Now that distance learning has become the new normal for teachers all over the world, creativity is at an all-time high as teachers are trying to figure out ways to reach and teach their students. Zoom can be a great option for this. If you've never used Zoom before, it can be overwhelming to figure out on your own so we've put together everything you need to know along with some fun activities to get you going.
Tips to Get Started
- Schedule your class in the Zoom application for your desired date/time and copy the invitation details to send to your students.
*Please note that students will not need to register for an account to join. - Join your class a couple minutes early to ensure a proper connection then follow the below tips for a quality online learning experience.
- Take time to promote questions, comments, and reactions from your class. Give a minute to allow your students to utilize reactions, write their questions in chat, or be unmuted to ask their questions live.
- Pre-set your meeting to mute participant’s microphones upon entry. This helps to avoid background noise and allow your students to focus on your lesson.
- Schedule a practice meeting with a colleague or family member so you can practice screen sharing and using the chat function. This way you can work through any hiccups before you’re ready to start with your students!
- When everyone logs in for the first time, you’ll want to spend some time making sure everyone’s audio and video are working. It’s also a good idea to go over ground rules (see below) and expectations.
- You will probably want to hit the record button so students can access the session later. Also, some school districts require recording the video for child safety considerations. Make sure your Cloud sharing is enabled in your settings. You can always find your recordings at zoom.us/recording.
- You do have the ability to turn the chat feature off if you'd like their undivided attention while you are talking to them.
- If you really want to get fancy you can try out their virtual backgrounds or beauty filters too!
Ground Rules
- No chat while teacher is talking
- Be on time
- Zoom from kitchen or living room
- Mute yourself
- Turn on video
- Be prepared
- Adult needs to be present
- Raise your hand to talk
- Be respectful
Sign up to receive your Zoom Ground Rules
Zoom Activities
Morning Meeting
Morning meeting is a nice way to start out a Zoom meeting with your class. Start with a question that each student can choose to respond to. Morning meeting discussion slides are a great option for this. The teacher can open the file and select “share screen” in Zoom for the students to read the question of the day.
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Read Alouds
All students need a good read aloud every single day. Zoom makes it easy to do. Make yourself, as the host, take up the full screen so the students can see the pictures easily. Note- the words will appear backwards on your side but rest assured they are not backwards from your students' screens.
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are fun! Here's how they work. The teacher will announce a household item that the students need to find. Give the students a goal time limit to find their item and return to show the class. Get ready for giggles! Here are a few items we suggest.
- Slipper
- TV Remote
- Keys
- Piece of Fruit
- Fork
- Something red
- Something soft
- band-aid
- Something round
- Pair of glasses
- Envelope
- 2 socks that match
Digital Toothy
A lot of students are already familiar with use the Toothy Task Cards in their classrooms so why not bring some familiarity back in these uncertain times with Digital Toothy. The teacher shares her screen and opens up the digital version on his/her computer. Students solve the problem on a whiteboard or piece of paper. Then the teacher says, “1, 2, 3…show me!” All at the same time the kids can hold up their answers and then the teacher can add a tooth in Toothy's mouth. Kids are loving this!
Show and Tell
Show and tell can be a nice option to wrap up the week. It can also be used as an incentive to work hard all week. This is a great opportunity for students to share a pet from home, a sibling, or even just a story. To do this, make sure all the students are muted and students have a quick 30 second share time. It may be a good idea to have name sticks to draw for each child to take a turn.
Directed Drawings
Kids love directed drawings. Art Hub for Kids on YouTube is a great option. The teacher can share their screen while the students make their own drawings. When the drawing is finished, students take turns sharing with the class. Extend this project by assigning it as a writing activity to complete at home and bring back to the next Zoom call to read aloud.
Would you Rather
A quick game of Would you Rather is a great way to start or end a Zoom call with your class. Students can vote on which they would rather do by assigning a number to each item. The students can hold up a 1 or a 2 with their fingers to give their answers.
Pictionary
You can use a Zoom whiteboard to play Pictionary. To use Zoom's whiteboard, you'll want to click the share screen button located in your meeting toolbar, select the whiteboard, and click share. You will see annotation tools that will let you use your mouse to draw.
