Waiting for Spring to arrive can feel like it takes forever. We look for signs of Spring as soon as the temperature rises a few degrees. Today’s book is about an adorable bear who thinks he sees signs of Spring everywhere he looks. This book provides a great opportunity to get your kids looking for signs of Spring and to participate in some fun Spring activities.
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When Will it be Spring was written and illustrated by Catherine Walters. It tells the story of a little bear named Alfie who keeps waking his mother from hibernation because he thinks he sees signs of Spring. As she shows him that it isn’t actually Spring yet, he continues asking her when it will be. Both parents and kids can relate to this story as we all go a little stir crazy looking for the first beautiful weather days of Spring. Until it arrives, these fun Spring activities can help you recognize the signs of Spring that are coming!
Create your own bird nest
Bird’s Nest Art – Birds are one of the signs of Spring that Alfie thinks he sees. This is a fun art and sensory project which mimics the birds in the story.
1. Start with half of a paper plate, or a half circle cut out of brown paper (for the nest), and an egg shape cut out of yellow or blue paper (for your bird).
2. Explain to your kids that bird nests are made up of different materials that birds find. Provide kids with a variety of materials to decorate their nests. This could include feathers, twigs, bits of fabric, leaves, or whatever else you may have.
3. Encourage them to attach these materials to the brown half circle, and attach feathers to the yellow egg shape. I used a wide craft brush to paint some glue onto the plate so it was spread across in an even layer. You can draw a beak and eyes onto the bird or attach a piece of orange paper and wiggly eyes.
Related Post: And Then It’s Spring
Fine Motor Spring Flowers – This is a fun and easy fine motor activity to get kids into the spirit of Spring. Gather a bunch of fake flowers. Using a kitchen colander, have young kids put the stems through the holes to create a bouquet. This would make a great quiet time activity for kids. Encourage them to create different combinations of flowers, or use only one color, or only primary colors.
Using butterflies to practice contractions
Butterfly Match – This is a fun game which can help kids to work on contractions. Print out a set of the butterfly tracers. Use them to cut sets of butterfly bodies and wings out of colored construction paper. Write contractions on the butterfly bodies and the two words that make the contraction onto the wings. Have kids sort through the butterfly parts to correctly match the butterflies.
Sprout House – The STEM Laboratory created this great activity which combines science and engineering to make Sprout Houses that kids can create with a few household items. We decided to make our own version of the sprout house. To build our house, I cut two colored sponges to make walls and a roof. I used toothpicks to attach the sponges and make a structure.
Once the house was constructed, we sprinkled chia seeds over the sponges. Every day we poured water onto the house and checked to see if there were any roots. My daughter loved checking out all of the seeds!
Related Reading: What Will Grow?
Nature Walk – Alfie thinks that he sees signs of Spring everywhere he looks. What signs of Spring do you see around your home? Go out on a walk together and discuss the signs of Spring that you see around your neighborhood.
There are so many ways to prepare your kids for the Spring. Keep your eyes open for the signs of Spring around you, and you will see them before you know it!
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You always have great ideas!! Also love the books you promote. wish my kids were young again 🙂
Thank you so much!
how fun! i love the idea of a nature walk – we always go on walks, but this time it’s for a purpose. also i need to try that butterfly contraction thing with my oldest… he has no idea about contractions and will make up his own words lol
I hope you have a lot of fun with it and that it is helpful! I totally make up my own words sometimes too, haha.
I was thinking parents will relate not only to eagerly looking for spring but also to their kids waking them up, LOL. Love the activities!
Haha so true! The mother’s reaction is a very realistic one!
I love your ideas to go with this book! My favorite is the butterfly contractions sheet. I think my son could use that!
Thank you! I hope it is helpful!
That birds nest craft is too cute!
Thank you!
These are such fun activities. It is tough when one day its cold and the next it is warm. I am saving these activities for a blustery day!
Thank you! I agree the up and down weather can drive you nuts! We spend the afternoon outside yesterday, and my daughter didn’t understand why we couldn’t do that again today!
This is too dang cute! I love it!
xoxo
Krista
http://www.hundredblog.com
Thank you!
You always have such inspirational posts. I’ve been sharing them with friends who work with preschoolers and they love them, too. That colander bouquet is great. My daughter will love that.
Aw, thank you so much! That is so great to hear! I hope your daughter has a lot of fun creating bouquets!
