Take the opportunity to break up the monotony of your classroom with unique and fun day before spring break activities. I never want to feel like I’m “wasting” class time, but I also know my students have a hard time concentrating when they know they are inching towards a week of freedom. Here’s a list of my favorite activities you can use in secondary ELA before you head to spring break.
1. Baseball Close Reading
Take advantage of the spring season and practice close reading skills. Trying to add nonfiction text to your ELA classrooms can be a daunting task, but these engaging texts from my baseball close reading bundle are great to have in your arsenal. They are super flexible and can be used for stations, fast finishers, substitute plans, or independent study. These passages include Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Alex Rodriguez, and Joe DiMaggio. Your students will get into the spirit of the season while still practicing important reading and writing skills. Find the full bundle here.
2. Parts of Speech with a Spring Twist
Mad Libs are a fun, unique, and engaging activity – and they allow students to flex their ELA skills. Celebrate the beginning of spring break by having students complete spring-inspired silly stories. If you’re looking for whole group activities or to enhance your class culture, check out these Spring Silly Stories.
3. Create a Spring Banner
Build class culture and decorate your space with a cute banner activity. This is no-prep, and can be used as inexpensive decor. It’s a perfect way to celebrate the beginning of spring break and the festivity of spring. My resource here comes with letters to spell “HELLO SPRING” with two different floral options to give it some flare. You can also use the blank template and let students decorate to your class theme.
4. Play Word Games
Use the opportunity to play spring-themed word puzzles. Wordle is all the craze, and there are a few websites that are Wordle inspired for you to create your own words and lists. MyWordle.Me lets you make a custom Wordle which you then generate with a link for others to play. This would be great for those still teaching in digital classrooms or who have access to class technology. There’s also this resource in my shop pre-made with 4 printable word games to download and use immediately.
5. Roll a Spring Story Creative Writing Activity
Bring excitement and engagement with this creative writing activity students complete with a bit of luck. Students roll for their main story elements, brainstorm, then begin writing. This will even work digitally if you use my resource here as it comes with a dice script. Also included are four attractive writing pages you can print and use. I also love using this as a bulletin board in the spring!
6. Review Plot with Enola Holmes
This movie is so engaging and pairs perfectly with a mystery unit or as a review for plot. My Enola Holmes Movie Worksheet Activity is ready to go and will ask students to detail the major events in the film on an attractive plot diagram. Students then critique and create a starred review. If you’re looking to amp up “movie day” – this is a great activity for it.
7. Play Traditional Games
There’s nothing wrong with traditional games to pass the time. I’ve had plenty of high school students enjoy the nostalgia of playing Hangman and Scrabble. If you have access to a game closet, can borrow from other classrooms, or bring your own from home – consider giving students time to relax (and flex some English skills). Some games with an ELA vibe include: Apples to Apples, Scrabble, Pictionary, Upwords, Boggle, Scattergories, Taboo, and Balderdash. If you want to try a newer game, I suggest Codenames – it’s so much fun and requires vocabulary skills as well as critical thinking.
8. Utilize Quiz Games
If you’re not looking for traditional type games, consider a quiz game instead. You can create and find quizzes on any number of topics. Review figurative language, passages you’ve read so far, create a fun review for upcoming state testing, or create fun trivia. There’s Kahoot, Quizlet, Blooket, and Quiziz as great options for creating a quiz. Some of these are better utilized in the class and others work for digital classroom set up – so be sure you check out a variety of options to see which works best for your students.
9. Listen to Podcasts
Infuse podcasts into an engaging lesson. There are so many different options for pairing podcasts with your ELA classroom, it’s really up to you what direction you take it. This blog post from Building Book Love has a list of six podcast ideas you might consider in your classroom. You can keep students accountable by having them take notes. This resource from my shop has three print podcast worksheet options, Google Slides companion, a list of 20 other podcast recommendations, and five assessment ideas.
10. Spring Clean
Yes, I mean literally. Take the time to refresh your classroom. You can have students go through their binders for your class and organize their notes, get work they missed, fill in the blanks of resources they need for the semester. They can help you take down bulletins and decorations from the winter, ready to be refreshed with spring decor. Bonus if you give them a say in what will go up!
I’m certainly ready for Spring Break. Tell me your favorite pre-break activities you use in your classroom in the comments or share on Facebook and Instagram. I love to see what activities have become class favorites!
Happy teaching!
