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Spring Break Packets For Elementary

March 11, 2022 teachersbrain Teacher's Pay Teachers

We all know how important it is for our students to get a break from school. To relax and take their mind off of it and just enjoy being kids. Spring break is a great time to do this!

As important as the downtime is, it wouldn’t hurt for students to also get a little practice with those skills we’ve been working so hard on in class. In fact, parents are often asking for something for their children to work on while they’re out of school.

Naturally, with any break from school, there is a degree of regression. Studies actually show that students are more likely to score lower on tests after being on break than they are during school.

Assigning light but engaging activities during spring break can be the perfect way to keep their brains active while not in school and prevent that learning regression as much as possible.

The key is to assign work that is engaging and will get your students thinking, but won’t take up too much of their time.

When I was in the classroom, I would let the students know that it’s not mandatory, but if they complete it, they will get some sort of reward or prize when they return it to school. This could be a homework pass, treat, pizza party, or something similar.

I created Spring Break Packets for each elementary grade to help make it easy for you!

These packets have a spring theme to make it fun for students. You can buy them as a bundle or individually for the grade you need! No prep required, just print these out and go!

Here’s what you can expect for each grade level:

Pre-K

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists and progress monitoring sheet, handwriting, trace lines, find the letter, color the crayon, writing, upper and lowercase letter work, patterns, sight word find, coloring, comprehension sequencing cards, math printables (adding, counting, shapes, number charts, number line, counting on)

Kindergarten

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists, progress monitoring sheet, narrative writing, printables on CVC word families, reading comprehension, rhyming word crossword puzzle, handwriting practice, ABC order, rewrite the sentence, adjectives and nouns, math printables (addition, subtraction, counting on, adding single digit numbers, shapes, fill in the number chart, number bonds, 10 more, 10 less and 1 MORE 1 Less)

First Grade

Spring break word bank, reading log, sight word lists, narrative writing, printables on CVC word families, reading comprehension, , ABC order, rewrite the sentence, adjectives and nouns, Math Printables ( Addition, subtraction, mental math, adding 2 digit numbers, shapes, measurement, number bonds, 10 more, 10 less and 1 MORE 1 Less)

Second Grade

Word bank, reading log, sight word list, opinion writing, printables on adjectives, nouns , plural and singular nouns, collective nouns, reading comprehension, suffixes, ABC order, rewrite the sentence and word sorts, math printables ( expanded form addition, subtraction, mental math, adding 3 numbers, shapes, measurement, 10 more, 10 less)

Third Grade

Word bank, reading log, sight word list, opinion & narrative writing, printables on context clues, abbreviations, prepositions, verbs reading comprehension, suffixes, ABC order, and rewriting the sentence, math printables (bar graph, addition and subtraction 3 digits, rounding, perimeter and area, fractions, multiplication, division and comparing numbers)

Fourth Grade

Word bank, reading log, suggested sight word list, biography reporting, opinion & narrative writing, printables on context clues, to too two, there they’re their, a an, prefixes, root words, suffixes, relative pronouns, comprehension, past tenses, ABC order, and rewriting the sentence, Math Printables (factoring, 3-digit addition, rounding, multiping using the area model, greater than less than, rounding, fractions, multiplication and comparing numbers)

Fifth Grade

Word bank, reading log, 5th grade suggested sight word list, biography reporting, opinion, informative & narrative writing, printables on context clues, fluency, there they’re their, inference, main Idea, prefixes, root words, suffixes, relative pronouns, comprehension, past tenses, ABC order, and correcting sentences, math printables (graphing points, coordinate patterns, adding subtracting and multiplying decimals, order of operation, factoring, 3-digit addition, rounding, multiping using the area model, greater than less than, rounding, fractions, multiplication and comparing numbers)

Do you assign school work during spring break? Let me know in the comments!

At Home Learning During The Cornonavirus

March 17, 2020 teachersbrain Teaching Tips

This is a scary time we are living in right now. Part of me as parent wants to tell the district that we have bigger issues to worry about than distance learning. The teacher part of me knows that students can miss a lot of information in a month or two without instruction. There is no way that we can replace good teachers with parents or packets to be as effective for our children, but parents can encourage home education during this time.

Are Worksheets the Answer?

You won’t find many teachers who support overloading kids with worksheets, but you also won’t find many who never use worksheets. Sending home packets with students can be a great way to keep students learning if we remember the importance of worksheets.

Just because it’s on paper doesn’t mean it’s bad. Well-designed worksheets help structure work for children. Printed resources can keep children on task, help them concentrate and hopefully help them work with very little support from adults. I know lots of teachers who had to scramble to put packets together for students this past week. Some felt guilty. Others felt like they did a service for their families. I have used packets in the classroom to organize student work. Many worksheets are designed to have students work together or provides a hands-on learning game. I sent home spring break packets, summer packets and homework packets regularly to my families to help their children.

Worksheets as ACTIVITIES

Some worksheets can easily be made into flashcards, tasks for physical or oral activities, puzzles, origami, art or games. One of my favorite kinds of printables are Write the Room activities. This is where you place vocabulary words, sentences or pictures around a room. Students must move around to locate each one. Then, they read and write it on a worksheet.

Many worksheets have checkoffs or keys for students to use to monitor their own learning progress. As a teacher, I can use the worksheets or activities to see how my students are learning. Parents could check to see if students did the work later instead of having to be there if they have to go to work. Worksheet packets for students who don’t have access to computers can be very valuable to their education. What parent doesn’t like to hang a worksheet or piece of art on the refrigerator to show they support their child’s efforts?

Powerful Packets

Teachers would all love to have hands-on “worksheet free” classrooms. The truth is sometimes you can’t replace old fashion paper and pencil activities. They are valuable when you need assessment tools that show previous knowledge, to view learning outcomes, to share information with other adults and to allow students to monitor the progress of their own learning.

Not all kids can learn from a packet or worksheet which is why the value of a good educator will always be needed for maximum growth. Packets can be powerful though. So, don’t judge others who find them successful.

Keep helping students to learn, use social distance and keep your hands clean! We are all in this together. Which reminds me of these FREE labels to put on your hand sanitizer bottles to help empower children.