The weather is getting warmer, and everything is starting to turn green;spring is almost here!It’s time to bring some bright colors back into the classroom and get students excited about this new season. Let’s dig into my favorite (and the students’ favorite) spring activities and centers. I also created a few fabulous Plant Anchor Chart Freebies for you, too!
It was updated in February 2022, so download it again for your free update if you already own it. More activities, worksheets, and organizational labels were added.
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Spring Activities
Spring Sensory Table! A spring sensory table is a fun and easy way to kick off a spring theme in your classroom. Unfortunately, I have horrible allergies, and so do some of my students. This year, I decided to try rubber mulch instead of dirt in the sensory table to keep some of the dust and allergies out of my classroom. I found this bag of rubber mulch at Home Depot. I added in various sized pots, small pebbles (seeds), fake flowers, and metal garden tools. Students can act out the life cycle of a plant in the sensory table! I just love infusing science into the sensory table.
Spring Activities for Science
Plants Science Investigation! Spring is all about planting and new growth. All the plants come alive again! Nature is lush and green; no more brown leaves! In the science center, set up an investigation with a focus on plants. Create a Plant Anchor Chart all about what plants need to thrive and the parts of a plant. Post a few Plant Life Cycle Posters for students to reference. Also, grab my Plant Freebie HERE! All the charts are included in the freebie! I LOVE these non-fiction parts of a plant book series from Pebble Plus because of the beautiful photographs and simple text. In the series, you will find Seeds,Leaves,Roots,Stems,Flowers, andFruits. A Seed is Sleepyis another one of my favorite books about seeds!
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Plants Science Center! If you want to dig deeper, grab my new All About Plants and Seeds Science unit HERE. In this science unit, you can lead your students into deeper knowledge of the parts of a plant and the life cycle of a plant. Also, students can measure, sort, and examine the various parts of a plant using a scale, counting cubes, and magnifying glasses!
Plant Real Seeds! To make a memorable lesson, plant seeds during a spring theme so students see the life cycle of a plant in action! Use milk cartons, clear plastic cups (so you can see the roots), or plastic baggies taped to the windows. Your students will come in each morning excited to look at the plants. During small group, students can measure the seeds with rainbow rulers, notice any changes, and draw pictures of the plants in their Seed to Plant Journal. There is a FREE journal cover in the freebie too!
Spring Activities for Sensory
Lifecycle of a Plant Play Dough Tray! Students will LOVE sculpting the life cycle of a plant using play dough and props. All you need is brown play dough, fake flowers pulled apart, seeds (pebbles), pots, and a few plant info sticks.
Spring Flower Play Dough Tray! The flower play dough tray is fabulous for exercising their fine motor muscles. Students make flowers by rolling the play dough and using flower cookie cutters. Then they add decorations using the buttons, pom poms, and green gems.
Spring Activities for Blocks and Stem
Spring Blocks Center! Take the spring theme to the blocks center! Just add some spring props like fake leaves, fake flowers, smooth rocks, insects, and tree rings (all from the Dollar Tree). Then grab a few spring non-fiction books, and post Spring STEM I Can Build challenge cards on the wall to spark their imaginations.
Spring Activities for Math
Planting Seeds Counting and Addition Game! Collect a few seeds, pot mats, and a few dice and you have a fun math game. Students roll the dice, add the dots, count out the total number of seeds, and “plant” the seeds in their pot. Younger students can also play this game with one die to develop one-to-one correspondence. This game is in my Spring Centers pack
Bug Patterns! Making patterns with bugs and worms is a must for any spring theme. Students can extend the bug pattern using the picture cards and then make their own pattern with these worm manipulatives. This pattern game is in mySpring Centers pack.
Weighing Worms or Bugs! These worm manipulatives are perfect for measuring length and weight. This little learner discovered that two medium worms weigh the same as a “huge” worm. You will hear students using tons of math vocabulary as they talk about the worms, compare them, sort them, and measure with them, too!
I Spy Color Shapes! I Spy Games never get old with my students! It’s also fabulous for noticing shapes in the real world. This game is in my Spring Centers pack. I have laminated them for reusability. Plus, when students erase they are strengthening their finger muscles. I cut up old black t-shirts for erasers.
