Buncee is an amazing creation tool, and one of our favorite Ed Tech tools. We highlight it in our book The InterACTIVE Class and it is often the subject of webinars and tutorials that we take part in. Besides being an amazing presentation tool, many educators miss that it is simply a creation tool. Creating a Buncee doesn’t need to take all week, be part of a long research project or contain different sections etc. Rather, think of Buncee as a quick, one-stop tool where students can go in to keep skills fresh, stay engaged over summer while creating and designing. This is why we think it is a great app to use to prevent “summer slide”.
Using Buncee to Prevent the “Summer Slide”
One of the top reasons that makes Buncee such a great platform is that it listens to the educators who use it and they are alway working on adding in new content or adjusting based on feedback. The Buncee team always works very hard to help create and prepare content for educators so getting started with an idea or project is simpler. They have already created a great Buncee to get ideas flowing for summer and it is easily sharable, which means you can push it out to students in a few short clicks.
One Slide Ideas and Activities
Many educators forget that students can create unlimited Buncees and that using Buncee doesn’t have to be for something long and intricate. We love the idea of creating small, bite sized, challenges for students and families to complete together, with the goal behind them being interaction and engagement. The activities could be educational and around subjects and standards specific to that age of student, as well as being fun, interactive activities that get students engaged with the people and places around them. We’ve curated a few ideas here in partnership with the Buncee team for you to copy, share and use right away!
Shopping list math challenge: Have your child keep those math skill alive with a simple “trip” to the grocery store. You could keep the problem as is or make it age appropriate for your own child or class.
Journal writing: Giving kids a place to journal or write is important, especially during a time time like this. Try with one slide and if students like it they can keep adding in slides or create a new Buncee journal each day designed to mirror their mood.
Monster read aloud: Enjoy a read aloud with your child and then have them creatively build based off of that story. Build a perfect monster, or maybe even write a creative story about them. You could even print out the monster for a Flat Stanley-like project!
Recipe Swap: Mix, blend, bake and then share! Whip together a favorite recipe, write it down and share with others! You can even print and save to create a collection of new things to try.
Daily moment of gratitude: Getting kids to stop and think about things they are thankful for is a great way to boost mood and help with positive thinking.
Summer postcard: Have student write to classmates, family members and friends. Send the postcard electronically or print out and mail!
Book Snaps: Have students share favorite quotes, lines, and illustrations in a book but taking a photo of the page and uploading it to Buncee. There they can mark it up, add animations and even include audio of why they connected with that particular part of the story or article.
Backyard scavenger hunt: Get kids outside and searching for fun things they may find while exploring!
Virtual classroom or library: Give students a place to go where you can update reading lists, fun family challenges or school specific activities. This would work for an individual teacher or a media specialist.
Buncee Summer Sharing
When thinking of how to integrate Buncee into the summer, we feel like the possibilities are endless. Maybe you send out challenges to a groups of students sitting in a “virtual” summer school class. You could continue weekly check ins with your current class and send a short activity their way for something to do while away from the classroom. Try embedding a Buncee board into your schools webpage with summer resources or on your media center section. You could create challenges based on school theme, integrate summer reading programs or make a few grade level specific activities. Buncee challenges are also perfect for you own children at home or to share with grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc. We’ve included a few ideas on how to easily integrate Buncee for simple sharing and communication.
Buncee Boards: Create a Buncee board full of challenges and share the link with parents, family members, friends—you name it! All the challenges could then be copied and used by each individual giving them the choice of which to do in what order. If you would like more information on what a Buncee board is, or how to create one, click here.
Wakelet: Buncee integrates beautifully within Wakelet. Send a link to parents at the end of the year, and just embed each challenge as you wish. Students and families can check the link on their time to find your list of curated challenges. Add them all at once or add them as you go.
Flipgrid: Many don’t realize that Buncee is one of the many things you can add as a Topic Focus on Flipgrid. We love this integration because not only will students get to complete the Buncee challenges, but they could then discuss and share on Flipgrid while also linking their Buncee for others to see.
Microsoft: Buncee is also fully integrated into Teams and OneNote which makes it easier to share with students and families over the summer if you can just embed or link it as a tab to a place students are already familiar with logging in to.
Preparing for the Fall
As educators we want our students to enjoy their summer and be refreshed coming back to school in the fall. But with all that has taken place over the past few months, we really do think there is an importance to keeping kids connected to one another, creating content and staying creative until the next school year.
For more information on Buncee, check out our post on how easy it is to create Bitmoji classrooms! They are a great way to keep all assignments, tasks, challenges in one place, and you can even link different Buncees together to create multiple “rooms” or learning spaces within the virtual space. Read more here!
For more ideas and lessons using Buncee, check out our book The InterACTIVE Class!
Stay #interACTIVE!
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