Teaching in February: 28 No Prep Activity Ideas for Upper Elementary

No prep activity ideas for teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students in February - Black History Month, Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, President's Day, 100th Day of School, and More

February is a short month, but it packs a punch! Between Black History Month, Valentine's Day, Groundhog Day, President's Day, the 100th Day of School, Dental Health Month, and the necessary test prep for upcoming state assesments, February keeps 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers busy!

Below, find 28 no prep activity ideas to help you save some time during this busy month!

Black History Month Activities

1. Smithsonian Learning Lab on George Washington Carver

Smithsonian provides a variety of free resources for educators, including Learning Labs. Check out their learning lab on George Washington Carver and use it in your classroom!

2. Learn About Notable African Americans

This resource makes it easy to introduce your students to 15 notable African Americans, including:

Sojourner Truth
Thurgood Marshall
Booker T. Washington
Frederick Douglas
Harriet Tubman
George Washington Carver
Carol Moseley Braun
Maya Angelou
Jesse Owens

Students will read short biographies and complete several activities to help them internalize what they have learned.

No Prep Black History Month Biographies Activities for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade

3. Read Biographies About Famous African Americans

Read a variety of children's biographies about notable African-Americans. Try to introduce them to people they might not be familiar with - if you need ideas, check out this children's book list of notable African Americans.

4. Emancipation Proclamation Coloring Book

This free coloring book from the National Archives teaches students about the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as some notable African Americans - including Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, and Harriet Tubman.

Valentine's Day Activity Ideas

5. What Makes a Good Friend Opinion Writing

Have your students think about the qualities and characteristics of a good friend. Then, have them write a short opinion paper sharing the quality they think is the most important for a friend to have.

6. Class Compliment Activity

Have students give compliments or kind words to each of their classmates. Provide sentence starters to help your 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students write meaningful compliments. Or, use this ready-to-go Kindness Compliment Book. It's a great activity for a Valentine's Day party!

Class compliment book - a kindness activity for Valentine's Day

You might also like these other ideas to help build a culture of kindness in your classroom.

7. Valentine' Day Fraction Freebie

Use this free Valentine's Day-themed resource to review fractions.

8. Learn About the Human Heart

Have students learn about the human heart by watching this video. While watching, have them make a list of 3 things they already new about the heart and 3 knew things they learned.

9. Write Your Own "Roses are red, violets are blue..." Poem

Show students some different examples of the popular "Roses are red, violets are blue" poem, and then have them write their own! Check out these examples for inspiration - but make sure you chose kid-friendly ones to share with your students.

10. Read Aloud a Book About Kindness

Choose one of these books that teach empathy and kindness for a Valentine's Day read aloud.

Groundhog Day Ideas

11. More Winter or More Spring Opinion Writing

Do students want the groundhog to see its shadow or not? Ask students whether they want more winter or more spring, and then have them do some opinion writing. If students need extra support, then provide them with some opinion writing sentence starters or paragraph frames.

12. Graph Class Predictions for Groundhog Day

Let each of your students predict whether the groundhog will see its shadow, and have them make a class graph of their predictions.

100th Day of School Ideas

13. 100 Things I've Learned

For the 100th Day of School, have students try to list 100 things they have learned so far this school year. Have partners or small groups work together for support.

14. 100 Word Story

Challenge students to write a story that is exactly 100 words long!

Dental Month Activities for 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade

15. Listen to a Kids Dental Podcast

Have students practice their listening skills while learning about dentistry. This children's podcast has a variety of dental episodes.

16. Make an Origami Tooth

Origami requires spatial awareness, patience, and focus, and can provide a fun challenge for upper elementary students. This YouTube video walks them through making a paper tooth. It is not easy and will be a challenge for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students!

President's Day Activity Ideas for February

17. If I Were President Writing Prompt

Have students think about what their life would be like and what they would do if they were president.

For students who struggle with writing, this If I Were President resource walks them through the entire writing process and provides a template for structure.

18. Check Out Primary Resources About Past Presidents

Use the free resources on Docs Teach to introduce your students to primary resources related to past presidents.

Other No Prep Ideas for February

19. Write a Cinquain Poem

Cinquains are excellent for reluctant writers because of its short nature and clear structure. Have students write this 5 lined poem following these instructions:

Line 1: 1 word - the subject of a the poem (a noun)
Line 2: 2 words - describing the subject (adjectives)
Line 3: 3 words - relating to the subject (-ing words)
Line 4: 4 words - relating to the subject (a phrase)
Line 5: 1 word - a synonym of the subject (a noun)

Check out these other short poems that are great for reluctant poetry writers.

No Prep poetry writing templates for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students that need extra scaffolding

20. Write Alliterative Sentences About Yourself

Review alliteration by having students write alliterative phrases about themselves. For example:

Lily's lively laughter lights up the room.

For an added challenge, have students write alliterative phrases about their classmate.

Find more figurative language review ideas here.

21. Sticky Note Story

For 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students who seem to have writer's block, make writing less intimidating by asking them to write a short story on a sticky note. It makes it a little more fun!

22. Secret Alien Exchange

Students secretly draw a picture of an alien and then write a detailed paragraph describing it. Once finished, display all of the alien drawings, and have your students try to match each written description to the correct drawing. This engaging activity is a great way to encourage strong descriptive writing and can easily be adapted for other drawings. For more, check out these tips for using this descriptive writing activity in your upper elementary classroom.

23. A-Z Scavenger Hunt

Have students go on a classroom scavenger hunt, looking for an item that starts with each letter of the alphabet, A-Z.

24. Play 20 Questions

Think of a person, place, or thing (bonus points if it's related to a topic you've been covering in class), and see if your students can figure it out in 20 yes or no questions - or less!

After you've modeled this several times, you could choose a student to come up with the person, place, or thing and answer the questions.

25. Spelling Pattern Race

Provide students with a specific spelling pattern you want to review (ai, air, ife, etc.) and have them list as many words as they can in a certain amount of time that fit that pattern.

26. Act Out Vocabulary

Play a version of charades with your students to review past vocabulary words. Secretly assign a student a specific vocabulary word to act out, and then have the rest of the class guess the word.

27. 2 Step Word Problem Freebie

Use this 2 step word problem freebie for a fun and no prep review!

28. Fact and Opinion Scavenger Hunt

Provide students with nonfiction books. Have them go on a fact and opinion scavenger hunt, searching for both fact and opinions.

Find more fact and opinion activity ideas here.