Last week, I shared some fun ways to use Easter eggs in your classroom. Today I have one more idea you can use!
If you have students who are learning consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, this activity would be perfect for your kiddos. Using the downloadable file below, students can practice reading and recognizing various CVC words.
There are two pages to the file: the first is the student worksheet, and the second is the teacher page. Teachers, cut out the word strips on the second page, and put each strip into an Easter egg. Give each student a set of eggs with the word strips in them. As they open each egg, they can read the word strip, then glue it on the worksheet under the corresponding picture.
This download is for personal or classroom use only. Do not resell, repost, or claim as your own.
Continuing with fun Easter themed activities for your classroom, today we’ll use jelly beans as a learning tool. The best part of using jelly beans is that your students can eat them when they are done with them! A fun, engaging learning activity and a treat?! Sounds like my kind of fun!
This activity would be best for first or second grade on up. Give each student a small bag of jelly beans. Using the download below, have them sort their beans by color, count how many of each color they have, then create a graph showing their results.
Jelly bean math is a low-prep activity, which makes it very teacher friendly, and is fun, engaging, and educational, which makes it great for everyone involved!
Download the worksheets below and try it out with your class! Happy sorting and graphing!
**This download is free, and is for personal or classroom use only. Do not resell, repost, or claim as your own.**
Kids, especially younger ones, love hands-on activities. The movement feels like play time, and also helps build important neural pathways and connections. There are also benefits for increasing hand-eye coordination as students manipulate objects.
In the weeks leading up to Easter, I love to use plastic Easter eggs as manipulatives and learning tools. There are so many things you can do with them to make learning fun and engaging! The activities listed below are mostly geared toward preschool or kindergarten aged kiddos, but I’m sure older kids would enjoy them as well.
Put rice or beans into eggs to make music shakers. Be sure to tape the eggs closed so you don’t end up with rice or beans all over your classroom!
Add eggs to a sensory bin for students to find.
Use eggs as a measuring tool– how many eggs tall is each student? How many eggs wide is their desk? How many eggs would it take to measure from one side of the classroom to the other? *For older kids, you could then have them measure the egg then calculate the actual distance.
Have students do a color sort with the eggs. Make it more challenging by hiding eggs around the room for them to find first.
Hide eggs around the room. Divide the students into small groups and assign each group a color. Whichever team finds all of their eggs first wins the game.
Make a chart with each upper case letter of the alphabet on it. Then, write each lower case letter of the alphabet on small pieces of paper. Put the papers in the eggs, hide the eggs, and have students find them. As they find each egg, they must match it to the correct upper case letter.
Inside each egg, put a piece of paper containing whatever it is they are working on learning– simple math equations, sight words, spelling words, trivia questions, etc. Hide the eggs around the room or in a sensory bin.
Put students in small teams. Give each team a container of egg halves. Set a timer and see which team can make the tallest tower from their egg halves in the time given.
Students can use eggs to form letters or sight words.
Print off two sets of identical Easter egg pictures. Cut them out and have students play memory. You can also hide one set around the room and have them find each egg and find the match in the other set. (see photo below)
Using the printed eggs, write a math equation, sight word, spelling word, etc. Students can pick an egg and complete the task on the egg.
Easter egg mix & match– Print the downloadable file below, then color each egg one color on top, and a second color on the bottom. Give students the cards and a container of egg halves. They can make eggs to match each card. (see photos below)
These activities would be so much fun for younger grades– give them a try with your students and let us know how they go! Parents of young children, these would be fun for you to try at home, too!
As teachers, we try to make our classrooms an inviting place to be. We want our students to be excited about learning, and to be engaged in the content we are teaching. We want them to look forward to coming to school. But the reality is that not all of our students will be excited about school. Even still, we must give our best effort to make school as appealing as possible. We can do this through a myriad of ways. Rather than immediately jumping into the lesson for the day, teachers can take a few minutes at the start of class to warm students up and get them ready to learn.
One way to warm up students at the beginning of each class is through simple journal prompts. You don’t have to be a language arts teacher to incorporate journal writing into your curriculum– it can be used in any content area! Giving students a “question of the day” can help them get their minds ready to learn, focus, and participate. The question doesn’t even have to do with the content; it can be a silly, funny, or random question. Regardless of the kind of question it is, giving students a fun way to begin class can help ease them into learning and get them ready to focus.
You can even go beyond just having them write by having them share their answers with a neighbor, then have a few students share with the class. This can be a fun way for everyone to think about the question in different ways, which encourages critical thinking. It also gets students talking to each other, helping foster class communication and relationships.
Thinking of a question to ask every day can sometimes feel a bit daunting. In case you need some question ideas, I’ve compiled a list for you! You can download the list and print a copy to keep in your files, ready to be used any time you need a question suggestion.
**This download is for personal or classroom use only. Do not sell, repost, or claim as your own.**
Top o’ the mornin’ to ya! Can you believe we are already to March?! This year is flying by. Even though time is going quickly, March can sometimes feel like such a long month since there aren’t really any holidays or breaks from school. What better way to brighten up the month than by some fun holiday themed math?
Click on the file below to download and print a fun worksheet that focuses on addition and subtraction. Recommended for kindergarten or first grade.
**Download is for personal or classroom use only. It may not be resold, reposted, or redistributed.**
Since students learn in so many ways, it’s always a good idea to switch things up every now and then. This way, you’re able to help all your students learn in the way that they learn best. Some students learn really well through visual representations, especially in math. Rather than using numerals to add, subtract, etc., some kids may prefer to use some kind of picture or symbol. While this is not feasible for every kind of math, it is a good way to introduce basic adding and subtracting skills, as it can be easier to add or subtract when you can actually see the numbers all laid out.
To help you with this in your classroom, I’ve created a couple of Valentine’s Day themed math worksheets. The first is heart addition and subtraction, and the second is comparing sets of hearts to determine which set has more, less, or if they are equal in number.
This free resource is for classroom or personal use only and may not be resold, reposted, or redistributed.
It’s no surprise that I’m a fan of holiday themed classroom fun! Valentine’s Day is just a few short weeks away, and it’s time to start thinking about some fun activities for your class to do. When we can combine fun with something educational, it’s a teacher win!
I’ve created a fun Valentine’s Day Word Unscramble that you can print off and use in your classroom or at home. Use the letters in the word “valentines” to make as many new words as you can. Use it as an individual activity or turn it into a group activity and game.
** This free resource is intended for classroom or personal use only. Do not resell, repost, or redistribute. **
