10 Zoom Meeting Activities For Distance Learning

Finding Zoom Meeting Activities That Work

When a parent shared that their child didn’t want to join the Zoom meetings, I was crushed.  I took it very personally and immediately reached out to a friend for help, hoping she might have some Zoom meeting activities that would prove to be more engaging.

Her response was, “Holding a kindergarten Zoom meeting is like herding kittens in a catnip factory.”

Yes! I immediately felt better.

Activities that work well in the classroom, don’t necessarily translate into a Zoom or Google Meet meeting. My first plan was to replicate our morning meeting, because it was tried and true and the kids knew the routine.

While some of it worked, most of it didn’t, and I had to find new Zoom meeting activities to engage my little friends. Through the struggle, here’s what I found to work well:

1) Schedule Hello and Goodbye Time

Some of what is challenging about online meetings is the mute/unmute feature and the potential for many to talk at once.  Bookend your meeting with an unmuted “hello” and “goodbye” time where your kiddos can wave and say hi to their friends and send virtual hugs.

It’s similar to that unstructured time that kids need in the classroom – it may be noisy and chaotic, but important for community building.

2) Lead with Puppets

Use a “mascot” puppet during your “hellos and goodbyes” or to lead a school song or pledge.  Kids love to see a puppet appear at the beginning of the meeting and then blow kisses at the end as everyone says goodbye.

It’s even more fun when the puppet appears wearing something or holding an object that relates to the content of the meeting.  Today our McNamara Bee showed up wearing a birthday hat because it was our special guest’s birthday.

Last week, he showed up “jumping” because the gym teacher was with us and he was trying to show off his mad skills.  We were also singing Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed that day.

If you don’t have puppets at home, use a stuffed animal or even print out pictures to make stick puppets.

3) Invite Special Guests

Many of the people working in your school would love to join your Zoom meeting and have some face time with your kids.  Send them an invite and ask them to plan an activity to share.

This provides something new and different for each meeting as each guest comes complete with their own special set of skills and talents to share with your class.  Our gym teacher taught the kids about push and pull as it relates to what they do in P.E. class.

In addition to special area teachers, you might invite your principal, school nurse, custodian, school secretary, reading or math teachers, or even past students.

Guests can also be invited to a virtual event that you are planning, such as a Teddy Bear Picnic where you disguise yourself as bears and join them in a game of “musical bears,” make a paper bag “cave,” take an imaginary walk in the woods, and share a picnic lunch.

4) Play Virtual Games

Games are highly interactive, which is why they work so well both in the classroom and online.  Choose a new game for each meeting and use it to practice and review previously introduced skills.

Traditional games such as Bingo, 20 questions, I Spy, and Categories all work very well with young children.  This week we played color word bingo and the kids practiced spelling those words as we filled out their boards together before playing the game.

5) Bring Back Show and Tell

Let’s face it – show and tell happens whether you plan for it or not! Pets, siblings, and bowls of breakfast cereal all show up at our meetings.

Why not turn those into sharing opportunities that provide wonderful practice with  listening, speaking and questioning skills.

Share what you want children to “Show” and “Tell” on your agenda (see below) so they come prepared.  Mute the rest of the class as each child takes their  turn. Allow time at the end for questions after everyone has shared.  This delayed question/answer period works well because children have to really listen throughout in order to be able to ask a relevant question.

6) Hold Scavenger Hunts

This can take the form of a different kind of sharing experience for children.  Name an item that you want them to go find in their home, such as an object that begins with a certain letter or that comes in a pair. Then, say, “Ready, set, go,” and send them off to find an object that matches that criteria.

While you are waiting for them to return, play a song and when it ends, let it be a signal that time is up.  Provide time for children to share the items they have found.

7) Schedule Dress-up Days

Kids love to dress-up and there are many ways to tie that into learning and activities that you are planning for the meeting.  For example, invite children to wear flip flops as you teach about beginning blends or stripes to teach about the difference between horizontal, diagonal and vertical lines or columns and rows.

Last week, we wore silly socks and waved “hello” and “goodbye” with our feet!

8) Use a Mystery Bag

Object lessons are a great way to grab children’s attention.  Think of an object that relates to what you are teaching and place it in a bag or box.

This week, I placed a pinwheel inside the bag and gave three clues for children to guess what it was.  I then used the pinwheel to teach about force and motion as well as how to use it as a wind instrument to measure the strength of the wind.

9) Teach Through Songs

Not only are songs a joyful community builder, there are many literacy and math skills that you can teach through them.  Number Rhymes, such as Five Green and Speckled Frogs, can be used to teach subtraction, introduce describing words (five, green, speckled), practice ordinal numbers, identify verbs (eating, jumped), explore vocabulary, isolate beginning sounds, locate rhyming pairs, or clap syllables.

Use in a mini-pocket chart or share your screen and display a Google slide with movable pieces.

10) Do Science Experiments

Simple science experiments are a fun way to engage children in your meeting. Begin by asking a testable question and offering 2 possible outcomes A or B.

Invite children to write down their prediction (A or B) on paper and hold it up to share.  Ask them to explain their thinking and try the experiment at home.  Share the results at a future meeting and discuss the outcome.

Planning Zoom Meeting Activities

Once I figured out what worked well, I brainstormed a bunch of Zoom meeting activities to make weekly planning easier.

This week I began to post our meeting agenda ahead of time to get my kiddos excited and curious about what we had planned.

It worked! I had 18 out of 22 kids attend!

If you too are feeling this struggle, try some of these ideas and let me know how they work!

Thanks for stopping by,

UPDATE: Since writing this post, I’ve also begun to take Virtual Field Trips with my kinders and these have been a lot of fun and easy to do. I’ve written a post on how to create your own field trips HERE!

AND I created these Morning Meeting Survey Shares that combine traditional sharing with an opportunity to teach children about data collection and organization.  With these fun shares, children get a different sharing question, based on their answer to a survey.