Staff Easter Egg Hunt

 I posted about a Staff Easter Egg hunt on Instagram and many people were interested in how it worked.  I don't have too many details but I will share what we plan to do in case you want to do something like this at your school!

First step, get approval.  We don't have a morale/sunshine committee (we are tiny!) and I know I have seen this idea somewhere....maybe not a staff one...but workplace nonetheless.  I asked my principal if this is something we could do this year and I would just take charge of it.  I know it is extremely busy in the office and with testing season coming up, I figured I could plan.

I love these morale boosters as well!

These are from teacher to teacher - and they are FREE!



I also love the version for students because they need all the love we can give!

I love that this idea is SO LOW COST!!

All you really need are eggs, and prizes.  Most of our prizes are FREE and I also got those admin approved before putting in eggs so she knew what she was getting into.  Prizes I chose are ones offered in some capacity before so I knew she would be ok with them.  If one is too much or didn't get approved I just didn't put it in an egg. 

🌷🐰 Staff Easter Egg hunt prizes 🌷🐰 I think our staff will love this!! #iteachtoo #iteach345 #moralebooster #springcrazy #funfun @teacherspayteachers @weareteachers

A photo posted by Amber Nicole (@sssteaching) on Mar 13, 2016 at 12:21pm PDT

List of Prizes: 

• $5 Target Card 
• $5 Starbucks
• Sharpie Pens
• dessert cooked by our class (we have a class reward coming up and they love this so we plan to cook for one teacher.)  Yes we can cook at school....beside the point.
• coupons donated by McDonalds.  I called the business office in our area and they mailed  me some after explaining it was for teachers.  These are my fillers to ensure everyone gets an egg!  I planned to call Sonic too but didn't get a chance, they might have coupons as well. 
• VIP parking 
• 30 min class coverage (only 2 of those!)
• Free ice cream or soda (50 cents) included in each of those eggs because that is the cost at our school
• JEANS DAY passes
• Pizza or Grill - we have 1 local restaurant in our town so 4 people on the same day can order food from there for lunch and have it delivered. 
• duty free lunch - eat in the faculty room!  Wouldn't believe how much I want this one!!!

*Obviously, these need to be customized to fit your school and needs so I don't have a something you can print and easily use. Feel free to adapt or use any of these ideas to spread some school cheer!*

You could just print coupons and put them in eggs.  You could hide them around school or just have teachers pull one from the lounge that day.  I have a recording sheet typed up that coordinates with our coupons for our admin so she can record who gets prizes that she is in charge of.   It just have blank lines and the prize names. 

THE TWIST: 

Some of the most desired prizes have a twist in their egg.  Instead of the coupon inside a note will say, "Bunny Hop to the principal's office for your prize." If you are all together this would be even funnier!  They are listed on the sheet so the principal knows what prize to give if they do that action :)

I think it will brighten up the day and make us work a little for those bigger prizes.

Here are some ideas to get you started: 

• bunny hop to office for your prize
• announce to the group/office "Easter Bunny has been good to me this year!"
• Give bunny ears knowingly to 3 people
• high five 5 people before getting prize
• pretend you laid an egg for your prize (ha- might be too over the top)
• dance through a field of flowers for your prize
• cheep, cheep like a baby chick for your prize
• get 3 people to smell your pretend your spring bouquet of flowers for a prize

Overall, I think this costs around 20-30 to put together for our school with every staff member getting a prize.  The coupons help a lot so everyone gets something.  The admin still plays a big part of what teachers can receive but if you got more prizes donated this might be even more doable. 

This would be a great idea for a PTO to sponsor at low costs or for any workplace! 

FREE DOWNLOAD! 

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Slime Science

Since I'm not in a school this year I have still been involved with kids even in my community.  Recently I held a slime science event at a local community center for parents to drop off kids and shop/wrap presents if need be.  We had four different slime stations and lots of learning and fun took place.

I loved that kids wanted to come outside of school and I tried to provide some great extensions about science from what they are learning.  The stations we had were:

• Magnetic Slime
• Color Changing Slime
• Glow in the Dark Slime
• DIY Slime

I wanted this to extend education in addition to the clear fun of "slime" on its own.  I made a specific booklet that contains all the recipes that we used and activities that go along with each type.  

