arts and crafts – Love Grows Learning

Back To School Crafts You Need To Try This Year

Laura — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 00:37:56 +0000

Back to school crafts are one of the best ways to kick off a new school year. They help ease the kids into school routines, and they give teachers a chance to get to know their students better. I am a big fan of using back to school arts and crafts as a way to build classroom community and classroom relationships. But crafts don’t have to be intimidating! In fact, there are plenty of easy back to school crafts that your students will go wild for.

Read on for back to school crafts your students will love!

(Looking for some craft templates and activity that are low-prep and planned for you? Check out my First Week of School Activity Bundle!)

Back to School Activities

Back to school season is an important time for teachers and our students. This is the time to lay the foundations of a great school year.

As teachers, we need to use these back to school weeks to build relationships, get our students excited about learning, and set expectations. There are lots of choices for great ways to do this! We can do this through games, children’s books, anchor charts, and…back to school arts and crafts!

If you’re looking for more great ideas to use with your students during back to school this year, read this post 21 Amazing Activities For the First Week of School.

Back to School Crafts

You can use back to school crafts in a variety of ways. Back to school crafts for kids don’t have to just be for fun decorations. Actually, we can use them purposefully in our back to school activities. For example, you might use crafts to:

Learn or celebrate student names
Set learning goals and get excited to learn
Get to know each other and build friendships between students
Learn about classroom routines and procedures
Talk about feelings and emotions
Establish classroom rules and expectations

Let’s dive into some examples so we can see these back to school crafts in action!

Back to School Craft Ideas

Here are 15 wonderful back to school craft ideas for you to use with your students this year. This list is organized into four categories: Getting to Know You, Rules and Routines, Kindness, and Social Emotional Learning. These are the most important things to be learning about at the beginning of the school year, so it’s a great place to start!

Getting to Know You Crafts

Building relationships is so important at the beginning of the school year! Here are some amazing back to school crafts for getting to know your students.

A Letter For My Teacher

This simple back to school craft is a great way to get to know your students! It gives the opportunity for students to tell you some things about themselves. (The template is in my TPT store right here.)

Heart Map

Get to know your students by having them create a heart map. Students color in their heart with the parts of their lives that are most important to them.

First Day Feelings

Normalizing everyone's feelings is an important part of the first week of school. This back to school activity helps students process any nervousness they have and start to feel more comfortable in their new classroom. (You can get this template in my TPT store here.)

Name Bookmarks

Celebrate student names with these name bookmarks! My students loved decorating these during the first week of school – it made a great activity for early finishers or if you finish a lesson early. (This editable template is available in my TPT store here.)

Shooting Star Goals

Encourage your students to think about what they want to learn this year. Have the write down three things they want to learn, then create their shooting star.

(Want all these activities and crafts for less? Check out my First Week of School Activity Bundle right here!)

Rules and Routines Crafts

Learning your classroom rules and routines doesn’t have to be boring! Help students process all this new learning with these hands-on arts and crafts projects. You can find more ideas for teaching rules and routines in my blog post 5 Must-Try Classroom Routine and Procedures Ideas.

Classroom Materials Flipbook

Setting expectations around care of classroom materials is so important at the beginning of the school year. This classroom materials flipbook helps students remember the right way to take care of their school belongings.

Classroom Rules Flower

Classroom rules – but make it arts and crafts! After teaching your classroom rules, have students write them down on each petal of this fun and colorful flower. These make a fun classroom decoration.

Listening Body Cut and Paste

Encourage students to explore what they need to have their best behavior during group lessons. This provides a great time to talk about what listening looks like for different students, and to set the expectations that work best for you and your classroom. (This template is available in my TPT store here.)

Class Promise

Creating a class promise is a great way for students to feel like part of their classroom community. Have students help you come up with your classroom rules. Then each student places their handprint around the chart to show that they will do their best to follow those rules. (You can get this class promise template for free right here!)

(Want more rules and routines activities and crafts? Check out my Routines and Procedures Activity Bundle right here!)

Kindness Crafts

I always start the school year off emphasizing kindness in the classroom. Here are some simple craft suggestions for integrating kindness into your classroom. Read this blog post for how to do a Week of Kindness with your students.

Friendly Notes To A Classmate

This is one of my favorite back to school crafts for spreading kindness in the classroom. Have a time when students can write notes to each other and deliver them anonymously. They're bound to bring a smile to each student's face! (You can get the template for these in my TPT store here.)

Wow Words Crown

Talk about qualities that you want to see in your students. Have them decorate these crowns to show that they all have these qualities within themselves! (You can get the template for these in my TPT store here.)

Kindness Chain

Every time you see your students being kind, add a link to the paper chain. See how long your chain can get! (You can get the template for this in my TPT store here.)

