A full school year has ended and the effects still linger. One lingering effect? Tech fatigue.

With so many options available, you may feel overwhelmed with learning yet another system and teaching your students how to use it. By focusing on your purpose, we can help ease the load of integrating technology effectively into your daily practice.

There is no denying that the list of problems with technology in the classroom is real. Connection issues. Forgotten passwords. Too many platforms. Ineffective or outdated materials. Broken or lack of devices. The list goes on. However, the point of technology is to streamline your planning and teaching as well as provide meaningful practice for students. 

For the student, technology can be a way to get their energy out with a brain break. It could be a way to collaborate with each other. It could be a way to learn or practice new information. For our purpose today, let’s focus on technology as a means of learning and practicing new skills.

The key to tech in the classroom is creating a go-to list of websites or programs. Depending on what you teach, you may need more or less. Elementary teachers will probably need a few more key sites since you teach multiple content areas whereas middle and high school teachers may need fewer based on their specific content.

When you embarked on a career to teach, you probably did so to help children and make a difference in the world. You knew there’d be grading to do and some tough behaviors to manage. What you probably didn’t think too much about were lesson plans and how much time you’d be thinking about them when you became a teacher. 

As a company very much by teachers, for teachers (30% of our team came from the classroom!), we know how strenuous and time-consuming lesson planning can be. It’s for that reason that Legends of Learning offers complete lesson plans to its premium teacher, school, and district accounts. 

5E Lesson Plans

Legends of Learning offers a 5E lesson plan for most math and science topics available on our platform. Our lesson plans follow the 5E Method–meaning they each have a section that guides students to engage, explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate. This model has been an educational tool to help students express and approach new subject matter with curiosity; from which they’ll connect new material with their experiences.

How this translates to our lesson plans is that we provide: 

• Guided discussion questions and teacher prompts for the total class
• In-class activities or experiments
• Handouts, lab sheets, and activity sheets (with answer keys)

…and of course Legends of Learning games.

How to use Legends of Learning’s Lesson Plans

While many of you have a pre-set district-provided curriculum to follow, there may be units that lack hands-on, engaging resources for your students. Or perhaps you have already used the curriculum provided for you, but you’ve found that students are still struggling to grasp the concepts. Rather than reinventing the wheel and spending hours planning additional lessons, head to Legends of Learning and pull up one of our comprehensive lesson plans that require little to no prep work.

For upgraded, premium accounts, start with the Lesson Plan before you pick a Legends game. Since our lesson plans are split into different sections based on the 5E model, you can pick and choose which portions of the lesson you’d like to use with your students. No time for the video and discussion component provided in the Elaborate section of a lesson? No problem! Pick the portions of any lesson that are relevant for your needs and then add a game per the prompts in the lesson plan. 

Pro tip: these lessons are perfect for substitute teachers. As they provide step-by-step instruction for in-classroom discussions and activities and go hand-in-hand with Legends’ content which are already standard-aligned, you’ll be reassured that whoever steps in for your class has some assistance in teaching your class the matter at hand. 

How to access Legends of Learning’s Lesson Plans

To browse our lesson plan library, select Lesson Plans from the navigation menu in your Legends of Learning teacher page.

From here, search for a topic by keyword, or filter the list by standard code.

The search results will show all lessons aligned to that topic or standard. Narrow down the results even further by selecting the grade band and/or subject. Click the purple View icon to open the lesson…and voila! We weren’t kidding when we said lesson plans could be done in three clicks! 

Check out some Legends of Learning most popular lesson plans!

Here’s a quick sample of what our lesson plans look like:

• Math lesson plan
• Science lesson plan
• Seasons Change: Autumn Lesson Plan
• Our Solar System Lesson Plan
• The Sun, Moon, and Stars Lesson Plan
• Weather Prediction Lesson Plan
• Lunar Phases Lesson Plan
• Lesson Plan: Eclipses and Seasons

Go beyond the ordinary with Legends of Learning’s premium accounts. Elevate your instruction with access to a complete library of 5E lesson plans, powerful reporting tools, seamless grade pass-back to various LMS platforms, and Math Basecamp, our innovative math fluency program. These are just a few ways Legends is empowering teachers and students to reach their full potential!

