It’s that time of year again…the weather is beginning to warm up, the long months following winter break have passed by, and Spring Break is fast approaching! The kids are excited, and let’s face it, so are you. It can always be a bit difficult to survive the days leading up to Spring Break, as everyone is equally excited and burnt out. Lucky for you, I have some tips for surviving the days before Spring Break!
Give Students a “Deadline for Calm”
This is a weird one, but hear me out. My students would usually begin to show signs of the “Spring Break Crazies” about a week or two before break would actually start. That is WAY too early to lose a whole class of students, and I would start to feel the anxiety that comes with an excitable class. So, I started giving my students a “Deadline for Calm”. The conversation would typically sound something like this:
“Spring Break is coming up, you’re excited, i’m excited, we are all excited. But here’s the thing, if we start to act excited now, you are going to have a VERY grumpy teacher. That’s not fun for anyone. So I need you do keep your calm until *enter day before Spring Break*. If you can keep your calm until that day, then on that day you can act excited, we’ll do some fun activities, and we can all show our crazy a little bit. If you cannot keep your calm, we will treat that day like any other and do boring quiet activities all day”.
This sounds so simple, but it WORKED. My students had a day to look forward to, and also something to work towards. They would still have that mild excitable ‘buzz’, but they were able to keep it in check enough for me to enter Spring Break with at least an ounce of sanity.
Sprinkle in some Spring Break Activities!
Once the class has shown some level of calm, you can lean into their excitement a bit and sprinkle in some Spring Break activities! This Spring Break Escape Room is the perfect 45-minute activity to throw into the week leading up to Spring Break. Better yet, let your students work towards earning the opportunity to do it!
Give your students something to take with them (FREEBIE)
When your students leave for Spring Break, send them off with a Spring Break Bucket List like this FREE one found HERE! Whether they are traveling or staying home, they can see how many of these activities they can complete during their week off. Better yet, it can make for a good journaling opportunity when they return!
May your coffee be strong and your students be calm!