Upper Elementary Easter Activities

How is it the middle of April already?! This school year is just flying by! Which also means that I was not prepared for Spring activities!

The weather was finally warming up this week and I was just as eager to get outside as my students. So that's what we did! I took my class outside for their writing block and it was so perfect. Not only were some of my students engaged in the writing and working hard, but they were on task while enjoying the weather. This is certainly a reward I would like to use more often with my class.

Click the image to see our writing resource.

Here in PA we had 3.5 days off at the end of winter due to snow, unfortunately that meant my district took away days from our spring break. Disappointing, but I just remind myself we get out early! :) So when Thursday before Easter came up my kids were on me about "What are we doing fun?!" Well that was a great question, mainly because I did not have a plan as of Tuesday LOL!

Here is what I came up with on the cheap.

My students came in to complete a spring word search. Which you can grab for free here.

We had an early dismissal so we cut down our Math and Reading classes to 45 minutes to get in the final project. For math this week we had been working in centers for preparing for our state test. Naturally, I thought this was fun already (lol) but my students appeared to disagree. ;) So I had them plan an egg hunt using Jennifer Findley's free activity. 

They worked in small groups and this served as their exit slip into their math centers. They were definitely having a fun time with it, and it was nice to have them doing all the planning for a change! I think next year I'd like them to plan the egg hunt and the next day we would actually do one.  But that idea is a whole year away. 

Planning an Easter egg hunt

After Math and Reading we came together as all of 5th grade. I LOVE bringing cultural activities into the classroom and having my students explore outside of their own world. 

For this activity we read Rechenka's Eggs. I first heard this story when my aide read it aloud to my Kindergarten students. It is a beautiful story of friendship with the culture of the pysakny represented.

Paper Pysanky

After the story my students made their our pysanka, which is a Ukranian Easter Egg. This was also a great tie in because my grade partner is Ukranian, so she shared a little of her self with our classes. The template came from the The Mailbox, it is part of my Gold Subscription. 

I was amazed with the detail in which my students created their paper pysanky. The sheet they were given showed what certain images and colors represented so they could keep in mind the person who was receiving the gift. They certainly did not rush through this activity, and that made my teacher heart happy.

What are your favorite spring activities?