What I’m Doing on the Last Days of Distance Teaching

For our second to last week, we are sharing virtual field trip opportunities with our students. It is a four day week so they can choose from 1 of 7 field trip opportunities each day and complete a corresponding response sheet. My amazing teammate and teacher bestie, Jess, put this all together so I can’t take any credit. However, she graciously agreed I could share it with you (isn’t she the best?).

You can download our plans for free here.

In addition to virtual field trip week, I am also hosting a virtual class talent show next week. I sent out this invitation which you can snag for free here! I asked students to let me know if they plan to showcase their talent so I can plan for about how many participants I will have and make sure things go smoothly 🙂

I was able to get into my classroom last week so I could pack up students’ personal belongings. I made sure to grab my end of the year read alouds. I plan to read 1 per day the very last week of school–some recorded videos and some live. The titles are:

At our final Zoom meeting of the year, I will be presenting a slideshow. I used to be awful (still am) about taking pictures throughout the year. Then, my friend Amy from The Unique Classroom shared this tip! I brought in an old digital camera to school and made one of my classroom rewards “Photographer for the Day”. Students can purchase this coupon during our Stahl Star Store. Then, they get to use the camera all day and snap pictures! I have set some rules about not using it while I am teaching (unless I okay it) and to not be “sneaky” taking pictures–make sure people know you are doing it and if someone doesn’t want their photo taken, you have to respect that!

Now I have HUNDREDS of photos to sort through for my slideshow. There are many that don’t make the cut (blurry, repeated selfies) but there are a lot of great shots of our everyday learning that I include. It makes for a great slideshow!

Lastly, I wanted something fun to symbolize their “moving up” to third grade. We were planning on having a special day as a school this year where students could go visit the teachers in the next grade level. Obviously, that didn’t happen. So I made this trivia game similar to “Who wants to be a millionare?”. I included review questions from math and ELA and at the end, they are officially 3rd graders!

It’s completely editable and I have versions for Kinders going to 1st, 1st to 2nd, 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th! You can find it here!

It feels difficult to try to compete with a typical end of the school year. There’s really no way to duplicate the memory making moments that an in person field trip, rewards ceremony, field day and last days of school provide. But, we are all doing our best 🙂

I know you will make it special no matter what!

Disclaimer: The links to the books in this post are affiliate links. This means, if you purchase the item through that link, I will receive a small compensation as an Amazon Affiliate. This is at no additional cost to you. I only recommend books that I personally love and use in my classroom.