Kahoot
Students love playing Kahoot at school, so why not play it on Zoom? To do this, you will need to log into your Kahoot account and find your Kahoot to host. Then, connect to Zoom and make sure the webcam, microphone, and speaker are turned on. Next, click play to launch the kahoot so the lobby is showing with the game PIN. After that, share your screen, so those joining can all see the game PIN. Finally, host the Kahoot as usual, taking care to not speak over the music that plays during the timer countdown – you can either: wait until the final answer responses are shown to talk, or mute your speaker to talk over the game music. Click here to read more Kahoot tips.
Tell Jokes
Lighten the mood and tell some jokes. Take turns being the speaker to share the joke with the class. Fun and simple! Click here for kid-approved jokes and riddles!
Mystery Bag
Mystery bag is another fun way to begin or end a Zoom call. It's also great for practicing inferencing skills! Place a “mystery item” in a paper bag and give the class clues as to what it might be. Students take turns guessing what the mystery item is. This can also be done with a student giving the clues and having the mystery item at their house. Read this post for a free mystery bag activity!
Whiteboard
The whiteboard option inside of Zoom can be great for creating visual for your students as you teach. The teacher and the students can engage on this whiteboard if you allow it. Try white boarding math problems or have a student use annotation to highlight items such as grammar mistakes in a paper you’re sharing.
20 Questions
20 questions is a game that can be played on Zoom just like it is played in the classroom. First, think of an object. Then, choose a student to ask a YES or NO question. Have the students continue asking these type of questions. Next, let the students guess the answer at any time in the questioning process. The student to guess the correct answer is the winner and gets to be the one to pick the next object. Students can submit their questions by clicking on the “raise my hand” button in the Zoom settings.
Go Noodle
Brain breaks are important at school and they are also important on Zoom calls. The longer the Zoom call, the more important it is to incorporate a little break. If you are already doing Go Noodle breaks in the classroom, these will bring a sense of familiarity to your students. To do this, simply open up a Go Noodle dance and share your screen. Then watch the fun begin!
Talent Show
This one would take a little bit of planning but it's a fun way to incorporate some excitement. Tell your students ahead of time that they can plan for a Zoom Talent Show. You can decide the rules but I would definitely make a time limit of 30 seconds to 1 minute for their talent demonstration to get through the whole class. After each talent show entry, students can give a “silent cheer” to show their support since they are all muted during the “performance”.
Free Printable
Would you like to have all of these ideas all in one place? Click the button below to download a free printable of all these Zoom activities.
Thank you!!!
I have been trying to figure out what to do with my kiddos when we have a meeting and your ideas are spot on. This distance learning is brand new to my students and me, and I am quite anxious about it all.
Is there a way to get your Zoom Ground Rules? I don’t see a link
Hi there. I have just added the printable PDF right into the post for you to download if you’d like. I hope that helps!
Angie Olson
Lucky Little Learners
Zoom learning is also useful. How to use white board and activities on use picture.
Thank you so much for the share. I am looking forward to trying these out with my class. I think we will do the scavenger hunt to end off our week before Spring Break!
Can you send me the sheets above to my email?
Hi Sandra. I have just added the printable PDF right into the post for you to download if you’d like. I hope that helps!
Angie Olson
Lucky Little Learners
The is an excellent post! I love the rule icons. I think they would be perfect for my kindergarten special education class because are simple and clear. Are these available anywhere?
Hi Antoinette. I just added the printable download for the Zoom Ground Rules right inside the post. Enjoy!
Angie Olson
Lucky Little Learners
Thanks for sharing! I have been doing some of them, kids love them! ❤️
Absolutely amazing. I’m an older teacher and terrified of all this technology but this has made me relax so much. I am so grateful. Thank you
These Zoom Ideas are fabulous! I’ve been having Zoom meetings with my class and these will help keep them exciting and fun. Thanks so much!
These are awesome tips. Thanks so much.
Question;
I am classroom support.
How can I have a fun 1:1 daily meet with a 7th grader? I also have a 4th grader.
Can you suggest some activities?
