"...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!

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.

There's no going around it, over it, or under it - so we gotta go through it. There's a lot going on in the world right now. And as much as we feel it, we know that our students feel it even more - as they learn to understand and process feelings and events they haven't felt or experienced before. There are lots of strategies students (and adults) of all ages can employ to take "brain breaks" to refocus and practice mindfulness to fully experience their present moments. Here are a few of them:

It's hard to describe this school year without using the words unprecedented, unexpected, chaotic, and strange. There just aren't the right words for the emotions you and your students are feeling about losing their "previously normal" routines. As this school year begins to wind down, there are some things you can still do to celebrate their achievements and remind them that the role models surrounding them with love and support are there for them, even in times of social distancing.

At a time when a majority of our social interaction is being done online, we have to be more aware than ever before of the things we're posting, sharing, hosting and baring. So imagine our students, who were born into a world where the internet was already accessible on a mobile phone. They're Tik-Tok-ing, Instagramming, and Snapchatting all day long to stay in connection with their friends during this time of social distancing. And as one of their biggest role models outside the family, what kinds of things are you talking with them about, as it relates to posting content on the internet?

Sensory paths are often used in school building hallways or classrooms to help students release energy, enhance focus, learn, and of course - HAVE FUN in the process. In this time of virtual and distance learning, we thought - what a great idea to give the project to students to create their own "math path" - combining STEAM methodology with kinesthetic learning! Knowing that not all students have access to sidewalk chalk and pavement, this activity can be recreated by cutting out paper shapes for the floor, placing tape on the carpet, or playing "architect" and designing their sensory path with just pens/crayons/markers and paper.

Kindness. Fairness. Respect. Self-Discipline. Courage. Perseverance. Responsibility. Cooperation. Trustworthiness. Integrity. Far beyond the reaches of science, math, and reading, our students are learning so much more with educators' help - understanding their feelings, working with others, and building confidence to take on the challenges that life will face them with. As teachers are often the first source of adult guidance outside the home, we owe it to our students to equip them with as many tools as possible to not only understand the solar system, but also their role as a fellow human in our great big world. What should we do if we see someone take something that doesn't belong to them? What should we do if we see a friend who is sad? How do we work with our peers to build a tall tower? What if someone tells us a secret they ask us not to share?

Integrity: to act according to what's right and wrong regardless of who knows. Going beyond knowing what's right and wrong, integrity encompasses many personality traits including honesty, fairness, responsibility, reliability, and others in our social-emotional learning unit series, all rolled into one. But how do you teach students to do the right thing, especially when no one is looking? What if you saw a friend cheat on a test? What if you broke something at a store? What if your teacher needs to leave the room? Learning about integrity within its context in a student's great big world and facilitating discussion around "what ifs" helps grow understanding about how it affects not only themselves, but also those around them.

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.