VariQuest Blog
The VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite Blog contains resources on classroom ideas, lesson plans, industry news, events, and offers throughout education.
Lessons/Activities/Templates | Special Education | Grade Level: Primary (PK-2) | VariQuest Tools: Design Center Software | Academic Subject: Special Education | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP | social-emotional learning | VariQuest Resource Center
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
June 10th, 2021
An emotion meter is a great way to gauge what mood your students are feeling in the moment! Whether it's for posting in the classroom, calming corners, or student journals, this tool can be created large or small for group or individual discussions. With social-emotional learning for students a topic of the utmost importance as children grow and mature, use these simple exercises to give students meaningful tools for managing and working through their feelings!
Lessons/Activities/Templates | Special Education | Student Engagement | Grade Level: Primary (PK-2) | VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | Featured Topics: Student Engagement | Academic Subject: Special Education | Featured Topics: Lessons and Activities | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
June 2nd, 2021
As students today are spending more time sitting with technology than ever before, educators continue to innovate with creative ways to get them up and moving, while learning as they go. And after a year centered around terms like isolation, quarantine, and shelter-at-home, finding new ways to engage students and welcome them back to school buildings for learning can be a challenge. But we've got a fun way to get the wiggles out. And as you may have guessed, it's another free sensory path for schools! (Download our forest adventure sensory path here!)
This helpful guide includes an explanation of the grant process, including a checklist (with samples!), and useful links and resources to find funding!
Lessons/Activities/Templates | Special Education | Student Engagement | Grade Level: Primary (PK-2) | VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | Featured Topics: Student Engagement | Academic Subject: Special Education | Featured Topics: Lessons and Activities | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
May 5th, 2021
With traditional education instruction rooted in desk-sitting and blackboard-writing, teachers today are constantly innovating to reach students where they are, and how they learn best. In a classroom full of visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners, educators have found creative ways to help students learn through viewing, hearing, and doing. Enter - the sensory path for schools.
VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | VariQuest Tools: Cold Laminator 2510 | Featured Topics: Funding | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
April 22nd, 2021
Engagement. Inclusivity. Social-Emotional Support. With all that students have experienced in recent months, you're looking ahead to the future. In a "normal" year, your federal funding dollars may have gone towards field trips, student performances, or hands-on lab materials. Now you have decisions to make on how to spend that funding in a meaningful way to set up for what next year will bring. Overcoming challenges from distance learning, promoting inclusion and equality, and expanding your social-emotional support efforts are just a few concepts that will require extra action as students (hopefully) return to classrooms. Today we'll explore a few major funding streams and how you can use aligned tools to face these challenges, head-on.
Lessons/Activities/Templates | VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | Academic Subject: Science | VariQuest Tools: Cold Laminator 2510 | Featured Topics: Lessons and Activities | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
April 15th, 2021
While celebrating the earth is given a special day each year in April, students are fascinated with learning about the ground and the elements and the weather all year long. Recycling, limiting energy usage, and cleaning up litter are all important concepts to instill in our future generations, but what's equally important is their understanding of how the environment functions as its own thriving system - whether humans are here to enjoy it, or not. With rock cycles, life cycles, tide patterns, and more to explore, today we're going to talk about the water cycle, and tips for teaching it with a full class, in small groups, or as a take-home project for students.
Special Education | VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | Academic Subject: Special Education | VariQuest Tools: Cold Laminator 2510 | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP
By:
Cathy Henry, Guest Blogger
March 30th, 2021
by Cathy Henry, Guest Blogger Special education teachers have an important job working to help students reach their full potential. They work tirelessly to find ways to help students navigate the general education classroom and to build life skills. While the job is never easy, it has grown to include even more obstacles and responsibilities during the time of COVID. Trainings offered to help during this time along with new tools for teachers and students are growing. However, finding the time to master these can be a challenge with the very full schedule teachers already have. Today I am sharing five quick tips, plus a downloadable guide with templates and ideas, designed to help you navigate the challenges of teaching special education via a virtual or hybrid model.
Lessons/Activities/Templates | VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | Featured Topics: Lessons and Activities | Featured Topics: Templates for FREE download | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP | virtual learning
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
February 18th, 2021
Distance learning has been hard on students (and teachers!) - not just from the lack of human interaction, but the stress of figuring out new technologies, the eye strain of staring at screens, and the absence of hands-on, collaborative learning activities they thrive on in a classroom setting. With distractions abound and parents often struggling to assist, take-home, printed activities may be a strategy worth employing to encourage a kinesthetic approach to a learning environment we've all had to adapt to.
VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | VariQuest Tools: Cold Laminator 2510 | Featured Topics: Funding | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
January 27th, 2021
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!
Lessons/Activities/Templates | VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | Featured Topics: Classroom Celebrations/Holidays | Featured Topics: Lessons and Activities | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 2400STP | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
January 22nd, 2021
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.
Lessons/Activities/Templates | VariQuest Tools: Cutout Maker 1800 | Featured Topics: Lessons and Activities | VariQuest Tools: Motiva 400 | VariQuest Tools: Perfecta 3600STP | virtual learning
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VariQuest Visual and Kinesthetic Learning Suite
December 17th, 2020
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.