Preschool Crafts and Recipes for Celebrating Spring
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These delightful, spring-themed activities are easy for caregivers and fun for home daycare children.
Children love activities related to the changing seasons. Spring, when the grass is greening and bulbs are sending up shoots, is an especially exciting time. As the days lengthen and the sun gets warmer, little ones and adults, alike, itch to get outdoors. The following activities are a great way to mark this special season.
Preschool Activity – Mother Nature Walk
Set the stage by telling students that spring is the time when Mother Nature wakes up and starts putting on bright new clothing (new leaves and spring flowers). Read The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Olfers [Floris Books, 1980].
Have children make one or more of the following musical instruments
- Drum – cut flower pictures from seed catalogs and paste them onto an empty oatmeal container. Use a wooden spoon for the drumstick.
- Kazoo – cut flower pictures from seed catalogs and paste them onto toilet paper roll. Cover one end with piece of wax paper held on with rubber band. Play by humming into the other end.
- Harp – stretch two or three large rubber bands of different widths around empty tissue box. Play by plunking bands.
Take a walk around the block or to a nearby park or nature trail. Invite children to march, sing, play their instruments and look for signs of springs.
Easy Preschool Recipes for Spring
Here are two quick and easy spring recipes to make. Add some fresh strawberries for a kid-friendly, nutritious and festive picnic to take on the Mother Nature Walk.
Bunny Butter Sandwiches
- 1/2 cup nut butter with
- 1/4 cup grated carrots
- 1/4 cup applesauce
Combine all ingredients and spread on bread. Cut with a bunny-shaped cookie cutter, if desired.
Spring Sun Tea
- 3 tea bags of a fruity herbal tea
- 1 ten-ounce can apple juice concentrate
Put tea bags in a half-gallon jar and fill 3/4 with water. Set in a sunny spot for several hours. Remove tea bags, add juice, and refrigerate.
Prekindergarten Arts & Crafts – Spring Mural
Tape a long piece of the freezer or craft paper to a wall and invite children to use crayons, markers or pastels to draw what they saw on their Mother Nature Walk. Remind them to include themselves and any fairies or gnomes that they may have glimpsed!
Waldorf Activity– Make a Spring Seasonal Table
In Waldorf Education, a “seasonal table” is always a focal point of the daycare or schoolroom and a lovely tradition to emulate. For Spring, drape the table in pastel-colored cloths. Place some special Spring treasures on the table, such as a painted egg, Spring flower fairy figures or pictures, and a blooming bulb in a pot. Invite children to add things to the table that they find on nature walks such as pretty stones, robin eggshells, a spray of pussy willows, etc.
Spring Preschool Activities Make Daycare Memorable
Talking about the seasons, doing special activities such as making musical instruments for a Mother Nature Walk, making Spring recipes, drawing a Spring mural, and creating a Spring table are not only fun activities for youngsters but give them special memories of their home daycare days that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.