Virtual School Tour Ideas (& Free Templates)

This is a blog post I didn't think I would ever be writing!

I am putting together some ideas of virtual tours that you may like to have a look at for your class.

If you find other good ideas, please send them on and I will add them in.
A positive to take from school closures is that we can literally go anywhere in the world for our school tour this year!

Titanic Belfast/ Cobh

They have put together an excellent tour with audio.  You can pick and choose which sections you would like to focus on with your class.  This is probably more suitable for the senior classes and is very easy to navigate. Click here to check it out yourself.

I really like that there are lots of fun activities and resources so you use it as a whole unit of learning before and after the virtual school tour.  There is huge scope for extending the learning with this tour. There are even some fun recipes to try out.

Image Source

You can also learn more about the Titanic through a virtual tour of the Titanic Experience Cobh.  It isn't as easy to navigate but it does have some excellent visuals of what life was like aboard the Titanic.

Dublin Zoo

Dublin Zoo are having virtual tours every Monday at 10am.

They also have a section on their website of pre-loaded videos that you could use with your class as a tour.

Dublin Zoo Website also has many activities and live web cam links (can be slow to load) that could be used as part of a tour.

You can check them out in more detail here.

Image Source

Alternatively, you could watch an episode of 'The Zoo' series on RTE Player and download the booklet that accompanies it from the Dublin Zoo Website.

Image Source

San Diego Zoo 

If you want to be really adventurous and bring your kids to another continent, then this would be another fabulous virtual tour.

Click on the image below, if you want to have a look around the huge amount of live cams, videos, activities and games.  The possibilities of this tour are endless, with some lovely Art suggestions and stories about the different animals.

Image Source

Viking & Medieval Dublin Tour

This website has some great videos that children can watch to get a sense of what life was like long ago.  It has a cool feature to see how Dublin changed over the years, by scrolling along the time line.

You can also compare it to present day, creating a nice visual for the children.

There are quizzes included to keep the children engaged in the various topics.

They even have a teacher tab, to show you how it links directly to the curriculum so it is easily one that could be used when we get back to classrooms!

Image Source

Ellis Island

This site has interactive maps of Ellis Island, stories from the children who emigrated to America and a virtual field trip of the island.

Image Source

It is probably suitable to upper primary levels.

National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian)

Unfortunately, there are limited virtual exhibitions on the Irish National Museum of Natural History website so I have linked this one instead, the Smithsonian.

There are different tours, but I chose the permanent exhibitions one.

You can take a virtual tour of the different floors of the museum. You could set up a trail for your own class to find things along the way to engage them.

While there are some useful resources under the 'Education' tab, it does take a bit of searching through!

UNESCO World Heritage Sites

This is a really good virtual tour around the World of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.  You can spin the globe to find 30 places of interest, read about them and explore them visually. 

Image Source

Aquarium Tours

I have found 2 different websites that might be good for a virtual tour.

The first is Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has live web cams for the children to explore.  It also has Ocean Explorer booklets and games.

The other website is Georgia Aquarium.  It is similar in that it has live web cams of different sea creatures.  It has a section for home learning where children can learn about other topics each Friday, complete activity sheets and enter Art competitions.

Áras an Uachtaráin

There is a lovely 'Children's Section' on the official Áras an Uachtaráin website.  

Image Source

Here children can take a virtual tour of some rooms in the Áras.  They can also click on each of the guides shown below to learn more about the President, where he lives and the Phoenix Park.

Image Source

There is a quiz for students to take to to see what they can remember from the virtual tour.

The National Art Gallery

Some classes in my school did this a couple of weeks ago. They looked through some rooms in the National Gallery and chose their favourite painting, which they wrote a little about.

Image Source

The National History Museum

You can go step by step through the floors of the museum to explore a huge variety of animals. I remember doing this tour myself when I was in 3rd Class (along with Dublin Zoo) after getting the train to Dublin!

Image Source

**Update:
Cliste have put together some great resources to guide your class through the tour (Thanks to Galway Ed Centre webinar for highlighting this resource!)

Click on the image below to be directed to the website to have a look.

Image Source

The White House

For any children interested in exploring some of the White House, you can click here to explore the lavish rooms!

Virtual Tour Templates (FREEBIE!)

I have put these templates together as a free resource if you would like to download it to use with your students. Simply click on the image above to be redirected to download them (please think about rating them if you do!).

Galway Education Centre are also sharing ideas on how to plan an online tour for your students, if you want to register for a place.

Image Source

* Update
I did this webinar on the 28th May as they added extra dates and there were some great ideas on it. A lot are already mentioned above and I will share some new ideas here:

Create Your own Tour

You can choose where you want to go yourself and design your own tour for your students on Google Tour Creator.


The course facilitator has also put together lots of tours, which you can find here, if you want to check it out.

