Turn Test Prep into Fun: Easter Egg Hunt Math Review for Upper Elementary

With spring approaching, classrooms everywhere begin to buzz with excitement --the warmer weather, Easter celebrations, and of course...test prep season. But what if this time of year could be about more than just tired reviewing of standards? What if you could season it with fun? 

Easter Egg Hunt with a Twist

Turn your math review into an engaging egg hunt where your students:

• Solve math problems
• Move around the room
• Stay excited about learning

Imagine your students going on a classroom Easter egg hunt while reviewing their math skills. That's just what you CAN do with this fun and engaging activity. Students will solve math problems, hunt for eggs, and solve clues to reveal the answer to a riddle. 

The Power of Movement During Test Prep

We all know that students do not need another set of worksheets --they need more engagement!

Activities like an Easter egg hunt:

• Break up long review sessions
• Get students moving (and that in turn increases focus drastically)
• Encourage problem-solving in a fun way
• Make learning memorable

Instead of dreading review days, students will actually look forward to them. 

Skills You can Review During Easter Math Activities

An Easter math egg hunt is perfect for spiraling key skills in 3rd and 4th grades. You can cover skills like: 

• Addition and subtraction
• Multiplication facts
• Long division
• Equivalent Fractions

With students actively searching, solving, and checking their answers, they stay engaged longer --and retain more. 

Easy Prep, Big Impact

The best part? These types of activities are incredibly easy to implement. 

All you need to do is:

• Print the math recording sheet
• Cut out the eggs and hide them around your classroom
• Give students the math recording sheet
• Let the learning review (and of course the fun) begin

Within minutes, your classroom transforms into an interactive learning environment.

For Easy Differentiation

These work well for easy differentiation. Students can work on different skill sets within the same classroom because different egg designs can be used, or you can copy the eggs on different colored papers if you choose the blackline version. Then all you have to do is show students which egg design or color they are looking for around the room and they can ignore all the others. 

The Testing Season

Remember, your classroom doesn't have to feel stressful. 

By combining: 

• Engaging math review
• Movement-based activities
• Fun Easter egg hunts

You create a space where students feel both successful and appreciated. 

And that's worth celebrating!

Final Thoughts

This Easter season, try shifting from traditional review to something more meaningful. When students are engaged, moving, and reflecting, they don't just review math --they experience it. 

That's when the real classroom magic happens. 

Click on the photos below for each separate resource or check out the bundled product at the top to save even more!

 

When a holiday rolls around, it is the perfect time to combine a bit of history and reading comprehension with the holiday, making the learning not just authentic, but engaging. I created a whole set of The History Behind the Holidays booklets where students get to find out the reasons behind the holiday traditions. They see where the traditions came from and how they got started. This one is perfect if you are teaching on St. Patrick's Day. 

The booklets have 7 different articles, making it versatile and flexible. Teachers could choose to use it throughout the actual day of the holiday, or they could use it one article at a time over the course of 7 days. 

Be sure to snag this resource today and make your holiday prep even easier! You can find it by clicking this link here.

Math Games for St. Patrick's Day

Do you add centers to your math rotations with holiday spins? I love to do that whenever I can. Here's a look at a few math games for St. Patrick's Day. Adding centers with a holiday spin can sure spice up my math rotations. 

1. Pot O' Gold Fraction Game

This game helps students practice equivalent fractions with 2-4 players.

2. Lucky Line Up Game

Need more practice with rounding decimals to the tenths place? This is just the game to get in some extra practice. This is for 2-4 players.

3. March Multiplication Games

This resource comes with three different games for multiplication fact fluency and offers room for differentiation too! 

Click on the titles to be taken to the resources. 

Read Across America Day: Dr. Seuss Style

Well, I went and did it...I got the date wrong for Dr. Seuss' birthday. But since a bunch of my students were absent on his birthday, I guess that was providential. 

Today, we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with a special breakfast of ...what else? ...green eggs and ham (bacon) and I threw in some Cat in the Hat pancakes for added fun. 

