How to Engage Students the Week Before Break

It is the week before a school vacation and student energy is running high. Just when the students are excited for the holidays and sometimes unable to contain their enthusiasm, you are probably feeling exhausted and ready for your own well -deserved break. How can you possibly hope to engage students in meaningful activities?

You can make the most of a fun and exciting time of year without sacrificing classroom management or giving up on learning goals. Here are some things to consider:

Remind students of classroom rules and behavior expectations.

You’ve worked hard to establish a classroom where all students can learn. This is NOT the time to ignore your classroom procedures and rules.

Beginning teachers often make one of two mistakes during times of high student energy such as before holidays and vacations, during special weeks such as homecoming, or before special school events.

One mistake is to suddenly clamp down, and become a dictator. Teachers who resort to this method often demand silence. They try to contain student energy by giving lots of work- often in the form of unengaging worksheets. They tighten up on management, giving an increased number of time-outs, detentions, checkmarks or red lights. These teachers try to maintain order through control. Unfortunately, it often sucks the life blood out of both the teacher and the students.

Another rookie mistake is to go to the other extreme and lighten up on rules and procedures. It is often easier to look the other way, and relax expectations rather than challenge unwanted behaviors. This can quickly lead to an out of control and unproductive classroom.

Fortunately, there is a happy medium. Remind students of the rules and expectations. Explain that you understand that they are excited and you are excited too. You want to be able to do some special and fun activities with them. You know they will enjoy the activities and learn a lot too, but you are going to need their cooperation. After they agree, you can move on to explain the activity.

Plan Extremely Engaging Activities

This is the time to pull out all the stops and use your best, most fun and engaging activities. You can easily teach standards and engage students with activities such as the following:

Introduce a lesson on states of matter by playing music from the movie Frozen. Then conduct experiments with ice, snow and water.

Have students work with a partner, choose a country from anywhere in the world, and research holiday traditions in that country. Have them prepare a book, poster or oral presentation.

Another idea is to take a holiday tradition and research its origins. Where did Candy Canes come from? Why do we hang stockings by the fire? Why is the dreidel a classic holiday game?

Read a classic holiday poem, story or song such as The 12 Days of Christmas or O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi. Have students rewrite the song or story with a modern twist. What would replace a partridge in a pear tree in the modern version?

Have students work in small groups to practice and present Readers Theatre presentations of holiday poems. Another idea is to use a script of a classic holiday story. The Christmas Truce tells the story of a true historical event that happened during the first world war. It is available as a free Readers Theatre script for grades 4-8. Many other scripts are available on line.

Have students create original math problems using the content you have been working on and infusing the problems with holiday words, themes or stories. Collect them and make a math review activity using the students’ math problems.

As a class, write “Write Around Stories.” Review the parts of a story. Then, each student takes out a sheet of paper and writes the opening sentences for a dramatic adventure story. When the timer rings, students pass on their story to the person sitting next to them. They then add the next part of the story. Keep the timer buzzing and the papers moving. Announce that time is up and return all papers to their original owners. Students then read the stories and write the ending. They can also edit and revise. Allow time to read the stories orally in small groups.

Use this time to continue to build classroom community.

Ask a holiday related question such as “what is your favorite holiday tradition?” as you take attendance.

As a class, work together to create cards and/or gifts for others. This might include parents and siblings, school workers and bus drivers, nursing home residents or a local homeless shelter.

Make a project of creating a special class celebration. Have every student bring in an item to make “Stone Soup.” Measure, chop and cook something together. Allow students to work on “committees” to create invitations, musical playlists, decorations, placemats and games for your celebration. Student presentations can make excellent entertainment. Spice it up by adding a microphone and sound system.

Create a tree of learning. Build a large tree out of craft paper and attach it to a bulletin board or use an artificial Christmas tree. Have students create ornaments out of construction paper. Each ornament is labeled with key ideas they have learned this year.

You likely have fond memories of special activities and celebrations you had in your years of school. Now, as teachers, you have a chance to create these special memories for the students you teach. The week before a vacation can be a fun and productive week if you take your curriculum, add a bit of spice and engage students in fun and memorable activities.

Good luck!