EdTech the Halls!
The festive season is here, and we know teachers are always looking for fun activities to lead into the winter holidays. This year, why not get your favorite EdTech tools involved? Here are 5 ways to bring the festive spirit to your classroom with Texthelp.
Dive into a holiday classic with Fluency Tutor
Fluency Tutor provides teachers with an easy, digital solution for assigning and assessing reading tasks. Students can record their reading of a passage and share it with their teacher. A teacher’s account comes with a Quick Score tool to help you assess reading fluency and track student progress over time and across difficulty levels. You can also attach comprehension questions to a passage.
Choose from the inbuilt library of over 500 reading passages, or upload your own! You can share entire stories, webpages or short passages.
Draw a festive scene with EquatIO
Who says math isn’t creative? Have your class show off their artistic skills by creating winter scenes in EquatIO. Get out the protractor tool and have your students explore angles and geometry.
Check out these examples from EquatIO fans at St. Luke School and Holy Redeemer Elementary, Ontario!
Or take inspiration from this activity and create a mystery image for students to find by plotting coordinates. Once they’ve uncovered their shape, they can freehand sketch to add their own unique design. Fancy giving it a go? Download the worksheet here.
Write a letter to a loved one with WriQ
For many of us, festive celebrations will look a little different this year, with travel restrictions and health concerns preventing many families from getting together.
Here’s a chance for students to reconnect with loved ones while improving their writing skills! They could write a letter to a grandparent or far-away relative sharing their plans for the winter break. Or, when students return to school, have them reflect on their favorite part of the holiday season.
For prompts to suit all seasons and ages, why not check out our writing prompt page?
Bonus: if your class is equipped with WriQ, they’ll have fun measuring their writing bursts (a great way for you to track their writing fluency and accuracy.)
Grow your festive vocabulary with Read&Write
Read&Write provides a quick and easy tool for collating new vocabulary. Just click the Vocabulary List icon and it will auto-generate in a new document. The added feature of a Picture Dictionary attaches visual aids to dictionary terms - a great way to practice word association, especially with tricky-to-memorize words and more advanced terminology.
Remember, vocabulary lists don’t have to stay in the English classroom! They're also an effective tool for collating and reviewing key concepts in geography, science or history - or even for learning foreign language vocab. See this example below!
Learn the gift of giving with EquatIO
Festive celebrations are all about sharing and generosity. Why not take this opportunity to introduce your class to the purpose of charity and donation?
In your math class, you could ask students to create a hamper to donate to a food bank. With EquatIO Mathspace, give students a sum of money and a range of items from which they can choose. How far can they make their $20 go? Raise the difficulty by adding in 2-for-1 deals and discounts: can they calculate which offer is better?
This is a great way to get kids comfortable spending within a budget, all while learning how they can use their skills for a charitable cause.
Did you know that EquatIO and Read&Write are FREE for teachers? We offer eligible teachers a free, premium subscription to our literacy support toolbar & digital math tool. Learn more.