April Activities For Upper Elementary
Aaaahhhh! It’s almost April and you know what that means. The snow has melted and the soft, refreshing rains of spring are upon us. Soon we will see flowers popping up everywhere after a long, dreary winter. In addition to the changes in the weather, April is filled with some fun holidays too! With April Fools Day, Earth Day, and Easter all wrapped up in one month, there are lots of engaging themes to bring into the classroom. I have a lot of fun April activities to help you finish strong.
April Morning Message Slides
Starting the day off right with a morning message every day helps students know exactly what to expect when they walk into your room. By April we have our morning routine down and consistency has been the key to starting our days off well. An easy-to-follow morning routine is one of the most important classroom management procedures you can have in an upper elementary classroom.
Your students will look forward to seeing these morning messages each day! Each morning message slide includes a daily quote, a question of the day, a to-do list, and the always anticipated BITMOJI avatar. By using these editable slides, your students will immediately know your expectations when they walk through the door.
A morning message is sure to help your morning run smoothly and efficiently. While your students unpack and get started with their day, you are freed up to take attendance, talk with parents, or anything else that needs your attention. Additionally, using a morning message also allows your students to strengthen their independent work skills.
You can grab these April BITMOJI Morning Messages and start your day off on the right foot! Or, save this idea by pinning it for later!
April Activities for Reading
These April and spring reading activities are a great way to engage your students with the current season while working on important comprehension skills, too. These reading resources will provide your students with the practice they need to master main idea and supporting details and work on other reading comprehension skills.
April Close Reading Resources
One of my absolute favorite reading instruction strategies is close reading. If you haven’t tried close reading, or just want to learn more about it you can read this post for all the details. I really love how it provides guided focus on a variety of reading skills and strategies. Students also love using the same reading passage every day to focus on a different aspect of reading comprehension.
The April Close Reading passages are filled with lots of engaging topics that your students will love! This month the close reads include:
Each close reading set includes a reading passage, differentiated to include two options for different reading levels. Everything you need to guide students through four readings of the passage and related activities to deepen their understanding is included. A close reading anchor chart and student instructions for each activity make these activities super easy to implement. It is really a week of reading instruction that is ready to print and use.
Here’s a peek inside the April Close Reading Passages:
Spring Reading Comprehension Mystery Pictures
These reading skills mystery pictures will soon become your student’s favorite reading activities. They give your students an opportunity to use art and reading skills together in a fun way. And what kid doesn’t love a little mystery? Getting students engaged in reading can sometimes be a struggle, but when you add in a little bit of mystery and creativity, these are sure to be an instant hit in your classroom.
With these Reading Skills Mystery Pictures, you get both a printable and digital option. Students will read the reading passage and answer the related questions. But it doesn’t stop there. Students will use the color next to their answer choice to color in the coordinating parts of the mystery picture. On the digital activity, the mystery picture will automatically color in part of the picture when students enter a correct answer. Find out more about these engaging reading activities here.
Spring Main Idea
As we all know, teaching the main idea requires scaffolded instruction and it’s important to start with some basics. At the beginning of the year, this resource introduces students to finding the main idea using short paragraphs with an obvious main idea and easy to find supporting details. However, as the year goes on the passages gradually get a little harder, helping students build their skills. By April students generally have a solid understanding of this skill and are ready for a little more challenge.
Here students will read with one purpose in mind and that is identifying the main idea. Students are then required to go back and find text evidence to provide the supporting details. Not only does this help them master this skill, but it also reinforces great reading strategies for standardized testing.
You can find the Spring Main Idea resource in my store. If you know this is a skill your students need practice with all year long, then grab the Main Idea Bundle and save!
No Prep Skills Review Packs for Math and Reading
If you are looking for some skills-based, no-prep activities then you want to check out these resources. Each pack includes a variety of math, reading, and language arts review worksheets that are the perfect April activities for morning work, centers, or even homework. They are also perfect to leave for a sub!
Easter No Prep Skills Review Pack
The reality for teachers this time of year is kids are starting to get antsy for summer break. But we all know learning isn’t done and we are as busy as ever. Am I right? It can be hard to keep the attention and focus of students when they have spring fever. A skills review is important during this home stretch to help students solidify the learning they have done all year. Don’t fret about adding one more thing to your schedule. I’m here to help with No Prep Easter Activities for Math and Reading to help save you time and provide your students with the rigorous review they need this time of year.
Similar to the no-prep skills review packs you have seen in my store for past holidays, this no-prep Easter resource includes a variety of math, reading, and language arts activities. Your students will love the Easter theme and won’t realize how much they are practicing their skills.
Here are just a few of the skills your students will practice with these no-prep Easter activities:
- drawing inferences
- point of view
- progressive verb tenses
- reason and evidence to support text
- themes found in literature
- adding and subtracting mixed numbers
- multiplying fractions by whole numbers
- converting measurement units
…and there’s more, too!
Grab this Easter No Prep Skills Review Pack in my store and engage your students with these skills-based math and reading activities.
Earth Day No Prep Skills Review Pack
We can’t let Easter have all the fun! Later in the month we can use Earth Day to engage our students in more great academic activities. The Earth Day No Prep Skills Review Pack activities are sure to hit the spot and save you time!
Students typically love Earth Day and they enjoy celebrating everything Earth-friendly during the month of April. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always loved planning special activities that focus on recycling and keeping our environment clean and healthy. You can use this Earth Day no prep skills review pack to supplement learning while reviewing a variety of math and reading skills.
Some awesome activities included in this no-prep pack include:
- A vocabulary graphic organizer
- Understanding and explaining procedures related to single-stream recycling
- Grammar review color by code recycling mystery picture
- Understanding the meaning of words and phrases while reading about useful trash
- Earth Day decimals and fractions
- Protractor Practice
- Recycling bin division squares
…and much more!
Be sure to scoop up this Earth Day No Prep Skills Review. Your students will love completing the activities that are included!
Stickers, Stickers, and more Digital Stickers!
We all know it has been a tough year. With the increased use of digital learning activities, it is easy to lose that personal response and encouragement that can come with grading papers, writing a note, or drawing a simple happy face. Digital stickers to the rescue!
I love stickers just as much as students do, and in this digital world, they have evolved into something even more exciting and interactive. I don’t have to see my students in person to utilize them with these digital sticker packs. It’s easy for you to reward your students doing virtual learning or while you are grading digital assignments using digital stickers. You can find out just how easy digital stickers are to use in this post.
For April, stock up on digital stickers for Spring, Easter, and Earth Day. And don’t forget, digital stickers can be used again and again.
Your students will be excited to collect their digital stickers and keep them in their digital sticker book. This book has become quite the focus this past year as students create their own digital stickers collections.
If digital stickers are your new joy, you will LOVE The Seasonal Digital Stickers Growing Bundle. This huge assortment of seasonal stickers is perfect to reward students throughout the year. And the best part of digital stickers is that they never run out of sticky. With the digital sticker bundle, you can use these stickers year after year and never have to throw them out because they have lost their stickiness.
Save these April Activities
April is full of excitement and all things spring. Let these ready-to-use April activities help you plan engaging and fun activities for your students without the extra work from you. Just pin this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so that you can come back throughout the month as you need fun, engaging skills-based activities for your class.
