Now is the perfect time to put together some super simple lesson plans to engage your class in everything spring related.
In spring, the weather (usually) turns warmer, trees begin to grow their leaves, animals come out of hibernation, flowers begin to bloom and young animals such as lambs and chicks are born. These are all perfect things for your class to discuss and help develop language and communication skills.
And with the dreary darker days coming to an end, it’s the perfect time for plenty of bright arts and crafts to fill the classroom and bring some joy to your students.
We have put together some ideas to spark your students spring learning.
Observe and record signs of spring
Split the class into groups and get them to take a walk outside and record any changes they see which indicate the season is changing. This could be different species of bird, flowers blooming, lambs in fields. Get the groups to keep a tally and record their information to share and discuss with the class.
Egg-cellent experiment
Teach your class about the strength of an egg with this fun learning activity. Put the class into groups of 2-4 students and give each group an egg, playdough and some books. Next get the class to discuss how strong they think an egg is, get them to write down whether they think their egg will hold a book and if so, how many. Each group places the egg between some playdough lying flat on a table. Next, get the groups to tally up how many books they managed to set on top of their egg before it cracks! Get them to discuss their predictions and results with other groups.
Earth Day
Why not get your class to write about some ideas they can do to help look after the environment, an Earth Day promise perhaps? For example, you could commit to recycling as much as possible, start a window garden or organise a litter-picking initiative.
Animal match
A great game for younger students simply print out pictures of baby animals such as calves, lambs, chicks and piglets and print out the grown version of each animal. Get each student to jumble up the baby animals and then pair them up with the big animals which you can attach to a card. This game is great for problem-solving and memory in younger kids.
Create a plant flip book
Have your class make a colourful plant flip book to show how a seed turns into a flower. Include seed, roots, stem, leaves and flower to show the transformation from a seed to a plant. This activity will engage your students in a creative craft that also promotes talking and listening and develops their knowledge of nature.
Weather
The season of spring can generate lots of classroom discussion and learning about the weather. For younger kids print a sheet with a table listing weather images across the top, cloud, sun, wind, rain etc and each day get the children to tick what the weather is doing on that particular day. For older children, get the class to record the weather over a fortnight, or monthly period on charts. They could record the rainfall by making a rain gauge, record the temperature with a thermometer and observe and record different cloud formations.
