Saturday, April 19, 2014

Spark Student Motivation: Eggcellent Ideas!


 
Let's share some ideas to help us stay positive through the end of the year!
 
We had our state testing all four days this week, but we're finished and my students tried their best! (Now to wait for those anticipated scores that won't arrive until the VERY END of the school year!)
 
I had to create fun and creative ways to get them excited about reviewing and doing test prep, so I used Easter Eggs!
I cut up test prep questions and placed one in each egg and hid them around the room while they were at lunch (I'm a Ninja like that). Each student had to find one egg and return to their seats to solve the problem. Then the partner sitting next to them had to come over and solve their problem to make sure they got it right (answers were on back to self check). It's funny how doing math problems out of an egg is more fun than out of a packet!! :) Do you see the smiles??
On Thursday. I had a real Easter Egg Hunt with prizes. Each student was allowed to find one egg and return to their seats. After all students found an egg, the prizes were revealed...
I had something different in every egg and all prizes were little or no cost (less than $3 total!). I wrote all the prizes on Post-its, so they all felt the same weight, and not all prizes would fit!
Full size candy, homework pass, skip an assignment, use pen and stamp pad all day, lunch with the teacher, 10 tickets, free draw, prize box, etc.
The students below won sit next to the teacher, Scan to Win, and full size candy. The young lady who won sit next to me is so excited for Monday (isn't that the sweetest?)! Such a simple prize, but very appreciated!! I'm sure some kids would rather have a full size candy, but this egg fell into the right hands!
I know Easter will be over when you go back to school on Monday, but I PROMISE you, there's NO student who would mind if you wanted to have an egg hunt for review or prizes after Easter!!! Plus, all plastic eggs and candy will be on CLEARANCE Monday!
 
I wanted to share the following idea in case you wanted to try this idea at home tonight! I started this in my neighborhood a few years ago when some of our neighborhood kids were getting too old for the traditional Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday morning. We have a Nighttime Easter Egg Hunt where they hunt for eggs with their flashlights! They love it and think it's the coolest ever! I've seen glow in the dark eggs that you could use too! Puts a fun twist on the traditional egg hunt and makes it exciting for ALL AGES!
 
I hope you had a wonderful week! Please link up any lessons, ideas, tips, tricks, incentives, ANYTHING you do get your students motivated or excited!
Don't forget to grab my button and link back to this post!
Check out all the wonderful ideas from my friends who link up and don't forget to leave some love by commenting....we LOVE comments!
***Please include the topic in the link up with your blog name.

12 comments:

  1. If I had had my act together, using plastic eggs for a fun activity would have been awesome! (Unfortunately, I was out of the classroom two days last week for a meeting.) I may have to visit Target on Monday to pick up some of those eggs for an after-Easter egg hunt. It looks like your kiddos had such a blast! I love that you included "experiences" like sitting next to you. Those are the BEST prizes! Happy Easter, friend!

    PS -- Consider stopping by my blog on Thursdays to share a positive thought for my new Positive Thinking Thursday linky. I don't know a person more positive than you!! :)

    Jennifer
    Mrs. Laffin's Laughings

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  2. I am recycling all the eggs my four year got at his school Easter egg hunt and using them on Monday!

    Can my kids move into your neighborhood? First showdown for state testing and now flashlight egg hunts, super impressive!!!

    Elizabeth
    Hodges Herald

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  3. I love the idea of making test review a little more pleasant! We have our reading test all week next week, and the math test is the following week. I may use your idea to review for the math test. :) Thanks for sharing!

    Ellie
    Miss Woodward's Class

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  4. You are simply a genius! A night time Easter egg hunt with flashlights! Test review using plastic eggs! LOVE IT!!!!

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  5. Joanne,
    I just read your comment on my post and I thought HEY I should link up today! I have never had the chance to link up before...but really today was the day! I can see you and I think alike, lots of goodies keep fun times flowing in the classroom! Thanks for commenting today on my blog and giving me motivation to come and link up with yours! Hope you have an "eggcellent" easter weekend!
    Sidney

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  6. I love this idea. I'm not allowed to celebrate Easter at my school, so doing this after Easter would simply be an egg hunt (which should be fine). My testing is Wednesday (reading) and Friday (math) this week. I'd like to try and squeeze this in one day. Thank you, as always!

    Mary
    Fit to be Fourth

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  7. Egg hunts in the dark = super duper fun! Love this idea and hunting in the classroom too! Definitely filing this one away for next year!! Wish I could link up by my computer is visiting the "doctor". :( It's been there since Friday and no news yet - hopefully that's good...

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  8. Night time egg hunts! I would do that--I'll have to try that next year for my girls. They'll go wild. What a great idea and yes, your students would love egg hunts in September. These ideas are just great.

    Thanks Joanne!
    Matt

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  9. The nighttime egg hunt looks like so much fun! My boys would love it. Thanks for sharing. :) Happy Easter!
    ~Brandee
    Creating Lifelong Learners

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  10. I'm convinced you are the neighborhood favorite mom and teacher. I want to live in your neighborhood because y'all have so much fun! Happy Easter my sweet, sweet friend! XO
    Alison
    Rockin' and Lovin' Learnin'

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  11. How fun!! I may have to pull out some eggs :) That's awesome that you get your test scores the same school year. We take our tests in 3 weeks but do not get the results until October!! My kids will already be at the Middle School. :(

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