It’s Giveaway Time!

Blog-birdFirst of all, it’s really difficult to believe that it’s the first Friday in April. Maybe my head has been poked inside a big puffy cloud, but it sure seems like we were just celebrating Valentine’s Day a couple of weeks ago!

Well, y’all know the first Friday of the month means a giveaway here at The Mailbox Blog. And this month’s prize is something to tweet about! To enter the giveaway, leave a comment right here on the blog that tells us your favorite springtime teaching theme or topic. That’s it! Just be sure to do this before midnight EDT, Sunday April 12. The winner will be contacted by email on April 13, so keep your eyes peeled for a message from The Mailbox Blog. If you don’t normally receive emails from us, please check your spam. Our emails have been known to hide out there! Oh, and the prize? A surprise pack of school supplies (markers, stickers, notepads, etc.) worth $25!

Good luck and thanks for all you do!

Diane

Congratulations to Colleen, the winner of this month’s First Friday Giveaway! She wins a surprise pack of school supplies worth $25!


185 thoughts on “It’s Giveaway Time!

  1. Oh wow tough question to answer I love spring activities because you can do them inside or outside. My favorite activity is to dress the kids up as bugs. I dress them up one by one over the week at circle. I have old socks that we pin on the kids as legs. I have made antennas and I have 3 sets of goofy sunglasses for them to pick from because insects have strange eyes. I use dollar store fairy wings and a set of chest armor for their exo skeleton. You have to take pictures as the parents love them by the end of the week they all know the parts of an insect.
    Another favorite is when doing butterflies is to wrap each child up in toilet paper like a mummy with their arms folded like wings. They then flap their wings to break out of their chysalis.

  2. I love the butterfly unit. Where the children get to watch them grow and then release them. Every single year, this is truly an amazing spring unit.

  3. I enjoy butterflies & ladybugs but gardening is my absolute favorite! This week is plants week in our homeschool and I love, love, love it!

  4. My favorite spring theme to celebrate is Earth Day! The children become so aware of the importance of keeping our planet healthy and clean. A great community event!

  5. I love teaching about plants! We discuss the plant’s parts (and how we eat most of these parts in various foods we often find on the table), we talk about specific plant varieties, we get our hands dirty and do some actual planting, etc.

  6. We do a fabulous unit on the Rocky Seashore and then we take a trip to the ocean to see and touch everything we’ve learned about!

  7. Love to make sping flowers, any kind! We enjoy headbands, a whole bulletin board of them like a garden & vases of “flowers”!

  8. I absolutely love our butterfly project. We love to brainstorm questions about butterflies, do observational drawings of our butterflies, read books about butterflies, and release the butterflies at the end of the unit. So fun to watch the butterflies and students’ excitement!

  9. My favorite topic is Indiana history. I teach fourth grade and it’s so much fun getting them interested in our state’s history. We started talking about Indiana’s statehood and it was so fu.n listening to them answer and ask questions.

  10. We love doing our Sand Castle story and then leading into our Ocean theme. The kids get to explore sea creatures through books & websites, write research papers, and read and discuss many books about the ocean. Looking forward to enlighting them with the ocean unit!

  11. Gardening. I love talking about how things grow and how the weather changes to help them accomplish that. We also get to plant things and help them grow which is always fun for the kids. Then there’s birds and butterflies and everything else that comes with Spring.

  12. I love teaching about flowers and plants. It’s so fun for the students to watch something grow from something so small.

  13. My favorite activity is having the kids create “Litter Bugs” using trash to build an insect. We learn about bugs as well as recycling for Science and celebrating Earth Day. We display these in the school cafeteria and invite others to visit our Trash to Treasures Museum!

  14. My favorite to teach is the caterpillar/butterfly unit. My students have always loved watching the whole process. We keep journals and draw them from caterpillar to butterfly. So much fun.

  15. I do a butterfly and plants theme for Spring. I purchase caterpillars and the kids watch the metamorphosis. We also start plants and by Mothers Day our gifts are ready to bloom and the kids have learned 2 lifetime lessons. HAPPY SPRING <3

  16. My favorite theme to teach in the Spring?—Why the Cold War of course! Lol! “Duck and Cover”

    btw…that snarky cloud on my Facebook feed was priceless. Nothing like getting the stink eye from a cloud bright and early on a Sat. morning! ha!

  17. I love spring and we do a poetry unit in the library that includes student read poems in the poetry cafe!

  18. My favorite unit ties into Earth Day. Right now the students are working on growing veggies from seed, and they will harvest the plants an donate to the local food pantry. Its part of a bigger project based learning unit.
    Thanks for your consideration!