Learn more about our premium plans here.

Welcome back to another Legendary school year! Getting your classes re-engaged in Legends of Learning’s math and science games are a great way to combat the dreaded summer learning loss. Here are a few tips to get your school year off to a great start with Legends of Learning.

Archiving Students and Groups

Ready to clear out your old rosters and get your new students set up? Use one of our archiving tools to quickly clear out last year’s students.

Option 1: Use our Clean Slate banner to clear out your students in one click! Find the purple button at the top of your Students & Groups page and click Get Started.

Option 2: Don’t see the Clean Slate banner? Never fear…we have a backup method for you! From your Students & Groups page, click ‘Tools’ and then select ‘Archive All Students’.

Once last year’s students are cleared out, you can import new students from Google Classroom, or have students sign up and enter your teacher code in order to populate on your student list.

Adding Co-Teachers

If you work with co-teachers in your classroom or students see enrichment or intervention specialists, add them as a co-teacher to your Legends of Learning account!

From their own accounts, co-teachers can view your student list, assignments, and data. Additionally, they can assign work to students as needed.

Under Students & Groups, click Co-Teachers to get started.

Need more information on how to add co-teachers and the access they receive? Check out this article for additional details! 

Share Assignments with Colleagues

Ramp up your team planning this year by sharing Legends of Learning assignments with your grade level team! 

Create the perfect Legends of Learning assignment by adding your own assessment questions…perhaps questions directly from upcoming benchmark assessments to prepare students for success.

Or, spice up your assignment by adding a video to pre-teach the content before students play an instructional game.

Either way, when your assignment is just right, celebrate by sharing it with your teammates to assign to their class. Now, all students can get in on the fun!

When the new Awakening experience rolled out last year, there was a lot of excitement for Beastie battles and the immersive world students could interact with. Now Awakening School is a reality!

As with anything, there were also some call-outs from teachers about the student’s Awakening Free Play time experience. Here are a few points that we heard:

• The vastness of the New Awakening world was too time-intensive for the post-assignment, in-classroom experience

• The interactive aspects of Awakening were fun but teachers wanted more academic value

To ensure the best Awakening experience, both from an academic and engagement perspective, we are excited to announce that this new school year also brings a new School experience within the Awakening world!

Now, when students complete an assignment and continue with Free Play, they will enter into the Awakening School. Joined by other students who have also completed that assignment, the school experience keeps some of the same Awakening aspects that teachers and students love:

• Beastie battles that are both fun and academically challenging
• Assessment questions paired to the same standard as the assignment they just completed

What’s new is that students will stay within this more structured environment that offers:

• A more contained, focused environment to engage with
• Both mini-games and Beastie battles aligned to the same standard of the assignment just completed
• Interactive elements that teach both math and science content
• Access to both math and science content at the student’s set grade level

Let’s look at those interactive game elements.

Math in the Math Classroom:

• access math mini-games from the Game Station
• play math Cards to learn operations through visualization

Math outside on the playground:

• learn math factor sets on the interactive grid: jump on a number and the two correlating numbers highlight. (For example: when a student steps on 6, 2, and 3 highlight)
• tackle the jungle gym challenge: answer math questions from the Coach to collect stars

Science in the Science Classroom:

• access science mini-games from the Game Station
• play the Physics Toolbox: interactively stack elements to learn about forces and motion. This game challenges students through experimentation and failure–a fun way for students to acquire those 21st-century skills!

Science Outside on the Playground:

• Learn about chemical elements through an interactive periodic table: kick a ball to an element to see its uses and composition

Gamification Rewards for Students

All mini-games, Beastie battles, and interactive elements provide students with the opportunity to win coins. This is a great way to reward students for their efforts. Just like before, coins can be used to update their avatars within the school (or, they can save their coins and play Awakening at home to gain new dance moves or add items to their house).

So, Teacher Heroes, rest easy knowing that your students are now immersed in fun learning experiences, even when they’re done playing your assignment. For more information about the Awakening School, view this Knowledgebase article.

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Having a substitute teacher come in and help with your class is inevitable–but with widespread teacher and resource shortages this year, getting ahead of it is more important than ever. 

