… I miss seeing everyone, especially my friends, even that teacher who talks too much …” – Julia A, California*
Right now, educators are using every ounce of creativity to keep students engaged! Many kids are desperately missing group interaction with friends. Particularly for young kids, any initial excitement that came with seeing their mates online is long gone.
We know that kids often learn best with play – so how do we bring back some fun into their Zoom and Microsoft Team sessions?
Well, with a big thank you to former teacher Melanie Cornett, below is a list of interactive games to do with students via Zoom, Microsoft Teams or other video communication platform. We hope it helps you keep going – along with your students!
45 Fun Activities Your Online Students Can Do Together
- Show and Tell
- Matching Game learninggamesforkids.com
- Jokes jokes-for-kids
- Gratitude List
- Dance Party
- Language Games
- gonoodle.com (includes lots of games to get kids moving!)
- Simon Says
- Tell a story a sentence at a time
- My name is…start with A. Have students say a name, a place they work and something they sell that starts with their letter.
- Directed Drawing (share screen and draw something together): artforkidshub.com
- Talent Show
- Would You Rather…
- Guess My Animal
- Prodigy prodigygame.com (fun, interactive Math website)
- Chat
- Discuss new talents discovered during Quarantine
- Share family stories
- Group Art Project
- Class Party
- Group Exercise
- Puppet Show
- Music Time—Sing Along
- Name 3 random objects: Whoever brings them back fastest get a point. (Use items for Math Word Problems later on or for graphing!)
- Charades
- Screen Share (use whiteboard): Pictionary
- Freeze Dance watch
- Rock, Paper, Scissors (Draw it).
- Simon Says
- I Spy
- BINGO (teacher mail/email BINGO card) activityconnection.com
- Science Experiments coffeecupsandcrayons.com
- Read Aloud storylineonline.net
- Shape Scavenger Hunt (tell them a shape, they go and find something shaped like that)
- Self Portraits
- Share good things
- Sing Along
- Mimo: (getmimo.com) enforces Math and Phonics
- Scavenger Hunts: (Find something with 3 syllables, Find something that starts with the letter B…)
- Kahoot (kahoot.com) (BINGO, Jeopardy)
- Madlibs Wacky Web Tales – Education Placewww.eduplace.com › tales
- Quizizz quizizz.com (website with lots of online Quizzes on different topics)
- Everyone dress up in a disguise
- Share pets
- Share your favorite books
Looking for a list for college students? Here’s a great list to start!
*Source: NY Times, April 9, 2020, What Students Are Saying About Remote Learning.