Bucket Filler

Teaching about bucket filling is one of my favorite ways to talk about kindness with my students. The book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” explains acts of kindness in a clear and accessible way for children. (You can get the template for these in my TPT store here.)

(Want even more kindness activities and crafts? Check out my Week of Kindness Activity Bundle right here!)

Social Emotional Crafts

It’s never too early to start weaving social emotional learning into your school day. These types of activities help students feel safe and help them build important social skills right out of the gate. Here are some back to school crafts that will start this SEL work from the beginning of school!

Growth Mindset Craft

Teaching growth mindset is a great way to start off the new school year. This back to school craft helps teach students about fixed mindset versus growth mindset. (This craft template is part of the Growth Mindset Activities in my TPT store right here.)

Positive Affirmations

Self-love is becoming more and more important for young people to practice. This back to school craft helps students practice positive affirmations. (This craft template is part of the Self-Love Activities in my TPT store right here.)

Making New Friends

Making new friends at the start of a new school year can be challenging for many students. This is one of my favorite back to school crafts for friendship because it gives students concrete strategies they can try out to make some new friends. (This craft template is part of the Friendship Activities in my TPT store right here.)

Back to School Arts and Crafts

Are you as excited as me about using back to school crafts this year? These ideas are a great starting point, and of course there are lots more you can use!

If you need more inspiration, check out my Classroom Community Megabundle for more ideas.

Which back to school craft idea are you excited to try? Tell me in the comments! 
xoxo 
Laura

Resources For You:

Articles For You:

21 Amazing Ideas for Activities on the First Day of School

The Best Activities To Build Classroom Community To Try Now

5 Must-Try Classroom Routine and Procedures Ideas

11 Fantastic Week of Kindness Ideas To Try In Your Classroom

The post Back To School Crafts You Need To Try This Year appeared first on Love Grows Learning.

How to Celebrate Winter Holidays Around the World With Your Students

Laura — Sat, 16 Oct 2021 18:30:07 +0000

Winter holidays around the world are a hit with my students every year! Celebrating winter holidays from the around the world is such a fun way to get in the holiday spirit, and also a great way to keep students motivated during December. Plus, teaching students about these holidays can help build inclusivity, tolerance, and appreciation of diversity in your classroom. There are so many wonderful winter and December global holidays that your students will love to learn about. And I’ve rounded up some of my favorite activities to help you learn and celebrate!

Read on for fun activities and crafts to celebrate winter holidays around the world!

Want to celebrate holidays around the world with your students, but not sure where to start? This bundle has everything you need!

Winter Holidays Around the World

The best place to start your winter holidays around the world studies is to find out which religions and holidays are celebrated by the families in your class. I love to send out a questionnaire at the beginning of the year to gather information from families. One of the questions asks about major holidays that are important to each family.

Then when a holiday is coming up, you can reach out to families to see if there is anything they would want to share with the class. Families are usually thrilled to be included in this way. We’ve had families share special food dishes, important artifacts, children’s books, and videos for different holidays!

There are so many winter holidays from around the world that your students may not know about – December Jewish holidays, December holidays in India, special new year’s celebrations.. the list goes on and on! For example, some of my favorite winter holidays to teach about are Hanukkah, Diwali, Winter Solstice, Las Posadas, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, and Lunar New Year’s!

Of course, I love teaching with arts and crafts, so here is a round-up of some of my favorite craft ideas for winter and December holidays around the world!

I love putting a winter tree in my classroom and adding decorations from winter holidays around the world as we learn about them!

Hanukkah Activities

The days of Hanukkah change every year, so be sure to check your calendar so you can plan when to do your Hanukkah crafts. This is a Jewish festival lasting eight nights. It is sometimes also called the Festival of Lights.

Creating an anchor chart is a great way to help students learn new facts about Hanukkah. There are lots of great Hanukkah read alouds that you can use with your students as you are teaching them about the history of this holiday.

I love a flipbook for letting students practice what they've learned. This one uses the information from the anchor chart so that students can apply their new learning independently.

This anchor chart explores some of the different ways that countries like to celebrate Christmas. There are lots of fun books that you can read that explore these different Christmas traditions. As you read the books, you can add the pieces to the anchor chart. This makes such a fun Christmas around the world classroom display!

It also has a cut and paste matching craft activity for students to do on their own. This engaging activity helps students remember what they learned about each Christmas around the world holiday tradition.

Another fun way to learn about Christmas around the world is to learn about the different Christmas tree decorations that are popular in different countries. In this cut and paste craft, students make their own Christmas tree and paste on various popular decorations from many different parts of the globe.

These activities are included in the Christmas Around the World activity pack.

Kwanzaa Activities

If you're celebrating winter holidays from around the world, Kwanzaa is definitely one you'll want to include!

