I love spring! The blue sky, the warmth of the sun, and the newness of the season all simply boost my spirits. For me, spring has always been a feel-good time of year. As a teacher, I had favorite things that I looked forward to in spring, and no, spring vacation was not one of them. (Okay, that was a lie. I just wanted to see how carefully you were reading!) When I was a third-grade teacher in Washington State, our spring was filled with pioneer-related activities. It was part of our state studies, and we made the best of it. We even capped off our study with a day trip to Whitman Mission, one of the historic sites along the Oregon Trail. 
The day was a killer for teachers and parent volunteers, but the students’ enthusiasm made it worth every aching muscle!
What is your favorite spring teaching topic or theme? Are you planning a special class outing? Share your springtime favorites with us. Your plans could very well inspire a teaching colleague to plan something similar. Or a teaching colleague might have a suggestion for you!
Happy spring to all!
As soon as students begin to feel Spring in the air, their thoughts turn to Summer and that school is out! I teach Title I now, but when I was teaching in a classroom, I would save my favorite teaching themes for this time of year so that I could keep my kiddos interested in learning!! A few of my favorite units for Spring include raising tadpoles, caterpillars/butterflies, or oceans!! Because I love these themes, my students also enjoy learning about them when they catch on to my enthusiasm!! It just goes with the old saying–save the best for last!
I do also enjoy spring. I have many allergies so spring can do a number on me.
We love spring too here in Vernal—named after the spring “Vernal” Equinox. My first graders love to see our chicks hatch after we have them in the classroom incubator for 3 weeks. It’s an exciting time when their little beaks start cracking the shells open.
My favorite thing about spring is the warm weather. I love when the kids can get outside and play after the long winter. We usually do a planting and seed unit in the spring.
I love spring as well. (I don’t know how folks in the snowy states do it, my hat is off to you). This week we are doing March in like a lion out like a lamb from the March Mailbox (2004) Today we did the paper plate lions and the kids loved it. They were all so different. I really like this unit, we get wild windy weather here. We will also do butterflies, and planting It is a mystery to see things grow. And of course water, water, water play.
I love teaching the caterpillar/butterfly unit! It never loses it’s excitement, year after year!
My favorite part of spring is teaching about how plants grow. We are within walking distance to a greenhouse so that is a wonderful topic for us. The biggest laugh for me is that the children are really looking for “a green house”. We bring back flats of flowers that the children break apart and explore the various parts.
My favorite literacy piece for spring is a book called “Hey Little Ant”. This story allows the children to finish the story which is a great literacy experience for them.
I really enjoy the Spring and Summer months. My children seem to enjoy the themes caterpillars/butterflies and tadpoles/frogs and I do also. Any time you love a theme your children will love it to, because they will see your enjoyment and it will spread to the whole group..
Our preschool class here in Pennsylvania loves Spring too! We watch beans sprout in baggies taped to our windows as part of our Fairy Tale unit (Jack & the Beanstalk), grow plants for Mother’s Day, watch tadpoles develop into frogs for our Pond unit, learn about insects then go on a bug safari at a nearby hiking park, practice our class play and songs for our Spring Evening Program and make tie-dye T-shirts!
A favorite Spring time theme of mine is the weather, and specifically The Wind. My preschoolers enjoy experimenting using a fan to see “what the wind will blow.” They make predictions and then we put smiley faces where the predictions are proven to be true!
This activity is often followed up by making wind socks, or pinwheels!
I teach pre-k and my favorite Spring theme is the weather. The children really enjoy doing experiments with wind, ice, tornadoes and we even create lightning and rainbows in the classroom! The kids love talking about the water cycle as well! Because we have such wacky March and April weather here in NJ, it’s a nice way to incorporate what’s actually happening outside our window, within the classroom. Of course no Spring classroom is complete without a unit on life cycles too! We raise ladybugs, butterflies, tadpoles, and plants. The oooohs and ahhhhs from the kiddies are always worth it!
My kindergartners love the Earth Day and Environment theme we do each spring. We make Earth Day t-shirts that have a painted earth on them. We cut out the middle of a paper plate and use the open circle as a template. We use blue fabric paint and sponge paint the whole inner circle template blue. Then we take green fabric paint and dap on some green land continents, which for 5 and 6 year olds, take on a life of their own! When you lift up the paper plate, you have a very cool likeness of the planet we cherish so much. We add some earth-friendly sayings with fabric markers around the outside of the painted planet, like “I love our planet” or “Do Not Litter”. We all proudly wear our shirts on April 22nd in honor of Earth Day. Every year, the shirts turn out great. We also take time to clean our playground, recycle, do a reader’s theatre story about the environment and make a great bulletin board display to show our school how much we want the planet to be “healthy” when we grow up!