Seasonal

With the holiday season and the first snow fall, comes lots of excitement in students. Having fun, hands on, educational winter activities available gives students an outlet for this excitement in a meaningful way.

I love having different formats and options for students to choose from. Setting up centers or stations gives students choice and ownership over their work, which always ends up pushing them to put in their best effort! Below are a mix of engaging winter activities, including some freebies!

WINTER GLYPHS:
I constantly hear from teachers about how much their students love glyphs! They are also great way to learn a little bit about your students while having them create an adorable craft to hang on a classroom bulletin board or take home to showcase on the fridge.
They also lend themselves perfectly to creating individual bar graphs (or one large classroom bar graph) and analyzing authentic classroom data. This winter glyphs pack includes a penguin glyph, snowman glyph, and a snow globe glyph.

WINTER WRITING GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS:
Graphic organizers are super helpful visual supports for growing writers. When made into fun, seasonal graphic organizers, students don’t even realize how much work and reflection they are doing.This five senses graphic organizer below can also be found free in my TpT shop! You can use it as a stand-alone activity, or for students to organize writing sensory details for a winter writing piece.

CLASSROOM KINDNESS CRAFT:
Seasonal activities bring a chance to go bit outside of the academic box and connect with your students personally and socially. This classroom community craft is a great way to build up your students’ confidence and spread kindness throughout your classroom. Students love going home with a bucket full of nice things that their teacher and classmates have to say about them!

NEW YEARS LIFT THE FLAP:
The fresh start of a new year is a perfect time for students to reflect and set new goals for themselves. One way to have students record these goals is in a super simple and low prep lift the flap organizer. It encourages students to set academic and personal goals.

WINTER POETRY:

This free “December is for Celebrating” poem is an adorable, original poem by LMB Literacy. She also includes an illustration activity for visualizing a rhyme in the poem.

 

 

WINTER WRITING JOURNAL:
With winter’s arrival comes lots of excitement in your growing writers. This is a great way to motivate them with prompts that are applicable to what is currently happening around them.

These writing prompts come in different formats, but my favorite is the cut and paste journal option. Student choice is another way to encourage them to write, so with this activity students get to pick which prompt they want to use to guide their writing that day.

To find the resources from this blog post in my TpT shop, click on the covers below:

   

Between testing, finishing up grades, field days, assemblies, and more, life can get quite hectic during the bustle of the end of the school year!  Having low-prep, meaningful end of year activities that students can work on at their own pace, completely independently is SO key during this time.  This unique, fun End of Year Backpack Book works perfectly for that.  It is a fresh twist on the End of Year Memory book that fosters student reflection on themselves academically as well as socially.

Included are pages for describing their favorite memories, topics, ways they improved and goal setting for next year in each of the major content areas (Science, Social Studies, Math, Reading, and Writing).  

These can work well for a teacher that has students for all subjects, or to split up amongst teachers that are departmentalized by content areas. 

Also included are pages that have students reflect on themselves as people, friends, and family members throughout the school year.  Students describe “snapshots” of the year, memories with friends and family, times they showed good character, and personal goal setting. 

It is super easy and low prep to assemble. Students simply cut out each page of their backpack, fill them in, and staple the pages along the left side.

WHAT’S INCLUDED:

• Memories I Take (Snapshots & Captions, open-ended)
• What I Take as a Mathematician
• What I Take as a Reader
• What I Take as a Scientist
• What I Take as a Writer
• What I Take from Social Studies
• Experiences I Take (With Friends and Family)
• What I Take as a Person (back page of backpack)
• A blank back page of backpack option

When putting the books together, I like to print the front and back covers on colored card stock to make the book a bit sturdier and to make the colors pop.  The inside pages I just print on regular white paper.  

This resource is also flexible in that you can feel free to use some or all of the pages with your students. 

These “What I Take from this Classroom” Backpack Books can also be purchased in a discounted bundle with the “What I Bring to this Classroom” books for a back to school all about me activity.

 

I want to share a few fun activities I love to use to celebrate Easter with my students.  With so many religions in one classroom, I keep all the activities that we do non-religious.  Instead, they focus on spreading kindness and reflecting on ourselves.  We also do some fun Easter-themed crafts! 

I love having different formats and options of crafts and activities for students to choose from.  Setting up centers or stations gives students choice and ownership over their work, which always ends up pushing them to put in their best effort!  Below are a few activities taken from my Easter pack (which is a total steal at $5 from my TpT shop)!

