Our Newest Resource – Learning Quest is So Amazing!
A Learning Quests is like a unicorn – pure magic! In all our years as teachers and coaches, it is the one learning activity we have found that truly does it all!
Want students not just engaged, but EXCITED? Check. Want students to use technology for learning? Check! Want an activity that covers MULTIPLE subjects AND multiple core standards? Check, check! Want students to work independently so you can have a moment to breathe? Yup, learning quests do that too!
See, unicorn.
You may be thinking “unicorns aren’t real…this sounds too good to be true…”
We hear you. We would probably be a bit skeptical too – it’s not everyday that something to make a teacher’s life EASIER really pans out!
We promise this is real though. Okay, unicorns may not be real, BUT what if??? And even if we haven’t seen a unicorn, the magic behind believing in a unicorn is real, right?! That’s the magic we are referring to!
Trust us, we have been in your shoes and we would NOT joke about something that could make your life as a teacher easier! Especially something that is not just easier for you, BUT still extremely effective for your students.
Unlike a unicorn, we can show you what makes a learning quest magical!
Every Learning quest has multiple activities that have been FULLY developed so that you have everything you need. Learning Quests can be used as a digital or printable activity.
The PRINTABLE learning quest activities include:
- Informational or narrative text
- informational
- Cut and paste activities
- Writing in response to text activities
- QR codes to video clips (videos linked to YouTube)
- Writing response pages
- Short Quiz
The DIGITAL learning quest activities include:
- Informational texts with pre-recorded audio that can read the text aloud to students
- Interactive activities with moveable pieces
- Typing in response to text activities
- Links to video clips (videos linked to YouTube)
- Writing response pages
- Short Quiz (available on Google Forms)
Check out our Digital Learning Quest Activities for distance learning or for the classroom.
We Aim For Teaching Made Simple
Teachers are always at the forefront of our minds. We know exactly what it takes to not just plan lessons, but then to show-up each day and implement them. Not to mention, manage a class of cute, but energetic, first or second graders so that you can effectively teach your lessons! It’s exhausting!
how exhausting it all is
We also know that despite how exhausting it all is, you love what you do – which means you always want to do your best & give your students the best! That’s why we do the planning, without any sacrifice to quality or rigor, so you can do the teaching!
Our Resources Make You Feel In Control
While no extra planning is needed from you, we still want to give you ownership of your classroom! We recognize that every classroom is different. What may work for one teacher, may not work for another teacher. Therefore, while you don’t need to plan anything, you can always remove activities! For example, if you don’t want your students going to an external site on the internet, you can easily remove the activity that has them watch a video clip.
Learning Quests provide meaningful, rigorous activities so your students can independently work without you doing any planning. Teachers often ask, “How much planning does it require to successfully implement learning quests into my classroom?”
Truthfully? Download the resource & then upload it into either Seesaw or Google Slides. Then have your students login and complete the assignments by listening to the directions. That’s it. Really.
Most likely you will want to spend a little bit more teaching time with the first learning quest. Once students are familiar with them, you truly can just download, upload, and assign.
Independent learning
Learning quests truly were designed for independent learning. Not just to give teachers a little bit of a break in the classroom, but also to teach students how to be accountable for their learning. In the early years, students are developing skills that will help them throughout the rest of their schooling. Therefore, we think providing students in first and second grade with quality independent learning activities is essential to their academic success.
To help students have the most effective learning experience on their own, it’s important to guide them and model what they will do. As we said earlier, the first time you introduce a learning quest to your students you will want to spend some time doing it with them.
We suggest introducing learning quests early in the school year. The earlier you teach your students how to use them, the more you can use them for independent learning activities for the rest of the year. We have quests that cover a WIDE range of topics! A great place to begin is to choose one that goes along with the topic you are teaching during first quarter, or simply select a fun topic for the first month of school.
These are just some of our favorite topics to begin your year with:
- The Solar System (check out Lesson Plans on the Sun for fun!)
- September 11th
- Growth Mindset
- My School Community
- Generosity & Kindness
- The Little Red Hen
- States of Matter
- Goldilocks and the Three Bears
- American Symbols
- Mapping Skills
Click here to check out all of our Learning Quests.
Since the goal is to teach students how to complete these lessons on their own, make sure to have them follow along on their one digital device. Model what they will do, and then have them complete the task individually. Once students are familiar with what a learning quest is, let that unicorn do its thing!
One of those magical qualities about learning quests are ALL the different ways they can be used! While each quest has been created as a full unit, you don’t have to teach it all at once! There are several different ways you can implement them in your classroom.
Rather than teaching a learning quest all at once, assign it as a week-long activity. This is a great way to stretch out one quest, and incorporate independent work each day.
On the other hand, if you need students to work independently for a longer period of time, have them work on a full quest all at once. This is a GREAT option for when you have a sub!
Breaking it up throughout the week, or assigning it as one big project, are both great ways to have some students working independently while you meet with small groups or students who need extra support.
If you want to add some variety, you can have students work in groups. A great way to use groups, and add another core standard (for speaking), is to assign small groups different learning quests. Have each group complete the learning quest they were assigned. Then have all the groups present to the class!
When we first started creating learning quests, we didn’t realize how much we would fall in love with them! What we love even more though, is seeing how much teachers love them. You are the reason we do what we do!
You May Like our Stem Activities for First Grade
I used this on World Kindness Day. It was a great go to resource and the kids enjoyed it. Thanks for putting all the work into it to make it easy for us!
LOVE, love, love this resource!!! I loved using the google slides to help teach and then I used Seesaw for the students to practice on their own. It was amazing!! THANK YOU!!
Omg I absolutely love these resources!! I used them for my remote and in-person student and it was easy to upload in seesaw, all the content it broken down well I love that there is voice overs for my struggling readers and there are links for videos and all I had to do was type in days for each slide so I could break up the content for the week but it was easy to do. I Love the resources from the Core Coaches I own so many and this resource really saved me this year and was worth every penny as I will continue to use it throughout the years.
With SO many teaching and learning options + SO many different topics, you can use learning quests ALL year long without students getting bored. Just another reason that makes these truly magical!
If you’re looking for digital learning ideas you may be interested in our digital learning blog posts such as:
