Flowers are beginning to bloom and the Easter Bunny is on his way which means it's time to switch to your April math and literacy centers! Spring fever is real, my friend, so how do you keep kids engaged and learning at centers? The trick is to use lots of hands-on manipulatives that will make the learning feel like play! Take a look.
April Math & Literacy Centers
1. April Math Center
Head over to your local dollar store to snag some springtime goodies! You'll find all sorts of plastic eggs, cute containers, mini erasers, and more that you can use at your centers this month. I found a cute carrot-shaped easter egg that I used as a dice shaker in this math game. Your students will shake and spill the dice and then create an addition problem with the two numbers. Then challenge them to create a related subtraction sentence.
Another cute carrot-themed math game is these missing addends task cards. You'll find lots of carrot-shaped manipulatives at your local dollar store in the spring! Add a few to this game and kids can use them to help them solve for the missing addend!
Spring-themed no-prep math games are great for your math center. In this game, students can practice addition and subtraction with a friend. Grab some cute little chick toys as game pieces and repurpose that carrot-shaker for your dice!
Poke cards are another cute task card to add to your centers this month. In this game students choose the correct symbol for greater, less than, or equal to match the card. To prepare this poke card game, you simply punch three holes in each card and circle the correct answer on the back. Students poke a pencil through the correct answer and can turn over to see if they were right!
Grab your place value blocks out of your cupboard and use them with a cute place value game like this one! Students choose a task card and show the correct tens and ones for each number.
Your students will love practicing measurement with this spring-themed measurement game. You can use the jellybean measuring tool or make it even more fun and let your students measure with real jellybeans!
2. April Art Center
Ready to spruce up your bulletin boards for Spring? Let your kids go wild with watercolors at your art center! Have them paint giant easter eggs and then hang them from the ceiling in your classroom. It will look adorable and your students will love seeing their work on display!
If you learn about oviparous animals like chickens and frogs in the spring, add a cute craft like these at your art center. They are simple enough for kids to complete on their own!
Looking for a cute Easter craft? This little basket of eggs turns out so pretty and is super simple to make. Your students can simply cut out the Easter basket from brown construction paper and then fill it with easter eggs! They can use markers, crayons, or watercolors to make beautiful colored eggs!
3. April Writing Center
If you struggle to find time to fit writing into your day, journals can be a lifesaver. Make an April writing journal for each of your students and put them in a basket at your writing centers. Your students can choose a page in their journals to complete and practice things like labeling, writing a list, writing their opinion or even writing a story. They'll be so proud to take their journal home at the end of the month to show their family!
One of my favorite writing assignments in April is how to dye Easter eggs! I have my students bring in 6 hard-boiled eggs from home and then we dye eggs. If anyone questions this as a frivolous activity you can justify it as you teach your students procedural writing! I mean, they have to know how to do the activity before your write about it, correct? If you want to get your students engaged in writing this is how you do it!
Another fun easter writing activity is telling your opinion of chocolate bunnies. But some tiny chocolate bunnies at Walmart or Target and let your student each taste one. Then add this writing template to your writing center for students to write their opinion!
4. April Word Work Center
How can you make your word work center more engaging and fun? Add puzzles and games with hands-on manipulatives to make the learning feel more like play. In this game, students choose puzzle pieces to form compound words.
Grab some of these adorable tic tac toe games at the Dollar Tree. They are super versatile for so many of your April math and literacy center games. Write sight words or spelling words for students to practice with a friend. Use them at your April math center with addition or subtraction problems!
I always liked to have a write the room activity for every month in my classroom. The kids love it and it gets them up and moving! To make it even more fun this month, put the word cards in plastic Easter eggs and hide them around your room. Kids can go on a mini Easter egg hunt as they write the room!
Here's a simple, low prep syllable game that's perfect for your April literacy center! Students read each word, clap the syllables and add it to the correct basket! Easy peasy but super effective.
Finally, round out your April literacy center with digraph task cards. I found these cute clips at the Dollar Tree in the craft section! Kids can clip the correct digraph on each card.
5. April Spelling Center
What's the first activity kids think of when it comes to Easter? Chances are they'll say coloring eggs! use that to your advantage at your April spelling center. With this free Mystery Easter Eggs activity, students write their words with a white crayon and paint with watercolors to reveal the mystery word. Your students will love this and it has blank word cards for you to fill in any list of words! Grab this freebie here.
Students love the challenge of unscrambling words! In this game, you can choose word cards from over 90 different Dolch words or make your own cards with your word list. Add egg-shaped letter tiles into plastic eggs. Students choose an egg and unscramble the letters to form a word. This scrambled words game is super engaging for kids and easy prep for you!
6. April Library Center
Finally, change out some of the books at your Library center to get kids interested in reading. Add your favorite books about Easter, rabbits, jelly beans and springtime! My students were always excited to see the new books at our library each month!
Spring is here my friend! If you're ready to stop that spring fever from happening in your classroom, add some new games to your April math and literacy centers! Head over here to take a look at everything in this bundle.
Want to know more about how to use math and literacy centers in your classroom? Check out these posts.
