12 Simple Spring Themes for Preschool Classrooms
As the flowers bloom and the weather gets warmer, these spring themes for preschool classrooms will have your preschoolers excited and engaged all season long.
From bugs and birds to spring holidays like Easter and St. Patrick’s Day, there’s so much to explore with your students.
Here are 12 spring preschool themes to keep your little learners blooming with excitement.
Bugs
This theme allows preschoolers to learn about insects in their natural environment, encourages curiosity, and teaches kids how bugs have important roles in the ecosystem. Create a bug habitat for your classroom out of a jar with soil, leaves, and small sticks, allowing children to observe insects up close. Enjoy extra outside playtime while on a bug hunt where your preschoolers use magnifying glasses to examine different insects. For an easy craft, make bees or ladybugs out of paper plates and paint.
Birds
Help your preschoolers develop observation skills and an appreciation for nature with this spring theme. Since birdwatching promotes patience and focus in young learners, set up a birdwatching station near a window with binoculars and simple bird identification charts. Encourage children to draw the birds they see. Construct bird feeders using pine cones or paper towel rolls, peanut butter or gelatin, and bird seed. During circle time, read books about birds and discuss their migration patterns and nesting habits.
Dirt and Mud
Playing with dirt and mud is a sensory-rich activity that allows preschoolers to explore textures. Set up a mud kitchen with pots, pans, and utensils for imaginative play. Dig for worms and discuss their roles in the ecosystem. Create mud paintings using dirt and water on paper.
Bring the world of Preschool With a Purpose “Dirt Discoveries” into your classroom with this free downloadable activity!
Flowers
From teaching the plant life cycle to caring for living things, a flower theme is perfect for this season. Construct a sensory bin with fake flowers, tiny pots, and soil. Put letters on construction paper flowers and let students use the flowers to identify the letters in their names.
Rainbows
Rainbows make learning about colors and weather fun for preschoolers. It’s also a way to introduce basic concepts of light and refraction. Experiment with prisms to show how light creates rainbows and make a water prism with a glass bowl, water, and a small mirror. Assign each student a color of the rainbow by placing a rainbow color on the front of their shirt and have them move to different parts of the room. When you say “rainbow,” they race back to color order.
Frogs
A frog's life cycle from a tadpole to a grown frog is a fascinating transformation for preschoolers to observe. This theme teaches kids about amphibians and their habitats. Burn some energy by having your preschoolers jump like frogs and create frog masks with green construction paper and string. Read books about frogs, and during dramatic play, let students act out each stage of a frog’s life cycle.
Butterflies and Caterpillars
This theme promotes an understanding of change and growth in nature. Sing butterfly songs and read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle before discussing the butterfly's life cycle. Give students butterfly wings (colorful scarves) and encourage them to fly around the garden (the classroom).
Gardening
Gardening is a hands-on activity that teaches children about plant growth, responsibility, and the environment. Make a sensory bin with soil, toy gardening tools, and large dry beans. Take a silly picture of each child, laminate it, and place the picture inside a clear plastic cup. Have kids fill the cup with soil and grass seed. After a few days of watering, the grass will grow and look like hair on top of the student’s picture.
Baby Animals
Exploring the world of baby animals helps children learn about caring for animals and fosters empathy and kindness. Set up a petting zoo with plush toys and discuss how different animals care for their young. Create cards with pictures of animals and their babies. Then play a matching game to improve memory and recognition.
Earth Day
Use Earth Day to teach children about the importance of taking care of our planet. Use recycled materials like cardboard, plastic bottles, or used paper to create collages. Fill a small container with water, add in toy sea creatures, and have students toss in trash (small scraps of paper). Using spoons, ask students to remove the trash—this will be a challenge! Then discuss the importance of keeping oceans, lakes, and rivers clean.
Spring Weather
From sunny, windy, and rainy days, this theme helps children develop scientific observation skills as they explore seasonal changes and weather patterns. Keep a daily weather chart and let students record observations. Make kites from tissue paper and craft sticks and fly them on a windy day, discussing how wind helps kites soar.
Spring Holidays: St. Patrick's Day and Easter
Learning about spring holidays like St. Patrick's Day and Easter helps bring cultural traditions, festive activities, and opportunities for creative expression into the classroom. Show how colors are created by dying eggs and mixing different dye colors. Leave bunny ears, leprechaun hats, baskets, plastic eggs, and shamrocks in the dramatic play area, and make a sensory bin with dyed rice and plastic eggs.
Highlights Preschool With a Purpose is a core curriculum with ready to-go printed materials that can be quickly adapted by teachers of all experience levels and can be used for years to come. Learn more!
About the Author:
Amanda Mushro is a writer and content creator whose creative tips, tricks, and life hacks have reached millions of people through TV segments, videos, and her writing. However, her favorite job is being a mom of three.