Bright flowers, butterflies, and more bugs than we can handle. Ah, yes. Winter is finally gone, and sunny days are here again! This means it’s time to put away those cold weather activities and salute the changing season with some fun spring activities. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Themed Vegetable or Flower Garden

Starting a themed garden with the kids in your class is the perfect way to kick off spring. If you opt for a vegetable garden, you can plant foods to fit a theme. For instance you could do a pizza garden and plant tomatoes, onions, basil and peppers. Once the veggies grow, the class can use them to make pizzas.

If your class chooses to do a flower garden, they could turn it into a butterfly garden by planting flowers that attract butterflies. The kids will get a thrill watching butterflies enjoy their garden as much as they do.

The best thing about a garden is that it can start in early spring and kids can work in it and enjoy it throughout the summer.

If space on the outside of the childcare facility is limited, you can plant the garden in an old container like a sandbox or wagon. You can put these containers anywhere as long as there is plenty of sunshine. Before you plant your plants in containers, drill a few holes in the bottom so the water can drain.

Spring Nature Collage

Explore Mother Nature and all her splendor by taking kids on a spring nature walk. Provide each child with a paper bag so they can collect small items while they walk. Encourage them to pick flowers, and gather rocks, sticks, leaves, dirt and grass.

When the kids return to the classroom, give them a sturdy paper plate and some glue and let them use the things they collected to make a spring collage. When the collages are finished, hang them up so the kids can enjoy them.

Live Butterfly Garden

A butterfly theme is popular during the spring. What better way to teach kids about the lifecycle of butterflies than by letting them experience the process with their own eyes. You can purchase a live butterfly hatching kit at a school supply store or from an online vendor.

With a live butterfly hatching kit, kids will get to observe caterpillars as they grow, hang upside down, shed their skin and emerge as beautiful butterflies. After the butterflies emerge, kids can watch them for another week or two, and then take them outside and release them.

Gardening, watching butterflies grow, and exploring nature are just some of the amazing activities you can do with the kids in your class during the spring.