Try out one of these FREE Digital Escape Rooms to bring some well-deserved amusement to your home or classroom!

Escape Rooms are traditionally a physical “locked” room in which there are clues on how to escape. You need to solve each clue or problem that is presented in order to move onto the next clue, which, when you’ve solved enough, will eventually allow you to leave the room. Now, imagine this scenario, but in a virtual setting.

A digital escape room, like the ones described below, will give you a short story in reference to the theme. As you click through the prompts they give you, there will come a time where you need to solve a problem or a clue in order to click to the next prompt. Just as in real life, you won’t be able to “escape” until all the clues have been solved.

Challenges include: balloon tower, index card tower and paper chair challenge!
I suggest discussing which 21st century skills will be needed to do each activity before students do it, and then use them to reflect after the challenges. In the past when this was done, I used SECRET skills to do this.

Over 40 free online escape rooms to use with your class. They are already made and free!

"CommonLit delivers high-quality, free instructional materials to support literacy development for students in grades 3-12. Our resources are:
Flexible;
Research-Based;
Aligned to the Common Core State Standards;
Created by teachers, for teachers.
They believe in the transformative power of a great text, and a great question. That’s why we are committed to keeping CommonLit completely free, forever." (CommonLit site)

"CommonLit delivers high-quality, free instructional materials to support literacy development for students in grades 3-12. Our resources are:
Flexible;
Research-Based;
Created by teachers, for teachers.
They believe in the transformative power of a great text, and a great question. That’s why we are committed to keeping CommonLit completely free, forever." (CommonLit site)

Teachers can search for content by grade, theme, content type, genres, literary devices, and more. Alternative options are offered for students that may require adaptations for reading an easier level.

Parent guides are also provided.

Benchmark and ongoing assessments are available.

360 Curriculum provides full integrated units E.g., Unit 1 Characters Who Change and Grow which includes a baseline assessment, vocabulary activities, reading lessons, writing lessons, quiz, grammar activities, media exploration, discussion, and a culminating task.

"Factile is the #1 Jeopardy-style classroom quiz review game! Learn why Factile is played by the best and get started now for free!

Create your own game in minutes
Search from thousands of premade game templates
Play Jeopardy-style, Multiple Choice, or as Classic Memory games
Use and share online flashcards
Play from your computer, tablet or phone
Users “buzz-in” for a fun and engaging classroom experience
New – Remote / Distance learning, including Remote Buzzer Mode"

Classroom Resources for Teachers

Resources created for teachers by our Sask Parks’ team, designed to inspire learning by bringing the joy of nature exploration to their classroom, showing students the outdoor experience our parks have to offer!

(content for older students coming soon!)

This site offers engineering challenges with things you have at home. Kids learn from taking items from their everyday life and using them in new ways to do simple things. It helps them understand the world around them and how things work.

Flipgrid is social learning for PreK to PhD learners ... and beyond!

Teachers can create grids and add topics.

Grids are the meeting place for your classroom, your school, your department or any learning community to discuss your Topics.

Start with an icebreaker, add weekly reflections, share book talks, explore STEM principles, give mini-presentations ... any Topic to ignite discussion!

Check out the Flipgrid Educator’s Guide (copy and paste this web address into a browser: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzZGEfOtEWqPcGUzcFd2RzRjYTQ/view) by our awesome friends Karly, Sean and Jennifer!

"This tool allows you to create presentations, infographics, video presentations, resumes, and more.

It includes many templates with access to photos, animations, and illustrations giving the user the ability to make any image or text interactive.

Content can be shared through a link or downloaded.

Teachers can make materials to share with students or other teachers, and students can use to build resumes or design a product for summative assessment." (AASL)

The gamification options look really good within this tool. You (or your students) can make a variety of different games to test content.

There are some great product choices in here to demonstrate learning.

This interactive notebook can walk teachers and students through the process of doing a Genius Hour project.

Students should download a copy and complete it with their own ideas.

This is a great site to help you find a book you'll love. If you sign up you can enter books you've enjoyed and it will make suggestions for you! Remember to check out Sora to see if you can find a copy of the book there if you are a Sun West student or teacher!

There are plenty of recommended reading lists available here!

Scroll to the very bottom of the page to find the "Best of" lists for readers of all ages!

Educational Scavenger Hunts for the 21st Century!

This app helps you facilitate scavenger hunts, where teams of students compete to find items you assign (in the physical world), then take photo evidence at each point and post it on the app. The app then keeps track of team points so you know which team won by the end.

This tool could be used for teams to complete assessments, or to provide feedback and capture an snapshot of their current level of understanding of the material. Students could also CREATE these for summative assessments to share with their peers if centered around a topic of study in the classroom.

Microsoft Teams is the most powerful tool we have in the Sun West School Division to collaborate, share files, keep track of assignments, from any device, anywhere online.

In this session we will take a quick look at some of the features in Teams as well as go through the setup of a Class Team.

Kahoot! is a game-based platform that makes learning awesome for millions of people all over the world. Sign up to create and play fun quiz games!

Having students make quizzes on Kahoot! is a great way for them to extend their learning and benefit the entire class!

Kahoot! is an excellent formative assessment tool. You can give feedback to your students after each question as you play. Make learning a game show...your students will never have so much fun being assessed.

These projects allow students the opportunity to create, test, experiment, design and collaborate to meet some seriously engaging challenges!

Mindfulness is a form of brain training. It is training our brain to pay attention to where we want it to be. It is training our brain to not wander or be stuck on one thought but to be able to train our brain to go where we want it to go … and ultimately, be able to stay there for a while. The goal of Mindfulness Meditation is simply to get our brain to pay attention to the present moment, and what is happening ‘right now.’ But we must also be able to do this without judging our thoughts, ourselves, or others.
This resource includes:
- How mindfulness works
- Instructions to do it

About Ocean School:
Ocean School is a free environmental education resource for students in grades 5–12. Our inspiring and immersive multimedia resources featuring linear and 360˚ videos, VR/AR, interactive media and hands-on projects and activities are offered in English and French. Our cross-curricular content spans science, social studies, language arts and more!

Ocean School is the result of a dynamic partnership between the National Film Board of Canada and the Ocean Frontier Institute at Dalhousie University. A team of scientists, educators, and storytellers are creating innovative and engaging content that illustrates how we all have a role to play in protecting the ocean and seeks to inspire the next generation to take action!
Visit Ocean School: https://oceanschool.nfb.ca/

"Pear Deck was founded by educators on a mission to help teachers engage every student, every day. With solutions rooted in active learning and formative assessment, we make it easy for you to connect with learners of every age and ability. When that happens, more students participate and learn, classroom community improves, and you'll know you're making a difference."

Watch the video to see how Pear Deck works!

The Free Version includes the ability to:
Design brilliant lessons with interactive questions, polls, quizzes, formative assessments

Work seamlessly with powerful classroom tools from Google and Microsoft

Ready-to-teach templates designed by educators

Support flexible work with Student Paced mode

Teach vocabulary with Flashcard Factory*