March in upper elementary is full of test preparation and rigorous content! It is that point in the year where we have taught all the reading skills and now it is time to challenge those kiddos! I am going to share a list of all the things I like to accomplish in March!
St. Patrick’s Day Themed Activities
I love a good theme in my classroom! To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day we…
- Make traps for STEM and write about why they would work.
- Read a picture book each Friday and do a skill-based lesson plan with it. We cover character traits, inferencing, text structure, and more! The kids love themed books, so they are extra engaged! Check those out here!
- On the actual day, we complete a skill-based challenge to find the leprechaun! Kids are reading and analyzing text to earn clues. It is very rigorous and engaging! Check that out here!
Test Preparation
There is a lot of test preparation going on! Some of the activities we are doing include:
- A paragraph each and every day. These help make sure that we are reviewing each skill and working on text evidence each day! Check out the March edition here! There is one for second, third, and fourth graders!
- Playing lots of games! We LOVE Kahoot and Quizlet for technology review games! They are free, easy to set up, and engaging! Plus, there are tons of test prep quizzes already set up for you!
- The Olympics!!! Watch the video below to learn all about how I bring the Olympics into my test prep celebration!
March Madness
Many of the kids in my room love March Madness! A lot of them watch it with their dads and we have always loved it! So, I created a reading challenge to go with it!
The students get to be on a team that is competing. Each round everyone reads a paragraph and answers a text evidence-based question.
Then, the two teams compete and if their question is correct they get to shoot. The first person to make the basket wins. Every other team earns a point for a correct answer. These points will be added up at the end to determine the MVP of the tournament. This goes on until we have a winner!
Grab this challenge here!
Dude’s STEM Day
You can do this any day of the year, but this year I am doing this in March!
Since Father’s Day is in June oftentimes dads are missed on the school celebrations. And you really only see a lot of moms at the school, instead of the dads.
So, I started doing a STEM Day for the dads! I am calling it Dude’s STEM Day because I don’t want children without fathers to feel left out, they can bring any man in their life.
The dad’s come and we do a STEM project together. The dads REALLY get into it. They push their kids and it is so cute. We also make them a craft and enjoy a snack together! It is a simple and fun way to get the dads involved in our classroom!
You can also easily tie this into March Madness and have the students do a March Madness themed STEM challenge!
Women’s History
I LOVE talking about Women this month and the impact they have made on society!
We start by doing a paragraph of the day to introduce the topic!
Then, we read many high-interest books on the topic! Click on the affiliate link below for each of the books I like to read!
Finally, I have each of my student’s research one woman and do a mini-essay on that woman!
I am going to share with you the research graphic organizer I provide to my kiddos and the final report! All you have to do is put your email below and it will be sent your way immediately!
I hope some of these ideas can create a March that will challenge and engage your students!
Hannah Wilde
I am so glad you’re here! I love helping 3rd-5th grade teachers by providing ideas, engaging resources, and professional development they need. I am a literacy coach who is here to help lessen the workload for teachers while making them more confident! I want students to be continually engaged in a rigorous environment!