Recently I was asked about activities that students can do to connect others but live in a rural area without the internet.
This brought back memories of when I was growing up and the internet was never heard of.
Here are some suggestions for connecting with others without using the internet:
Pen Pals – Let students become Pen Pals with each other. Have them write weekly letters to each other sharing what they did that week and asking questions to get to know each other better. Students practice writing skills, letter writing skills, addressing envelopes, improve grammar skills, and spelling skills.
Traveling Story – The teacher starts the story with a prompt or several sentences. It is mailed to a student who adds three sentences to it and mailed to the next student. This continues until the last student finishes the story and sends it to the teacher. If the student didn’t finish it, the teacher can finish it. The teacher can type it up and fix any mistakes. Copies of the finished story can be sent out to all of the students. Students can practice reading the story to their parents.
Treasure Hunt – The teacher can create a treasure hunt involving letters or words or sounds. The teacher can put students in teams of two and send the treasure hunt to them. Students have to find things in their home or yard that have the letter, words, or sound in them. Students can call each other to help each other. Once the form is completed, they can send it back to the teacher.
Riddles – The teacher can make a sheet with riddles and send them to the students. Students can be on teams and once they figure out all the answers, one of them can fill out the form and send it back to the teacher.
Class Bingo – The teacher can make a bingo sheet with a fact about a different student in the class without giving a name. Students call other students in class and try to find out which fact is about which student. Students who find the student for each square can send the bingo sheet back to the teacher.
What other activities could students do to connect with their classmates without using the internet? Please share.
Photo by Mikaela Wiedenhoff on Unsplash
Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog (http://successfulteaching.net) by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).