ERS Portal Featured Resource: myPeekaville/Peekapak (grades K-5)

With ready-to-teach resources that support social-emotional learning (SEL) & ELA development, myPeekaville's CASEL-aligned stories, lessons, and learning games help you keep SEL engaging wherever learning happens. Students build resilience, mindfulness, and self-regulation skills to help them process challenging situations. Teachers receive access to various analytical insights into student activity and progress in myPeekaville. 

myPeekaville/Peekapak incorporates literacy-based and game-based learning to engage students and reinforce what they've learned during class. Students gain agency by creating personalized avatars and customizing their experience in an immersive world. In myPeekaville, students check in daily by selecting how they're feeling, providing teachers with a heatmap of student sentiment data. 

All the Peekapak stories are available within myPeekaville. Visit the digital library to gain access to every book. Students can actively practice their reading, writing, and vocabulary skills while playing.

[PDF] Getting Started Guide for Educators

[Video] Learning How to Use Peekapak (7:42)

[Video] Introducing myPeekaville to Students (5:55)

#TreeOfGratitude Challenge 2021

Original post from Peekapak, an ERS Portal Vendor:

We are excited to announce that our #TreeofGratitude Challenge is back for November 2021! This challenge is easy to get involved with, and is open to ALL, and includes two Grand Prizes of a $100 Amazon Gift Cards or a Peekapak character cutout!

What is the #TreeofGratitude Challenge?

The #TreeofGratitude Challenge is a yearly tradition Peekapak hosts for it’s educator community based on the tradition that happens in Peekaville, where upon the first snowfall, the residents of Peekaville gather around the tree to write messages of gratitude onto tags and hang them up on the tree. This tradition allows us to take a step back and look at all the things we have to be thankful for, whether it be the good times or the bad. Check out the book The Peekapak Pals and the Tree of Gratitude, to see where this tradition starts!

How to Enter: Gratitude Tags

In order to participate, have your students create gratitude tags. To do this, have students write down and/or draw any one person, place or thing they are grateful for. You are more than welcome to print and use this tag or create your own!

To submit your response and send us a photo of your classrooms response via twitter by tagging @Peekapak, giving us a follow on Twitter, and using the hashtag #TreeofGratitude. If you read the book, take a picture of you and/or your students reading for a bonus entry!

Then simply take a picture of your student’s tags, post your gratitude tags and tag us in your results!

Prizes!

The grand prizes will be two $100 Amazon gift cards or a character cut out of your favourite PeekapakCharacters!

On November 30th, 2021, when the challenge ends, we will be randomly picking 3 winners and will direct message or email you. (Please make sure that you are following us so we can message you for the prize).

We are so excited about this year’s Gratitude Challenge and are looking forward to hearing all your classroom’s great ideas on practicing gratitude this year!

With gratitude,

Ami & The Peekapak Team

Did You Know? September 2020 | Peekapak: SEL Tools & Upcoming Training

Are you looking for Social Emotional Learning tools to use with your students? If so, check out Peekapak, ERS Library’s fantastic SEL digital resource for grades TK-5. Peekapak features scaffolded lessons that could be used for an entire school-wide SEL program. In addition, Peekapak has leveled eBooks, study units for each book containing lesson plans, teacher resources and activities. You will also want your students to experience Peekaville, the online game world where students interact with characters from Peekapak’s eBooks. Relatable characters like Leo, Ines and Cody, will help your students learn valuable lessons about emotions and social behavior.

Responding to the overwhelming need students have to understand and process their emotions and feelings these days, educators at Peekapak have created an entire unit of lesson plans and resources specifically dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Peekaflu, a COVID-19 like virus has invaded Peekaville, and is front and center in the eBook, “Back to School with the Peekaflu”. The book features a back-to-school story, but in this story all the Peekaville characters are wearing masks and working through their emotions and feelings during a turbulent time. Peekaville characters wonder why they have to wear masks and why the school and the library are closed and why their favorite public events and activities are canceled. It makes Cody, in particular, feel angry and a little scared. Over the course of eight lessons, the Peekaville characters learn to understand their emotions and in turn help students learn to understand the emotions they are experiencing. If you have not yet enjoyed the benefits of Peekapak or Peekaville, today may be the day. 

I’ll be conducting a training for this digital resource on Thursday, September 10 from 3:00-4:00 pm.

I hope you can join me!