability in becoming comfortable with those around us - and as we learn about the great big world, we learn to look for honesty, integrity, and compassion from a trustworthy person. But recognizing trustworthiness is more than knowing that we shouldn't approach a stranger offering free candy. It's about students recognizing and developing trustworthy traits within themselves, to know what that means in others. 

Cooperation: to work together in a positive way towards a common goal or purpose. From "circle time" to "group projects" and beyond, cooperation is a prevalent theme throughout all age levels of daycare, schooling, and the professional world. And cooperation can't operate alone - it requires some of our earlier social-emotional lessons to be taught first, as it incorporates kindness, fairness, respect, and so much more. Beginning in preschools where you're helping your friends, teaching cooperation (or teamwork) is a great way to motivate the class to work together and help them understand why that's important. But cooperation isn't just in the classroom - it's important to teach students to apply what they've learned in this lesson within their families, their activities, and their places in the world.

Did you know? When you become a VariQuest customer, you don't just receive hardware + software. Of course, that part is pretty great...because...THOUSANDS of templates, graphics, cutouts, and collections? Kind of a big deal. But VariQuest customers have access to so much more - and one of those benefits is the VariQuest Resource Center - with exclusive content, INCLUDING a bunch of additional free posters to download and print on your Perfecta® Poster Design System! If you're a VariQuest customer and not using these visual aid posters already, log in right now and download! And if you're not a customer yet, well - let us show you just a sampling of what you could be enjoying!

Responsibility: to do the things you are expected to do and to be accountable for your actions. From a very young age, children take pride in having responsibilities and tasks that they can learn from, and be proud of. We know that giving students jobs in our classrooms gives them understanding for their contributions to the greater learning community, and makes them feel included in the success of the group as a whole. But responsibility isn't just tasks on a to-do list - it also means that we are held accountable for our own actions. And this is an important part of developing maturity, and "growing up." Students are challenged each day with responsibilities in their classrooms and everyday lives, but especially taking responsibility for themselves.

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 January 25th, and is the Year of the Rat. 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!

Perseverance: to do your best to meet a goal even if it is a big challenge. When working through a difficult task, we all experience a wide range of emotions. We might be excited about making progress, frustrated about a setback, or exhausted over the amount of time or effort we've invested. "Never Give Up" is a phrase that comes to mind - to help pull through. Students are challenged to persevere each day in our classrooms and their everyday lives - as they learn about finding their roles in this great big world. 

As educators, we sometimes refer to this time before the holidays as the "Mid-Year Slump." Your students may be getting a bit restless with less outdoor time due to the changing seasons, and we are all looking forward to the upcoming vacation days - to give our brains a little "break" from the structure of the school week. Building movement into your students’ day is important for so many reasons, but in the months of November and December it becomes a necessity. We suggest building several small "brain breaks" into your day. With 21st Century Skills in mind, Jill and Cathy from The Curriculum Corner share their tips for powering through this "slump"-like time, to get your kids moving and motivated to power through a restless time of year.  With the help of the VariQuest Motiva®, Cutout Maker, and Perfecta® utilizing Engage Every Learner™ Content, they'll give you some great ideas to carry out in your classroom!

Have you been BOO-ed yet? Not sure what that even means?  Growing up, October was one of my favorite months. Seriously, who can say no to the candy, the parties, the s’mores and campfire nights, the visits to the pumpkin patch, and of course, the trick or treating? On top of all that fun, my neighborhood always had a cute tradition for the month of October. The more I thought about this tradition, I thought it would be fun to start a tradition like this in school. So, instead of keeping it a “teacher thing” - I introduced it to my class, with great enthusiasm! 

Courage: not letting your actions be controlled by your fears. In the classic movie The Wizard of Oz, the cowardly lion is on the adventure to see the wizard because he's filled with fear, and in the end [spoiler alert!] he learns about what courage really means. He had it all along. In a school setting, courage can be as simple as raising your hand, or as difficult as standing up to a bully. In the great big world, courage gives students the self-confidence to overcome their fears and do the right thing.