  19. i love the theme weather! April showers bring May flowers! The children love rain, sun and rainbows! Rainbow toast is always a fun snack!!

  20. My favorite Spring theme is Pond Life. I love getting to teach about turtles and frogs. There are so many awesome projects a d activities to go with this theme.

  21. My favorite Spring lesson is Earth Day. It teaches the kids to remember the world they live in and to take care of it.

  22. I love doing a weather unit in spring. We have so many different types of weather in spring here in Michigan that it’s always fun to keep a weather log and explore the many different days we have and temperature changes we have on a daily basis!

  23. My favorite topic is Earth Day. The students love to hear stories about how to take care of the earth. They also love to create things out of all kinds of recyclable materials. With their absolute favorite part being cleaning up outside of school, then planting flowers.

  24. I love weather! I usually save it for the spring because of the quickly changing weather fronts and systems that can come in…kids love being able to predict weather – and our activities – based on data we collect!

  25. I love teaching kindergarten students about plant needs and the parts of plants…..it is a whole new world to them!

  26. Earth Day! I am a HUGE reduce, reuse and recycle person, so it’s nice to show my students (and their families) how just little changes can have a big impact on our Earth.

  27. Wow!! So many things to pick from–insects, flowers, and weather! We do them all, using science and art. Lots of things go up on our outside wall! We use lots of markers and glue for our art projects (this supply would be perfect for my 27 second graders to use!!!). We use our science books, flash cards, worksheets, and so many other things. Now we are getting shadows done.

  28. Plants! I love teaching about how plants grow and the different factors that enhance growth. I think that the kids really enjoy being able to plant something, tend it and watch it grow as well!

  29. Watch My Garden Grow! Children learn to garden. They learn the responsibility and the importance. They learn the need and shortage of food.

  30. In the spring I enjoy doing a theme on umbrellas and rain. On the first day of April, we have umbrella day. We ask families to bring umbrellas. We take them outside or the gym and put them in order by size and sort them. It is a great activity to get the kids moving, and they have a better visual of size order.

  31. I love our Earth Day activities. We cap our study with a walking tour of our town. We carry trash bags and wear gloves to pick up litter. The kids love it.

  32. for earlier in the spring it’s bugs/butterflies/growing things, and then ocean as it gets closer to the end of the school year!

  33. We are publishing a class book through Scholastic about Earth Day. Earth Day is one of my favorite things to teach in the Spring and the class is so enthusiastic learning about the things they can do to save the Earth!

  34. I love to teach about how plants grow in our homeschool class. This year we will be starting a pot garden. Bonus: we get to eat fresh veggies!

  35. This is a tough question! My favorite topic to teach in the Spring is one if two. The science behind flowers and planting flowers (or anything really!) and watching the excitement as the children watch the plants go through tbe process 🙂 I also enjoy teaching the life cycle of butterflies. The children seem to find it fascinating when I introduce the topic. Spring is full of learning experiences and new opportunities to find new things!

  36. Animals and their offspring, caterpillars to butterflies, plants growing, weather

    My students are loving these spring topics!

  37. Insects for me too. I really do think however, that watching the wonder of metamorphosis at the beginning of the school year could be a powerful common experience that could help to build a sense of classroom community early in the year.

  38. The life cycles! There are so any things that we can incorporate while learning about the many different cycles. We can plant and study the parts of flowers and trees. We watch mealworms complete a full lifecycle. Watching videos and doing projects on other types of animals. It’s all hands on learning and it becomes student lead!

  39. watching butterflies hatch is always fun and exciting. I also love helping them make a recyclable sculpture for Earth Day.

  40. We celebrate spring by studying the new life or the beginning of many different ones . The study of baby animals,farm animals and baby birds. We look at the new life of the leaves on the trees and we plant different seeds and see how they grow and watch how the roots take up the food to water the plants, ect!

  41. My favorite thing to teach in the spring is the poetry unit. We read a bunch of poems and discuss them. Throughout the month of April, we write several different types of poems. Then for Mother’s Day, we put them into a portfolio and the students give their portfolio of poetry to their mothers as a gift. The last poem that we do is an acrostic poem about our moms. For the finishing touch, we make keychains out of clay. They use cookie cutters to cut out hearts, then they press their thumb into the heart, and lastly they poke a hole into the heart to put a key ring through. We wrap the portfolio with a ribbon and tie the keychain through it. It’s cute way to end my favorite unit.

