Celebrating Easter in the Classroom

I teach at a very diverse public elementary school.  I don't know about you, but at my school we have to be careful about celebrating holidays for a few reasons.  First, we need to make sure that all of our kiddos feel welcome, respected and included.  Second, our school has a culture of rigorous instruction.  Celebrating holidays just for the sake of celebrating holidays is a big no no - we need to make sure that all activities have a purpose and help our little ones learn.  

Personally, I LOVE holidays.  One of my favorite things to do is figure out how to incorporate holidays into my curriculum in a way that is inclusive and teaches.  Here are a few ways that I incorporate Easter and Spring into the curriculum.

One of the easiest ways, of course, is through a good read aloud.  I am a HUGE Kevin Henkes fan, and Little White Rabbit* is one of my favorites.  My students always love it too.  We use this text to practice identifying our favorite part of a book.  It is perfect because it has lots of different parts for kiddos to choose from.

The students draw their favorite part, write a sentence and add this cute bunny craftivity.  I love all of the language and writing that goes into this project, and it looks super adorable on my bulletin board.  Win, win!

Another favorite is tie dye Easter egg art.  This project is a little messy but couldn't be easier!  They also make great classroom decorations to make your room feel Springy.  For step by step directions, click on the photo above.

Another fun and easy way to incorporate Easter is through math centers.  My little ones BEG me for "math hunts."  This center is easy to prep and can be used year after year!  It also reinforces one to one correspondence and teaches children how to use ten frames while getting them excited about math.

To check out this center plus five additional Spring math centers, click {here} or on the photo above.

 Last but not least is our very favorite Easter activity - the Easter egg hunt!  That pesky bunny sneaks into our classroom while the kids are at specials and leaves tons of eggs and snacks around the classroom.  Even Pete the Cat* gets in on the action!

 See those eggs peeking out of the bookshelf?

 To make it fair, each child is allowed to collect only a certain number of items.  When they find them, they drop them into a hula hoop in the meeting area.  After each child has found his/her number of objects, they can help a friend or take a seat.  When all of the eggs and snacks are found, we count them and figure out how to divide them equally between all of our friends (math!).  You could also practice sorting by color or graphing the eggs.  At the end of the day we all enjoy our special snacks and get to bring our eggs home.  You could also add them to your sensory bin!  They make great scoopers to use with sand or rice.

Hoppy Easter!

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