Hi Helena. Have you heard of Zoom or Google Meet? Both of these platforms are common ones that are used for this purpose. If you go back into this post, there are some helpful ideas and links that will get you started. I hope that helps!
Angie Olson
Lucky Little Learners
Can I get a copy of your Zoom Ground Rules poster?
Hi Annette! Yes, I have added the free printable right here in the post for you. Enjoy!
Angie Olson
Lucky Little Learners
This is very helpful! Thanks for sharing
Angie thank you so much. Your Zoom rules came in handy. Last week I shared a file from the digital toothy with my 2nd grade partners. They loved it and they purchased the phonics and grammar. Our kids loved it. My class had already used it in class. I’m excited to try Kahoot! with my class. 👏🏻💪🏼
Very helpful! Love these creative ideas.
This is really helpful!! I can modify some of these activities for my special education students!!!!!
I am a school counselor in MA and found you by luck searching for resources during this remote learning. I had to stop by and thank you for all the wonderful content and resources that you have made available. GREAT JOB! TFS
Thank you so much for this. I watched another teacher (via video) set up a Zoom meeting, and got some tips. But THIS was awesome–I wasn’t sure exactly what to include (Kindergarten). I am very nervous, not being super-techy, but I think I’m ready for my first Zoom meeting!
Wow! These are fantastic ideas! Thanks for saving me so much time and making my Zoom Morning Meetings even more fun and interactive!!
Thank you so much for sharing these amazing ideas. I was so lost on Zoom trying to come up with ways to interact with my Kindergarten students and keep their attention.
You activity ideas were very helpful during our zoom meeting with students and staff. We are very grateful.
I did the mystery bag today and my kids loved it. It also provided a clue to the read aloud I did right after. A plastic fish was the item and the read aloud was a fish book it worked so well. First time I actually had a fun morning meeting that wasn’t awkward!
These are great ideas! Thank you so much!
Great ideas. Tks for sharing
Excelente Ideas, Thanks a bunch
I teach Zoom classes to special ed. young adults and am always looking for new ideas, I am not very tech savvy so this is all new to me.
Lovely stuff, thank you so much. I’ve been running a weekly Zoom session with a bunch or grandkids aged four to 6, and have been struggling to engage all the different personality types for the half hour offer time together. I’m now much better equipped.
This is awesome! Thank you!
Excellent, I am a teacher of KG learners and always looking out for excited things to do in my Zoom classroom. I will surely use these. Thank you so much.
Thank you for all of the wonderful ideas and resources. They have helped reduce my level of stress and anxiety. Thanks again for sharing.
I love the Zoom ground rules. The majority of my student’s families are Spanish speaking. Do you have a Spanish version? Is it possible to get an editable copy so I can create a Spanish version? THANK YOU!!
Hi Kim!
At this time we do not offer a Spanish version, we will add that to our list of potential future ideas. Thank you so much and have a great day!\
Angie Olson
Lucky Little Learners
Very helpful and thank you for sharing. Wish I would have known about these ideas sooner but thankful for this time now.
Thank you for sharing! These are great tips!
I had trouble with the words I wrote on my whiteboard being flipped at first and it actually showing up that way on my students’ screens. Luckily I wasn’t stuck brushing up on my mirror-writing forever- to correct the mirroring effect, you can go to ‘Preferences -> Video -> ‘mirror my video’ and unselect that. Or google around if you have another problem and plenty of other people should have already run into it 🙂
We’re going to start online teaching in September. Thanks so much for your ideas, this helps a lot as I was quite lost from where to start . Much appreciated.
Hi! Thank you for sharing- Is there anyway to get an editable copy of your zoom rules?
Hi Amy!
At this time we do not have an editable version of this resource, thank you so much for reaching out! Have a great day!
Angie Olson
Lucky Little Learners
What is the easiest way for my 25 kindergartners to see me reading. Many say they cannot see the pages. Do you suggest I teach them speaker view and mute?? or how to pin my video?
Hi! We would love to help you with this question, please email us at customerservice@luckylittlelearners.com and we will do our best to answer it for you! Thanks so much!
Bailey Jordan
Lucky Little Learners
I really enjoyed this site. Very helpful!