And Then It’s Spring

Posted by Apr 6, 2017 Book Based Activities, Books, Seasons, Spring

Spring time means the dreary days of winter are behind us, and bright sunny days are ahead. I love watching flowers bloom and turn the world into a more colorful place. Today’s book and Spring activities recognize that the wait for Spring can be a long one, but one that is definitely worth it!

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And Then It’s Spring was written by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Erin E. Stead. The story follows a young boy and his dog as they plant seeds and wait for Spring to bring color back to the world. The simple text and whimsical illustrations provide the reader with the same longing feeling as the boy. As they continue waiting for Spring to finally arrive, they worry that something has happened to their seeds, and the world will stay brown. Kids may recognize themselves in the boy as he anxiously awaits the return of green. This book is a fun read for the Spring season, and provides lots of opportunities to have some Spring-inspired fun.

Related Reading: What Will Grow?

Search for signs of Spring

Springtime Scavenger Hunt – My daughter loves being outside, and this year she has taken a particular interest in pinecones, sticks, and anything else she can find on the ground outside. Instead of collecting each and every pinecone we come across, I decided to create a Springtime scavenger hunt, to give her a task to focus on.

Sign up below to receive your free printable scavenger hunt. Take a walk around your neighborhood or local park and see if you can find all of the things on the list!


Painting with Flowers

This is a fun activity for kids of all ages to create some spring inspired art! Lay out a bunch of fake flowers and some bright paints on plates. Have kids dip the flowers into the paint and use them to paint on their paper. Dipping the petals will give you a cool design to stamp. Allow them to be creative in how they use the flowers to paint.

Flower Play Dough

While we are still using the play dough we made in the fall (this stuff really lasts!), I wanted to create something more floral and spring-like now that the weather is warming up again. We used the following recipe and added a few drops of blue and red food coloring and lavender essential oil.

Ingredients
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup water
1/4 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
Food coloring (optional)
Essential oil (optional)

Mix all of the ingredients together in a saucepan over low heat. Stir well until the mixture thickens and forms one big ball. Place the ball on parchment paper and allow it to cool. Once it has cooled, knead the dough until it is no longer sticky and resembles play dough.

 

Get excited for Spring with this printable Spring coloring book! #printablecoloringbook #springcoloringbook #springcoloringpagesFlower Button Match

This is a great fine motor activity for young kids that will also help with color matching. Create several flower shapes out of different colors of felt. Create a slit in the middle of the flowers big enough for a button. Sew buttons of the same colors as the flowers to green felt circles (leaves). You could also attach the green felt to pipe cleaners or popsicle sticks to make stems. Have kids match the flowers to the right color buttons and insert the buttons through the petals. This not only helps kids practice buttoning (which can be a difficult skill), but it also provides practice in color matching. This would be a great quiet box activity for toddlers.

Celebrate the start of the Spring season with this colorful children's book and Spring activities! #SpringActivitiesForKids #SpringActivitiesForFamilies #SpringCrafts

Planting a Number Line

This is a fun and simple way to help kids with counting and number lines.
1. Write out numbers 1-10 in cupcake liners and glue them to popsicle sticks so they look like flowers.
2. Cut slits into two empty paper towel rolls or boxes (empty pasta boxes would work great), so the flowers can be “planted”.
3. Give kids the flowers and have them plant them in numerical order. You could also plant the flowers and skip a few, giving kids the opportunity to fill in the missing flowers on their own. Older kids could also be challenged to plant the numbers by twos. Use a small bee made out of paper to help kids visualize jumping from number to number.

There are so many fun Spring activities that you can use to get your kids excited about learning. This book gives you a great jumping off point to look for the first signs of Spring. Do you have any fun ways that you ring in Spring as a family? Share in the comments!

Celebrate the start of the Spring season with this colorful children's book and Spring activities! #SpringActivitiesForKids #SpringActivitiesForFamilies #SpringCrafts

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78 comments on “And Then It’s Spring”

  2. The three kids & I love spring! I like the scavenger hunt idea. We are always out on walks spotting things and they always want to bring sticks and cones home with them. One new spring activity this year was to make handprints with yellow paint, cut them out, stick them together in an overlapping way so the fingers stick out from the middle like petals, and them laminate them to make a yellow flower with a photo of each child in the middle. Add sticks and put them in a vase – a bunch of spring daffodils made of handprints!

    • I hope you enjoy it! It is really quick and easy to make. Plus I don’t have to worry as much when she inevitably puts it into her mouth.

  6. I’m so excited for spring and more chances to take my little ones outside. The spring scavenger hunt idea is great. We’ve done similar things in the past and the kids always love it.

  14. I am estatic it’s Sping time!! This book looks so cute. And playdough is seriously my kids favorite! Everytime we sot down for craft day they beg to do something with playdoh!

    • There are some great deals on them now that the Spring toys are out in stores! I’m a little worried my daughter is going to enjoy digging in the dirt a little too much!

  18. These are such good ideas! I’ll have to head out today or tomorrow and grab supplies for a few of these. The dipping a flower in paint and painting the paper is a great one. My son will love it! Thanks for these unique tips.

  19. I love your idea for the cupcake liner flower number line. I think I will do this with my lil one this week as we are working on counting and number recognition. Thanks for the idea. I never would have thought about that one.

    • I hope you enjoy it! I love how easy it is to customize, and it is a great consistency for playing with!

  24. As always you have come up with some fabulous ideas! My daughters have been a on play-doh kick- I love the idea of adding flower scents for spring!

    • Thank you so much! My daughter has been loving play doh lately too! I love making new scents for her to use.

  25. Cooool! I’ll have to try the homemade playdough recipe! And my kids are really getting into numbers now too, so I am excited to try the number planting. How cute!

  29. That play doh looks like so much fun! Our kids would love a scavenger hunt to bring on our first hikes of the season 🙂

  31. We love spring and all your activities look so fun. We love to explore all the beautiful things around us–can’t wait to incorporate your activities this year.

  32. We recently added this book to our home library, and it’s quickly become one of our favorites… especially the bit with the bear- so cute!

  33. Awe…that book sounds so sweet! I also love the other activity ideas..that’s the homemade play doh recipe I remember from childhood! Been looking for it!

  38. I’m always impressed by the activities you develop to accompany each book you feature. They are accessible in so many different ways and look like so much fun to do with kids.

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