SPRING START HERE Archives • Elementary Island

10 Amazing Spring Activities For Your Classroom

Jordana — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 21:21:00 +0000

Every Spring, we get to celebrate the end of winter and anticipate new leaves budding on the trees and flowers blooming! Students love looking forward to these changes too, so why not add some fun Spring activities to your teaching plans! Here are 10 amazing Spring activities to use in your classroom right now!

1. Spring Dots Drawing

Students love brainstorming ideas together with friends! Begin your Spring activities by asking them what they already know about Spring. Make an anchor chart of their answers to hang in the classroom.

They may share answers such as:

green leaves budding on trees
warmer temperatures
seasonal flowers blooming (ex-tulips, daffodils)
new animal babies (ex-bunnies, chicks)

Ask students to choose their favorite thing about Spring and create a dot drawing! Simply give each student a piece of dot paper, and students will color the dots in a pattern to create a picture. If you would like the dot paper I use (plus some other spring activities), you can grab mine here for free!

If you want to add a little writing to this dot-drawing activity, get your students to write a poem, riddle, or descriptive paragraph about the item they drew!

2. Spring Math Crafts

Crafts and coloring are so much fun, but we still have to get work done. Right? Why not do both with Spring themed Craftivities?

A “craftivity” is the combination of an educational activity with a craft that involves cutting, coloring, and/or gluing. Students enjoy these because as they are working on reviewing important standards, they get to have the fun of being artistic!

If you are interested in using craftivities in your classroom, you’ve got to check out these amazing Spring themed math crafts!

Each of these craftivity sets includes math practice for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Simply choose the option that best meets the needs of your students. Not only will students get the chance to review important math standards, but they will create the most adorable spring crafts! These finished projects, along with the cross-curricular writing prompts included, make a sweet Spring bulletin board that your students will be proud to have helped make!

3. Spring Adjectives

Remember that Spring Anchor chart you made earlier? It’s time to put that chart to use in another activity! Read through all of the items that students added to the chart and ask students to think of adjectives that would describe how these items would look, feel, smell, sound, and taste.

Examples could include:

bunnies: soft, furry, cuddly
tulips: bright, colorful, slender
leaves: green, waxy, tender

Give each student Spring themed paper shapes such as butterflies and flowers. On each shape, have students write one or more adjectives to describe the shape they have.

Tape the adjectives on the anchor chart and wall around it and encourage students to use these words in their speaking and writing about Spring!

4. Easter Egg Hunt

Kids of all ages love novelty, so take an Easter egg hunt and turn it into a fun learning activity!

Cut up any math worksheet and fold up each individual problem to place inside plastic eggs! You can also use task cards inside the eggs too. Just print the task cards at half their normal size and they will be just the right size to fit inside the plastic eggs.

Hide the eggs around your classroom (or another room in the school if you really want to make this activity special!), and have students find the eggs. Each time they find an egg, they must work out the problem inside! When finished with the problem, place the paper back in the egg (hiding it in its original hiding space). Students should continue searching for eggs and working out problems until they have found all the eggs!

If you’d like some Task Card resources that are perfect for this Easter egg hunt activity, check out my TPT store! You’ll find eggs-actly what you’re looking for!

5. Flower Graphic Organizer

Show students how much easier writing a story can be when using a graphic organizer! A flower is the perfect shape for this graphic organizer activity!

Students write the main idea in the center of the flower while one supporting piece of evidence is written on each petal. The graphic organizer will help students keep information in place until they are ready to add it to their story. Also, students will remember to begin a new paragraph each time they move on to a new petal.

Why stop using this graphic organizer with writing? You can also use this as a fun spring reading comprehension activity. After students read a non-fiction text, simply have them fill in the main idea in the middle of the flower. Then they can add a supporting detail to each petal, citing directly from the text.

There are so many ways to use this spring graphic organizer. Grab your free Flower Graphic Organizer here!

6. Spring STEM Activities

With Spring Fever in full swing as soon as the weather warms, every teacher needs some engaging activities to keep those restless bodies moving! The best way to allow students movement and chatter is to incorporate STEM activities!

Students get to work in partners or groups, talk and share ideas, and think creatively while solving a problem!

Sounds amazing, I know! Check out these Spring themed STEM activities which require only a few simple materials, most of which you already have, and very little prep!

Your students are sure to be engaged with activities like:

Creating the fastest Egg Race
Constructing a Peeps Parachute
Creating a nest to hold an egg
Constructing a Peeps Boat

When students are engaged in STEM activities like these, they are much more likely to push through that Spring Fever that causes them to lose motivation to learn.

7. Rainbow Clouds

Use these cute (and free!) Rainbow Cloud Templates to help your students brainstorm ideas for activities they like to do in the Spring! Print out the templates on colored paper or white to allow students to color their rainbows.

Students write one activity on each strip (color the strips the colors of the rainbow if printed on white paper). The strips are then cut out and assembled in color order on the cloud!

Allow students to share their ideas with the class. If it’s a pretty day, take your students outside to do some of the activities they wrote about!

8. Spring Mystery

While Spring is a beautiful season, it can also be pretty hectic with everything going on this time of year. A print-and-go activity that requires virtually no prep is such a lifesaver for busy teachers!

When dealing with Spring though, not just any old boring worksheet will do. Choose printable resources that are different from what you might typically do in class but also require students to review previously taught skills and think critically.

It sounds like a lot to ask, but a solution is easier than you think! Try a Spring “Who Done It?” Mystery! Students work out math problems to crack codes to figure out which bunny stole the missing Easter eggs!