Kwanzaa celebrates 7 guiding principles that honor African heritage: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. The celebration is 7 days long, one day for each of the principles.

To celebrate Kwanzaa, have your students make a unity chain. Add strips of black, red, and green paper every time you notice students honoring principles of teamwork or unity in the classroom. Students will love to work together to see how long their chain can get!

Kwanzaa is a relatively newer holiday, so your students may not know as much about it. This flipbook will help them learn the facts about Kwanzaa. Each page of the flipbook reviews an important aspect of Kwanzaa.

All these Kwanzaa activities and crafts are part of this Kwanzaa activity pack.

Winter Solstice Crafts

The winter solstice celebrates the sun’s rebirth. It is celebrated on December 21st, the shortest day of the year. It is a time to reflect on new beginnings.

These winter solstice activities are perfect to include in your winter holidays from around the world lessons.

This anchor chart is a great activity to help teach your students about the winter solstice. I love pairing this activity with winter solstice read alouds. As facts come up in the books. I add them to the anchor chart.

A crown is always a big hit with my students, and this one is the perfect winter solstice activity for your holidays around the world studies. Students cut and paste little pictures on it that have to do with the winter solstice.

These activity templates are part of this Winter Solstice activity pack.

Not Just December…

Learning about holidays from different cultures and parts of the world is something we can do all year long. Not only does this help all our students feel seen, but it builds tolerance and an appreciation for diversity.

I hope you have lots of fun ideas now for celebrating winter and December holidays around the world!

If you want all these winter holidays around the world activities, check out the Winter Holidays Around the World activity bundle.

Which of these crafts are do you want to try with your classroom?
xoxo
Laura

Christmas Around the World

Of course, you can't have celebrate winter holidays around the world without including Christmas around the world! Christmas is a popular holiday all over the world, but it's celebrated very differently across the globe. Your students will love hearing about the various countries and their special ways of celebrating Christmas.

These activities are included in the Christmas Around the World activity pack.

Kwanzaa Activities

If you're celebrating winter holidays from around the world, Kwanzaa is definitely one you'll want to include!

All these Kwanzaa activities and crafts are part of this Kwanzaa activity pack.

Winter Solstice Crafts

The winter solstice celebrates the sun’s rebirth. It is celebrated on December 21st, the shortest day of the year. It is a time to reflect on new beginnings.

These winter solstice activities are perfect to include in your winter holidays from around the world lessons.

These activity templates are part of this Winter Solstice activity pack.

Not Just December…

I hope you have lots of fun ideas now for celebrating winter and December holidays around the world!

If you want all these winter holidays around the world activities, check out the Winter Holidays Around the World activity bundle.

Which of these crafts are do you want to try with your classroom?
xoxo
Laura

11 Fantastic Week of Kindness Ideas To Try In Your Classroom

Laura — Thu, 24 Sep 2020 00:46:29 +0000

Have you ever celebrated a week of kindness in your classroom? Every year, one of the most important things I wanted to emphasize in my classroom is how we treat one other. And so our “Week of Kindness” was born! I love spending a whole week emphasizing and incorporating kindness into our school day. We also talk about how important it is for us to be true to ourselves and kind to ourselves – and to let others be themselves.

I’m so excited to share with you my favorite ideas for Kindness Week… get ready to do a Week of Kindness in your classroom!

Kindness Week Activities

If you're ready to get started with spreading kindness in the classroom, then a week of kindness is the best way to do it. There are lots of ways to structure a week of kindness so don't get overwhelmed! Sprinkling in a small kindness activity each day — such as a craft, a book, or an anchor chart — can be a great place to get started. And there are so many fun choices for week of kindness activities, you can choose the kindness activities that call out to you.

Let's start with some whole-class activities that will get all your students involved! These are fun, engaging ideas you can weave into your class plans all week long to keep your students excited about kindness week.

Kindness Bingo

Kindness bingo is one of my favorite ideas for kindness week. It is a great opportunity to give students concrete examples, and then spur them into action to try some out! Encourage students to notice when someone else does something on the bingo board. At a certain time of day, students can share what they noticed and you can color squares in on the chart – then sit back and see how many class bingos your students can get during the week!

Kindness Paper Chain

A Kindness Paper Chain is another fun kindness activity to encourage kindness in the whole class. I tell the students that every time they see someone being kind, we can add a link to our chain. At the end of the week, we’ll count up the links and they’ll be counted as gems for our gem jar! They are so excited to see how long they can get it, and it’s a huge source of excitement.

It's fun to have students share what they've noticed (and of course you can share acts of kindness you've noticed as well!) at a certain time of day, so you can add the links together as a class. Then stretch it out at the end of every day to see how long it’s gotten!

