Keep Students Learning with Summer Scavenger Hunts

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When students walk out of your classroom on the last day of school, chances are that you may not see most of them again anytime soon. It's bittersweet. You spend a year getting to know them, and then you must send them along to the next class. However, your connections and their learning don't have to end. Here's a fun way to stay in touch with your students over the summer and encourage them to use their knowledge in practical, everyday activities: a summer photo scavenger hunt!

The hunt...

Provide students with a list of learning tasks that they must complete over the summer. Students must document their activities with photos of themselves doing the tasks and an activity log that includes a few details about what they did. They upload photos and an activity log to a shared Google Drive. Then, you review what they submit on the Google Drive.

The incentive...

Obviously you can't require students to complete this activity. However, there are some students who would enjoy the challenge. Some parents would appreciate the extra opportunities for their children to learn and to set and achieve goals. You can reward the effort with a gift card or small but worthwhile prize for each student who successfully completes the activity. (Tip: You may not have to pay out of pocket for prizes. Ask local companies to donate gift cards or prizes. Apply for a grant to subsidize prizes. Raise donations through a crowdfunding site.) Your incentive is maintaining relationships and encouraging learning...of course!

How to do it...

I'm going to outline a plan for developing a summer scavenger hunt. (Keep in mind that I have an upper elementary ELA and Social Studies background so you can just as swap out activities based on the subject matter and grade level that you teach.) With just a little prep before the summer comes, you can create an easy activity for students to complete and for you to track.

The technical stuff...

1. Setting up a Google Drive account with an editable folder

Set up a Google account specifically for scavenger hunt. If it's separate from your personal account, you needn't worry about people accessing personal information. 

Next, go into Google Drive. Set up a folder with the name Scavenger Hunt.  

You will have to make the folder editable so that students can upload photos. The downside to this is that anyone with the link can access the Scavenger Hunt folder. However, you can show students how to make their folders private so that only you can see the photos and activity log. This step addresses the issue of privacy. Once the activity is over, you can edit the privacy of the folder so that no one but you can view or edit it.

To get a shareable link for the Scavenger Hunt folder, go into the folder then to the drop down at the top of the page. Select Get Shareable Link as shown below.

So that students can upload their photos and log, choose Anyone with the Link Can Edit. Students do NOT need a Google account to upload anything if they have this link. You will need to share this link with them when you introduce the activity. (Tip: Shorten the link with bit.ly or goo.gl.)  

2. Setting up private student folders

Once you have set up the editable Scavenger Hunt folder and share the link with students, they can create folders within the Scavenger Hunt folder and upload their photos and activity log. It's a good idea to create a tutorial for students about how to upload their photos and activity logs. Model how to do it so they can see an example, too. (You might want to tell them to email you if they have questions over the summer.)

Students will use the shareable link you've given them to create a folders with their names. To do this, click on the red NEW button, and choose Folder. I named mine Aspire Inspire as shown below.

Next, students need to change the privacy of their folders so that only you can see them. Students should open their folders. and at the top of the page, they should see My Drive > Scavenger Hunt > THEIR FOLDER NAME. They should click on the dropdown, and select Get Shareable Link.

When the dialogue box opens, they need to change the link sharing to OFF--Only Specific People Can Access.

Students should then click on the Advanced button at the bottom right of the screen. This is where they will see who has access.

Under Invite People, students should type in your e-mail address. Your e-mail address could be your new Google account name@gmail.com or another address if you prefer. Once students send permission to you, you will be able to access their folders to view their photos and activity logs.

3. Uploading photos and activity logs

Students will open their folders, and choose the red NEW button. They should select File Upload.

They will choose from the files on their computers.

Once the file uploads are complete, they will be able to see what is in their folders.

I recommend asking students to send you an email when they have finished the scavenger hunt so you know to be looking for their photos and activity log.

Phew! Okay, now the fun stuff...

For this scavenger hunt, I chose very simple tasks that students more than likely either would or could do easily during the summer. The tasks are related to English-Language Arts, Social Studies, and Math concepts. Some are general, and some are based on 5th grade learning targets/standards (Math and Science):

1. Join a summer reading program at the library. If your library doesn’t have a reading program, check out a few books to read over the summer.

2. Use fractions in a real-life activity.

3. Visit a historical site.

4. Visit a natural site—a landform or body of water.

5. Visit a cultural site or attend a cultural event such as a concert or play.

6. Describe in writing a fun experience that you had this summer.

7. Visit an ecosystem in action such as a zoo or a park.

8. Find a spelling error on a sign or brochure, and correct it.

9. Persuade your parents in writing to let you do something.

10. Plant something—in a flower pot, in a garden, or elsewhere—and show that plants get the food they need from the air and water.

Next, I created the following documents to give to students before the end of school:

1. A printable task list with general instructions;

I did not share the link to the Google Drive on this. That would have to be shared verbally.

