Elementary Matters: Spring Literacy and Math Game Collection

It has been one long cold winter here in New Hampshire!

From what I understand, it's been a long cold winter all over the US!

Signs of Spring Resources - Are you and your students ready for spring? Here are several ideas and resources to make sure that fun learning is happening!

Spring in New England shows up in mid-April, but as I was driving to my hair appointment this morning, I saw a couple of signs of Spring!

I saw buckets on maple trees!

I know Vermont is the big state for maple syrup, but we do it here in New Hampshire, too! The maple syrup tapping is actually late this year, because the weather's been so cold. They need cold nights and warm days for the sap to flow. We've had plenty of cold nights, but today, we had a warm day. The temp actually went up to 50! I actually took my coat off in the car, and didn't even button it when I was outside! It was fabulous!

Here's the other sign of spring I saw...

a little something green:

Yep, McDonald's Shamrock Shakes are definitely a sign that spring is coming!

I have a few things about spring up my sleeve. I always make sure I have plenty of books about the subject. Here are a few of my favorites:

I always make sure I read a few to the kids, but I also make sure I've got them in the book tubs so the kiddos will explore them.

I think videos are great to help the children understand concepts, especially things like how seasons work. Here are a couple I've found!

What Causes Earth's Seasons: (10:48 min)

How Seasons Work (58 seconds)

How Equinox's Work: Beyond Our Earth (2:24 minutes)

Try them all and see which one you like best!

As most teachers know, squeezing in science and social studies topics is tough, since most of our time is dedicated to reading, writing, and math! In my attempt to keep some of the fun stuff in the classroom, I've included signs of spring in with important literacy and math concepts in this set of No Prep Printables: Signs of Spring Printables: Literacy and Math. I've got some math story problems, popular fact games, word work, writing, and comprehension work, all somehow connected to Signs of Spring.

Check out Signs of Spring No Prep Literacy and Math Worksheets and Printables.

Spring is a great time to teach about life cycles! Here's a bundle of crafts and activities for the life cycles of 9 different plants and animals, at a huge discount! Spring Life Cycle Bundle

Here are some other games and activities with a spring theme:

Some of my students are struggling to remember the +9 and -9 Facts, so I made this game to make practicing fun: Adding and Subtracting Nines: Spring Flower Theme

My kids are working on using mental math for adding and subtracting. This game board has a set of cards for addition mental math, and a set of cards for subtraction mental math. Plus, it's got built-in brain breaks! It's a favorite in my classroom: Mental Math Addition and Subtraction: Spring Board Game.

Finally, this is a collection of 6 different games that are related to spring. It has word work, grammar, and plenty of math games, all made for second graders, but are also appropriate for high firsts or review for third graders. See the image to take a closer look at Literacy and Math Games Spring Bundle.

Happy Spring!

Years ago, before I was a mom, whenever we reached this point in the winter, I'd have a summer party. I'd turn the heat up in the house, encourage guests to wear shorts and flip flops, decorate the house with beach towels, buckets, shovels, and play a lot of Beach Boys music. (We also might have had some beverages with umbrellas!) It never made the snow go away, but it would always lift our spirits and help us get through the rest of the winter.

I've had enough of winter, haven't you? Let's pretend it's summer! This blog post has several ideas and resources to help lift yourself out of your winter doldrums!

A few years ago, we had one of "these" winters, and I could see that the kids were getting to that point... so we took a virtual trip to Mexico!

We actually got into an imaginary plane, took flight, and ended up in sunny Mexico! The kids are so imaginative, and so are the parents! The children would talk about how hot they were, and parents would send in Mexican treats for snacks!

It may be time to bring back Sunny Mexico.
Or at least pretend it's summer!

Are you (and your students) as sick of winter as I am?
You're welcome to join me in starting summer a bit early!

Here are a few of my warm weather resources: (See the images for the links!)

Seashore Bundle!