My Plans for April Fool's Day

The laughter of children is one of my very favorite sounds!

That's why I go out of my way to hear it on April Fool's Day in my classroom!

 

These are my plans for April Fool's Day!

April Fool's Day No Prep Activities!

This set has more than enough to spend the day on fun, silly activities, yet still squeeze in a little learning and skill work!

For math, there are story problems (with silly situations, of course!), three-digit mental math (adding hundreds) math fact review, and balancing equations-second grade style!

For word work, there's a great list of April Fool's day words, sentence writing, alphabetical order, compound words, and spelling practice.

There's an April Fool's themed writing practice.

For reading, there's prediction and visualizing.

This should keep those little guys busy, and happy, too! You'll be hearing that delightful laughter!

Just see the image for the link!

April Fool's Day Math Stories!

See this link, for this math resource, too! This is a sample of the larger resource above... just the math stories!

This resource is good for the whole year, but it's particularly enjoyable around April Fool's Day!

Facts About Comedy Boom Cards

Looking for more April Fool's Day learning fun? 

Check out these other blog posts.

The Day that Teachers Dread? 

8 Ways to Spice up April Fool's Day

How Do I Squeeze in Mardi Gras?

I really like to find ways to celebrate all those special days, but it's not easy to squeeze everything in. 

Mardi Gras is just about fun, and it's at a time of the year when the children really need something to lift their spirits, so I find a way to squeeze it in... by having the Mardi Gras theme overlap what I need to teach anyway!  Like Math!

Well, for one, I thought I'd squeeze a little Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day into math time with these math problems:

 

 Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day 2-Digit Addition and Subtraction Story Problems

Here's another fun way to "squeeze in" Mardi Gras without losing time developing important skills: Mardi Gras No Prep Printables! These practice important skills, but have a Mardi Gras theme. These are great if you are going to be out for the day or are so busy you don't have time to plan! 

But first, I'll read them a book on Mardi Gras and let them make some masks on Monday. (That way, the math problems will make a whole lot more sense on Tuesday!)

Each title is an affiliate link to Amazon.

Mardi Gras and Carnival (Celebrations in My World)

Mardi Gras in New Orleans: An Alphabet Book

Mardi Gras

How do you manage to squeeze in the fun stuff this busy time of year?

Let the Games Begin!

We had the first day of our Academic Olympics today, and we all had a great time!

We started with our Opening Ceremony first thing in the morning. The children were dressed in their country's color, and carried their banners and flags. I also had my teacher assistant carry the Olympic Torch and an Olympic flag. The countries lined up in alphabetical order, just like they will in July in Paris. I carried the American flag at the end of our parade, after all, that's where the "host nation" always goes. We marched up and down all the hallways. Many of the other students and teachers peeked out of their classrooms to wish us well.

When we got back to the room, we made a big circle with all the countries. Each academic athlete touched the Olympic flag while they recited the Olympic Oath and the Olympic Creed. (I copied these almost word for word from what they use at the Olympics, with a few slight changes. I added the word "academic" in front of sports, and I left out the part about performance-enhancing drugs.)

After the Oath and the Creed, I had all academic athletes shake hands with each other and say the words: Let the games begin!

We held several contests today! The team events we had:

• brainstorming
• math puzzle 
• banner design
• reading endurance (they earned points for the team if they were focused on reading when I checked)
• Group phonics scoot

Then we also had a couple of individual events:

• reading with expression (Judged in 4 categories... volume, expression, clarity, and presentation)
• math facts (both addition and subtraction)

Then we had medal ceremonies! I let the first-place winners stand on chairs, and as that country's national anthem played, I placed medals around their necks. I still get all goosebumpy when I think of their faces as I placed the ribbons around their necks... they even did that little "head dip" to allow me to get the ribbon around them, and they picked it up and looked at it proudly, just as I've seen Olympic athletes do! (I'm a sucker for ritual, and the kids really loved it!)

Well, it was a VERY busy day, and we still have more tomorrow! I wanted to share a couple of papers I made up for my Olympics, just in case you get any inspiration for end-of-the-year activities or summer fun! Explore the image or HERE for this resource!

For a more complete resource, explore HERE.

Looking for a little more Academic/ Olympic fun? Try these No Prep activities with a Summer Games theme!

How do you keep the excitement going while keeping academics in focus?