Students will love the fact they have to solve a mystery, but you will love that they are actively engaged in reviewing important math standards!

9. Grass Buddies

Have students practice “How To” writing and make a fun Spring themed craft at the same time! Help students create Grass Buddies by giving oral directions in a step-by-step manner.

Give students cups to decorate to look like a person.
Students should add soil, then poke holes in the soil.
Have students place seeds in the holes and cover them with soil.
Students should then add a little water to dampen the soil and leave their cups in the sun.

Once students have created their Grass Buddies, they should write their own version of the directions and illustrate each step. Grab your free “How To” paper here!

Be sure to give students time in class to check out their Grass Buddies over the next few days! It’s the perfect science connection for life cycles and needs of a plant. Let them document their day-to-day observations in their science journal.

10. Spring Observations

Give your students the chance to observe and share what they think is important about Spring! On a nice day, take your students outside and let them choose a place to sit where they can focus and not be distracted. Tell them to sit quietly and focus on what they smell, hear, feel, taste, and see.

Once back in the classroom, ask each student to fill out and color a Spring Observation sheet. Not only will students write information they found while they were outside, but they can use their prior knowledge about Spring as well.

Allow students to share their finished pages with the class, then hang them in the hallway for a sweet reminder of why they love Spring!

Spring Activities for the Win!

If you have been looking for ways to keep your students engaged in learning this Spring, then I hope you found plenty of new ideas and resources to do just that! If you haven’t already, grab the free resources I mentioned in this post! They are sure to make your teacher life easier- and I’m pretty sure we could all use “easier” when teaching in Spring!

Pin these Spring Activities for later!

If these ideas have gotten you ready for Spring, then make sure you Pin this post to your favorite Teaching Pinterest Board!

The post 10 Amazing Spring Activities For Your Classroom appeared first on Elementary Island.

6 Simple But Important Things to do the First Day Back From Break

Jordana — Mon, 07 Jan 2019 20:22:00 +0000

Why does it seem like you
finally get into the swing of things and then BAM a break happens? It doesn’t fail. How do you get those students back on track
after a long break, like winter break?
This can be challenging because your students probably slept in, ate
whenever and whatever they wanted, went to their friend’s house often, and stayed up later than usual – less
structure definitely!!!!

Getting your students to
focus again after break doesn’t have to be a struggle.It will just take some easing back in to a
typical school day. Here are 6 tips to
help your students, and let’s face it, you, transition smoothly back into your typical
day.

Open-Ended Activities

Students have been away from school and
academics for many days now. It is
important that you gradually pull them into the academic school day, but at the
same time letting students know that they are expected to be in “school mode.” From the moment my students walk into the
room, I want them to continue expectations that I set for them at the beginning
of the year.

I always, and I mean ALWAYS, use my “Tell Me About It” for bellwork. This is a great
way for students to get out everything they are dying to tell you about break,
but in a structured, fun activity.

Get these for FREE HERE!!!

Students are always given the opportunity to
share their papers with the class or I let them know I will read and comment on
all of them.

Review Academic Content

This is a great time to review content from
before break. I’m guessing that students
probably didn’t remember everything. Plus, it gives students immediate positive feelings of academic success
on the first day back.

I do try to make these activities
unconventional, hands-on, and/or fun. This
could be anything from open-ended writing prompts, to coloring activities, to cut
and paste activities.

For instance, before break we were learning
3-digit addition with regrouping. We
spent a few months building up to regrouping and after break we are hoping to
jump into subtraction with regrouping. However, I want to make sure my students still remember addition from before break. I will probably have my students do a color by code that’s full of practice but fun because it’s not basic paper/pencil or
maybe my QR code task cards to utilize technology.

Again, review, but different and fun.

Review Routines and Expectations

Do you remember those routines and expectations that you practiced over and over again at the beginning of the year for a few months? Great. Well, guess what? Your students, probably not so much. Well, they may but will probably
need some refreshing.

Most of your students probably enjoyed a lot of freedoms
over the winter break and they may want to try to extend those into your
classroom. It’s different from the
beginning of the year when nerves were keeping students in check. Now, they KNOW you.

It is imperative that you uphold your rules,
consequences, and procedures as early as possible. This way, there is no excuse
for negative behavior. Students need a little reminder that they are back and school and should act accordingly.

Of course, these reviews of routines and expectations
should come at the time that they are happening – snack time procedures before
snack time, restroom procedures before restroom breaks, cafeteria procedures
before lunch, etc. You get the idea: back
to school 2.0.

Get back to routine

In order to review those procedures for
routines, you need to get back to your routine.
This isn’t the time to try stations if you have never done them before
(even though I wouldn’t recommend them on the first day back even if you
have)! Students crave structure and they
will be glad to see the same routine in place as when they left.

They will be tired

I recommend no new content for the first day
back. I would suggest using this time
to review, review, review. Why? Well, they will be tired. Getting back to “school mode” will not be
easy after two weeks of vacation.

Use
the time to do SHORT bursts of activities.
Students will not have the attention they had before vacation; they will
need to work up to that again. 5-10 minute lessons are ideal. Lessons with movements are ideal. Open-ended activities are ideal. These are nothing new to teaching, just be
mindful of using more of it on the first few days back.

Change up Groups

The one change that I would recommend is
changing up any groups that you have in the classroom, whether they be academic
or simply seating arrangements.
Sometimes not having those common relationships upon return will help
students focus more and get back on track easier.

The post 6 Simple But Important Things to do the First Day Back From Break appeared first on Elementary Island.