January is here and it's almost time to go back to school, but are your students ready? Including some Fun Friday ideas into your plans may help!
Here are a few activities to spice up January and get your students excited and ready to participate!
1. Dress for winter
Have a special dress up day where everyone comes to your meeting in their favorite hat and scarf!
2. Make snowflakes
All you need is a piece of white paper for this winter favorite craft! Have each student come to class with a pair of scissors and a piece of paper. Demonstrate to the students how to fold and cut the paper to make a snowflake. They'll beg to make more and more!
3. Winter scavenger hunt
Kids love searching for goodies on a scavenger hunt. Give each student a winter scavenger hunt and set your timer for 2-3 minutes. Have students search for as many things as they can find in that amount of time. When the timer goes off, everyone comes back to their computer and shares what they found. You can play this several times in one session and it's one of our favorite fun Friday ideas.
4. Drink hot chocolate
Send a packet of hot chocolate home for each student and have them come to class one day with a mug of this creamy delight. Read a favorite winter story and then have the students write the steps for how to make hot chocolate!
5. Have a New Years Eve party
Ring in the new year with your students by having a fun little party! Tell students to wear a crazy hat and come to class with some kind of noisemaker – an instrument, kazoo or even pots and pans. Read a New Years book like Squirrels New Years Resolution, The Night Before New Years or Happy New Year Spot. Have students write their New Years Resolution and finish the lesson by making some noise, having a ginger ale toast and shouting Happy New Year!
6. Tell jokes
Kids love a silly joke so why not end your lesson with a few winter favorites. This winter jokes powerpoint will make it even more fun and engaging for the kids. Then when you're finished, have the students write their own winter joke!
7. Snowman directed drawing
Teach your students how to draw a simple snowman with three circles, stick arms, scarf, top hat, carrot nose and eyes. Have them draw it with pencil first and then trace the lines with black permanent marker. When they are finished, let them paint the background and snowman with watercolor paints. They turn out beautiful and the kids will love it!
8. Winter races
Just for fun, have students bring everything they need to dress for winter – hat, scarf, mittens, coat, snow pants and boots. Tell the students to lay everything out and get ready to dress. Then on your start have everyone get dressed as fast as they can. The person who dresses fastest wins! Use this activity as the start of a procedural writing activity for How To Dress For Winter.
9. Winter bingo
Another easy, no prep way to keep kids engaged is with bingo! Give each student a bingo card and show this winter bingo powerpoint as you share your screen to students (or just project it on your board if you're face to face in your classroom). Kids will love taking a break from the curriculum and this is another of our favorite fun Friday ideas.
10. Ice cube experiment
Add a little fun science lesson to your remote or classroom in January. Tell students that they will need to create something to insulate an ice cube for 30 minutes. They can use any materials that they want and they have 5 minutes to get their ice cube ready. After 30 minutes have students show their ice cube and see how much it melted. This is another great writing activity for January.
11. Winter books
Kids love listening to a story so why not take some time to read a great winter book to your students. Some of my favorites are Stranger In The Woods and Sneezy The Snowman. But if you don't have a lot of winter themed books, no worries. Grab this freebie with links to over 270 books and videos that are free online!
12. Winter Hokey Pokey
Need more fun Friday ideas? Get your kids up and moving with that old favorite The Hokey Pokey – but with a winter theme! Kids will love dancing and singing to this cute video.
13. Winter Riddles
Kids love riddles and it's the perfect way to add some easy, no prep fun into your daily lessons. Your kids will love guessing What's In The Mystery Bag. Give each student a mystery bag worksheet (or a plain piece of paper will do too!) and show them this winter riddles powerpoint. Each slide will give a clue to what's in the mystery bag, but before you show the answer have students write or draw what they think is in the bag!
14. Virtual field trips
By mid January, chance are you and your students may be feeling a little cooped up and ready to take a trip. Why not take a virtual field trip to someplace like the Arctic? This quick 3 minute video will take you on a tour of the Arctic where students will see polar bears, seals and explore an Arctic cave. Need something a little longer? This video explores the Arctic and all its inhabitants! Tap here to see my favorite digital resources for distance learning.
15. Making words
Winter brain breaks can be enjoyable and still educational! Have your kids cut out the letters to the words SNOWMAN and see how many words they can make in 2 minutes. Students can do this activity on google slides or a simple worksheet. Setting the timer and making it a race always adds to the fun!
16. Snowman Says
The perfect way to get your kids up and moving is with a simple game of Simon Says. But why not make it even more fun and play Snowman Says instead? Kids will love following the audio prompts on this powerpoint game with things like “Snowman says put on your hat” and “Snowman says shovel the snow.” But if snowman doesn't say the command, don't do it or you're out of the game!
17. Winter story scavenger hunt
Your students will love this idea! Choose one of your favorite winter books and prior to reading find 5 different pages where you can stop and have students find something in their house that's in the book. As you're reading the story, stop every few pages and set the timer. Tell students something that they must find (from the story) in one minute! Do this several times throughout the story. It's like a little storybook scavenger hunt!
18. Winter videos
Take a brain break occasionally with some fun winter videos or songs on YouTube! There are plenty of free songs and movies that kids will love!
19. Would you rather?
Play a quick game of Winter Would You Rather with your students. Give them two choices like “Would you rather build a snowman or go ice skating?” Have them act out their answer. Its a quick and easy way to get them moving for a few minutes.
20. Pet show and tell
Kids love to show off their pets. Assign 2 or 3 students each day to bring their pet to class. They can show their pet, tell its name and how to care for it.
21. Winter charades
Prior to class, choose 4-5 students to perform some winter charades for your class. Send them an email or a private message in google classroom with their clue so they can be prepared to act it out for the class. Send them charades like: build a snowman, go sled riding, and have a snowball fight. Students can take turns guessing what the student is acting out.
22. Snowman Freeze
Kids will love dancing and singing along to the song Snowman Freeze on YouTube. This catchy tune has the kids dancing and moving until they yell FREEZE! Share your screen or project this cute song with video on your board in your classroom.
23. Flashlight Friday
We do this activity during silent reading in my classroom but kids would love it remotely too! Tell kids to make a cozy blanket fort at home and head inside with a flashlight as you read to the students.
24. Word Wars
Another one of my favorite fun Friday ideas to get kids engaged and learning is with a rousing game of Word Wars! Give each student a dry erase board (or laminated sheet of paper) and an expo marker. Say a spelling or sight word out loud and have kids race to see who can write it correctly the fastest. Students can flash their answer as soon as they finish. My students love playing this game and it can be modified for any skill.
25. Teacher For The Day
Finally, a great way to get kids participating in class is with Teacher For The Day. Each student will choose something that they want to teach the class. Maybe they can teach the class a dance, karate moves, how to care for a pet, or how to bake cookies. The possibilities are endless. Have each student fill out their lesson plan and give them an assigned day to be the teacher. Allow about 10 minutes for their lesson and then have the rest of the class write about what they learned each day.
As you can see, remote learning doesn't have to be stale and boring. Your virtual students in zoom or google meet will love these fun Friday ideas and your face to face kids will too! Ready to get the party started? Head over here to grab everything you need for your January Fun Friday activities!
Do you have any fun ideas for virtual learning? Post them in the comments below!
