Holidays

One of my favorite parts of teaching is bringing in something totally unrelated to normal teaching, like candy, styrofoam balls, or even whipped cream, and telling the students that it is part of their lesson for the day. Their eyes light up. Some of them don't believe it. Some of them cheer. No matter what the response, they are instantly hooked, and a great lesson ... Read More

Valentine's Day is one of the best holidays for candy science activities. I typically do the candy hearts in various types of liquids, but a lot of times, by 5th grade, students have done that before, and we do similar science activities for dissolving candy pumpkins and dissolving candy canes in various types of liquid. One of my new go-to Valentine's Day science ... Read More

Holidays are a great time to implement STEM activities. This post will share a fun Valentine STEM and reading activity involving Cupid's bow and arrow. I am obsessed with adding in the reading component to STEM activities to integrate literacy so this will share a reading passage to activate students prior knowledge and get them excited before the activity. For ... Read More

The holidays are the perfect time of the year to teach students the importance of being kind. To do this, I like to have my students complete random acts of kindness throughout the month of December using a Holiday Themed RAK bingo to guide us. On this post, I will share the bingo board that I use with tips for how to use it in your classroom. Ways to Use the Random ... Read More

Fourth and fifth graders are definitely not too old to enjoy Christmas games (or holiday games). This post shares some of my favorite Christmas games for the classroom. Many of these ideas also double as Christmas gifts. The games are pure fun and not educational. If you are looking for educational Christmas activities for your 4th and 5th graders, then click ... Read More

I love all things holiday and am always looking for ways to engage my students and keep them motivated to behave and work during the months leading up to a major holiday. Even though my students are fifth graders, I still want them to enjoy a bit of the magic of Christmas. On this post, I will share a super engaging Christmas mystery bag activity that works well for a ... Read More

The holidays are the perfect time to engage your students with activities that you don't get to do during the regular school year. This Christmas STEM activity is a student favorite and perfect for engaging your students in engineering and math skills while also sneaking in some holiday fun. STEM Focus: The focus for this Christmas STEM activity is engineering and ... Read More

With the sights, sounds, and smells of Christmas surrounding us for almost a quarter of a year, have you ever stopped to consider how all the Christmas objects and decorations actually came to be? Who invented it and when? This whole class or individual student Christmas craft (or simply a Christmas reading activity) is a great way to bring in some holiday cheer into your ... Read More

Have you seen those puzzles floating around social media where you have to determine the value of different images and then solve a final equation? Those are super addictive and I always stop my scroll and solve them. Most of the time, the fifth grade teacher in me gets them correct. However, I have been tricked a time or two. ;) After solving my fifteenth one this past ... Read More