This morning I sent out an invitation for the students. I used AI to help me write it quickly and I wanted to make sure the parents knew they didn't need to fix breakfast. Here's the invite:

Oh what a day! Oh what a treat!

Put shoes on your toes and bounce to your feet!

We're throwing a bash that is silly and grand,

With wiggly giggles and fun that is planned!

It's a birthday hooray for a man we all know,

With stories that zig and stories that zo!

So come one, come all - yes every girl and boy -

For a morning of munchies and Seuss-ical joy!

We'll flip-flop pancakes in tall tippy stacks,

Like the tricks of a cat with red and white slacks!

"Cat in the Hat" pancakes, fluffy and round,

With syrupy swirls dripping all around!

And what will we eat? You already may guess -

Green eggs and ham in a Seuss-y success!

Would you eat them here? 

Would you eat them there?

Would you eat them in uniform with neatly combed hair?

We'll laugh and we'll rhyme,

We'll read and we'll play. 

With hats that are striped in spectacular way!

There'll be games and good cheer and giggles galore,

And maybe some Thing One and Thing Two at the door!

So mark down the date - 

Don't dawdle, don't wait!

This birthday breakfast will truly be great!

So come if you dare!

Come hungry - if you care! 

Join me for fun that is 

beyond compare!

Because a Seuss-style party

Is simply the best - 

It's topsy-turvy, tasty, and 

Better than the rest!

Almost right away, we started breakfast. I had already made tall red and white striped hat pancakes for the students, so I just had to warm those up. I brought my electric griddle to heat up the meat and cook the eggs. I just added some green food coloring to the eggs and cooked them up like normal. 

While I was finishing the breakfast off, students were coloring a Dr. Seuss coloring sheet. I told them it was for a coloring contest, so now I have to think of a prize. 

Next, we watched the reading of Green Eggs and Ham on YouTube. I didn't have a copy of the book, so YouTube came in handy. 

After that, we worked on rhyming words. I had the students do five rounds of a Scattergories-style  game. I gave them a beginning word such as cat and they had one minute to come up with all the real words they could that rhymed with it. Then we shared our words and students had to mark off any words that others also had. After 5 rounds, we awarded first place winners from each grade level (I teach three grades) with a mechanical pencil...simple and they were super excited to get the pencil since they very rarely have mechanical pencils. 

Afterwards, I showed them how to create rhyming sentences and I placed them in small groups. Each group got a list of spelling words and they had to create a story that included their words (as a team) and also rhymed like the Dr. Seuss stories. I found a cute 20 minute timer that I placed on the board. It was Dr. Seuss-themed. We shared our stories with the class. 

When we came in from recess, we watched an about the author video for Dr. Seuss. We learned about other things he did in his life and how he became the famous Dr. Seuss. We read a short biography on his life (found for free on TPT) and answered comprehension questions with text evidence. 

The next book we read was The Cat in the Hat. We also did part two, The Cat in the Hat Returns. Both books were a ton of fun, and the first is a classic, so we had to do that one for sure. For the extension activity, we did a directed drawing, using Art for Kids Hub, of the Cat in the Hat. 

Later we read Mr. McElligot's Pool at our read-aloud time. This one was just for fun. 

We ran out of time for everything I had planned, but tomorrow I hope to finish it all off. Here's what else we will do: 

We will read the book, What Pet Shall I Get? and write persuasive essays about the pet we want. The students will write strong reasons why their parents should get them this pet.

We will end with a book that was written with a little help from Jack Prelutsky. It is called Hooray for Diffendoofer Day! This one was finished off after Seuss' death. He had left some drawings and notes, but the text was not made, so this poet, Prelutsky took what he could find and created the rest in the style of Seuss. ...pretty amazing!

And to end the day, I got a sweet message from one of my parents telling me that their child came home and wanted to read his Dr. Seuss books. For him, the day was inspiring! Absolutely LOVE that!