I feel that sometimes…the upper elementary students kind of miss out on all the fun February activities because we are getting into full test prep mode. It kind of stinks, right?! I love being able to bring some of the holidays into the classroom even if it’s just to add it to the practice pages.
Groundhog Day
Being from the south, we don’t put much thought into Groundhog Day. Not because we don’t like it- but we don’t really have a winter. Our coldest day this year so far was at 56 degrees. When we think of the Groundhog, we always think that people must really hate the snow because they are mad when he predicts 6 more weeks of winter.
Groundhog Day Math Pack
Adding a math no prep math pack to your day will help you add in some fun themes into your classroom while also making sure the students are receiving their rigorous instruction. Not only are you encouraging students to practice their skill, but they also get to doodle or color when they get stressed out. Check it out here!
Groundhog Day Math Centers
If you’ve been around for a while… You might know that I love math centers. And the best part is you can reuse them year after year. I love that because I don’t have to keep redoing the work every year. I print them, cut them, I laminate them, I pass them out. Check out the math centers here!
STEM Activity
I love stem activities and I love incorporating picture books with the stem activities as well. The book Mae among the stars is absolutely amazing. I love being able to encourage students to blast off into space with some fun activities. Check out the blog post I wrote a few years ago all about this fun activity.
Valentine’s Day
Are you obsessed with Valentine’s Day? I am not obsessed with it BUT I do love getting flowers and some chocolate. Who will pass that up? A lot of time, I will only use the Valentine’s theme for my February activities. Lately, I added more and honestly, I kind of like adding more. Don’t get me wrong, seeing hearts everywhere is amazing but I can only handle so much.
Valentine’s Day Choice Boards
Sometimes it is so hard to encourage our students to be kind to others especially when there is so much hate in the world. Lucky for us we have an awesome way of promoting kindness. That would be kindness week. We are able to encourage students to be kind to others by completing a random act of kindness. That could be by sending a card, writing a note to someone, holding the door open for someone. They don’t have to be major acts of kindness but just one act of kindness may change someone’s day. I love adding Valentine’s Day choice boards to our day or even the month because it encourages students to think outside the box when it comes to being kind.
Math Games
Of course no holiday would be without having some awesome math centers. I really like this one because the graphics are absolutely adorable. I also love adding these to my rotations because a lot of them are ahead of what they are actually working on. For example, one of the centers is quadrilaterals and I don’t teach that for another four or five weeks after Valentine’s Day. This allows my kids to be exposed to quadrilaterals without having a major stress out moment. So it’s kind of like opening their eyes to what’s coming ahead. Valentine’s games can be found here!
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No Prep Math Pack
You can also check out the Valentine’s Day no prep math pack. I love being able to keep the themes going for February and this is a great way of adding different elements to our day. I often will use these as homework, math groups, and sometimes even as morning work.
President’s Day
President’s Day Choice Boards
It’s no secret that Choice Boards are amazing. They are a great way for students to research president’s, write letters to president’s and so much more. These take so much pressure off of you because the students take the learning into their own hands. They want to choose their activity without a teacher saying – here – do this.
President’s Day No Prep Math Pack
By now I’m sure you figured out that I love no prep math packs. These are great during Presidents’ Day. Not only can they practice math but we can also introduce him to different presidents that were in the United States. The students will be able to read different presidents and hopefully they will be encouraged to want to research president on their own. Hey, we can hope for it right?
If you found this blog post but you were searching for the January blog post, go ahead and click here.