A Good Friend

Discussing how to be a good friend is another great activity for a week of kindness. Invite students to come up with things a good friend does and doesn't do. (Pro tip – this exercise can be pulled out later in the year to refer back to whenever friendship troubles start up!)

Kindness Week Crafts

Bringing the arts into the classroom is one of my passions – so of course I’ve got some super fun artsy kindness week activities elementary students will love! Crafts will also help students think independently about the kindness ideas you're discussing together during your kindness week.

Kindness Crowns

These kindness crowns are a great kindness craft to do with your class to kick off kindness week. I love that these crowns help students think about how they want to be kind and to set a goal for it. These are also super simple, just color, cut, and staple. I'm all about crafts that are low-prep for teachers – we have so much going on!

Student Notes

These student notes will spread so much happiness and friendship in your classroom! Invite students to write kind notes to one another. You can have them set up little mailboxes for one another, or you can be the deliverer. (I like to deliver them just so I can double check the contents before the receiver gets their note.) Students will love giving these kindness notes just as much as they love receiving them!

If you're worried about everyone receiving one, secretly ask a student or two to write notes to specific people for you. Students will love being asked to be special helpers, and this ensures everyone is getting a positive note from a classmate.

Be A Bucket Filler

Have You Filled A Bucket Today? and its sequel, How Full Is Your Bucket? For Kids, provide such a clear visual for how our words and actions affect others. I love that these books emphasize that our own happiness increases when we make others happy! You can pair these books with this fun craft activity for your class. Students brainstorm what actions would fill other people's buckets!

How To Be a Good Friend

This craft is a great way to encourage students to think independently about specific ways they can be a good friend to their classmates. Flipbooks are such a fun craft, so of course I wanted to throw one into our Week of Kindness plans!

Week of Kindness Books

There are so many great book ideas for kindness week. I like to do a lot of talk and modeling around the words “inclusive”, “accepting”, and “friendly”, and we talked about how they’re all parts of being kind. Especially during the first couple days of our week of kindness, I made sure to model, notice, and correct examples of these words in action. These children’s book helped me make these ideas more explicit, and helped guide deeper discussions about how empathy, inclusivity, and acceptance should play out in our classroom and at school.

Kindness Is My Superpower

A simple and relatable book that explains kindness in cute and understandable ways for children. After reading this book, you can create an anchor chart with your students to help them brainstorm ways they can be kind at school. A great one for your week of kindness.

Each Kindness

This haunting book brings home the power of our choices and their effects on others. Students empathize both with Maya as she is left out at her new school, and with Chloe’s feelings of guilt over excluding Maya. You can guide students through a discussion of what Chloe could have done differently, and what they should do if they see someone being excluded.

Spaghetti In A Hot Dog Bun

This book definitely helps students to explore empathy and choices. I love that you see the other side of the “bully”, allowing for discussions about how students labeled as “bullies” have feelings and struggles just like the rest of us. This book also offers the opportunity for a great discussion of how important it is to be yourself and to let others be different and true to themselves.

Tomorrow I'll Be Kind

This book teaches students different words that are positive attributes. These words — such as kind, generous, helpful — can be referred to throughout the school year as a helpful reminder for students of how you expect them to behave in class. You can also use this book to help students set a goal – tomorrow I will be ______, and have them choose one of the words.

When To Do Your Week of Kindness

What I love about doing a week of kindness is how genuinely excited the students get about spreading kindness and noticing acts of kindness. I find that having explicit conversations about how to treat one another and talk to one another is crucial to create behaviors that are helpful and positive.

Kindness week activities are definitely popular during the month of February, as many schools have a Week of Kindness or Kindness Challenge around the time of Valentines' Day. But you can do them literally any time of the school year and see amazing benefits! Here are some ideas of when you can use them:

During the first few weeks of the school year
World Kindness Week in November
When you come back from a long break
Random Acts of Kindness Week in January
Kindness Month in February
Anytime your class needs a little extra dose of kindness!

I highly recommend doing a week of kindness when you come back from the summer or a break (or really anytime!). It’s a great way to spread some such good vibes and happy energy.

You can also pick and choose from these ideas and sprinkle them in throughout the year, rather than dedicating doing a whole week of kindness activities. Revisiting what it means to be kind again and again is the key to making kindness a permanent part of your classroom culture.

Are you going to try a Week of Kindness in your classroom?
xoxo
Laura

You may also be interested in reading:

The Best Activities To Build Classroom Community To Try Now

5 Must-Try Classroom Routine and Procedures Ideas

21 Amazing Ideas for Activities on the First Day of School

10 Kindness Lessons and Activities for Elementary School

The post 11 Fantastic Week of Kindness Ideas To Try In Your Classroom appeared first on Love Grows Learning.