It can be gut-wrenching to even think about crafting those dreaded sub plans. The time it takes to write down everything you do each day and to prep the materials only to find all those beautifully labeled piles untouched. Or to find their independent work was completed as a class. Or half the class’ papers were turned in and the other half missing entirely. You get it. You’ve lived it. You dread it. But can you avoid it? 

Let’s prepare for it early and find some effective tricks to make sub planning a breeze this school year.

THE SUB TUB

Compile everything you need to leave for a sub once! No rushing to prepare items. 

Pros

• One time prep
• Easy to locate in case of emergency

Cons

• Lesson plans won’t reflect current learning objectives
• Need to remember to update with class changes

Check out these helpful guides to creating yours.

• The Sub Tub: A Must Have for Alleviating Stress When Calling in Sick

• How to Implement a Sub Tub for High School – also for middle school!

THE GUEST APRON

A written plan only goes so far. Subs need materials! Passes to the nurse, stickers, candy (if your school allows), a pen, post-it reminders of the schedule. Leave everything in an apron, so your sub won’t be fumbling around trying to find materials instead of helping your students!

Pros

• Organizes all necessary supplies
• Keeps your teacher space clean
• Plans can reflect current learning objectives
• You can use this daily, too!

Cons

• Will need to plan materials each absence
• May not be ready in an emergency

THE “BREAK GLASS IN CASE OF FIRE” FILE

We’ve all been there. The school year begins and the office is asking for you to bring down your emergency sub plans. You know, the file that sits and gets dusty all year. Let’s make these useful! There are definitely places you can find editable sub materials, like these, but sometimes it’s easier to craft yours your way.

Step 1: The Basics – class lists, helpful students, daily schedule, essential routines (homeroom, lunch, dismissal, etc.).

Step 2: The Skeleton Schedule –  as you write your daily schedule, fill in the bones of what each class entails. Bell ringers, hooks, whole group lesson time, independent work and rotations, and exit tickets. Whatever your class framework is, write it out now to have less to fill in later!

Step 3: The Meat – These are the assignments. What your students will be doing when you are away. Our opinion on the best ELA plans? Read alouds! Read Alouds. Read Alouds. Read Alouds. Students of any age will love sitting and listening to a story. Add a printable activity to target reading comprehension and you’re set.

When planning “the meat,” there are two routes you can take. Route #1 is to find pre-made materials to prep once and use whenever you have a sub. Route #2 is to plan new material each absence to reflect the current learning in your classroom. A great option for both of these routes is Legends of Learning teacher-created resources. These resources are sorted by subject, grade and standard. You can assign these at any time without running back and forth from the copier at 3:30 the day before an absence or sending your team materials for them to prep when you wake up sick as a dog one morning! Find these resources here.

Here are some other tips and tricks to making subs want to come back to your class!

• Clarify your trusted student!
• Create routines to make the classroom run itself daily. Daily rotations or a must do/ may do routine help students know their daily expectations. When you are gone, students will continue to follow the routines with minimal instruction needed.
• Leave behind an incentive for students to earn all day! Gone around the holidays? Leave behind a string of lights on this kid-approved anchor chart to color in when students are working well on their goal!
• Our favorite hack to crafting lesson plans for science and math? Legends of course! With Legends, you build assignments that align with the standards you are teaching. With games to engage the fun in students and standards based questioning to engage their thinking, students will continue learning, even in your absence. The best part, Legends logs student activity and performance. No more looking for missing papers or a note left behind saying how students performed that day.

With these tips and tricks, your need for a sub won’t be so gut-wrenching and hopefully these sub plans are for a well deserved fun personal day!

When searching for games or viewing game info, you have probably seen various icons…but what in the world do they all mean?

No worries, Hero, let us help you decode them. Let’s take this game preview, for example:

And now let’s take things from the top:

GAME TYPE:

You’ll often see games described as Instructional, Quiz, or Simulation. This lets you know if the game is intended for:

• introductory or supporting lessons as the game teaches the topic and doesn’t assume the student has prior knowledge (these are Instructional Games)
• assessing a student’s knowledge about a topic, based on prior teaching of it. These quiz games will ask students questions from a bank of standard-aligned questions based on the topic.
• more straightforward interaction to learn topics. These Phet simulations …

Learn more about game types and simulations.

