Is it Spring Break Yet? Egg-citing Fun for Next Week

This year vacations have been much appreciated.  A chance to put down that extra load of crazy and just relax.  But we still have a week to go until blessed Spring Break.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my kiddos.  They make my day, every single day.  I feel like I need that disclaimer in this post.

Next week I'm making it a review week, and a week to have some fun.  I need fun.  They need fun. I'm taking a week off of major grading and giving them Kindness Homework instead.  It's a win - win. Especially since it's also progress report time... Kindness to their families, kindness to friends, and our classmates.  We will brainstorm things each day they can do.  

I am going to tackle an egg hunt for in person next week.  Not a huge deal since they will each grab only one egg outside on the grass near our line. Inside each egg is a review ELA task card.  Just printed it a little small and tucked it inside the eggs.

During class, they will take turns opening up their one egg, going up to the webcam, and presenting it to the kids at home.  Then I'll jump on my camera to give instructions as to how to review with each question.  In class and at home kids will respond over in our group channels so they can show off their work to their classmates.  Group A (Monday's questions) are all about fiction strategies - so we will use our novel to respond to questions about plot, character development, setting, viewpoint, theme, context clues, inferences, etc.., and Group B (Tuesday's questions) are all about non-fiction, so we will use our SS  textbooks as resources to review cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, etc.  

Keep it simple... but also have fun.

Now Thursday I want to have a fun day... well, mainly fun.  

As for a craft - I LOVE this Bunny Craft from Teach Starter.  The kids use Zentangle designs to personalize it.  We haven't done much art this year since the kids haven't had access to many printers or coming to school for pick up, but now that 2/3 of them are able to get it from their desk to bring home... well we are tackling it. 

It's super easy to just print and go.  I need easy.  You can also google Teach Starter Funky Easter Bunny Craft and a lot of designs pop up to give ideas to the kids.  Usually I have them do their own thing, and then if they get super stuck they can take a peek.  

I'm also focusing on ways that the kids can GLOW this week.  I always give out an egg to the kids, have for years, and this year decided to choose Glow in the Dark eggs as the treat.

I found Glow Eggs over on Amazon.  They just need to be put in strong light for 3-5 minutes and then they will glow for up to an hour. Focusing on showing kindness to others, preserving when things get hard (aka review), and their own unique characteristics.  

Here's what I wrote on my note...

Hope you had a great day!  

Remembering our Easter Party

Well Spring Break is almost over... so I've been remember what we 

did that Thursday before Easter. 

It was a magical day in the classroom.  

It was also exhausting, but oh so fun!  

My shopping list for the day included:

*40 Easter Eggs

*3 bags of Jelly Beans

*Toothpicks and Paper Plates

*Peeps

*Paper Bags (Lunch size)

*Skittles

 One of our first activities was making our Easter baskets.  Yes, they are 4th graders but they still love art projects.  It's a matter of taking a bag, cutting 2 slits for the handles, and stuffing the rest of the bag inside.  I filled them with little treats later on in the day... 

 Let me show you a picture from years ago:

We also had an Easter Egg Hunt outside.  

To make it educational, I tucked ten Reading Strategies inside the eggs using my Reading Exit Slips.  I shrunk them down to 4 sheets per page (16 little task cards), and then we folded them to easily fit inside the eggs.  

The kids had a scavenger hunt outside and had to find the 10 different strategies and then relate them to our classroom read aloud.  :)  I'm so sneaky...  

Candy, candy, candy... So much candy!  

In Math, we used Skittles to review operations and fractions using Teaching with a Mountain View's Skittle Math.

We met with our 1st grade Reading Buddies and made Stem Towers using Jelly Beans and toothpicks.  Their creations were pretty impressive.   

Then we used Peeps to go through a little science experiment observing what happens in 4 types of liquids.  Here's the PDF with what my students filled out for both of these activities:  

All in all it was a fun day!  

This Week - Skipping the Teacher Editions

We have 4 days until Spring Break.  4 MORE DAYS... The kids are about to drive me nuts.  I'm about to drive myself nuts.  I NEED a break!  I'm dreaming about the ocean, sleeping in, and doing absolutely nothing.  No packing lunches.  No laundry.  No nothing.  I need a break!  Of course I know  that won't actually happen since I am a mommy to 3 very active boys.

The kids are so ready for break... so this week I'm skipping our normal weekly story and instead we are going to do shorter activities that keep us humming along.

Reading

We have different read alouds we are going to tackle - one per day, but for comprehension practice we will be using Jelly Bean Comprehension.  Easter reminds me of Jelly Beans - and I LOVE jelly beans...  On Monday, we will do vocabulary practice with the challenging words, Tuesday we will take non-fiction notes, and Wednesday the kids will do the comprehension page for a grade.

Grammar

I absolutely love the Grammar Review Books by Blair Turner.  She made up an Easter one that I picked up.  I chose 8 pages that I felt were the best fit for my group (that worked time wise), and then printed them 2 per side, back/front - so basically 4 sheets/page.  Works with my copy budget!

Math

We are going to be focusing on Perimeter and Area.  We have been working on it all year long, but it's time we actually start studying it in our math text.  For a fun activity to go with it, the kids will be creating Zoo Maps.  Kids design their own zoo - choosing animals to go into each space, and figuring out the space (area and perimeter) of the different enclosures.  :)

For a little extra fun on that Thursday before vacation (we don't have school on Friday), we'll be using Multiplying Our Peeps by Collaboration Cuties.  It's a freebie and such good review!  Also includes an answer key - bonus points!

Writing

Our writing this week is a narrative.  The kids are going to use this Peep pack from Forkin4th to write their own tale.  I only copied one of the templates, and the kids will use it to trace a peep pattern onto binder and copy paper.  It's a cute freebie!

Art

Our big art project is actually pretty easy - we will be making our Easter baskets out of a brown lunch bag.  The kids cut down about halfway, then open the bag, and fold in the outside flaps.  Then it's a quick staple for the handle, and they are ready to go for our Easter party.  The kids bring in candy (if they want), and then go and fill the bags.  I add a HW pass, bookmark, and pencil to the bags.

Science

We will be working with Magnets this coming week.  I'm going to use this pack from Jessica Scott to create my interactive file folder.  I love how it's a simple print and go - full of review activities that tie in perfectly with what they need to know. 

In addition to all the magnetism, we'll also we doing a science experiment involving Peeps.  I picked up a package and am hauling in some different liquids to see what causes them to break apart.

Don't forget about the Science Educents deal going on!  So many good products all in one download. I used the Rocks and Minerals one this past December for their interactive file folders - so easy to use!

Other randomness of the week?

On Wednesday the entire school has a Relay Recess for Relay for Life.  The kids are collecting sponsors and all donations go toward Cancer research.  It's so much fun to walk together with the music blasting!

On Thursday during Reading Buddies we will have the kids complete an Egg Hunt.  Last year we got smart and numbered the plastic eggs - the kids had to search for their specific classroom numbers.  It made it a little trickier than just grabbing any of them (and took a little longer).  This year we are thinking of having activities for kids to do inside the eggs instead of candy.  The kids would have to do an "Amazing Race" type egg hunt - having to complete a certain amount of activities before they reach the finish.  Should be fun!  My 4th graders love helping their 1st grade buddies with everything!
 

Linking this all up with Mrs. Laffin's Laughings!



Hope you have a wonderful week!