2. A set of caption cards that students hold in each corresponding photo; and

3. An activity log for students in which to detail their activities.

Some reminders and suggestions

• Choose reasonable and appropriate tasks that most students can do. The idea is to make this activity flexible and accessible to as many students as possible.
• Post the activity documents in the Scavenger Hunt folder on the Google Drive.
• Remind students to hold the corresponding caption card with the date each activity is completed in the photos they take.
• For the writing tasks, ask students to show the finished piece of writing in the photo. 
• Give examples of places to look for spelling errors (#8)--advertisements, news articles, brochures, signs, etc.
• If there is signage at any of the places students visit, encourage them to take a photo in front of it.
• While students may take a few different photos, ask them to limit uploading to one photo of each activity. If you have 10 activities, they should have 11 artifacts in their folders (10 photos plus the activity log).
• For the activity log, give students options to complete it: editing a PDF, scanning and uploading the completed log, or taking a photo of the completed log and uploading it. 

Feel free to use the documents I created for this scavenger hunt! Just please keep the copyright/source info on all pages. Find them here. 

I would love to hear if you implement such a hunt in your class or if you try out the plan I suggested. Leave a comment!

Friendship Resources and Activities Link-Up

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It's been a while since I've done a link-up, and variety is the spice of blog life, right?

This week (May 15-21) is New Friends, Old Friends Week, which is a time to celebrate and make time for new friends and old friends. Friends are such an important part of the lives of our students. We need to encourage them to be good friends by showing them how to connect with one another in encouraging, trustworthy, and fun-loving ways. 

This week's blog post is a link-up of FREE classroom resources that you can use to promote friendship in the intermediate classroom. If you have one, share it here. If you're searching for one, find it here. Can't wait to see what creative activities are out there! Leave a comment about how you plan to use them.

The resource I'm sharing is a sample from Today I Will...Daily Character Building Task Cards. The prompts on these cards encourage students to practice character traits of good friends: selflessness, compassion, kindness, and more. Many friendship resources are geared toward primary students, and I've designed these cards for upper elementary/intermediate students so they require a little more intention and thinking by students.

Using Student Surveys to Reflect on the School Year

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It doesn't hurt to revisit older blog posts when they're full of good stuff that you can use today! This one is about how to incorporate student surveys in your end-of-the-year activities as a way for students to reflect and for you to get feedback on how the year went. 

Survey Says...Meaningful Student Reflections on Their Learning, the Classroom, and You!

About this time every school year, I offer my students an opportunity to reflect on the year as a whole using surveys. I created surveys for the subjects I taught--reading, English, spelling, writing, and social studies--as well as one about the classroom atmosphere, one about me as the teacher, and one about them as students. This is one of my favorite end-of-the-year activities. I know how I feel after each lesson, unit, and activity, keeping notes about what worked and what didn't as well as future ideas for tweaking. It's really interesting and helpful, though, to get the perspective of the students.

When I first created the surveys, they were open-ended in nature. I have fine-tuned them in subsequent years to include a mix of open-ended and Likert scale questions to get a better overall picture of students' thoughts.

The questions I ask tie in to one of my goals of teaching, which is to show students how to take responsibility for their own learning. I ask questions about their favorite lessons, activities, books, and assignments that we did, as well as those with which they had trouble. I also ask them how they felt in the class. Were they engaged? Were they challenged? Was material too easy, too hard, or just right? I ask them to list specific strategies, ideas, of facts they learned as well.

I make sure to include the word "BECAUSE" in every one of the open-ended questions. For one thing, it helps explain the first part of the answer. Another reason is that is gets the students used to supporting their opinions with details. I learned early on to structure the questions so that specific answers had to be given. That way, I avoided the "nothing" and "everything" answers.

My surveys are also written to empower the students. I want to show them that I value them and that it's possible for them to help me be a better teacher through their suggestions. In every survey, I ask them to name a specific lesson, topic, or activity that could use improvement and how it could be improved. I also ask them about their experiences with me as their teacher. Am I fair? How do I make them feel? Do they think I care about them as students and people? How do they know if I'm listening to them? If I'm not listening to them?

Survey about having me as a teacher

When presenting this activity, I tell students they should feel free to be honest and that it is not necessary to put their names on the surveys. I also assure them that the surveys will not impact their grades. I stress the importance of being aware that there's always room for improvement. A couple of rules about answers that I give are that students cannot write, "Nothing" or "Everything," and they must answer every question. I allow them as much time as they need to complete the surveys and encourage them to take their time in completing them. Students can use their binders, folders, textbooks, agendas, and anything else that helps them to remember what we've covered during the year. The class completes one survey at a time so that students can be thoughtful in their answers.

Self-survey for students

I read every survey, taking note of repeating themes in the answers. I've been surprised a few times about what has been a favorite and what has been a dud. I even pull a few of particularly positive ones to put in my "When You're Sad" folder. (I read the items in this folder if I've had a bad day!) This activity is so wonderful for teaching students about the importance of reflection, but it is also a great way to be the self-reflective teacher that I need to be so that I can be the best teacher I can be. 

Looking to incorporate student surveys in your classroom? Save some time creating them with these.

