Spring has arrived, and it is a great time to teach children all about nature and how the world around them changes.
They can see with their own eyes that new flowers are starting to emerge and baby animals are being born. And they can experience the days starting to get warmer.
It’s the perfect time of year to use for learning and development, and there are so many spring-themed activities you can try.
Below, we’ve listed 22 super fun spring preschool activities to try with your class.
1. Planting Seeds
Preschool children love to get involved and get their hands dirty, so planting seeds is a great activity.
Planting seeds in the classroom is an opportunity for your students to get stuck in while also learning about how plants grow.
They can watch as the plants develop over time, and they can take responsibility for making sure the plants have enough sunlight and water.
This helps them start to appreciate the plant lifecycle.
2. Nature Walks
If the weather permits, take your class on a trip to the forest.
Get them to use their senses to feel the spring breeze, watch how the trees and plants move in the breeze, and listen to the sound of birds and insects. (You may also like these insect activities to try with your class).
Ask them to count how many different noises they can hear.
You can also take crayons and paper so they can practice bark rubbing on trees.
3. Scavenger Hunts
This is an activity that can take place in the classroom, in a school garden, or in the forest.
If you’re doing this in the classroom, hide spring-themed items, pair up your students, and give each couple a basket to find as many items as they can.
You can send them searching for toy lambs, fluffy chicks, or fake flowers.
Out in nature, you can have them collect feathers and flowers.
4. Spring-themed Art
This is a super easy preschool spring activity to do with your students.
You can get them to draw cute bunnies and chicks or make lambs out of cotton balls.
You can help your students make butterfly handprints or make flowers with their fingerprints.
Why not decorate the classroom with paperchains decorated with beautiful blossoms?
5. Growing Herbs Or Beans
As well as growing flowers, or instead of growing them, you can choose to plant and tend to simple herbs or beans with your class.
Grow butter beans, cress, or white mustard seeds on cotton balls with your students, or grow basil or cilantro in little pots filled with soil.
As with growing flowers, you can help your preschoolers take responsibility for watering and caring for the plants.
6. Spring-themed Baking
Baking with your class can be a fun way to introduce them to spring themes.
You can make chocolate nest cakes together topped with candy eggs, bake egg-shaped cookies, or decorate cupcakes with bunnies and chicks.
The best part will definitely be the tasting, but at least the class will learn about spring along the way.
7. Butterfly Lifecycle
Use craft materials to create and explain the different stages of a butterfly’s life.
Discuss the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly with your class.
Perhaps even get them to role-play the different life stages of the butterfly.
8. Button Or Glitter Flowers
Provide your class with glue, buttons, and glitter, and have them make beautiful spring flowers in their favorite colors.
Just be sure to supervise so no one pops a button up their nose!
9. Paint Easter Eggs
Easter is a key feature of spring, and it’s a great opportunity for preschool activities.
Get your students to paint hard-boiled eggs or plastic eggs in pretty patterns and colors.
10. Craft A Bird Feeder
Create simple bird feeders using pinecones, peanut butter, and birdseed.
Hang them outside and watch as birds come to visit.
Alternatively, you could buy a few window bird feeders and fix them to the outside of the classroom so your students can watch the birds come and go throughout the spring.
11. Make A Sun Dial
Using a paper plate and a stick or a crayon, you can make a simple sundial with your class.
You can teach them all about how the sun moves throughout the day and how there is daylight for different amounts of time, depending on the season.
12. The Plant Lifecycle
Apart from planting flowers or herbs, you can teach your preschoolers about the plant lifecycle through crafts.
You can have them draw or paint seeds, sprouting plants, and flowers in full bloom to help them understand the process.
13. Shadow Drawing
On a sunny day, place toys or other objects in the sunlight and trace their shadows on paper.
This introduces children to the concept of light and shadows.
Alternatively, have them partner up and trace around each other’s shadows. This is a great spring activity, but it’s also a perfect All About Me lesson.
14. The Frog Lifecycle
Discuss and showcase the transformation from tadpole to frog.
If possible, keep a small aquarium with tadpoles to observe their growth and change.
You could also get your preschoolers to act out the lifecycle – start by keeping still as frogspawn, start wiggling around as tadpoles, and finally hop around the place as adult frogs.
15. Worm Hunting
If you have a school garden, go digging around in the dirt and hunting for worms with your class.
You can even set up a wormery in your class so your students can watch them wiggling around.
16. Flowerpot Painting
Why not paint flowerpots with your preschool class, ready to plant your flowers in?
Create beautiful spring scenes on the flowerpots – images of clouds, rainbows, and brightly-colored blooms.
The children will take great pride when it comes to planting their blooms into these gorgeous flowerpots.
17. Craft Bunnies And Chicks
Give your students rabbit and chick paper cut-outs, and let them color them in, and decorate them with glitter, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, and fluff.
The children can let their imaginations run wild and create bunnies and chicks in all colors.
18. Coffee Filter Flowers
Provide each child with a white coffee filter and have them color it using washable markers or watercolor paints.
For those using markers, lightly spray the coffee filter with water to make the colors blend and spread in a tie-dye fashion.
Once they are dry, you can hang them in the window using string to catch the light.
Alternatively, the coffee filter can be gathered in the center to resemble a flower. Attach a green pipe cleaner or straw to the gathered center, serving as the stem.
19. Earth Day Drawings
Earth Day happens on 22nd April, and it’s the perfect opportunity to teach preschool children about nature and how we can care for the globe by encouraging them to enjoy some Earth Day crafts.
Provide your students with colored pencils or crayons and large sheets of paper.
Encourage them to create drawings that represent what Earth Day means to them. This could include images of the Earth, trees, animals, recycling symbols, or people planting trees.
To inspire creativity, you can read a short Earth Day story or show them pictures related to environmental conservation.
When the children are finished, they can be displayed in the classroom or at home, serving as a visual reminder of the need to cherish and protect our environment.
20. Nature Collage
After a nature walk, have the children create collages using the items they’ve collected, like leaves, petals, and twigs.
Provide them with large sheets of paper and non-toxic glue to arrange and stick their items, encouraging them to create patterns or scenes.
Display them proudly on the wall afterward.
21. Rainy Day Dance
If it’s safe and warm enough, let children experience the joy of dancing in the rain, feeling the droplets on their skin, and jumping in puddles.
You can teach them about the different weathers we experience during the springtime.
22. Spring Storytime
Collect a selection of spring-themed books to read aloud to the children.
Stories about animals coming out of hibernation, flowers blooming, or the joys of rain can be both entertaining and educational.
After the story, engage the children in a discussion or have them draw a scene from the book.
Springtime provides the perfect learning opportunity for teaching preschoolers about nature and how our world changes with the seasons.
Whether you choose to decorate cupcakes with your class, plant seeds, explore the lifecycle of frogs and butterflies, or go on nature walks, there are plenty of activities to keep your students engaged.
Which spring activity will you do with your preschoolers first?
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