Easter Egg Hunt at School

Are you planning an Easter egg hunt at school?  Organizing a hunt for a group is much different than hiding eggs and decorating a basket at home.

Easter egg hunts are a tradition at some schools.  Easter is a holiday that is not celebrated at other schools.  Please check about the Easter policy if you are new to your school this year.

PARENT COMMUNICATION:

• Send home a note two weeks ahead of time.
• Send home a copy of the note again to make sure everyone knows about the event.

Give parents suggestions of what they can use to stuff the eggs if your school has a no candy policy.  Suggestions:  coins, stickers, or small toys from the Target Dollar Spot.

It is very helpful if the eggs are taped shut.  When all of the eggs are put into a big bags and given to the "rabbits" to hide, they often get bumped and rattled which causes scrambled eggs.  You can prevent scrambled eggs by asking parents to tape the eggs shut.

PLAN & COORDINATE

Each class that is hunting eggs needs to have a designated place. It is helpful if you can give your class specific guideline of where your student will hunt for eggs.  Example:  

• Mrs. Gudala's class will hunt eggs in the soccer field at 1:30.
• Mrs. Kirk's class will hunt eggs in the football field at 2:15.
• Mr. Tucker's class will hunt for eggs in front yard with the 3 big trees 2:00.
• Miss Luboriz's will hunt for eggs in the side yard next to the kinder playground 1:30.

WHO IS HIDING THE EGGS?

You can ask different people to be your "rabbit".

• Buddy class
• Gifted & Talented class 
• Room mom

PLAN FOR THE "OH NO" MOMENTS
Most of my students have brought a basket and stuffed eggs when I asked for a dozen eggs.  I think that seems like an amount that most parents are happy to send in and gives the students enough eggs to find.

 As a teacher, I have found it helpful to plan for those "oh no" moments.  You hope all of your students bring a dozen stuffed eggs and a basket, but "oh no" someone forgot.

You can either purchase some prestuffed eggs and tape them shut or ask your room mom if she can send in extras.  Students without a basket can use cute bags like the ones in the picture above.  I found them at Target Dollar Spot.

MORNING OF THE HUNT
On the day of the hunt, you will gather all of the eggs in the morning after doing some math counting activities. Example: 

• Count your eggs (make sure all students brought at least 12 eggs)
• Do you have an even number of eggs or odd?  How can you tell?  Show me.
• Show me 3 groups.  How many are in each group.
• Show me 6 groups.  How many are in each group.
• Write and draw a math problem using eggs in your journal.

Set the eggs in a large bag outside your door for the "rabbit".  Arrange ahead of time what time the rabbit will hide the eggs.  You don't want the rabbit to hide the eggs in the morning if you are hunting at the end of the day.  

TIME TO HUNT

When it is time for your class to hunt the eggs:

• Walk them to the designated area.  
• Show them the boundaries of where they can look for eggs.
• Tell your students that they may only pick up and put in their basket 12 eggs.  They may see more than 12 eggs.  But, they may only put 12 eggs in their basket.  They will not pick up every egg that they see.  
• When they have 12 eggs in their basket, they will come back and stand by you.
• When everyone has 12 eggs, you will walk back to your class so students can open their eggs.

Do you hunt eggs at your school?

Sources to make my blog post graphics can be found HERE.
Click HERE to read my blog's disclosure statement.

0

Sight Words

A team approach is the best way to teach sight words, in my opinion.  I think parent involvement is key to students learning their sight words.  My sight word homework is called "Bubble Gum words".  These are the words I want to "stick" (like bubble gum) in my students' minds.  I implement it much like a do the "Popcorn Sounds" program which I wrote about in an earlier post.  

*Ahead of time, take 10 file folders and label them:  List 1, List 2, List 3 . . . and so on.

*Make at least 20 copies of each list, punch 3 holes, and put in folders.  It is helpful if you copy the lists on different colored paper.

*Give a placement test by having students read the list of words.  Students will begin the program on the row of words, on the list of words, of first word he/she reads incorrectly.

*Make Bubble Gum homework folders out of folders with 3 prongs.  Put the list of words in students' folder after they take placement test.  NOTE:  This homework is differentiated . . . students will be working on different lists based on placement test results.  

*Send home folder of words so parents can help their child study.

*Each week - you decide which day of the week - students will bring their folder and you will test them.  Some student may only be able to read one row of words correctly.  Other students may read 4 or 5 rows of words correctly.  Let the students read until they come to a word they don't know.  

*I put a bubble gum scented sticker in the last box of the row of words if the student reads all of the words in that row correctly.  For some reason, bubble gum stickers are very motivating to students.  You can also use stamps if you don't want the expense of stickers.

During the week, to enforce sight words, I play Bubble Gum BINGO when I meet with my reading groups.  As a general rule, each group will be on similar list of words.

Here is list #4 and the BINGO game cards for list #4.

From a time management perspective, one of the best tips I have is to list your students in order alphabetically  and assign each student a number.  This will be the student's number when you are testing him/her for Popcorn Sounds or Bubble Gum word knowledge each week.  Very quickly, your students will learn their number order.  I.E.  Jennifer C. is #5 so she comes after Chris B. #4, but before Ben D. #6.  I usually test the majority of my students during journal time.  Sometimes I have to finish a few during D.E.A.R. time.

Also, to save time I put the folders in number order before I begin testing.  I can quickly see which # is missing so I can ask that child to double check his/her backpack.

Here's my chart:

THIS IS A SAMPLE OF THE FOLDER LABELS

THAT IS PART OF THE PACKET FROM TPT.

This is the letter that I send home to parents.

The entire packet can be purchased for $5 at TPT:

Click HERE to visit my TPT store.

0