Boxes of FunPreschool - Kindergarten
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - kindergarten / 3 - 5 years Encourage students to use their holiday gift boxes for a few hands-on math activities: Large to Small—Gather a few boxes of varying sizes and have students arrange them in order, from largest to smallest or smallest to largest. Mix & Match—Take some boxes of different sizes and shapes and separate them from their lids. Then challenge students to match each lid to its correct container—as fast as they can! Quantity Count—Tape a blank note card to the inside bottom of several boxes. Label each note card with a different numeral. Then have students place corresponding numbers of classroom objects or small toys inside the different boxes. Cash & Carry—Have students cut out pictures of toys from a favorite catalog and place them in a box along with the price of each item. Then set up a “store” and have them select a few items that they would like to buy. Have students take turns being the cashier and the customer. Give them some fake coins and bills with which to practice purchasing and counting out change. View activity Sharing the WarmthKindergarten - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 6th grade / 5 - 11 years The holiday season seems to be the perfect time to focus on giving to others. Invite your students (and their parents) to get into the spirit of giving by donating gently worn (or even brand-new) mittens, gloves, hats, and scarves to be given to less fortunate children in your community. After collecting the items, arrange to drop them off at a local family shelter or church that may reach out to needy children in the area. For a personal touch—and extra writing practice—have your students include a special note or create a homemade holiday card that wishes the recipient a happy holiday season! View activity 
End-Of-The-Year Celebration1st Grade - 6th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: 1st - 6th grade / 6 - 11 years As the school year comes to a close, try a few of these culminating activities to get your students reflecting on their progress! Grade-Level Graduation Encourage students to celebrate the end of a successful school year by hosting a graduation party! Purchase inexpensive graduation-themed paper plates and cups from a local party store and order a cake from a supermarket bakery. Then invite students to take turns sharing the accomplishments they are most proud of from the past year. Print out the End-Of-The-Year Diploma and present one to each student. Student Reflections Give a copy of the student memory book to each student, and encourage students to record their favorite memories and proudest moments from the past school year. Then have students take them home as keepsakes to share with their parents! Mixed Math Review Help students recall the many math concepts they learned this year with a fun-filled quiz game they create! Divide the class into small teams and distribute several copies of the Mixed Math Review! cards to each team. Then assign each team a chapter or section of their math textbook, and have them write down a question or problem on the back of each card. (Be sure to have each group create an answer key for their cards.) Simply place the cards in a pocket chart to create a quiz game that’s played just like a TV game show—and let students take turns answering questions for their teams! Tip: No time to create your own game? Check out our ready-made Math Quiz Game Shows for Grades 1-3 and Grades 4-6—each with over 200 level-appropriate question cards covering tons of essential math concepts! View activity 
Pocket Chart Word MatchKindergarten - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 2nd grade / 5 - 7 years Write a nursery rhyme or short poem on sentence strips. Place the sentence strips in a pocket chart. Then have students read the nursery rhyme or poem aloud with you as a shared reading. Invite students to take turns using a pointer to point to the individual words as you read the passage again and again. After a considerable amount of whole-class practice, place the pocket chart in a learning center. Make a second copy of the reading selection on sentence strips and cut out each individual word to make word cards. Challenge students to work together at the center to read each word card and match it to the corresponding word in the pocket chart. Instruct students to place the word cards on top of the words on the sentence strip as they find the match. When they have finished matching, encourage students to read the nursery rhyme or poem together again to check their work. View activity 
Sight-Word Go Fish GamePre-K - 1st Grade
This activity is appropriate for: pre-k - 1st grade / 4 - 6 years Preparation: Make your own deck of sight-word cards by printing the First 20 Sight-Words. Mount two sets on cardstock and cut on the dashed lines to make two index cards for each sight-word. The game works best with four players, so you may want to create multiple “decks” so that several small groups can play at once. How to Play: Each player is dealt seven sight-word cards, and the rest of the cards are neatly stacked face down in a pile in the center of the table. As in the card game, “Go Fish,” players take turns asking each other for specific cards to make a pair. For example, Player One may ask Player Two, “Do you have the word ‘the’?” If Player Two has that card in her hand, she gives the card to Player One, who pairs it with the matching “the” card in his hand to make a pair. If Player Two does not have the card she is asked for, she says, “Go fish!”, and Player One must draw a card from the pile to add to his hand. The first player to collect the matching cards to all the cards in his or her hand wins the game! View activity 
