[00:00:00] Hey friends. Welcome back to the Firstieland podcast. I’m your host, Molly Schwab, and today I want to talk to you about my number one favorite activity that I did with my class all year. Not only is it incredibly fun for kids, but it’s also a great way to build responsibility, creativity, and excitement for writing in your classroom.
In today’s episode, we’re talking about Adopt-A-Peep, a little activity that starts with a marshmallow peep, but quickly turns into a classroom experience that your kids are going to talk about for weeks. So let’s get started.
EPISODE 43 – TRANSCRIPT
Imagine this. What if the Easter Bunny made a visit to your classroom one night and dropped off a basket of marshmallow peeps with a letter asking your students to care for them as their very own?
Well, that’s exactly what happened in my room. And let me tell you, this was such a hit.
Here’s how it all started. First, I read a story to my class about the Easter Bunny. My favorite is actually called The Story of the Easter Bunny by Katherine Tegen. I love it because it’s a really sweet story about how the Easter Bunny came to be, but also because it’s beautifully illustrated.
The pictures are watercolor, which are always my favorite. They’re really lovely and just sort of draw you into the story. So after we read the story, we talked about what they thought the Easter Bunny does in his workshop, where they thought he lives, and we just sort of set the stage for what was about to come.
So that night, after the kids left at the end of the day, I got everything set up. I took marshmallow peeps in different colors and put each one in a little plastic Easter egg. Then I put all the eggs in a basket with a letter from the Easter Bunny.
The letter basically said that there was a new batch of baby peeps that were about to be born, but everyone in Bunny Land was so busy getting ready for Easter. They were coloring eggs and making chocolate bunnies, and there just wasn’t anyone available to take care of the new peeps. So the Easter Bunny asked if my class would take care of them until he could come back to get them another day.
[00:02:00] Well, you can imagine how excited my kids were. Oh my gosh, they loved it.
Each student chose an egg, and before we could open them, we all had to say a magic poem together that would make the peeps wake up from their sleep. After we said the poem, they could open their eggs to see what they got.
The peeps were all different colors, and one student even got two peeps in their egg, so they had twins. I mean, it was just so cute, and they were so excited about it.
After they got their peep, we talked about how to care for them and what they thought their peeps might need to eat. We made a big anchor chart with three sections that said:
What Peeps Eat
Where Peeps Live
Good Names for Peeps
The students helped fill out the chart. They said things like peeps probably eat sugar, jelly beans, sprinkles, and cotton candy. They thought peeps might live in Easter Land, a gingerbread house, or a flower garden.
Then we came up with some good names for our peeps too. Someone named theirs Pinky, Jellybean, Lollipop, and Hopper. It was so cute. We used that chart to help spark the kids’ imagination for the rest of the unit.
[00:03:00] Next, I told them they were going to get to officially adopt their peep. I gave each student an official birth certificate to fill out, where they could name their peep.
I also explained that whenever someone has a baby, they often make a baby book to tell about the beginning of their life. So each student got a baby book, and every page told about their peep’s first moments.
On the first page, they drew a picture of their egg before the peep was born.
On the second page, they wrote about their peep’s first outing, where it went the first time it left its shell.
There was a page where they could draw and write about their peep’s friends. There was another page to write about what was happening on the day the peep was born, their favorite song, favorite food, what the weather was like, and even their favorite TV show.
Then there was a page for their baby peep’s first photo.
It was super cute, and the kids worked on those for a couple of days.
[00:04:00] We also did some math activities. The students filled out their baby peep growth chart. They had to weigh and measure their peep, and we used jelly beans to measure them. Then they recorded the information on their chart, so we got a little math practice in as well.
They also wrote letters to the Easter Bunny telling him how their little peep was doing.
One of the best parts of the whole activity was when they had to hire a babysitter to watch their peep.
I told them that we could never leave our babies alone. So if they had to leave the room to get a drink or go to the restroom, they had to hire a babysitter.
I gave each student a little Ziploc bag with about ten jelly beans. I told them this was called Bunny Money. If they had to leave their baby unattended, they had to hire a babysitter and pay them with Bunny Money.
Oh my gosh, they loved this.
[00:05:00] Every time they went to the bathroom, they asked someone to watch their peep and paid them with jelly beans. Of course, everyone wanted to be a babysitter. And I think there was probably a little extra bathroom time those couple of days, but it was so cute I really didn’t mind.
If they ran out of money, they could offer to babysit someone else’s peep to earn more Bunny Money.
It was actually a really great lesson in responsibility.
The students also made little houses out of paper bags for their peeps to live in. We had templates for doors and windows that they colored and glued onto the house.
Then we stuffed the bags with Easter grass, and that’s where they kept their peeps during the day.
All of these activities are part of my Adopt-A-Peep unit on TPT. If you’d like to check it out, you can go to firstieland.com/peep, and I’ll also put the link in the show notes for you.
[00:06:00] The students were allowed to take their peep home one night. They took it home in the little house they made, along with a letter explaining everything to the parents.
The kids were encouraged to keep their peep with them wherever they went to show that they were responsible for taking care of it. They were supposed to read their peep a bedtime story and bring it back to school the next day.
In all the years I did this activity, the kids and parents took it very seriously. Everyone always brought their peep back the next day except once.
It was really sad because this little boy came from a rough background, and his dad thought it would be funny to eat the peep.
I mean, unbelievable.
The poor little guy was so upset. But just in case something like that happened, I always kept extra peeps. I told him the Easter Bunny had sent a few more peeps for us to take care of, and I gave him a new one. He was fine after that.
[00:07:00] At the end of the week, the Easter Bunny left another note for the class thanking them for taking such good care of their peeps.
The note said that since they had done such a good job, and since they had already adopted them, they could keep their peeps forever. The Easter Bunny also left a tray of cookies as a thank-you.
This was just such a great activity for the kids. The engagement was through the roof. They loved it and wanted to do every single activity. They got lots of writing practice, and it was also a great lesson in responsibility.
It was truly one of our favorite activities all year, and the kids talked about it for weeks afterward.
So if you’re looking for something special to do with your class this year, Adopt-A-Peep is it. It’s fun to do right before spring break or anytime around Easter.
You can grab this resource in my TPT store at firstieland.com/peep.
If you want to see this activity in action, I also have a YouTube channel where I’m showing these activities as I talk about them on the podcast. You can search Firstieland on YouTube, or I’ll put a link in the show notes.
Okay friends, that’s it for this week. If you decide to adopt peeps this year, please post some photos and tag me on Instagram. I’d love to see them.
And as always, until next week, remember to make learning feel like play.
[00:08:00] Thanks so much for tuning in. I hope you’re walking away with some great tips you can use right away.
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You can find the show notes and links for everything mentioned in this episode at firstieland.com.
I’ll see you next week in Firstieland.