  42. Signs of Springs is my favorite because it encompasses everything about the renewing of the earth – plants, flowers, butterflies and other insects. It’s a time when I introduce students to my favorite science experiments of growing plants/flowers and watching caterpillars change into butterflies. My students love both activities and it maintains their attention for weeks on end.

  43. I love any kind of outdoor activity of spring. We do a unit on our city’s history. They take a trip to see the sites of it.

  44. I teach a unit all about eggs. Animals that lay they, not just birds. We read books, we compete a writing craftivity, math, and egg science experiments.

  45. I love our unit on plants- it ties in with earth day and Mother’s Day . My first graders are so excited this year learning about plats. We also make chia pets using a sock, buttons for the face, seeds for hair and soil. They love it! These pets become there reading buddies . Happy Spring

  46. My favorite springtime theme is flowers. They are bright and remind the symbolize the blooming that students do during the school year.

  47. i love when we explore rocks, soil & water!! The kids love to bring in their rocks & do a Rock Report. We also love planting flower seeds for Mom’s Day presents!

  48. My favorite spring theme has to be the bugs unit. We have already raised and released our caterpillars/butterflies and we expect our ants for the ant farm any day. My coworker also has ladybug larva and we have had preying mantis egg cases in the past. Second favorite is Earth Day and teaching our children to care for our planet.

  49. I love spring!!! And I love sharing my enthusiasm with the children in my classroom, from rain to planting for Mother’s day, to earthworms and rain and mud. It’s all amazing and fun. I love to watch them explore and enjoy it all.

  50. My favorite spring activity is a unit on bubbles. It is amazing to me how many objects make great bubble blowers. Things like spoons with holes in them. Fly swatters, plastic tubes off of vacuum cleaners, strainers, plastic rackets, tubes off of laminating film…..I look at things that have holes and wonder will that make a good bubble blower. I ask my students to ponder this question too. I make sure they are involved even helping make the bubble solution! Bubbles are great fun and a lot of learning too!

  51. I enjoy gardening and love to share that with my students. I tell the story of “Jack and the Beanstalk” in various ways; through book, flannel board characters, and acting out the story during the week. At the end of the week we plant bean seeds in clear plastic cups so the children can see the growth from the roots up. The children predict how many days it will take for their seed to grow, and once the seeds come through the soil we measure each day to see how the bean plants have grown.

  52. I love all the spring units. My favorite though would probably be the weather. I love teaching the about the weather during the spring weather!

  53. Earth Day! I love Spring and the opportunity for the kids to enjoy and to learn an appreciation for the need to preserve our planet. This year we get to help plant many trees with our county conservation board and the environmental education center in our community for a lake expansion near our elementary school on Earth Day.

  54. Spring means natural beauty all around: recycling to save our earth, studying the lifecycle of the butterfly and frog and planting grass seed, flowers, and Lima beans for our outdoor gardens all of this with my preschoolers!

    Jinny

  55. My favorite spring time topic is spring itself. New life, growth, there is so much that can be done with art, science and literacy.

  56. Spring means new signs of life and beginnings… getting ready to do the propagation of Marigold seeds… then the kids will have a great gift for Mother’s Day!!!

  57. We’ve been working on oviparous animals (those that come from eggs). We started from the past talking about dinosaurs and now we’re moving into frogs and birds. This is my first year teaching kindergarten so I’m experimenting, but I like this because it has enough depth to create an integrated unit including it in math, reading, writing, and science. And my kids have loved the dinosaurs so far!

  58. The last unit we do in our reading curriculum, is about the ocean. I think it’s the most fun we get to have all year!

  59. I LOVE doing Hungry Caterpillar!!! My coworkers laugh because me and my kiddos are OBSESSED with the book. Most of my 3 year olds can quote it…

  60. In my preschool class we head outdoors for our spring! From frogs to ducks, flowers to insects, and of course we can’t forget caterpillar to butterfly!

  61. We do a unit on the human body. I love doing it in the spring because I feel like its a rebirth of getting the students outdoors and starting new healthy habit. We do a lot of hands-on (bodies-on) outdoor activities like finding out our resting and exercising heartbeats, testing our muscles, and other activities to get the kids moving. It is nice to be able to get them outside for the fresh air and a change of pace. It is so hard for them to sit still all day.

