Spring is Here!

Spring is Here!

Spring is always one of the most beautiful times of the year. The whole world changes color. Children delight in this time of year as well. Usually, they’ve spent the last 8 weeks cooped up inside the house or classroom and now they are relishing the sunshine and the outdoor breeze. Spring is a great time because there is literally an explosion of activity going on – right outside your door. The possibilities for learning are endless – flowers blooming, bugs buzzing, butterflies migrating, bird eggs and nests, colors and activity everywhere.

Remember: the key to getting children involved in an activity is YOU! Children are influenced by the enthusiasm of the adult/teacher. Pick activities that you and your child/ren can do together. You want activities that challenge your children, but not so much that they abandon it entirely and leave you sitting at the table frustrated. Your best bet with younger children is an activity that doesn’t require a lot of wait time or ability to be very patient or detailed.

Celebrate spring with your children by trying some of these activities:

Flower People
You’ll need: white glue, wiggly eyes, pipe cleaners and large flowers like sunflowers or daisies.
Use the white glue to make dots on the faces of the flowers. Glue on wiggly eyes. Then bend a pipe cleaner into the shape of a mouth. Apply glue to the back of the pipe cleaner then stick it on the flower. You can also bend green pipe cleaners around the flower stem to create arms and hands.

Developmentally: generally speaking, this activity will work better with older preschoolers and school age children because of the small motor skills needed to manipulate the glue.

Filter Flowers
You’ll need: cone-shaped coffee filters, food coloring, water and green pipe cleaners. Mix water and food coloring together in a small dish. Repeat this step 2-3 times, using different colors of food coloring. Fold each of the coffee filters into fourths. Dip each edge and corner of the filters in a different color of the food coloring water mixture. Unfold the filters and set them on a paper towel until they are dry. Place the filters inside each other. Grab the bottom point of the filters and twist the top 3 inches of the green pipe cleaner around the point. Pull the rest of the pipe cleaner straight down to form a stem.

Variation: Make a filter butterfly by clipping the points of two colored coffee filters in a middle of a clothespin.

Developmentally: this project could work well for young preschoolers. It gives them an opportunity to learn about colors, which is much more effective at teaching them.

Living Words
You’ll need: grass seed, potting soil, pie tins, spray bottle (filled with water), pencil.
Fill the pie tin with potting soil and moisten. Use a pencil or stick to write words or draw a picture in the soil. This will create little trenches to plant the seeds in. Carefully sprinkle grass seed into trenches made with the pencil. Gently cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil and moisten. Place the tin in an area where it will receive plenty of sunlight. Lightly moisten the soil 1-2 times a day with the spray bottle. The Living Words will begin to sprout in 7-10 days.

Developmentally: this is a fun science activity for children. Children can draw anything in the dirt, or write their name – fitting different developmental levels. Young children generally enjoy the processes involved in growing things and are generally very observant of changes. They also take their responsibilities very seriously and do a great job of keeping water on their growing seeds. This project can work whether you have a class full of kids or one child at home.

Eggshell Art
You’ll need: eggshell, glue, construction paper and cotton swabs. This is a great use for all of those leftover Easter Eggs. Crush the shells and store in a container. The next time you are doing a painting or gluing activity, you can use the crushed shells to create an interesting effect.

Variance: Don’t have any leftovers from Easter? Save shells by rinsing, crushing and storing in a container until you have a couple dozens’ worth. Make up dye by filling a jar with ½ cup of hot water. Add a teaspoon of vinegar and a few drops of food coloring. Drop some of the shells into the water. Let them soak a few minutes then spoon out and allow to dry on a cookie sheet.

Spring Hunt
You’ll need: paper bags, felt pen.
Write each child’s name on a bag. Go for a Spring Hunt outside to observe and collect spring things. Talk first about some things the children might see: grass, clover, wild flowers, dandelions, rocks, leaves, twigs or even a ladybug. While the children are collecting spring things have them take a deep breath to experience the smell of spring. Have them pay attention to how the spring day looks compared to what the days used to look like: what color is the grass, what does the sky look like, do the trees have leaves?

Developmentally: this is a great activity because it doesn’t require any special materials and the children can fully participate and experience it in their own way. This activity can be done with one child at home or a group of children in the classroom. There are no specific requirements for a finished product, however, I would suggest wrapping this up by asking each child to share what they found outside with others. Make a list of the items and include words the children used to describe the objects found on their Spring Hunt. Display the list and the items in the child’s room or in the classroom.

Variance: If you have any butcher paper around, secure it to the wall and print the word Spring on the paper. Attach the objects found during the spring hunt to the paper and create a mural.

Rainbows
 You’ll need: squeegees, tempera paints, paint brushes and drawing paper. Show the children how to brush paint on to the squeegee and smearing the paint across their paper.

Building a Bird’s Nest
You’ll need: play dough, paper bags, feathers, yarn, grass, leaves, twigs, rocks, cotton.

If possible, show the children a real bird’s nest. Place the feathers, yarn, grass, leaves, twigs, rocks and cotton in different parts of the classroom. Give each child a paper bag and some play dough. Go on a bird nest hunt! Each child walks around the room and collects materials to make a bird’s nest. When they are finished searching, they shape their play dough into a bird’s nest. Have them use the materials that they found to decorate their nest.

Petal Sorting
Have the children collect different color rose petals to bring to school. The rose petals come in a variety of colors that can be sorted. Children also usually enjoy handling the petals because they are so soft and cool to the touch.

Our Class Alphabet
You’ll need: pictures of each of the kids, construction paper, hole punch and yarn. Cut construction paper in half. On each page glue the photograph of an individual child. Under the picture print the first letter of child’s name and then print the child’s first name under that. Repeat for everyone. Arrange the pages in alphabetical order. It is all right to have a number of children with the same first letter in their names. Determine which letters are missing and use magazines or toy catalogs to make a page for each letter. Bind the book by three-hole punching each page and tying together with yarn.

Developmentally: this is a great activity for reinforcing letter recognition and pre-reading. Children almost always learn to read/recognize their own names first. The names of their classmates quickly follow. If you are doing this activity with children at home, try including pictures of relatives or pets.

Mini Weather Vane Children will learn about wind direction while making an instrument which can be used in the classroom to study weather. You’ll need: 5 oz. Paper cup, pencil with an eraser, straw, white construction paper, clear adhesive tape, straight pin, scissors, compass. Cut an arrowhead about 1-1/2” long and an arrow tail about 2” long from the construction paper. Cut a slit in each end of the straw. Insert the arrowhead in one slit and the arrow tail in the other slit. Use tape to secure them. Cut two 1x3” strips of construction paper. Print “north” and “south” on one strip and “west” and “east” on the other. Make a ½” cut down from the top in the middle of one strip. Make a ½” cut up from the bottom in the middle of the other strip. Insert one strip into the other. Push the pencil point through the center of the bottom of the upside-down cup. Push the straight pin through the straw about 3” from the tail and into the pencil eraser. Make sure that the straw can spin freely on the pin. Tape the direction labels to the pencil. Use the compass to correctly position them. Use the weather vane outside on a breezy day or set up a fan to blow on it inside.

Thank you to Lisa Albert from the EPTSS Division for this month's activity!

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