GRADE LEVEL:

Games can be filtered by grade level offering when going through the steps to create an assignment and find games. When viewing an individual game, the grade level(s) best suited for that game, based on content material within the game. While we offer games for K-8, the example above for Fractal’s Treasure Hunt reflects an accurate picture for more dialed in grade groupings.

ACCESSIBILITY AND COMPATIBILITY FEATURES

These icons help advise what features the game has. Starting from the left these icons mean:

• Save-state is available. On all games starting with last school year, games will have various “save-states” through it so that a student doesn’t have to start from the beginning incase the internet dropped out, the class period was over, or even if they just got stuck. The game automatically saves at various points throughout gameplay so that the student can pick the game back up from the last checkpoint.
• The game is available with a Spanish translation. Great for ESL students, these games are translated to Spanish so that students can learn the math or science content, without the English language potentially getting them caught up.
• The game is compatible with iPads.
• Text-to-speech (a.k.a. reading game instructions and prompts out loud to students) is possible. Especially helpful for younger learners who haven’t quite mastered reading, this can help them learn the content better as they may be getting stuck with the reading comprehension portion.

PROTIP: When searching for games, be sure to filter results for these features as well!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST:

While not icons, we thought it would be helpful to point out that YES! You can try games (aka play them) or watch a video of them being played. This way you know what your students are about to get into and can help field questions when they arise.

We hope that helps you on your Legendary adventure. We’re always here to help our Heroes: reach out to us at support@legendsoflearning.com.

Legends of Learning has come a long way in just five years. After winning the CODiE Award for Best Educational Game and as our sixth school year begins, we thought we’d take some time to look back and celebrate all of the great improvements made over the years. 

CONTENT AND CREATING ASSIGNMENTS

THEN:

Teachers who used Legends in the early days may remember only middle school science content available. Assignments basically had to be made in “real-time”–meaning they had to be created, assigned and played all within a max of 60 minutes or the assignment would end and kick students out. Further, once an assignment was published, there was no going back to edit it.

NOW:

Now teachers can have saved drafts and queued assignments, edit or duplicate an assignment, try an assignment as student and share an assignment with a co-teacher so they can plan as needed before pushing games out. Assignment length, once at 60 minutes access, can now be set at six months, if teachers wanted to! Several years later, Legends now offers thousands of games covering over 500 topics aligned to over 21 national and state standards in both math and science topics. Made for students in both elementary and middle school, more than half the games are now available with Spanish translation. In addition to games the platform offers hundreds of Phet simulations and a new fluency program launching this fall, called Math Basecamp! 

STUDENTS’ LEGENDS USAGE 

Joining an assignment

THEN:

Students used to join assignments with a unique playlist code for each new teacher assignment which added steps, time and frustration when joining an assignment. 

NOW:

Now students get rostered to their teacher’s account and see available assignments whenever they log in, making access much easier, smoother and faster!

Playing games

THEN:

Teachers would select games based on brief description only, and students would join a game with little to no instructions on how to play the game. There was still the ability to skip through a game for a student if trouble arose.

NOW:

Teachers can now preview game play via video or trial-play games, as well! Teachers have game instructions available to them on the game preview, which are also given to students when they start playing the game. 

Beyond just playing the game itself, Legends now offers text-to-speech to provide a more equitable playing environment, as well as save-progress states for a good portion of the game portal so that students don’t have to repeat playing through a game if connection is lost or class time ends. 

GENERAL USABILITY

Over the years, we’ve been focused on making the platform a more rigorous and easier platform to use. Compared to the early days, teachers and students find that our games now load at near “lightning-speeds.” Game content is more aligned to the targeted age group, both in terms of the standard-aligned content, as well as the game context and mechanics. Bonus: teachers can earn a cape or other great prizes, just for using the platform!

The experience for premium users is even better. Upgraded schools and districts have access to a wide range of Lesson Plans that are active, engaging, and integrate games, including 5E plans for science. They can also unlock full reporting data at the student and total class level. Teachers love seeing the specific questions asked and evaluating how the overall class performed to make decisions on future tasks and assignments…not to mention passing grades back via LMS! (It probably goes without saying that the early platform did not have any LMS integration capabilities.)

