Spring Has Sprung
Spring lesson plan ideas can allow students and teachers a chance to use the outdoors as a classroom and a source of study topics.
By Kristen Kindoll
The air has the tang of moist earth, the weather is warm, and everywhere you look there is new life. Spring has sprung. It is a time of relief after the cold, hard winter. This winter was marked by excessive snow and cold temperatures, even in some southern locales. After being pent up inside, or bundling up in multiple layers for way too long, spring is a welcome addition.
My favorite thing about home-schooling is the ease with which you can incorporate the unexpected. You have the ability to allow a school day to take you in whatever direction you wish. It is one of the wonders of educating at home. For example, you could lay a blanket outside on the green grass, and read under the blossoming trees. By the way, this is one of my favorite activities.
The season itself provides many areas of study. The topics can be a great way to ease into a break, or to offer additional lessons for the regular curriculum. The changing seasons and the varying weather are perfect examples of possible science and math topics. Students can keep records of the different temperatures and compare the data to historical records. This is a great way to introduce climate change or global warming issues, which are current topics of interest. A unit on plants is another way to incorporate science. Children could plant a garden, and get hands-on experience with plant life. This is a fun exercise, and will provide fruitful results well into the fall.
For older children, the beauty of life can be delved into for a chance to discuss reproduction. Animals typically give birth to their young during the spring. The biological reasons for this can be examined. You could also discuss how some species, like humans, give birth to their young year round. However, human reproduction is a delicate subject. A philosophical discussion on the subject with teens is a perfect way to maintain dialogue with your children.
Poetry and grammar are topics that can become outside activities. This is often a great way for a child to develop their own journal. It is a practice that has fallen to the wayside for many. You might also want to talk about how painters, especially the Impressionists, worked outside. The concept of how this innovative group of painters figured out how to capture the changing light of the day is a great lesson. What follows are some more ideas to make spring lessons interesting and educational.
Spring Lesson Plan Ideas:
In this lesson students identify the signs of spring. The vocabulary associated with the season is incorporated. Students also compare winter to other seasons.
This lesson has students think about different regions around the world and the season of spring. Students conduct surveys, and compile the information to put in charts to illustrate regional differences.
In this lesson students learn about a cinquain poem. The specific pattern is five lines, in the following order: one word, two words, three words, four words, and one word. Spring is the inspirational topic for the poetic works.
Spring Bulletin Board: Eggshell Flowers
This is a great art activity to enjoy as a family. It is also a fun way to use the colored egg shells from dyed Easter eggs.