How do you get feedback about how the year went from your students? Leave a comment!

Meaningful Ways for Students to Observe Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day

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Holiday celebrations in the classroom can be epic, don't you think? I see so many creative lesson ideas, crafts, and activities for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and other big-time holidays that you could probably dedicate a whole month for each of them!

When the school year runs from August to May, though, there are some major holidays just don't get the love they deserve, especially a few important patriotic observances in the USA. If we are to encourage citizenship and a responsibility to preserve freedom among our students, Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day definitely deserve some attention from us as part of the curriculum. Even though school might not be session on the days they're observed, we can still teach our students how to honor them, which is where the featured freebie in this week's blog post comes in.

One of the first resources I ever shared on Teachers Pay Teachers was an free activity called "What Do You Know About Veterans' Day?" It was a simple 5-question quiz that was meant to activate prior knowledge or supplement a reading or discussion about the holiday. From there, I created the similar activities for seven other patriotic holidays, including Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day, that I've also shared for free with teachers. In recent weeks, I've started to update these older resources and even beef them up with more content to make them even more attractive and useful to teachers. The major addition to them is a printable list of ways that students can thoughtfully observe the holidays. Believe me. I love a big, fun family cookout and jaw-dropping fireworks show just as much as anyone else, but there are so many deeper, more personal opportunities to connect to these holidays that we can share with our students. After all, isn't that our goal--to empower our students to do something meaningful with the knowledge they have? 

So here are some ideas to encourage students to thoughtfully participate in Memorial Day, Flag Day, and Independence Day on their own and with their families and friends. You can download these along with the 5-question quizzes for each holiday using the link that follows or by clicking on the images. Everything is free! 

Memorial Day

Thank a veteran or active service member.

Maybe you have a family or friend who has served or is serving in the military. Take a moment to say “thank you” for his or her service.

Visit a war memorial or statue.

Statues and memorials honoring fallen military men and women are found in many cities. Visit one. Take time to reflect on the sacrifices men and women throughout history made to protect the country’s freedom—and your own.

Attend a Memorial Day ceremony or service.

Many towns, cities, and organizations hold ceremonies to remember the ultimate sacrifices paid by servicemen and women. Go listen to special speakers, music, and tributes honoring fallen military men and women.

Attend a Memorial Day parade.

Show your gratitude to servicemen and women by attending a parade. Wave, salute, or just silently consider the sacrifices these men and women and others have made on your behalf.

Volunteer to decorate military graves.

A Memorial Day tradition is to place American flags on the graves of military men and women. Contact a local cemetery to find out who does this and get in touch with the organization to volunteer.

Read a book or watch a film about Memorial Day

Learn more about the history of this solemn day by reading a book or watching a film about it. Share what you learn with family and friends. 

Flag Day

Display an American flag.

Whether it’s a large one hung from a flag pole, a small one displayed in a window, or tiny one pinned to your shirt, you can honor the Stars and Stripes by exhibiting a flag.

Read the Flag Code.
Do you know that there are special rules about how to handle and observe the flag? Read up on the Flag Code, which explains how to care for and show respect to the American flag.

Attend a Flag Day ceremony.
Many organizations hold ceremonies to mark the birthday of the American flag. Pay tribute by listening to special speakers and patriotic music that honors the flag.

Wear red, white, and blue.
This one is easy! Dress in patriotic colors to match the colors of the American flag. Research the meaning of each color on the flag.

Enter an art, music, or essay contest about the flag.
Research some opportunities to creatively honor the flag through art, music, or writing.

Listen to the Star-Spangled Banner (and read the lyrics).
Do you know that there is more than one verse in the national anthem? Read all the verses and listen to a recording of it. Reflect on what the flag meant to Francis Scott Key when he wrote this song in 1814 and what it means to you today. 

Independence Day

Display an American flag.

Commemorate the birthday of the United States by showing a symbol of it—big or small!

Read the Declaration of Independence.

This short but important document officially created the United States as a new and separate nation, no longer under the rule of a king who mistreated his colonial subjects. Read about the rights endowed to all people that are the basis of the freedoms we have.

Read what happened to the signers of the Declaration.

The decision to separate from Great Britain was not an easy one for many colonists. Patriots and their families risked much and faced danger for voicing their beliefs. Research some of the names on the Declaration of Independence to find out what these men endured after putting their names on this document.

Attend an Independence Day parade.

Join family, neighbors, and other community members to the celebrate the United States’ independence as you enjoy music, floats—and maybe even a little candy!

Reflect on how freedom impacts your life.

Most of us have never experienced oppression in the way that the American colonists did or the way that even people today in countries with little to no freedoms do. Think about how your life has been impacted by the freedom in this country and how you can preserve freedom for future generations.

Attend a fireworks display.

Independence Day is an event to celebrate by taking part in fun activities like fireworks. If you’re lucky, you may even get to hear a patriotic soundtrack as you watch the show!

You can download these printable lists along with the quizzes here.

Do you have suggestions to add? Leave a comment!