30 Fun Friday Ideas

Fun Fridays are a great way to end a week as a reward for working hard all week! The kiddos deserve some time to socialize and play so I’m sharing 30 Fun Fridays Ideas.

You may like to stick to doing the same thing each Friday, or maybe like to choose 4 different things for each week of the month. Do what works best for your class and your students.

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30 Fun Friday Ideas

1. Break out the board games and let the kids play. So many good things can be learned from playing board games with others. From taking turns to learning how to lose gracefully. My favorite place to find inexpensive games is our local thrift store and garage sales.

2. Create a maker space area for them where they are free to create. MAKERSPACE: a place where we gather tools and materials to create, invent, tinker, design, fabricate, or otherwise enable individuals, a community, or a group to make something. The possibilities are endless for what the kiddos can and will create.

3. Cooking in the classroom. This is a favorite for me!

There are so many skills being taught when learning to cook. It’s a yummy way to practice following directions, sequencing, fine motor skills and so much more. Our cooking class bundle has a bunch of fun foods that you can easily make in the classroom.

4. Watch GoNoodle videos. The kids can’t get enough of them.

5. Do a directed drawing project with your students. You can find many options out there but our favorite is using Art For Kids Hub. We’ve been drawing along with the family for YEARS now!

6. Learn about a different country each week. Try foods, do a craft, learn a game, learn some words. Offer for parents to come in and teach the class about a country whether it’s one they are from or just one they’d like to share about. Use sight-up genius for the parents to sign up so they know what countries have been taken.

7. Choose different science experiments to do as a class. Some of our favorites are making a rainbow in a jar, making slime, and elephant toothpaste.

8. Stem bins or stem activities as a class. Can your students build a bridge for the bears to cross with 10 popsicle sticks and 2 snap blocks?

9. When the weather is nice, have a bubble day. Make your own bubble solution, paint with bubbles, and read bubble books.

10. Extra recess. You can never go wrong with extra recess when the weather is nice out!

11. Teach life skills. Practice shoe typing, teach proper manners at the table, how to set a table, how to wrap a gift. So many great options that some of the kids may not get help at home with.

12. Have a guest or mystery reader come in and read a story to the class.

13. Play bingo! This is seriously a favorite. Whether you want to review something your class has been learning about or just for fin bingo we have you covered with all of our bingo sets.

14. Create stories or puppet shows using puppets or story popsicle stick puppets. Have them put on a show for the class.

15. Make a class book. We have this fun class cookie cookbook to use during the holiday season.

16. Do yoga as a class. Our favorite one to use is Cosmic Yoga. She takes the kids on a whole adventure using yoga.

17. Do an author study. Choose an author, read several books by them, do a craft and make a snack to go along with one of the books you read. Eric Carle is a favorite for us. Here is a snack idea to go along with his books that we’ve shared.

18. Have a flashlight Friday. You can purchase small flashlights at Dollar Tree or Walmart for a dollar to hand out to the kids. Turn the lights off and have them use the flashlights to read. Encourage them to bring blankets and stuffed friendS to read with.

19. Play minute to win it games. These are always so fun to play. Set up 5 different games and have them rotate through them. Here are some of our minute-to-win-it game ideas for fall, winter, spring and a donut theme.

20. Free play-play-based centers. Just let them play. Think blocks, Legos, puzzles, dinosaurs, dollhouse, dramatic play areas, Lincoln Logs.

21. Take a nature walk or a scavenger hunt. Look for different things they’ve been learning about. You could look for different colors, shapes, letters, or numbers.

22. In the warmer months, have a Freeze Pop Friday and bring in special freeze pops for them to enjoy outside.

23. Do a craft to go along with a book that you read that week. Here’s a chameleon craft that we did to go along with The Mixed-Up Chameleon.

24. Ask an older grade, 3-5 to become reading buddies with your class. Have them come and read with your kids and then make a craft or snack together to go along with the book.

25. Have a dance party! Who doesn’t want to dance on a Friday afternoon?!

26. Paint with watercolors or paint with paints using the easel

27. Set up special centers to go along with the theme that you’ve been teaching that week. Make them different than your regular daily centers. For example, if you have been working on an apple unit, have a craft center, a stem center, have them stack 10 apples up top using play-doh, a science center testing whether apples sink or float, and a snack station where they can make an apple snack. Encourage parents to come in and help with centers for the last hour of the day.

28. Make a snack based on the letter of the week they’ve been learning about. We have a huge list of snack ideas to go along with each letter here.

29. If you have involved parents, have them take turns signing up to come in and real to the class and then do a project or have a snack to go along with the book they read. 30.

30. Break out the shaving cream. This is a huge hit with the kids. Spray some shaving cream onto their tables or desks and have them practice writing letters, numbers, their name, or sight words. It’s great for a little extra fine motor practice while having fun!

Whew! That’s the end of my 30 Fun Friday Ideas. Do you have any other fun things you like to do with your class on Fridays?

See you next time!

Jenette