We are heading towards the end of the term and everyone is feeling exhausted…. Well, we certainly are!
One thing we know for sure is that classroom management can get a little trickier when children (and teachers) are tired. A way to combat end-of-term weariness is to keep routines and expectations at the same standard, all the way up until the holidays.
This is how you can do exactly that with some fun ideas that come with an Easter twist.
Simply incorporate these activities into your reading group rotations for the final week of school as the holidays approach, or block out a lesson or two solely dedicated to Easter-themed activities:
1. Activities that allow student voice and choice
This is the perfect time to integrate opportunities for student choice into the mix, especially if you don’t do much of it throughout the term (through this process you will learn lots about your students, and they will learn more about themselves as a learner!)
We love using our Easter creative thinking activities to make this super simple (and low prep for teachers). This is how we go about it in our classrooms:
-
Begin by photocopying a range of Easter activities (you can find some fun ones in our creative packs).
-
Show students the range of activities and ask them to think about which one they would like to complete the most.
-
Get students to vote or record their name on a sticky note attached to the activity of their choice – do this before photocopying anything (this saves having too many of one task and not enough copies of another).
-
During reading rotations, ask students to find their names on the sticky note and take their activity from underneath.
Teacher tip: Before students choose we explain what each activity requires and then once photocopied, we line them up across the front of the classroom to allow students to collect the activity and get to work! They love having responsibility for their own learning.
By allowing students to choose their activity, you cater to a range of learners and their learning styles, but you’re giving students agency over their learning. This can be done no matter what age your students are (we have done it in Kindergarten classes!)
Find ready-to-print tasks for Grades 1-2 here and Grades 3-6 here.
2. Easter bunny craft
Craft might seem like a ‘filler’ activity but we can definitely incorporate literacy with this cute bunny craft (it is free by the way). It is perfect for reading groups because students from Grade 1 and above can complete it fairly easily independently (aka close teacher supervision is not necessarily required).
Turn this into a literacy task by:
-
Give students the procedure to make the bunny to read and follow.
-
Ask students to make the bunny and then write their own procedure.
-
Ask students to write a description of their bunny (or even draw a labeled diagram)
-
Match a creative writing prompt like, “If I was the Easter Bunny..” – to accompany their finished product.
3. Creative writing tasks
Our Easter-themed creative thinking tasks are IDEAL for a writing activity, plus we guarantee your students will be engaged learners!
Getting kids thinking creatively is half the fun of holidays such as Easter. Some prompts include:
-
If I were the Easter Bunny I would…
-
Imagine the Easter Bunny needs some helpers deliver the eggs. Write a job application explaining why you would be great for the job.
-
What if the Easter bunny got lost on his way to deliver eggs?
-
Design the ultimate Easter egg and describe its special features
-
Imagine that you woke up on Easter morning to find a magical egg in your backyard. What happens?
These would be great to share with the class community on the final day of school.
4. Easter-themed reading
We are advocates of children of all ages reading picture books (we are adults and still enjoy them). There are many Easter-themed picture books (one of our current favourites is Santa Claus Vs. the Easter Bunny by Fred Blunt.)
Your activity could be as simple as collecting some Easter-themed books from the library and placing them in a box for students to choose and read to themselves (read to self station). Sometimes a rotation that encourages reading just for the fun of it encourages the idea that reading shouldn’t be a chore.
If you want to go one step further, there are loads of Easter themed reading passages on Teachers Pay Teachers that you can print and use as guided reading text. Check out these ones about Jellybeans from Kim Miller.
5. Book review
As we said, you may want students reading just for the fun of it… BUT if you need one more rotation idea, ask them to complete a book review about an Easter story they read or you have read together as a class.
You could challenge older students by asking them to write an alternative plot twist or ending.
These Easter-related reading group ideas are a fun and engaging way to explore the holiday themes, plus staying in routine and still promoting reading and literacy skills.
Interested in discovering 8 things you can do RIGHT NOW in your classroom to run your reading groups efficiently?
Grab this freebie for our secrets to Reading Group success!
What to read next:
Low-prep Easter activities kids love
An awesome Easter Maths lesson
Our favourite organisation hacks
