It’s still early in the school year and the rush of the very first few days is starting to settle. Today we wanted to share a few activities you can do with your class that are perfect for stationery-obsessed teachers! These activities are inspired by some of the things we make and some of the stationery we all love to use, and hopefully you can use these activities as a way to inspire students, help to build your classroom culture, and have a little fun.
Praise cards
We have a whole range of different praise cards that celebrate different things, like being kind, reading well, doing something to be proud of, or achieving something great. It can be lovely to establish a culture in your classroom of giving praise cards at random moments to acknowledge when a student has done something brilliant! It’s also a nice way to establish a positive link between school and home, as the student can take the card home and show their family. You could even sometimes get students involved and ask them if they’ve noticed anyone recently who should get a praise card – can they start to notice and acknowledge when their peers do well?
Birthday cards
Get the students involved with creating some birthday cards for each other! We make birthday postcards, with a full colour happy birthday message and a plain side. At the start of the year, have each of the children add a drawing to the plain side – maybe you could ask them all to design an amazing birthday cake. Then when a birthday comes around, pick a random card and add your note and the child’s name, then reveal the card to the class! Whose drawing did they get? It’ll be a fun surprise whenever a birthday rolls around and a nice way for the whole class to get involved with a birthday celebration.
Find our Birthday Postcards here
Sticker ceremony
Our classroom sticker book has a huge range of different stickers for all kinds of occasions. They have messages like ‘I’m bananas about your work’, ‘I’ve been a reading superstar’, and ‘Today I did amazing things’. It could be fun to have a little sticker ceremony at the same time each day, like just before lunch or at the end of the day. Each day a different student could earn a sticker, and you can reveal which sticker they’ll be awarded. Can the students guess which sticker it will be? This can be a great opportunity to model behaviours and actions that you want to see in your classroom, by giving practical examples of things you like to see the students doing and want to celebrate them for.
Find our Classroom Sticker Book here
Keep a class reflective journal
Inspired by our own reflective journals, can you have reflective journals that you all work on as a class? Maybe once a week you could have journalling time where you reflect on what’s been going on. Can they think of something they are proud of? Can they think of a ‘wow moment’ that they want to remember? This can be a great activity to model reflection and journaling as a practice, and to encourage students to be proud of themselves and celebrate the little moments. Maybe you could even fill in your own reflective journal during this time as well!
Find our Reflective Journals here
Design your own planner cover!
We absolutely love curating our different planner designs each year, and we know that lots of you enjoy the variety as well and choosing the right one for you. So you could make an art lesson out of it! Show the students how to create their own little notepads with folded paper and a stapler, or whichever method you prefer – maybe you could even turn these into reflective journals! Then discuss what their cover should look like. Look at some different examples of art and start to think about how different pieces of art can evoke different feelings. Ask how they want to feel when they open their notebook – inspired? Happy? What kinds of images, colours, or shapes would make them feel this way? See if they can create a cover design that makes them feel that way!