For our specific event, we had kids rotate around in groups and really didn't get to do too much of the book work, but the table leaders went into specific details and experimented after making it.  

The way our event worked was 2 rotations of slime, then we met, talked and had snack, then finished up our last 2 rotations.  At the end, we met back up and looked at our books to find something new we learned or write it down and that is what they shared before they left.  

Overall, this would make a great family night for your school.  Buying the supplies in bulk really cuts the cost of the event.  We used 2oz cups since they got to take home 4 different types and that worked out great.  The booklet even comes with a whole page of parent extensions!

My four favorite parts:

1.  My Pearly Snow Slime:
Guys I seriously could not stop playing with my own slime I made.  At the DIY station I used White Pearl Paint combined with sequins to make a winter-y pearl paint.  I loved the shimmer and shine but it wasn't too much and the consistency came out just right.  We learned no matter how many times we made it that consistency varied each time it seemed like - too loose, too tight or just right.  It took lots of trial and error - we used pipettes to drop in the Borax solution to make sure we weren't adding too much.  Watering down the glue helps as well.

2. Magnet Fights
Because we used Iron Filings and Iron Oxide in different batches we could test the strength of each. Below is a video of the two different types and how they interacted with Neodymium Magnets .

*yes those magnets have to be used - I noted that in parent materials*

Pulling back the slime reveals the magnetic field!🤓🤓🤓


Also what's really cool is that those two slimes become magnetic to each other after polarized with the magnet.  If they are stored near each other the iron fillings will all gravitate towards the iron oxide slime - PRETTY COOL!

👩🏼‍🔬iron fillings vs. iron oxide powder👨🏽‍🔬 this slime event is going to be AWESOME! #ilovescience #iteachscience #slime #magneticslime #magnets #funsaturday #adultatplay

A post shared by Amber Nicole (@sssteaching) on Nov 18, 2017 at 7:08am PST

3. Exact Temperature Changes

The color changing slime was so fun to make and experiment with! Thermochromic pigment makes this slime so special. The pigment changes color with different temperatures! I could not find one to purchase that changes at a lower temp. Ours changes at 88 degrees Fahrenheit which actually worked out well.

We could dip it in hot tap water, warm with our breath, stretch out warm slime and watch it cool, and get metal utensils warm to make patterns!

The cool science part was letting students use a thermometer to experiment with exactly what temperature changed the slime. Lots of trial and error to figure it out. The powder can be a little pricey but woukd easily make a big batch for one class!!

4. “Literal” lightbulb moments 

The glow slime was really eye opening for some of the kids that have never seen black lights or used them before. It was so cool to see their reactions to he parts.  Clear Glue works better than white glue for glow slime!

We used Highlighter ink in our water since it glows in black lights, we used glow paint and black light paint to make sure our slime glowed in dark and under black light really well. I made sure kids got to see each part of that process as well! 

If you are interested in the workbook that goes with the materials to use in school or for parents you can find more information by clicking here or any of the pictures below.  It also comes with an editable invite and some promo resources!

My top picks: 

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#Hashtag Emoji Awards

I'm so excited to use these new awards this year in my classroom!  They will work for ANY grade level and the kids love them because of how "trendy" they are!

With over 30+ templates there is something for each student in your class!  It even comes with a end of year fill in sheet complete with : 

• fill in story
• emoji circle
• School preference 
• Hashtags for your school year
• Timehop of favorite memory

I print the memory page on the back of all my awards so the students have their awards and memories together + it is a great fill in activity for the end of the year!

Click any of the pictures to check out more details about these #hashtag Emoji Awards

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Learning Events - Engagement made easy!

I am loving transforming my classroom to enhance student learning!  It has been such a creative outlet for me as well as my kiddos! I want to share some reasons why these learning events are so fun and how they are tied to content.

1.  Plan around what your kids love!  Mario, Pokemon? Plan a video game day with different levels tied to "content skills." We did this already this year and students went absolutely GA-GA for it!  They had to save Princess Peach and raise the flag.  We got temporary tattoos as prizes.  Easy and cheap but unforgettable!