**UPDATE

Education Through Creation put together a step by step guide to doing your virtual tour as a guest post, which you can find here!

Easter Hunt

I have put this together for anyone who is currently unable to leave their homes due to COVID-19.

It is a set of clues that you could use for an Easter hunt which might add some fun to your day at home with your children.  You could also get them to come up with their own Easter Hunt clues.

The Clues:

 The Solutions & Instructions:

If you don't have access to a printer, you could write out the clues on a piece of paper or leave an object to find in the locations and simply read the next clue out loud to them, like I have done below!

 

Hope it comes in useful and is a bit of fun! If anyone is struggling to download the pictures above, contact me on Instagram/Facebook and I can email you a copy of them!

COVID-19 Daily Challenges

Each day, I am uploading a daily fun challenge for students on my Instagram & Facebook and I will attach them below each day also.  

I would love if you sent in some photos if your students/children complete them so the children can learn from each others ideas too!

If I can be of help in any way over the coming weeks, drop me a message on my Facebook or Instagram page.

Mind yourselves and each other!

 

 

 

 

 

 

COVID-19 Free Resources

It seems surreal even typing this blog post, as we find ourselves in unprecedented times.  I am going to add resources to this post that may help parents and minders over the coming weeks to help our students.

First up is the daily journal that may help children to have a focus each day, trying to keep active and engaged in their learning.  It also comes with an ideas sheet, although I am sure children will be much more creative than the ones I have included! Simply click on the image to be redirected to the free download.

This timetable might also be of help to structure your day/week with children.

These bookmarks are a useful way to keep track of books that children have read during school closures.  They could bring them in to school upon their return to show what books they have read.

The latest resource I put together is to help children to pick out the positives each day.  This is a challenging time for students, parents and teachers and I'm sure there will be times at home when children find it difficult.  Hopefully this resource will help them to identify and record lots of positives throughout their week.  There are two versions, one for simply a picture and one where there is also the option to write a sentence or two about the picture.

Another free resource that I put together for children in our school. It may be a nice way to recap on the Easter break or indeed ease them back into the routine of home learning.  Click on either picture below to be redirected to download it.

If I can be of help in any way over the coming weeks, drop me a message on my Facebook or Instagram page.

Mind yourselves and each other!

Gaeilge Mé Féin Sheets

I have used these differentiated worksheets in many different ways in the classroom. They are particularly useful if you work in a multi-grade setting or have a wide range of abilities in your class, as there are 5 of each worksheet included.

I really like using these to reinforce vocabulary for the theme of 'Mé Féin' and I have doubled it up to use them for their spellings also.  I usually make a 'Litriú Workbook' and the children add these pages to it each week.

Rather than just learn to spell individual words, I feel it is important that the children can use the word in context so the sheets allow the children to use the vocabulary in sentences.  It also connects all three strands of reading, writing and oral language.

I have used these in station teaching groups and again the children can use a sheet that suits their ability.  I have also used them as a form of assessment of learning.

Included in the bundle are:

-4 subthemes of 'Mé Féin' (aois, Mo Chorp, Mothúcháin and Mé Féin (gruaig/súile)
-5 differentiated worksheets in each (20 sheets in total)

Simply click on the image below if you would like to be redirected to the resource!

Spelling Tips and Tricks

Earlier this school year, I had a post on some ways I approach spellings with my students.  Here is an overview of how I have worked on improving spellings with the children.

I started by asking the children to do a free writing sample (can be based on any topic) to ascertain their spelling strengths and weaknesses.  I also assessed their knowledge of how to spell the 72 tricky words from the Jolly Phonics programme.

Following this, I made a list of their spelling strengths so that we wouldn't waste valuable time on spellings they already knew.  Instead we focused on any tricky words they didn't know.  Following this, we began Brendan Culligan's Corewords List, using dictation sentences. 

Each week the children also choose 1 or 2 words they want to learn to spell themselves, giving them ownership of their learning. Over a 5 week period, one child learned how to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious by segmenting it into manageable chunks!

Strategies we use throughout the week include:

A sample worksheet using some strategies

• magnetic letters
• finding letter strings
• finding words within the word
• using mnemonics to remember the word
• dictation (using the spellings in context)
• making their own sentences
• writing in sand
• tracing on their palm or on another child's back

One of their favourites!

These posters are used as prompts for the children and they are also encouraged to come up with their own strategies to remember words.  This is an example of what one student did to remember her cousin's name, without any prompt from me! (Isla: I see lego apples!)

Other resources that I find very useful are:

Commoncoresheets.com
This offers many types of individualised worksheets for your students to practice their spellings.

Dyslexia Daily YouTube
Videos for tricky words:

Click here to read more on spellings.

Feel free to add other ideas below!