Science FairKindergarten - 5th Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 5th grade / 5 - 10 years Get children excited about science by hosting a schoolwide science fair! Encourage older students (third grade and up) to conduct their own science experiments and display their results at the fair. Get younger students involved by completing a class project. Follow these handy tips to make your science fair a success: Several weeks before the science fair, talk to students about the scientific method and explain that science experiments are designed to answer questions about the world around us. Send home a helpful parent packet that includes the Science Fair Project Letter, Science Fair Project Guidelines, Science Fair Project Ideas and Science Fair Project Header Cards. Parents can help their child understand what is expected, select an appropriate topic with their child and work through the steps of the project together. Schedule brief one-on-one meetings with students to review their chosen topics and answer any questions they may have about conducting their experiments or presenting their findings. Provide students with a handy Science Fair Project Organizer to help them plan ahead and organize the process as they go. Reserve a location on your school campus for the science fair and allow students access to the room before school to set up their displays. Invite distinguished community leaders or fellow science teachers to serve as judges for the event. In addition to giving awards for first, second and third place, encourage the judges to give awards such as “Most Original,” “Best Display,” “Most Interesting” and “Honorable Mention.” Don’t forget to praise all of the students for their efforts and participation! View activity 
Turkey Memory Match-UpsPreschool - 1st Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 1st grade / 3 - 6 years Use this easy-to-make card game to improve your students’ memory skills. You will need 12 index cards and two identical sets of Thanksgiving-themed stickers (e.g., pictures of turkeys, pumpkins, cornucopias, pilgrim hats, etc.). Thanksgiving-themed stickers can be purchased from a local store or card shop around Thanksgiving time. Place one sticker on each of six index cards. Then make an additional set of sticker cards identical to the first six so that each card has a match. To play the game, players place all 12 cards, sticker side down, on the floor or surface of a table. One at a time, players choose a card, and then try to find its match by flipping over another card. If the two cards show pictures of identical stickers, the player keeps the match. If not, he returns both cards face down. Players take turns playing until all matches are found. The player with the most matches wins! (For younger students, you may want to begin with only three or four pairs of cards. Then as memory skills improve, add additional sets for a more challenging game.) View activity Mother's Day TeaPreschool - 2nd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: preschool - 2nd grade / 3-7years Help your students honor their mothers (or another special caregiver) by hosting a Mother’s Day Tea. Print out these special invitations and send them home with your students. Before the big event, have students make these tea-themed Mother’s Day Teacup Cards. Purchase cookies or muffins from a supermarket bakery and serve with tea and juice on the day of the event. For an extra-special touch, contact community florists and ask them to donate carnations for the affair. View activity 
Spring Learning CentersKindergarten - 3rd Grade
This activity is appropriate for: kindergarten - 3rd grade / 5 - 8 years This month, set up some fun learning centers with these creative ideas for spring! Read & Learn Comprehension Center Encourage children to sharpen their comprehension skills with these engaging, spring-themed reading passages! Print out several copies of the Comprehension Cards and place them in a file folder. Have students read the passages silently or with a partner and answer the questions. Kite Scenes Geometry Center Place light blue construction paper and pattern blocks in a center. (If you don’t have pattern blocks, simply download this pattern blocks template and reproduce it for students to use.) On separate index cards, write the name of each pattern block shape, such as triangle, square, trapezoid, parallelogram, rhombus and hexagon. (Be sure to review the name of each shape before having students work independently!) Invite students to choose two or three cards, find the corresponding pattern blocks, and trace the blocks onto a 9" x 12" sheet of blue construction paper. If using the template, have students cut out the shapes and glue them onto the paper. Encourage them to use colored pencils or crayons to add details to the picture so that the shapes look like kites flying in the sky. They can draw the kites’ tails and strings, grass, flowers, clouds and more. After students have completed their pictures, have them describe the shapes they used in their pictures. Or, for older students, provide copies of the Pattern Block Kites reproducible and have them fill it out to describe their picture. Display the pictures with the students’ descriptions on a spring bulletin board titled “Pattern Block Kites.” Nature Detectives Science Center Take your students on a nature walk around the school grounds, and help them collect plant samples to bring back to the classroom for observation. (Or you can have them bring plants from home.) Provide each student with a magnifier and a Plants & Flowers Observation Sheet. Encourage them to examine their specimens and record their observations. After students are finished, invite them to tape their specimens to the top portion of a sheet of construction paper and attach the observation sheet to the bottom portion. Collect the pages, bind them together in a class book and place them in a science center for students to enjoy! For younger students, collect several specimens from plants common in your area, such as a fern, flower, branch and magnolia leaf. Attach each specimen to an index card and label it for added literacy exposure. Then place the cards at a center with magnifiers. Have students choose a specimen, observe it with the magnifier and draw it on a piece of paper. For additional writing practice, challenge students to label the picture by copying the name of the specimen. Little Ladybugs Counting Center Reproduce the ladybugs template onto red construction paper. Cut out the number tiles and ladybug counters, and place them at a center. (You can also laminate the pieces to make them more durable.) For young students, have them choose a number tile and count out the corresponding number of ladybugs. For older students, create additional tiles with math symbols such as an addition sign, a subtraction sign and an equal sign. Then prompt students to create math problems and use the ladybugs to find the answers! Write About It! Spring Language Center Reproduce these Spring-Themed Writing Prompts and place them at a center with pencils and crayons. Invite students to let their creativity flow as they write and illustrate their own stories! View activity 
