The Joy of Teaching: Easter

Easter has snuck up on us this year! I guess having just been off for Spring Break the week before we weren't ready! Moving up to 2nd grade, I wasn't sure what to do about Easter. In Kindergarten and 1st grade it is a BIG deal to say the least. Lots of planning ahead, decorating, egg collecting, parent helpers, Easter Bunny sightings, etc. Luckily for me, my teammie had planned a Math Easter Egg Hunt for her afterschool tutoring kids on Wednesday. As I walked by, I asked what they were doing. I knew it would be perfect for my class the next day.

30 eggs were filled with spiraling math problems and hidden outside. One math problem in each egg. Each student got an answer sheet to right down their responses. For every 5 questions they answered correctly, they got 1 piece of candy. We gave them 30 minutes. They had a blast racing around trying to solve the problems as quickly as they could!

As a rule I never give candy to the children but Holidays are always an exception. I even broke my no candy rule for myself and had a very delicious Blow-Pop for the first time in I can't even count how many years. I told the students this was the first candy I had eaten in a month and one little girl exclaimed "Mrs. Cameron, how can you live like that?!?" :D :D :D hahaha Made me laugh so hard!

We also managed to throw in a little Easter art project in the afternoon. I love me some guided drawing. The students are always so amazed at how their work turns out. And honestly, often times, I am too! :D I knew time might be an issue so I chose something I knew they could do fairly quickly. I found the guided drawing idea from here. As I drew each part of the bunny using the overhead projector the children watched and copied what I did. Don't ever worry about them all looking identical because they never do!

Each child receives the instruction as they hear it and draws accordingly. They all look so different. They always ask "like this, Ms. Cameron?" and I always tell them it's their artwork and it's fine! Drawing is always the hard part, painting the easiest.