Lastly as the cherry on top for premium users, they have unlimited access to Legends. Uncapped playtime, unlimited simultaneous assignments, multiple learning objectives within one assignment (think review assignments!), as well as the comprehensive reporting as mentioned earlier.

Reach out to heroes@legendsoflearning.com to learn more about using research-based, game instruction in your classroom!

…and more importantly, thank you to the teachers, administrators and students who have been part of our journey. We look forward to continuing on this adventure with you!

*Legends of Learning has permission to use these student / classroom photos.

Legends of Learning has earned the Best Educational Game CODiE award from SIIA for 2022. We are truly honored and proud to receive this recognition as we’re constantly striving to create a platform that’s beneficial to students’ education and is helpful for teachers.

CODiE judges evaluated Best Educational Game Nominees based on the following criteria:

• Accessibility / inclusivity – Does the solution accommodate students with diverse learning needs?
• Assessment – To what extent are the assessment tools useful and functional for the user? Do the assessments complement the game-based environment to maximize interactivity within the assessment content itself?
• Customization – How well does the solution adapt difficulty or content to individual learner performance?
• Feature set – How well does the feature set incorporated within the solution appropriately meet the needs of the teacher, the student, administrators, and parents?
• Feedback -How well is feedback to the learner based on individual learner performance, with learner-appropriate, informative, actionable, encouraging and well-timed messages?
• Focus / balance – How well does the game balance the design requirements of the game with the learning task performance and feedback?
• Game design – How well do the learner tasks in the game accurately incorporate the cognitive processes implicit in the defined learning outcomes?
• Innovation – Does the system incorporate recent research on learning, innovative approaches to learning, or access to new tools with high student interest?
• Platform flexibility – Is the solution optimized to be used on various platforms (e.g. desktop, tablet, mobile, broadcast) and deliver various types of content (text, images, audio, video)?
• Reports – How well do system reports provide actionable information to the student, the teacher, administrators, and parents? Are these reports customizable?
• User experience – How well do the elements of game play create a compelling experience that is easy to use? Does the game offer a variety of experiences to maximize student replay ability?
• User experience (instructor) – how easily can the teacher integrate the game into the flow of the classroom and curriculum, without formal training?

In evaluating the platform, some of the judges’ feedback about Legends of Learning included:

Games can be differentiated, language can be changed to Spanish, and text-to-speech is provided, as well. Mini-lessons allow the student to feel accomplished and not falling behind classmates as they are challenging and provide small victories along the way. The assessments can be customizable and can be added to with personal questions, a well.

Legends of Learning is very engaging. It was intuitive in design and allowed teachers to gather data to improve student understanding.
Thank you for allowing the teacher the “student view” option. So many times the teacher and student dashboards are very different. Valuable time is wasted trying to solve technical issues that arise from not knowing the student view. Data and the ability to differentiate within the program to meet student needs is a definite strength. Good job!

Our goal has always been to provide a game-based learning platform that best aides teachers while engaging students. It may all start with fun and engaging, standards-aligned games–the ability to provide individualized instruction through student groups and reporting enhances the experience and benefit further.

Backed by research and compatible across many browsers and devices, we strive to provide an equitable learning tool that any student can enjoy and learn from.

Learn more about our games and hear from other teachers about why they love Legends of Learning, too.

Competition Sponsored by Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Alienware, Roblox, Unity Technologies, Epic Games, CodeCombat, Wargaming, and Exploding Kittens Challenged Students to Design a Game that Cultivates Inclusion Among Players

Legends of Learning, Inc., the leading game-based learning platform in the United States, and the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) have announced the grand prize, runner-up, and honorable mention winners of the “Games for All” Game Design Challenge. The competition was the eighth of Legends of Learning’s game-based learning competition series designed to engage kids in interactive and collaborative team-based STEM challenges.

“We are thrilled to announce the winners of the “Games for All” Game Design Challenge,” said Lindsay Buckel, Manager of Strategy at Legends of Learning. “Our judges were especially impressed by the creative, original, and innovative approaches students utilized to cultivate inclusion among players in a collaborative way.  We greatly appreciate the effort, attention to detail, and imagination all participants put into their submissions. We encourage them and other students throughout the country to participate in future competitions which can be found at https://www.legendsoflearning.com/stem-competitions/.”