2.  Take one subject to the EXTREME!  Last year we had "Grammar Surgery" that focused on 9 different skills we had worked on throughout the year.  The "heavy hitters" for our grade level.  We had supplies donated and it hardly cost anything to put together plus I'll have it all ready for this year!

now tell me that's not going to stick with them forever!

3.  Builds Anticipation - Learning is Fun!   Students cannot wait once they see me start to put things together or any sign that says they have to wait.  Sometimes it's weeks in advance that I lay clues.  They are always dying and so excited to come into class. Can you remember that feeling from school? Even if it is only a couple times  year (because hey these do take some planning!) they will remember THOSE experiences all tied to content.  Usually mine are planned around reviewing skills not teaching anything new but still so valuable....especially before testing.

This was from our Awesome Cave Day - which coincides great with Missouri history!

Stretchy headbands with touch lights attached - they were on sale at Walmart.  We live in a hunting community so headlights borrowed from students was possible as well.

4.  Extend learning to places not thought possible! 
After reading the BFG we extended our learning by drinking Frobscottle (which causes farts in the book) and reading articles that discussed why we fart/burp tying in some science.  We then had a mission from the CIA to create lunch menus (health) that would have students producing "less gas in class" it sounds hilarious but boy did they take it seriously when working for the CIA.

I had a fingerprint scanner app (that didn't do anything but looked cool) they had to do that before we started work so CIA could keep tabs.

They had to write official letters (writing, parts of a letter) back to the CIA with their specific menu and reasoning for choices based on what they read - talk about deep meaning of a text and APPLYING it to a real world (albeit funny) situation.  UNFORGETTABLE!!

My special CIA detectives read nonfiction from @notanothersara about what makes a fart/burp. Took a google forms assessment and had to write a letter back to the CIA with a one week meal plan to reduce gas in class! Might have been gross but they took their job so seriously!!! #setthestagetoengage #iteachtoo #iteach345 #reading #engagement

A photo posted by Amber Nicole (@sssteaching) on Mar 23, 2016 at 3:18pm PDT

We've also done a 

Patient Prefix and Suffix Surgery

Test Prep Campout 

Amazing Race - Classroom Style

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how Seesaw saved my Conferences

Have you heard of the Seesaw app? I just love what Seesaw does for my classroom and IT IS FREE! I'm in no way paid to promote it but the features and abilities for a classroom are endless.



Being a relatively new teacher (4th year!) I need things that are EASY and work in my classroom, for that purpose alone Seesaw was perfect! Essentially it is a digital portfolio of student work that is shared with parents.


The variety of inputs alone makes is worthwhile.  You can snap a photo, draw, write a note, video or even link.  Then you can annotate off of those options to talk, draw, or type over what you input.




There are 2 main reasons why I love Seesaw so much!!


1.  The growth that it shows.

Sometimes as we see kids day to day we miss the growth over the year.  this year we used Seesaw for our beginning fluency checks and plan to look back and reflect at the end of the year with how far we have come.

While doing experiments, I walk around and ask questions that students answer with explanations about what we have been doing.

As a teacher this not only shows me but parents as well how their child does in a classroom setting even when they can't be there.  I pull up their "journal" at conferences and can easily scroll through work, examples, and reflections from students with parents and comment as well.  It makes conferences a breeze - which as a new teacher there could not be better music to my ears.




2. Parent Communication!

It could not be simpler to document student success and daily activity all while keeping parents involved!  Parents can link to just their student's journal - completely safe - and keep updated on daily activities and moments they might otherwise miss from our classroom.

The parent comments on this alone make it worthwhile - AGAIN (I know!)  They love getting messages that something was added to their journal and being able to start a dialogue with their student at home, "I saw you did such and such today....tell me more about it."

Another great *bonus* - I simply add a note and attach it to everyone's journal for a newsletter.  Easy Peasy!  Students sometimes even cover this for me.  Parents still stay updated all in one place.

What are you waiting for?! a FREE app??? - Run to the app store now!

Below is a link to a presentation I gave recently highlighting the benefits!

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