April Holidays & Celebrations: Lesson Plans and Fun for the Classroom

April is home to many holidays and celebrations and some them offer perfect opportunities for exploration in the classroom. Of special importance to teachers, April is National Poetry Month, National Library Month and Mathematics Education Month.

The first week of April also celebrates Library Week and Read a Road Map Week. This is a great time for a skills check. Can our students read a map? Can they draw a map? How about starting with a map to the library in honor of Library Week?

The second week of April is also Garden Week. Get growing with these G is for Garden lesson plans.

April 1 is April Fool's Day.

Will there really be no homework today? Are your shoes really untied? We'll have to wait and see but it is sure to be a fun day in the classroom.

April 2 is Children's Book Day.

Children's Book day is a perfect time for show and tell (or write and read) about your student's favorite children's books.

April 2 is also National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day.

Since it is also Mathematics Educational Month and Grill Cheese Sandwich Month, what a fun math activity to have kids conduct a survey and create a graph on "Favorite Sandwiches" such as grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly or other.

April 7 is No Housework Day.

I celebrate this amazing holiday several days a week each week but here is another great math graph opportunity. What chores do children do to help out around the classroom or in their homes?

April 8 is Draw a Picture of a Bird Day.

What a fun art activity for the day. A bird in hand may be better than two in a bush, but a flock on a bulletin board would really be the cat's meow.

April 13 is Scrabble Day.

Have all of your student's experienced the fun of the game Scrabble? This would be a fun spelling and language arts activity. After students have had a chance to play this game, consider setting up a Scrabble bulletin board with a pocket of letters. Students can earn a chance to add letters to this ongoing bulletin board.

April 14 is Reach as High as You Can Day.

What a great day to make a kite! There are many kite lesson plan ideas here in Kite Bulletin Boards. More math for Math Education Month. This is also a fun day to see just how tall we are and how high we can reach.

April 16 is National Librarian Day

Wouldn't our librarians love to "read" thank you notes from our students about why they appreciate the library and librarians?

April 22 is Earth Day.

"Reuse" these lesson plans with Earth Day Projects and Bulletin Board Ideas.

April 22 is also National Jelly Bean Day. What a fun day for one of those "Can you guess how many jelly beans are in this jar?"games.

April 25 is World Penguin Day.

In January we celebrated National Penguin Month. Learn more about penguins and find penguin lesson plans with these fun Penguin Bulletin Board ideas.
April 26 is Richter Scale Day.

This is a great day for building vocabulary and learning more about weather. Not a bad day to play "find it in the dictionary" day.

April 27 is Tell a Story Day.

Let students put down those pens and pencils and take turns "telling" stories. A good game of charades is fun way of warming up.

April 28 is Great Poetry Reading Day.

There's no rhyme or reason not to check out these Teachers: 7 Ways to Celebrate April's National Poetry Month by R. K. LoBello.

Sources:
Personal teaching experience

http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/april.htm

365 Days of Praise & Celebration by Maureen McCaffrey Williamson