“WE THINK YOU’RE EGG-CELLENT” CLASS CRAFT
This is a fun whole class activity for students to create and decorate their own Easter baskets to carry home.  Students write what makes each student “EGG-cellent” on eggs and places them into each of their classmates’ baskets.  It is such a great activity to build classroom community while making each student feel special and loved.   

EASTER GLYPHS
I constantly hear from teachers about how much their students love glyphs!  They are also great way to learn a little bit about your students while having them create an adorable craft to hang on a classroom bulletin board or take home to showcase on Easter bunny and Easter basket glyphs.
They also lend themselves perfectly to creating individual bar graphs (or one large classroom bar graph) and analyzing authentic classroom data.

EASTER “FIND SOMEONE WHO…” BINGO
This activity is a great way to get your kids up and moving around.  Students find classmates that fit the criteria for each square on their Bingo boards.

“WHAT MAKES ME EGG-CELLENT” LIFT THE FLAP
With this simple lift the flap activity, students fill in what makes them “egg-cellent” as a student, as a family member, or as a person on an egg shaped organizer.  

ALL ABOUT MY EASTER/ OTHER CELEBRATION
Students fill in what they eat, their feelings, a tradition, and their favorite part of Easter.  Another option is included for students that do not celebrate Easter to write about any of their own celebrations.

All of the activities described above can be found in my $5 Easter Pack.  Click the cover below to view the pack in my TpT shop!

Looking for more spring and seasonal resources?
Click on the covers below!

I don’t know about you, but I am SO ready for spring!  With any change in seasons, I love giving students opportunities to describe and write about the new season they are experiencing. 

Below are a bunch of spring activities, crafts, and writing that work great to bring spring into your classroom.  Most are included in my Spring Activities Pack (which is a total steal at only $5), but I have also included some great freebies!  Because of the huge number of activities included, it can work great for centers. Centers are always fun and motivating for students since they get to choose what activity they complete.  

SPRING SENSES FLOWER:
This is a fun, visual craft for students to show how they use their five senses in spring.  You can differentiate by having students draw a picture or write about how they use their senses on each petal.  These flower crafts make a great spring bulletin board, door, or wall display as well!

SPRING GLYPHS:
I constantly hear from teachers about how much their students love glyphs!  They are also a great way to learn a little bit about your students while having them create an adorable craft to hang on a classroom bulletin board or take home to showcase on the fridge.  Below are adorable butterfly and flower glyphs.
These spring glyphs also lend themselves perfectly to creating individual bar graphs (or one large classroom bar graph) and analyzing authentic classroom data.

SPRING BINGO:
Bingo is always a fun activity for students of all levels in any classroom, but particularly helpful for a classroom with English language learners (ELL).  It is a great way to practice basic spring vocabulary words with visuals. 

SPRING WRITING JOURNAL:
With spring’s arrival comes lots of excitement in your growing writers.  This is a great way to motivate them with prompts that are applicable to what is currently happening around them.  These writing prompts come in different formats, but my favorite is the cut and paste journal option.  Student choice is another way to encourage them to write, so with this activity students get to pick which prompt they want to use to guide their writing that day.      

SPRING POETRY:

This free spring poem from LMB Literacy is perfect to use as a read aloud to students, in a fluency center, or to hang up on the wall.  Included with the poem freebie are a word search and a page for students to create an illustration based on the poem.

MORE SPRING FREEBIES:
Spring Freebies include:
-Spring vocabulary cards (used as calling cards for the Bingo game above) are great to use for a word ring in a spring writing center, to print 2 copies to make a matching game, or to hang on the wall in a writing center display.
–Spring word search using spring vocabulary words (1 of 2 levels in the full pack).
-A “Rainy Day” graphic organizer for students to fill in, illustrate, and write about their feelings about rainy spring days.

Click the covers below for a closer look at the Spring Activities Pack, discounted Spring Bundle, hugely discounted Seasonal Resources Bundle, and free  Spring Activities.

  

St. Patrick’s Day is such a fun and exciting day for students in an elementary classroom!  I love using holidays for students to get creative while continuing to learn and grow.  St. Patrick’s Day is perfect for doing this while having students reflect on and appreciate all of the “treasures” in their lives.  

