Teacher’s Brain

How To Catch The Easter Bunny: A Fun and Engaging Easter Activity!

Easter is right around the corner and that means it’s time to whip out all of the fun pastel and egg-shaped decor and stock up on Easter candy to hand out to your students. It’s also time to start brainstorming Easter activities to do in the classroom to celebrate. 

There is always the traditional Easter egg hunt or coloring eggs, but when I was in the classroom I tried to think outside the box so I could get my students truly engaged and give them a unique Easter classroom experience.

I came up with an Easter activity that would give students the opportunity to create an Easter Bunny trap!

I created a digital resource that would make this activity a simple, no-prep, no-mess option! 

easter activity

The interactive and editable Google Slides allow students to copy and paste movable parts to design their own Easter Bunny trap. This gets students thinking creatively and critically to come up with their own unique trap.  

Then, they will write a narrative, persuasive, or opinion paper about how they plan to catch the bunny. This activity is perfect for engaging students in creative thinking and planning. 

Easter activity

Make it even more fun by adding all the student’s work to a new slide show with the music provided while in present mode to have a bunny trap design contest. You can also print and display them in your room or make a slideshow with the student’s finished products to view virtually. Music is provided! 

Included with this Easter activity you’ll get: 

  • 12 background slides for students to choose from to begin designing
  • 4 slides with movable parts for students to use to design their own bunny trap (You can edit some images, remove or add images)
  • 6 slides for students to brainstorm, organize thoughts, and write a story about their trap
  • Black and white slides for students to digitally or handwrite stories. (narrative, persuasive, or opinion writing included)
  • A Google Form to have a Favorite Trap Design Contest

Easter activity

If you love this activity but can’t do it virtually with your students, you can also print it out and complete it that way! This resource can easily be adapted to do in person, digitally, or sent home to complete with the child’s parents. 

Check out the video tutorial! 

Looking for more spring and Easter activities for the classroom? Check out my post here!

How will you be celebrating Easter with your students? Let me know in the comments?

 

Easter activity pin image


 

Valentine’s Day Escape Room Students Will Love

One of the latest trends making waves in the education world (and in the outside world too), is escape rooms. If you don’t already know, escape rooms are a game where people (or in our case students) work together to solve clues, puzzles, or complete designated tasks in order to “escape the room” in a set amount of time. Sounds fun, right?!

These games are so exciting because they are very immersive. The interactive aspect really makes you feel like you are living the story of the escape room! 

In the classroom, escape rooms can include puzzles or tasks related to the skills you are working on in your lessons. This makes it an educational activity for students that feels like fun, not work! 

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, I wanted an escape room that had a fun and festive Valentine’s Day theme while still being an engaging way to work on skills in the classroom. 

So, I created this Valentine’s Day Escape Room! 

Valentine's Day escape room activity

This Valentine’s Day mystery requires little prep and includes detailed directions, 3 clues to solve, a video hook, and set-up photos to help you put it all together. The set-up checklist will help you ensure that everything runs smoothly for the activity. 

To start, students will watch the video hook or introduction to learn about their mission. Then they will be tasked with solving 3 clues using comprehension skills. If you find that any of the activities are too easy for your students, there are additional activities included to differentiate. Students will practice teamwork skills while solving clues to help learn about holiday vocabulary and number patterns. 

Valentine's Day escape room activity

The clues will help them unlock the box and claim their prize. For prizes, you can use candy, homework passes, or bookmarks. Whatever you choose! 

The supplies needed are simple. You’ll need a box , some surprises to put inside the box (homework passes and bookmarks are provided), pencils, 6 large file folders (or regular folders), candy hearts (paper ones are provided if you don’t want to use real candy) and magnifying glasses (2 or more). 

Valentine's Day escape room

This activity is so engaging! It’s so fun to see how excited students get to put their detective skills to work so they can solve the clues. 

What are your favorite Valentine’s Day activities for elementary? Let me know in the comments!

Valentine's Day escape room

Black Friday Starts TODAY for Pre-K – 3rd Grade TEACHERS

Starting TODAY until November 29, 2021, you can make plans this winter easier and increase student engagement with these DEEPLY DISCOUNTED Black Friday Resources!
We listened to what you wanted to help you take your weekends back!

SAVE 50% and MORE on these LIMITED TIME Black Friday Special Bundles!

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALS:

Escape Room Bundle for First Grade
According to our survey, a lot of you have never tried escape rooms in your class.  I would love to see that change this year! The students get so excited while learning! I think you will love them if you give them a try. Once you do one, the others follow the same pattern and become easy for you to set up and students to participate. There are 9 escape rooms for in-person teaching in this bundle.  All of them can be used in first grade.
Reg $47 ONLY $19.99

Winter Activities Bundle K-3rd Grade
This bundle was the most requested from you. It includes: 
Winter Would You Rather
Winter Directed Drawing with Writing
Winter Sports Interactive Notebook
A Melted Snowman Craft and Bulletin Board Set
3 Weeks of Winter Creative Writing with Animation
Holidays Around the World In-Person Escape Room
Winter Snow Literacy Center Activities
PLUS a BONUS! Editable Thank You Cards, Bookmarks, and Writing Paper

Digital Escape Room Bundle K-2nd
If you like digital lessons because of the low prep and no printing, this bundle is great for you!
It includes 10 Digital Escapes created using Google Sites.  You don’t have to have Google Classroom, but you will need to make sure your IT has your computer and your student computers cleared for each site.  This is easy by practicing on my TEST SITE  using the link provided in the description.

ALPHABET Centers Bundle for Pre-K & Kindergarten
Regularly $78 ONLY $19.99
It covers every letter of the alphabet with crafts and worksheets! Over 450 Pages!

Kindergarten Curriculum ALL YEAR, EVERY SUBJECT
(Guided Reading, Math Centers, Writing, Science and Social Studies) You will find lots of bonus material in this bundle.
This price is the lowest its ever been priced.
OVER 3000 PAGES You will never scramble for another resource.  This gets updated often too.

Free Activities for Teaching Forms of Energy

Teaching sound, light, and energy is an important part of early elementary education. Energy is all around us! The sun that shines down on us, the food we eat, the lights in our home. Understanding forms of energy is essential knowledge to have to understand the way the world works. 

Getting our kindergarten, first, or second grade students to understand this concept can be really fun if done right! 

When teaching with younger students, just remember to take it slow to start. This lesson can get a little overwhelming. Explain what energy actually is first, and then introduce examples (sound, heat, light). 

After that, you can read some books on the topic of energy. This is a great way to add variety to your lesson and increase comprehension. 

Then make it fun with science experiments! This is a great time for some hands-on learning. Think Diet Coke and Mentos eruptions or popsicle stick chain reaction activities. These are a great way to see forms of energy in motion. 

For more tips for teaching forms of energy, check out my post here. 

One of my favorite ways to do that is to use these free forms of energy activities.

forms of energy

These printable activities are easy and fun for kindergarten or first grade students. 

Included in this free resource you’ll get:

  • HOME CONNECTION – Parent Project
  • Energy – List the items that produce energy
  • Heat & Light Energy Mini-book
  • I Spy SOUND objects
  • What is energy? POSTER

forms of energy

If you want more, you can check out the full resource here. It covers Sound, Heat, and Light with a 3-week plan including 3 inquiry lessons, data notebook pages, a rubric, a home project, and so much MORE!

These activities are great for helping your early elementary students really understand the topic of energy in a  fun and engaging way! They will love learning and it will set them up for success in later grades.

What are your favorite ways to teach about forms of energy? Let me know in the comments! forms of energy