SPRING FLOWER TREE

This is a beautiful bulletin board for spring. Have students color and complete their tree. Make sure their name is on the tree. Then have students write a poem about trees or spring. This can be done easily if you format the poem. Center the TREES poem by Joyce Kilmer on the bulletin board. Put student art and poetry around it.

TREES

I think that I shall never see

A poem as lovely as a tree

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day

And lifts her leafy arms to pray,

A tree that may in summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair

Upon whose blossom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems were made by fools like me

But only God can make a tree.

­Joyce Kilmer

EASTER EGG COLORING DESIGN

This project can be done in a lot of ways.  First way that I like is to either lay an acetate on top of the egg pattern for the students to color and trace, or copy the pattern straight to the acetate for the students to color.  These can be put in the windows and add lots of colors on sunny days.  Be sure to use magic markers - permanent ones are great except for the smell, so keep your doors and windows open for ventilation.  Second way is to give the eggs to the students and let them color, cut out and place in the hallway with a GIANT EASTER BASKET and Easter Grass.  Third way is to blow up, print on tagboard (make sure it is not the slick side), color with markers, and cut out to hang from the ceiling.  Write an Easter or Spring Poem to put on the back side.  See MAY CEILING HANGINGS for another idea.

A BUNNY TALE WALL

You can choose to have students write on the bunny lines or do what I did and have the bunny be a pattern for wallpaper. The students write their tale on the tail! Demonstrate how to spread out cotton balls and glue around the edges of the tail.

MOTHER'S DAY STRAWBERRY WISHES

This is a cute, quick card that your student can make for their mothers.  Copy the Sweet Wishes Poem on colored paper.  Let students have planty of time to develop their wishes for their mothers.

LOVE THE EARTH REPORT CARD

It's report card time again.  Why not send out this report card with the 3rd quarter card.  Discuss in detail prior to sending home.  It can be used for extra credit.  Have students color in class before sending home.  When returned, post in the hallway so everyone can see how your class takes care of their world.  Then make a class book so it can be enjoyed some more.  At the end of the year place in Journal/Memory Books.

MOTHER'S DAY RECIPE BOOK

At the end of the year handwriting skills get a little sloppy.  This is a way to bring back "best" handwriting.  Send note home to mom, require recipes back in a timely manner.  Once all of the recipes are returned have students copy their recipe in their best handwriting.  It is easier for students if you format the paper they are to fill out.  Have lines for recipe name, time to make, oven temperature, then ingredients, and finally preparation.  Collate all of the recipes and package nice for Mother's Day. 

BUNNY POT

This makes a delightful Easter Gift, Mother Day's Gift or a nice gift for the elderly.  If you ask early enough Wal-Mart or Target will give you the pots as a charitable write off, then go to a hobby store and see what you can get off for the rest of the material.

AFTER LUNCH GARBAGE CRUNCH

This is a great way to get students to see the amount of waste that they are contributing to the lunch garbage pails.

RAINFOREST FROM SODA BOTTLE

ALL ABOUT SEEDS EXPERIMENT

POLLUTION SOLUTION BULLETIN BOARD

BUNNY CUPCAKES

Usually there is a parent that is willing to
make a party treat.  This one is really
cute and tasty.

READING UMBRELLA

This is a great way to encourage reading at home.  Print the raindrops on blue copy paper.  The umbrella can be various colors of construction paper.  It is so cute to see all of these hanging in windows or from ceilings.

POETRY BOOKLET

Do you want your students to experience a variety of poetry in a short time?  This is a great idea.  The teacher needs a lot of children poetry books as a resource in the classroom.  The students choose a book and read through the poetry.  Once they find a poem they like, they fill out the I LOVE POETRY sheet.  I usually started this after standardized testing.  Once students have completed a couple of sheets and understand how to handle the assignment, I let them choose to do this project during free time-center.  You may put the first pages completed in a CLASS BOOK, so everyone can see what the other students are doing and what poems were chosen.  It's amazing how quickly, the students find a poet they like.  This also shows the teacher, students that are "into" poetry.  It's a lot of fun and an easy project to bring into your classroom.  At the end of the year, have your students make a cover and insert their favorite poems for that year.  This could be a GIFT PROJECT for MOTHER'S DAY if you wished.

TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR TEACHERS

I found this very interesting and in some ways it encapsulates what teachers need to do to stay fresh and continue to enjoy the "teaching element" of the job in today's world.

BANANA SPLIT PROGRAM

This is a great program that can be used at any grade level for making sure that the math facts for that grade are learned at the end of the year. This program needs to be started 2 months before the end of the year, so all students have success. I usually started right after Spring Break, if that gave enough time. You are able to build several layers into this program that will meet every child's needs. The BASIC PROGRAM has students move through the basic math facts for their grade level. For 3rd Grade this is the Multiplication Math Facts. 2nd Grade could do Addition or Subtraction Facts or mix them. 4th Grade can do Division or a mix of Multiplication and Division. 5th can do a mix of all the facts or focus on fractions or decimals.

MULTIPLICATION BANANA SPLIT PARTY! Dear Parents, Our third grade math classes are very excited! We are planning a Multiplication Banana Split Party. The children will build their banana split according to how many multiplication facts they know. This is how they earn their “split” items:  
TIMES TABLES ITEM IT EARNS -   


2------------BOWL  
3------------ICE CREAM  
4------------TOPPING  
5------------SPOON  
6------------WHIPPED CREAM  
7------------CHERRY  
8------------COOKIE  
9------------CARAMEL TOPPING  
0-9----------BANANA  
The party will be held on XXX xxth. If you are able to contribute an item on the list, please write it down and I will be contacting you before the party. Please encourage your child to learn ALL the facts so they have a delicious Banana Split! 
Thank you, 
3rd Grade Teachers  
I will be willing to contribute ___________.  
CHILD’S NAME____________________
PARENT’S NAME__________________

SECOND PART OF THE PROGRAM: After the students earn the BANANA SPLIT by passing all the basic timed tests, they may work toward THE MATH WALL OF FAME which is a poster out in the hallway that has student photos placed in it. To achieve this recognition, students need to pass the four 100 timed tests in ADDITION, SUBTRACTION, MULTIPLICATION, and DIVISION. Once they have been successful in this endeavor, take their picture, and place it on the wall board in the hallway. To acknowledge these students we gave them giant Swizzle Sticks purchased from Party City on the last day of school.

THIRD PART OF THE PROGRAM: Students that have their pictures in the hallway can continue to study and progress with MIXED MATH SHEETS.