I love having different formats and options for students to choose from.  Setting up centers or stations gives students choice and ownership over their work, which always ends up pushing them to put in their best effort! Below are a few activities taken from my St. Patrick’s Day Activity Pack, as well as a St. Patrick’s Day Bulletin Board display.

ST. PATRICK’S DAY GLYPHS:
I constantly hear from teachers about how much their students love glyphs!  They are also great way to learn a little bit about your students while having them create an adorable craft to hang on a classroom bulletin board or take home to showcase on the fridge.  

They also lend themselves perfectly to creating individual bar graphs (or one large classroom bar graph) and analyzing authentic classroom data.  This activity pack includes a pattern shamrock glyph as well as a leprechaun glyph.
 
ST. PATRICK’S DAY “WHAT WE TREASURE ABOUT…” CRAFT
This is a fun whole class activity for students to create and decorate their own pots of gold to carry home. Students write what they treasure about each student on gold coins and place them into their classmates’ pots of gold.  It is the perfect activity to build classroom community among your students.

INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
This lift the flap organizer has students fill in how they are lucky with their family, at home, at school, and with their friends.  I like to use colored paper for the back page to make it a little bit more colorful and fun!

WHAT I “TREASURE” POT:
This is similar to the activity above, just a different format.  Students fill in what they treasure at home and school on a pot of gold.

St. PATRICK’S DAY CLASSROOM BULLETIN BOARD:
This “What We Treasure about our Class” St. Patrick’s Day Bulletin Board is an adorable St. Patrick’s Day display that encourages student reflection and builds classroom community.

It comes with different sized coin options depending on how you want to use it in your classroom.  The small coins are perfect for having students continually add to the bulletin board what they treasure about their class. The large coins work well to have students really think and reflect on a writing piece about what they appreciate in their classroom.

This bulletin board can be found in the link below!  All other activities can be found in the St. Patrick’s Day Activity Pack.

  

Below are the discounted Spring Bundle, hugely discounted Seasonal Activities Bundle, and a Spring Freebie!

  

What could be better than having students leave their school day feeling loved and appreciated by their teacher and classmates, and feeling the love for their own great people and things in their life?  Not much can top that!  This is why Valentine’s Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate in the classroom.  I love to use it as a day to build community in my classroom while giving students an opportunity to let their crafty, creative sides show.

Full disclosure: Below are a bunch of activities that I include in my Valentine’s Day pack (which is a total steal at only $5), and a freebie!  Because of the huge number of activities included, it can work great for centers.  Centers are always fun and motivating for students since they get to choose what activity they complete!    

1. VALENTINE’S DAY GLYPHS
I constantly hear from teachers about how much their students love glyphs!  They are also great way to learn a little bit about your students while having them create an adorable craft to hang on a classroom bulletin board or take home to showcase on the fridge.  Below is an adorable Love Bug glyph, and the Valentine’s Day pack also includes a Box of Chocolates glyph!

They also lend themselves perfectly to creating individual bar graphs (or one large classroom bar graph) and analyzing authentic classroom data.  

2. “WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT____” CLASS CRAFT
I love this simple craft for building community. Rather than the typical Valentine’s Day cards, these mini hearts are little notes telling their classmates “What We Love About_____”!  They are a great, super low prep way to make your students feel loved and special.  

3. VALENTINE’S DAY BINGO
This (free!) activity is a great way to get your kids up and moving around.  In “Find Someone who…” Bingo, students find classmates that fit the criteria for each square on their Bingo boards.  You could use some fun Valentine’s Day themed mini erasers as Bingo markers too!

4. LIFT-THE-FLAP ORGANIZER
This lift the flap organizer has students think and write about what they love about different areas in their life (school, home, family, friends).  I like to use colored paper for the back page to make it a little bit more colorful and fun! 

5. PIECES OF MY HEART
“What Makes up the Pieces of My Heart” has students really think about ALL of the things that they love and are grateful for in their life.  Some students get SO into this activity.  It is a great way for students to express themselves, while teaching their classmates and teacher about everything they love.  You can also have students cut out the heart when they are finished to make a classroom bulletin board or to glue onto a separate colored piece of paper.

All of these activities can be found in the Valentine’s Day Pack below, which is also included at a discount in the Spring Bundle and the Seasonal Resources Bundle below:

Below are a link to a fun Valentine’s Day freebie and a Spring freebie!