Spring Color By Number (Count or Add)! Color by number is another game my students love. It’s super easy to differentiate, too. One student is using one die and is just counting, while the other student is using two dice and adding. This game is in my Spring Centers pack. Spring is the best time of year to talk about the weather because students can experience so many different types of weather in a matter of a few days. Here in Missouri, we have CRAZY spring weather. One day, it’s 80 degrees the next day is cold, stormy, and the tornado sirens are going off. No matter where you live, the weather is an intriguing topic for little learners.
Weather Art! Mix together shaving cream and white glue to make puffy paint. Students use puffy paint to paint the clouds. Then paint rain, lightning, a rainbow, or a tornado using paint sticks. Students can also just make clouds! Just paint the clouds in the sky with the puffy paint. It’s the perfect follow-up activity to go with the book Little Cloud by Eric Carle.
Spring Activities for Literacy
Flower Letter Match-Up! Get kiddos up and moving with this spring alphabet match up! Place flower letter cards on the table. Then students match letter manipulatives, letter sound magnets, and more flower letters. You will hear TONS of conversations about letters and sounds as the kiddos match up the letters and sounds. We LOVE this game!
Rain Letter And Sound Match! Rain letter and sound match is perfect for a rainy spring day. Students match the raindrops (initial sound and lowercase letter) to the storm cloud (uppercase letter). This game is also in my Spring Centers pack.
Syllable Garden! Planting syllables is perfect for a spring theme! Students count the syllables and “plant” the card in the corresponding pot. All it takes is a few pots to make a game a bit more fun! This game is in my Spring Centers pack.
Spring Writing Tray! Make a spring-themed writing tray using green sprinkles and flower sprinkles. Students pick a flower, write the letter in the sprinkles using the pom pom, and gently shake the tray to erase. By using a pom pom to write the letter, the students are strengthening their pincer grasp, too! This wooden writing tray came with this lacing card set. I also like using these trays for writing trays or kid plastic divided plates.
Spring Handwriting and Fine Motor Work! Handwriting doesn’t have to be boring. Put a letter-building activity out with handwriting worksheets and grab some seeds! Students can write letters on these spring letter cards using seeds, play dough, or dry-erase markers, then trace the letter on the handwriting worksheet. These letter cards are in my Spring Centers pack.
Spring Writing Center! Take the spring theme to the writing center by adding spring vocabulary word cards, spring writing paper, spring stickers, and envelopes to the center. Try adding new writing tools, too! Metallic crayons, smelly markers, and pens are always a hit with my students. The word cards and spring paper are in my Spring Centers pack.
Retell Spring Books! Make books come alive using story props! Grow Flower Grow is a book about a girl that feeds her plant pizza, ice cream, and burgers and throws it outside when it doesn’t grow. But to her surprise, when the flower is outside in the rain and sunshine, it grows. It’s a fun book to teach about what plants need. Your students will read and reread this book over and over using the story props! Reading books multiple times builds fluency, reading comprehension, and vocabulary.
Spring Rhyme Puzzles! Let’s do some rhyme puzzles with a spring twist! Students have to match the rhymes to make the puzzle pieces fit. For extra fun, place the puzzle pieces in a mini sensory tub.
Flower Shop Dramatic Play! For a spring theme, change the dramatic play center into a Flower Shop! Read all about how I set it up and how I embedded a ton of math, literacy, and science play experiences into their play using things from the Dollar Tree in this blog post HERE.
Spring Bookshelf! Add books about spring, weather, bugs, and plants to the bookshelf for students to read. Don’t forget to add non-fiction books too! Check out my giant list of Spring Books HERE.
Want all my spring printables? Go grab my Spring Math and Literacy Centers pack HERE. Just print, prep, and teach!
All the spring activities and games come with student recording pages, too!
Adding STEM to the blocks, science, and/or STEM center is easy using mySpring STEM I Can Build Anchor Charts and books. It also includes Easter, St. Patrick’s Day, and Earth Day STEM challenge cards. Go grab them HERE.
Want to see these activities in action? Check out the video.
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