  62. Ah this is an easy one to answer! Each spring one of the local families will bring in chicken or duck eggs to hatch! The children are amazed when they start to hatch! Throughout the winter we also collect all of our compost and when time arrives we start planting inside and teach the children about plant and animal life. When composting we do an earthworm farm. The children love spring! We love the looks of wonder and excitement on their faces!

  63. I love to teach my children about caterpillars and butterflies. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is their favorite book!

  64. I love the sunshine and warmth. I love to read the students books and do activities related to Earth Day. It brings spring and the regrowth of the earth together so well.

  65. Oh, so many possibilities! The changing of the seasons, weather, planting, insects,….. Well, if I had to chose my favorite spring concept I guess I would implement the changes of the weather and the main goal for each child is to be safe and know what to do when the changes happen in an instinct.

  66. We are beginning our unit on plants. We have started our classroom garden with potatoes, onions, spinach, and Lettuce. We have talked about the different types of vegetables: root vegetables, leafy vegetables, or fruit vegetables. Next week we will start in on the parts of a plant and talk about how each part has a unique job. My kindergartners have planted their Mother’s Day flowers and are anxiously awaiting their arrival.

  67. I always read Because of Winn-Dixie and Charlotte’s Web to my students in the spring. I just love those books and look forward to spring to read them!

  68. There are too many spring lessons I love to pick just one! I love teaching our rainbow unit, making rainbows in science, and all the activities that go with it. I love teaching our Earth Day unit, learning about clean air, water, and land.

  69. I love weather! Being that we live in Oklahoma and in April , we are experiencing all the seasons, even those tornadoes. The kids really enjoy it!

  70. My favorite springtime activity involves art and math. After we’ve talked about symmetry and spring weather I have the kids paint splotches on a 12×18 piece of white paper and then fold it in half. They then open the paper and let it dry. After it’s dry they fold them back in half and trace a 1/2 a kite pattern and cut it out, open it up and add some crepe paper for a tail. Then we hang them around our room…..it makes our room so bright and beautiful!

  71. I enjoy ending the year with senior portfolios in AP Lit and College Application Essays with my juniors. These are such big-deal projects for my students that they keep interested and vested until the end.

  72. I teach about snakes & lizards in the spring. Snakes are coming out of winter hibernation and children need to learn that all snakes are not poisonous. Lizards are fast and are good for eating harmful insects. Lizards also camouflage I our desert soil.

  73. As a middle school teacher, I love spring poetry activities. I love being witness to the growth of my students academically as well as personally. The greatest reward is when you see that look of accomplishment on the face of your students. Through poetry we find our inner beings and learn what we are really made of.

  74. My favorite springtime activity and theme is to discuss plants and gardening. I really enjoy teaching my students the parts of the plants and they love planting seeds to watch them grow.

  75. So many wonderful spring themes – plants, insects, oceans, Earth Day, and poetry, but my favorite one is weather! It is great to say goodbye to the cold weather and hello to the sunshine, as we are learning about what causes our weather and spending more time outside.

  76. One of my favorite spring theme is insect. My students enjoy having any type of insects in our classroom . The love seeing their life cycle stages.

  77. i use the Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown and talk about the important things about spring. The kids create a poem modeled after the patterning of the book.

  78. It is so hard to choose 1 activity so I will say our unit on plants. We try to time plants for Mother’s Day.

  79. I like doing eric carle. We made a paper plate caterpillar! We are doing Little Cloud next and talking about weather.

  80. I use kites at this time of year. You can teach symmetry, make parts of speech, story elements, or
    math kites using the four quadrants in a lot of different ways. And with a streamer for a tail, they look beautiful
    when hung up.

  81. I love to teach life sciences by planting flower seeds to become Mother’s Day presents and hatching chicks to become new members of the families of our small rural farms, including my own. Anything that promotes sunshine and outdoors after the long dark dreary winter spent mostly indoors.

  82. My favorite spring topic is weather! The kids usually get to see all kinds of different weather in our area as they come and go to school.

  83. I love teaching about Earth Day. The idea that my kinders are learning about the beauty and fragility of their home gives me hope that they will continue to care for it. They observe living things and grow plants. They study how pollution hurts the world. It’s definitely one of my favorite lessons because it is one way that they can be in charge of their world! They realize that even at their ripe old age of 5/6, they can make a difference in the world 🙂

  84. We just recently did 2 weeks on weather and the seasons. After talking about tornados and rain we did 2 experiments, the tornado in a bottle talking about why the funnel forms and using a container filled with water and shaving cream on top dropping food coloring on the shaving cream creating a rainstorm. Then the students chose the weather they were going to report on as they pretended to be a meteorologist. We recorded their forecast so they could watch themselves. They loved it.

