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Spring-themed activities for kids in primary classrooms. Art, ELA and poetry, and life sciences activities, as well as books and videos to share.
Spring-Themed Activities for the Classroom
This post includes a round-up of spring activities for kids. Art activities, spring fiction, and non-fiction booklist, poetry lessons, and science units are featured.
Cherry Blossom Trees
Nothing says spring more than seeing beautiful cherry blossoms emerging on tree branches. It is one of the first signs of spring that makes us feel like change is coming (weather, plants, etc.).Every spring, we observe the cherry blossoms outside and discuss how they look. We create our trees to fill our classroom with cherry blossoms.
For this art lesson, I start with a demonstration of how to paint a tree using brown paint on white cardstock. Using a larger paintbrush and brown tempera paint, we beginby paintingthe tree trunk and work up to adding branches. I explain to children that trees and branches are not perfect and look crooked. We fill in our trees and let them dry.
For the cherry blossoms, we use small square pieces of tissue paper in pink, white, and peach. We scrunch each piece of paper into balls and dab in white glue. We place the cherry blossoms all over the tree branches until our trees arecovered.
Once our trees are complete, I hang them and create a beautiful spring cherry blossom bulletin board.
Butterfly Directed Drawing
Teach your students how to draw and paint their butterflies for spring with this butterfly directed drawing lesson. It includes free printable instructions to help you teach your lesson.
Spring-Themed Book List for Kids
At the beginning of every season, I fill our classroom bookshelf with different books to complement our lessons and themes. The following fiction and non-fiction books are the best classroom booksto have on your spring bookshelf.
Check out some of my favorites below (Amazon Affiliate links).
- Everything SpringbyJill Esbaum
- The Tiny SeedbyEric Carle
- It’s SpringbyLinda Glaser
- Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
- All About Spring Series by Martha Rustad
- Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms by Julia Rawlinson
- The Earth Book by Todd Parr
- 10 Things I Can Do to Help My World by Melanie Walsh
- Like a Windy Day by Frank Asch
- Caterpillar to Butterfly by Laura Marsh
- Seed to Plant by Kristin Rattini
- Spring is Here by Heidi Gray
- When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes
- An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni
Spring-Themed Activities for Kids – ELA & Poetry
Frog & Toad Book Report
Each spring, I look forward to delving deeper into books with first graders. At this point in the year, they are reading with growing fluency and understanding. They are ready to explore longer and more complex books, beyond the simple picture book. They are eager to read chapter books. Frog and Toad books by Arnold Nobel are the perfect beginner chapter books because they have text and vocabulary that young children can decode and understand.
It is also this point in the year that we complete our first book report. We read each chapter page by page with students reading the pages aloud. I pass out a copy of the book for every pair of students to share and follow along together. We discuss what the chapter isabout and share our thoughts. We complete a page in our book report booklets. Finishing this book report activity this way helps build reading comprehension.
Aboveis a student completing her book report page after reading chapter one of Frog and Toad Together as a class. These book reports and activities work great for your small group, guided reading lessons as well.The Frog and Toad Book Reports include these ready-made, print, and go reports that your students will love. Grab the Frog & Toad Series for your classroom, and you’re all set.
Spring Acrostic Poetry Writing
Spring is the perfect time to teach and write poetry with April being Poetry Month. It also presents many new experiences for our senses, and those are perfect for expressing through poetry. Create spring acrostic poetry writing with your students using thoughts and words about spring. Create a rainbow display with the spring acrostic poems to hang around your classroom.
This post includes free acrostic poetry writing templates. Check out other poetry writing posts and grab free resources HERE.
Spring Science Activities for Kids
Science Videos
Playingvideos foryour students to teach them about science is a useful tool. We can read and tell our students about different occurrences, such as the butterfly life cycle or how the seasons change, but showing children via videomakes that concept come to life. Youtube is an excellent source for videos that you can easily share with your class. There is even an app called Youtube Kids that you could download for your tablet.
4 Seasons Video by Socratica Kids
Life Cycle of a Butterfly Video by dscottprod
Nature Time Lapse Video by TheChokAAA
Spring Resources for the Classroom
Every unit on spring should include the study of life cycles and changes that occur. Engage students with science experiments and explorations outside. Teach a comprehensive unitwith fact-filled text and interesting assignments about the weather, plants, animals, and more.The following units provide a ton of lesson ideas, activities, and materials for your primary classroom.
Free Spring-Themed Activities for Kids
Grab your FREE spring life science pack, which includes activities for learning about four different life cycles (chicken, butterfly, flowers, frog).
MORE Spring-Themed Activities
Earth Day Activities
Spring Art Idea
Spring Crafts for Kids
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