Alfie the bear sounds like a fun little guy to read about in When Will It Be Spring? I like your ideas on how to tie the book into enjoying spring with your little one.
Thank you! It is a very cute book!
I love taking my daughter on nature walks when the weather gets nice. She loves collecting things we find along the way!
My daughter does too! We had to start taking the bucket along because she couldn’t hold all of the pinecones she wanted to bring home! She also wants to bring every single stick home for our dog.
It’s so funny. I never think about changing seasons in Southern California. Anyway, I loved growing chia plants as a kid. Great idea. I also really like the butterflies to practice contractions. That’s a pretty sophisticated teaching technique!
Thank you! Our seasons change day to day! We were outside in the warm weather yesterday, and then today it snowed!
My little one is ready to tackle that birds nest!
That’s awesome! I hope you have a lot of fun with it!
These are such fun and cute ideas! Its Fall here and i think they will be fun to do as well 🙂 xx
Thank you! I hope you enjoy them!
These are fun activities. Being a totschool mom, I’m always looking for fun activities. When will it be spring is a great book too.
Thank you! I agree it is a great book! I love the adorable illustrations.
I am so glad I came across your blog today!!! Making a list for my future babies ?
I’m so glad! I hope you find a lot of new favorites on here!
I love that little bird’s nest! It is the perfect spring craft for me and my littles! Going to save it for a rainy day!
logancan.com
Thank you! I hope you have a lot of fun with it!
you always share the neatest crafts!
Thank you!
Fun activities. We’re a little too young for the contraction butterflies, but I LOVE that concept. I’m going to save it for when my four-year-old is a little older.
Thank you so much!
We’ve had such a slow crawl to Spring in the PNW…these activities are a great way to build up excitement during the wait, haha
I totally understand. We still had a bit of snow fall yesterday! I cannot wait for warmer weather!
This is so so cute, and such a fun way to introduce the idea of seasons to a toddler! My son has really been interested in birds lately, so building our own homemade bird’s nest would probably be such a hit. Thanks so much for sharing! <3
I’m so glad! I hope you have a lot of fun with it! My daughter is loving the birds lately, so she really enjoyed it.
These are great ideas! We take family nature walks and always bring home little treasures. We keep them on our window sill in the kitchen and I’m going to build a shelf for my daughter for her growing collection!
That is so sweet! My daughter collects every stick and pinecone she finds. The sticks she gives to the dog, and the pinecones she gives to “Sunshine” the sun shaped windchimes in the backyard!
The book looks super cute, and the craft is so creative! I love the idea of the butterfly to practice contractions.
Thank you! We had a lot of fun with this book!
Love these crafts! You always have such great ideas.
Thank you!
Love the contrtaction butterfly idea! The rest are cute too.
Thank you!
Super cute ideas! I want to try the birdsnest with my kiddos!
Thank you! I hope you have fun with it!
Awe I love this activity!
Thank you!
My son would love this book and these activities. He would especially love making the birds nests, he’s obsessed with birds. Thanks, as always, for great ideas!
I’m so glad! I hope you have fun with them! My daughter is also extremely interested in birds this year, so she had a lot of fun with it!
These activities are so cute! I’m excited to do some of them with my daughter. I think she’ll really enjoy decorating a nest.
I’m so glad! I hope she has enjoys it!
That book sounds adorable! And I love the little bird’s nest, what a cute and simple art activity for little ones.
Thank you! It is a very sweet book!
I really like that butterfly contraction idea! How cleaver. We had a week of spring in Miami and how it is summer, 88* and humid. Ugh!
Thank you! I can’t stand the humidity! I guess I can’t complain about the little snow we had last week!
Love the idea of creating your own bird’s nest! I have to do that with my little!
Thank you! I hope you have fun with it!
Those are the cutest birds nest crafts!
Thank you!
I find myself asking this a lot these days. 🙂 I love the bird nest activity. So cute!
Thank you! I’ve been asking it a lot too! So tired of the cold and snow.
I absolutely love these ideas. We want to homeschool my son when he is old enough. I cant wait to do activities like this with him. I also want to add this book to his library.
I hope you enjoy them! I’m so excited that my daughter is at an age now where we can do things like this!
Looks like a cute book. We are always lookkng for new children’s books to read. Love the spring activities to go along!
Thanks! We had a lot fun with them!