Legends of Learning and IGDA would like to recognize all of the incredible teachers and parents who assisted their students with this competition! 

The Grand Prize Winners were:

• Cultural Quintuplets (North East Independent School District, TX)
• The Winning Team (Ephrata Area School District, PA)
• Humanity Savers (Toronto District School Board, Canada)

The Runner Up Winners were:

• The Land of Algebra (Manatee County School District, FL)
• Powerhouse Games (North East Independent School District, TX)
• H&M Gaming (Charleston County School District, SC)
• The Low Budget Company (Toronto District School Board, Canada)
• Global Gourmet (North East Independent School District, TX)
• Team Ritter (Cobb County School District, GA)
• Team Braincells (Toronto District School Board, Canada)
• Asteroid Allies (North East Independent School District, TX)
• Monster73 (Pembina Trails School Division, Canada)
• Pie Rats (North East Independent School District, TX)

The Honorable Mentions were:

• The Grills (Dekalb County Schools, GA)
• Time Travelling Platypus (Los Alamitos Unified School District, CA)
• Pizza Heroes (Amboy Community Unit School District 272, IL)
• Strategic Sloths (Nova Scotia, Canada)
• Magis ICT (Mandaue City, Philippines)
• Tangy Peak Studios (Cobb County School District, GA)
• GLITTER FORCE (Concept Schools, OH)
• Code Minds (North Allegheny School District, PA)
• M.A.L.T (Medford School District, OR)
• Chorus Gamer (USD 273, KS)
• The Breakfast Club (Central Consolidated Schools, NM)
• Arisha (DeKalb County Schools, GA)
• The EleMental League (Driscoll Independent School District, TX)
• Ream Team (Ephrata Area School District, PA)
• Unity Realm (Cobb County School District, GA)
• Beans INC (Toronto District School Board, Canada)
• Game Force (Toronto District School Board, Canada)
• Da Bois Around Da World (Ephrata Area School District, PA)
• Cobra Coding (Toronto District School Board, Canada)
• Keepers of the Lost Minecraft Cities (Toronto District School Board, Canada)

About Legends of Learning
Legends of Learning is the leading game-based learning platform in the United States, with over 2,000 curriculum-aligned games covering Kt-8th grade science and math. Legends of Learning believes that by working with our human nature to learn through experience and play, we can accelerate the pace of learning for humanity. Legends has over 2 million students using the platform in all 50 states and D.C. Whether you are a 4th grader learning about Fractions or a 7th grader learning about Cell Structure, you can learn more effectively through games on the Legend of Learning platform.

About the International Game Developers Association

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is the world’s largest nonprofit membership organization serving all individuals who create games.

The IGDA is a U.S.-based 501(c)6 non-profit professional association and a global network of collaborative projects and communities of individuals from all fields of game development. The IGDA’s diverse membership encompasses programmers and producers, designers and artists, writers, business people, QA team members, localization experts, and anyone else who participates in the game development process.

The mission of the IGDA is to support and empower game developers around the world in achieving fulfilling and sustainable careers.

For more info, please visit www.igda.org.

Ready to become a teaching legend in just a few seconds? 

With Quick Play, getting games in front of your students is faster and easier than ever! We will build an assignment for you on your selected topic and run the assignment for the dates you choose. 

This is great for those who prefer not to spend time previewing and picking games! Quick Play is a go-to tool for emergency sub plans, indoor recess, and as a quick assignment for students who finish their work early.

How to launch Quick Play:

Once you click Quick Play, simply click through the prompts for the subject, topic, etc. you would like to focus on. Wondering what goal you should choose? These tips below will help you decide what type of Quick Play assignment you should assign:

• Instructional assignments include our highest-rated instructional game within the topic you choose. In addition, we include a 5-question pre and post-assessment related to the topic you choose.
• Content Review assignments include the one highest-rated quiz game to provide students with a gamified way to review content you have already covered in class.

Need help with the Quick Play feature? Check out this article with step-by-step instructions. (Please note, we are testing out different text descriptions of this. You may alternatively see “Top Reviewed Games” on the dashboard instead of “Quick Play.” These are the same experiences.