Today's Classroom Activities :

Spring Activities

Springtime Changes
Perception/Reading/Writing What hints outdoors tell us that it is spring? Read the following poem and see if your class can work together to add another stanza about what they see around them.

Signs of Spring

by Martin Shaw

If it's time for jungle gyms,
For swings and see-saws too,
For jump ropes and for tether ball,
For visits to the zoo.

For bright blue skies and polo shirts,
For rowboats on the lakes,
For longer and more sunny days,
It's Spring for goodness sakes.

Smell-ebrating Spring
Art/Writing/Drama April 26 is National Sense of Smell Day. Take the class outside and tell them to be nose-y. Bring a notebook to make a list of all the things they smell and draw some sketches. Back in the class, ask students to write poems about what they smelled. Have them write a play entitled, The Nose Knows with characters that are parts of the nose, such as the nostrils, nasal passages and inner hairs. Encourage students bring in mystery scents for their blindfolded classmates to guess.

Springtime Shapes
Math/Poetry Read this poem, then take the children outside to identify other things with these shapes. Later have them draw or paint a picture of other springtime shapes.

In Shape for Spring

by Jacqueline Schiff

Hopscotch squares on the sidewalk.
A circle of sun in the sky.
Oval eggs of a robin,
And diamond kites flying so high.

Triangle beak of the bluebird.
Rectangle boxes of seed.
Cylinder cans in the garden
For watering plants that we need.

Rectangle swings on the playground.
Circular birdbaths in May.
Triangle sails on toy sailboats;
The shapes of a great springtime day!

Springtime Sprouts
Science Get a few potatoes and encourage students to handle them and see the "eyes," the small indentations from which a new plant will grow. Cut the potatoes and place each section in a small dish with some water. Record the changes. Once the sprout is up about two inches, put each one in a clear plastic cup of soil and let students watch the sprout grow up and the roots grow down. After a time have them take the plant home to put in the ground. Explain that the potatoes will be harvested from under the soil only after the plant has died above the ground.