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5 Ways to Ease Back in After Winter Break

The holidays are buzzing, and winter break is near! It’s time to start thinking about what you want the spring semester to look and feel like in your classroom. 

You’ve been planning all of your pre-winter break activities. Many of which you may have even found in our blog post-Holiday School Resources: Celebrate the Holidays without the Party, but with only a few days left, and a desperate need to take a moment for yourself over the winter break, we want to take a few moments to help you plan for the days AFTER break. With the planning done you can truly lay back and enjoy the holidays, New Year, or whatever plans you are eagerly anticipating in the weeks to come.

Ease in after winter break FB Image

So let’s get to it. How will you ease back in after winter break?

Easing Back in After Winter Break

1 | Holiday Break Mini Flip Book (Free Digital + Printable Download)

This simple but thoughtful resource allows students to share the details of their break (no matter how they spent their downtime) using one of their favorite modes of communication…photos. 

Each page invites students to share one activity or experience they had while on break, and spots are provided for students to add photos. This resource works beautifully for online and virtual learning as a Google Slides resource because students don’t have to worry about printing or drawing photos. Instead, they can take pictures straight from their phones and add them to their pages! 

The Holiday Break Mini Flipbook, added in with a student-teacher discussion/conference or a small group sharing activity, is a great community-builder designed to start the new year right!

2 | Classroom Procedures Game Show

After the winter break is one of the best times to review classroom procedures, second only to the beginning of the school year, of course. This year is a little different as the new year may be the first time some teachers have ever seen their students in person, or some schools may not be returning to in-person learning after the break. Check out the ideas we shared for reviewing classroom procedures in this post!

One of the best resources we have for reviewing classroom procedures is our Classroom Procedures Game Show. It’s an interactive group game show activity (complete with scoreboard) that takes something that could be a little dry (like reviewing classroom procedures and rules) and adds a dash of spice through competition and trivia-inspired review. 

Ease in After Winter Break Pin

3 | New Years Close Reads with Mystery Pictures

Ready to jump into some reading standards on week 1 of the new year? Then this activity is perfect. 

The three passages with three differentiation levels can be completed in one week or over three weeks. After reading about experiencing the ball drop in New York City, students will learn how other people around the world celebrate New Year’s and a little history behind New Year’s Day.

In addition to 3-levels of differentiation, each passage includes the following:

✔ 10 Text-Dependent Questions for each passage. Use with or without the mystery grid.

✔ A Writing Prompt

✔ A Mystery Grid

✔ Answer Keys

✔ Graphic Organizers (that can be used with any text)

If you love our close reads, then you should check out our blog post: 12 Months of Close Reads, to learn more about all of the close reads we offer and where they may fit in your curriculum!

4 | ELA Skill Review-Sticker Style (self-checking)

A new resource for the new year, this Google Form-based review activity lets students earn stickers by answering ELA review questions correctly. The questions in this review range include figurative language, text structure, point of view, main idea, setting, author’s purpose, and characterization.

Each question includes a short reading passage, a multiple choice question (with redos), and a virtual winter-themed picture frame where students earn stickers for correct answers.

5 | Figurative Language Activities

It’s always a good time to review figurative language activities, and this blog post may be just what you need. With 40 figurative language examples to build into your activities plus an activity built right into the blog post, you’ve got a lot of free ideas to work with.

If you are wanting to keep things simple and prep-free, we also have a few resources in the Fun in 5th Grade store that you may enjoy!

Hopefully, these ideas leave you feeling inspired and at peace as you lay out a plan to ease into what is sure to be a great spring semester.

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