  85. The butterfly/bug unit is my favorite. Watching the kids watch the changes that happen, and then they get so excited when the butterflies emerge… It’s the best!

  86. Spring flowers are my favorite. I start talking about changes in nature right after spring break and things are beginning to bloom and grow outside. We go outside and observe the changes and come in to draw pictures. At the end of April we start making paper flowers just in time to make a beautiful bouquet for Mother’s Day.

  87. I love the bird unit that we do! The students research, write, illustrate and publish nonfiction books about specific birds. We go on a field trip to the local audubon center and spend the day hiking, bird-watching, viewing nests and babies, and learning more about birds and their adaptations. A marvelous way to spend a spring day!

  88. my favorite spring unit is on the life cycle of frogs. The students love watching the process of metamorphosis! The froglets are super cute too!

  89. Spring is here… The time of year when light bulbs turn on and teachers start to do happy dances… I love the bugs and flowers how growing is happening all around

  90. I love teaching my speech kids about anything outside because we’re not stuck inside anymore because of the cold.

  91. I love the water related lesson plans and often end and begin the school year with these themes. Ducks, frogs, bubbles , bees, plants, and flowers all become related to the general water theme. The end of the year party is a water play party. These end of the year activities always makes me sad that another school year is over!

  92. My favorite springtime theme is Gardens. We plant bean seeds in Zip-Loc bags and tape them to the windows, then watch them grow, roots and all. We also have a Flower Shop, with silk flowers, garden gloves, watering cans, floral foam for arrangements, and boxes with circles cut out to make bouquets fit in.

  93. I love teaching about all of the things that get us OUTSIDE. The weather, gardening, bugs, reptiles, rainbows. After many winter days inside, we love the time outside to explore all of the changes that come with the warmer weather.

  94. After our state testing wraps up, I always complete the year with animal studies: adaptations, the different kingdoms, food chains and webs, and ultimately each kiddo researches an animal. They present their “topic” to the class with a Prezi, PowerPoint, poster, video, commercial, model, etc. They love sharing their knowledge and having choices on how it is presented.

  95. I love hatching our chicks, learning about life cycles and earth day. The kids have fascinating
    ideas about how to help our planet.

  96. poetry, and Graphic Novels based on fairy tales myth or legend …I teach creative writing and Drama to grades Pre-K through 5th (874 students)

  97. The best springtime theme is perimeter and area using the playground equipment. The kids enjoy outside time while learning.

  98. Spring is a great time to teach. plants, Earth Day and insects too. We love to plant seeds in clear cups to see how the. roots look

  99. I do a “Writers in Bloom” theme that I love. My PreK students make colorful flowers and practice writing their names on the stems. And they verbally complete writing prompts/sentence starters and I write down their responses inside the flowers.

  100. I love teaching in spring! There are so many wonderful theme possibilities..my favorites – flowers and butterflies…and changing weather!♥

  101. I love teaching “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” unit. It’s a great way to introduce butterflies to the students while also reviewing days of the week and reinforcing counting and sequencing concepts.

  102. I love doing a life cycle unit using Eric Carle books. My students in Albania do not know Eric Carle’s work, so it is exciting to introduce them to this great author.

  103. I do- Everything Grows- Which starts out with planting flowers for Mother’s Day gifts and ends up with raising butterflies.

  104. I love planting, whether in a plastic cup or in a garden when we can. There’s nothing like a real activity!

  105. I teach sixth grade students. We have a promotion ceremony for them at them end of the year. I always look forward to the reflective poems that we write because most of them are so insightful. We also have a Night of Wonder when we invite parents in to check out STEAM projects that we have been working on. The teachers pick a challenge for the students and they research and work to solve it.

  106. Favorite is our earth day, reading The Lorax, then building something out of “throw away” materials like bottle tops, plastic, etc. Kids can be so creative!

  107. I love teaching about the life cycle of butterflies. It’s fun to have your own caterpillars that will change right in your classroom! It’s a sure sign when we get to this unit that Spring is really here and summer is on the way!

  108. We do a fun week of kinetic and potential energy where we end up flying kites at the end of the week to further illustrate.

  109. We have spring state assessments here in Michigan for the first time inn my teaching career. I will admit to panicking a little…okay…a lot! I’m hoping to squeeze in my unit on magnets, electricity and a mini unit on plants!

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