Spring Break Activities for English Language Arts

 

Tip #1 from Tracee Orman - Leading up to and coming back from breaks can be so hard to get students back into the swing of things. That's why I had no shame in showing a movie to ease our way back in. I tried to plan watching movies based on (or related to) the literature we just read. And because I wanted to hold my students accountable for watching, I created these handouts (I usually picked a different one each day so as not to overwhelm them with too much work so they could still enjoy the movie) to use with ANY movie. 

Tip #2 from Room 213 - It can be hard to keep everyone - teachers and students alike - engaged and focused in the days leading up to spring break. That's why I never planned anything too dull or difficult for that time. However, I also don't think we should take the time "off" and plan a bunch of filler. If we do that, students might just take those days off as they think they don't count. So, I used that time to work on skills that needed some fine-tuning using games and challenges. You can find out more and grab some ideas and strategies on this post.
 

Tip #3 from The Classroom Sparrow - One of the ways that I keep my students engaged during the last week before s the break is using team-building activities. Not only does it give students a fund send-off for their time away, but this is also a great opportunity to allow students in a classroom to work with different peers. I think working with different students is really important for social development and it is highly encouraged in my classroom. One way I get everyone interacting and engaging with their peers are through these spring break escape room-style games I created. They are perfect for the week before or after the break and you can use one or all of them, depending on the time available in your classroom!

Tip #4 from Presto Plans - Students tend to have a little extra energy in the days before - and after - Spring Break. Once activity that you can use to stay on task is a Spring-themed reading mystery, which will have students up and moving around the classroom and working collaboratively to examine evidence. The Mystery of the Stolen Flowers is not only timely, but it will also help your students develop their close reading, inference, and text evidence skills at the same time. The backstory involves a newly established high school gardening program - and the sudden disappearance of one teachers' beloved pink lilies. Click here to learn more about this engaging Spring reading mystery!

Tip #5 from Nouvelle ELA - Spring has sprung, so if your student are starting to closer resemble squirrels by the day, then this pop culture resource will make your students go nuts! Students get to engage in 15 standards-aligned activities that center awesome short texts to hook them. So, if your students love video games, short films, TV episodes, music, and more, you can leverage their interests to transform that squirrelly Spring behavior into productive, academic conversations!

Whether you're still waiting for your break or you're back from your break, we hope that you will find something in this post that will help you get back into the swing of things!