Hop into Easter!

This week flew by!  We only had 4 days of school, but the excitement leading up to Easter was overwhelming.  My students were thrilled and each day told me how they couldn't wait until Easter!  So, I of course had to encourage the excitement by having several fun Easter activities for the week.

For writing this week, we compared and contrasted a bunny and a chick.  We made a bunny and a chick to help us visualize the two animals.  Then, we wrote adjectives about both animals.  We made a list to compare both of them.  Some of the adjectives were the same because these two animals have some similarities.  To finish our writing, we made a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two animals.  The students used this diagram to write a sentence about a chick, a sentence about a bunny, and a sentence about both of them.  We practice the term compare and contrast by stating that it is when we tell how two things are the same and different (we put our hands together when we say the same, and we pull them apart when we say they're different).  This is a great way to help them remember this term because this is a difficult concept.  I like to use whole brain teaching when going over the term compare and contrast - it helps them remember.

During math we completed various activities!  We practiced graphing by graphing jellybeans.  I accidentally got the bag that only had red and pink jellybeans, so it wasn't as effective as I wanted it to be - but it worked!  We also practice our color words on the graphing paper by coloring each jellybean the matching color word.  The students also made tally marks of each jelly bean.

We also reviewed subtraction.  This is such a difficult concept for my kids.  They always want to add!  So, the more we practice - the better they will be.  We made a nest of eggs and subtracted the number of eggs that hatched to find out how many had NOT hatched.  Most students did a great job of making the eggs and subtracting the hatched eggs.  However, some were confused - so I had to emphasize that subtraction means "making it smaller."  This helped them understand that they must make the total number of eggs smaller.  Check out this fun activity.

After practicing subtraction, we practiced addition!  We worked on adding two numbers together using the fancy dice from Lakeshore.  You should check out these dice from there - I use them all the time.  We also reviewed reading color words because several of my students are struggling with those.  Check out the fun game we played and see how we wrote our addition problems.

We also practiced addition by adding the numbers on eggs together.  They had to pull them out of the basket and addthe numbers   together. Then, they opened the egg to check and see if their answer was right by counting the jellybean a inside. Thanks to Kindergarten Smorgasbord for the fun worksheet to go with it! 

In the afternoon, we painted eggs and chicks.  Then the students wrote about their egg-citing egg.  I was so impressed with their painting!  The kids did a great job of putting colors together.  I emphasized that they write using adjectives.  

We also dyed eggs using shaving cream.  This was so neat!  All you had to do was put shaving cream in a pan, add food coloring, put hard boiled eggs in the shaving cream and swirl them around. and then set the eggs on a paper plate to dry over night.  They turned out pretty cool and the kids loved getting messy!  

We also made deviled eggs and wrote how to make them.  Check out the freebie you can use when making deviled eggs!

We also had an Egg Hunt!  The students were so excited.  I made eggs with money in them so the students could practice adding money together.  Check out the money addition freebie below!

While my class was in their special class, the Easter Bunny came to visit and left this note for them.  Thanks to Maja Austin from Kooky Kinders!  She gave me this neat little note that I left on my door. The kids were SO excited - the bunny even left me a treat bag!

HAPPY EASTER!  Thanks for visiting and leave a comment below of what you did for Easter this week!