25 Spring Activities for Kids
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Get loads of ideas for having fun with kids this spring! We’re sharing indoor activities for the rainy days and great ways to make the most of beautiful days outdoors.
Spring has sprung, which means it’s just the right time for a list of spring activities to enjoy outdoors on beautiful days and inside on the days that are cool or rainy. Whether your little one wants to explore nature when the weather cooperates or needs a fun indoor activity when the raindrops start falling, we’ve got plenty of engaging, hands-on ideas to keep them learning and playing.
Looking for Spring Craft Ideas? We’ve got you covered! Check out our list of 20 spring crafts for kids that are made from household craft supplies.
Indoor Spring Activities for Kids
1. Crack Each Other Up
In need of some laughter and a little silliness? Whether you’re on the go and need easy entertainment or just want to share a few giggles at home, these spring-themed jokes and riddles are sure to bring plenty of smiles.
Expand Learning: Reading jokes and riddles together is more than just a great way to get a laugh–it’s also a highly-engaging way to practice reading!
2. Make Seed Paper
With plants starting to grow and bloom, spring is an ideal time to work with seeds and planting. This activity transforms seeds and paper into a unique gift your child can share with others or plant in their very own garden. Get step-by-step written instruction here.
Expand Learning: Creating Silly Seed Paper easily ties into talking about or celebrating Earth Day. Use our Earth Day coloring pages and worksheets to guide learning.
3. Color the Season
Celebrate spring from the comfort of your home with these free printable spring coloring pages. They’re great to have on hand during appointments or at restaurants or when your child needs a peaceful activity to enjoy at home or on the road.
4. Sing Along with Springtime Songs
The Four Season Song
This catchy tune helps children learn about the four seasons. They can watch or sing along or simply enjoying listening to it while coloring or playing.
Splish Splash Dance in the Rain
Kids can dance along with ABCmouse, pretending to splash in puddles and dance in the rain, complete with “splishes” and “splashes!”
5. Enjoy Silly Spring Poems
These fun and playful spring poems are perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and beyond and celebrate the animals and natural beauty of the season. Young children will especially enjoy the goofy rhyming poems! These are great for reading at bedtime or while sitting outside enjoying the weather.
Expand Learning: Reading poetry is important for children because it helps develop language skills, creativity, and emotional expression. Rhyming poetry can also help children learn to identify sound patterns in words.
6. Try a Spring-Themed Puzzle
Spring’s cool, rainy days are an ideal backdrop for some cozy indoor time. Settle in with a puzzle to practice spatial awareness, sorting, and critical thinking skills. Look for puzzles with images of birds, gardens, or farms, sticking to lower piece count for young children. Libraries often have puzzles to check out or you can try rummage sales or resale stores, too.
Expand Learning: ABCmouse includes a large variety of digital puzzles to try, spanning multiple topics and age ranges. Check them out here.
7. Create an Indoor Rainstorm
Kids can create their own rainstorm using everyday household items while exploring different sounds and rhythms. This is an ideal activity for groups of children, families, and classrooms, where each child can contribute to the sound of the storms with the ideas below.
DIY Storm Tips
- Raindrops – Lightly tap fingertips on a table or clap softly to mimic the gentle sound of raindrops. Experiment with faster or slower claps to match light drizzles or heavier showers.
- Pattering Rain – Pour uncooked rice or dry beans into a plastic bottle or container and shake it gently. This creates the sound of steady rainfall. Let kids try shaking it at different speeds to mimic drizzle or a downpour.
- Thunder – Bang on a metal baking pan or upside-down pot to create the rumbling sound of thunder. Try tapping it lightly for distant thunder or giving it a louder bang for a big storm!
- Wind Whooshing – Blow through a paper towel roll or wave a plastic bag in the air to mimic the sound of a blustery breeze.
8. Sort and Count Seeds
Use dried beans or lentils or flower seeds (old seed packets are great for this) for a hands-on math activity. Pour out your seed packets or a package of assorted dried beans and lentils. Work with your child to sort the beans or seeds according to appearance or size and then count out how many of each type you have. If using new seed packets, go one step further and plant them outside!
9. Make Magic Leprechaun Rocks
Create a little St. Patrick’s Day magic with Magical Leprechaun Rocks! These fun and easy-to-make rocks fizz and dissolve, revealing hidden treasures inside. It’s the perfect blend of creativity and science, making for an exciting and hands-on holiday activity. Check out the full tutorial on the ABCmouse Instagram page here!
More St. Patrick’s Day Activities: Continue the St. Patrick’s Day fun with our free printable St. Patrick’s Day coloring pages for kids.
10. Trace Raindrops
Pick up some washable window markers and during the next rainstorm, invite your child to trace the path of the raindrops landing on the windows. Or they can use the markers to create the sunny spring scene they’ll see after the rain passes.
11. Flower Stamping
Head out to the backyard and pick some flowers and leaves from plants that are plentiful, such as dandelions. Add some paint to a paper plate and gently dip the flower heads into the paint and then stamp them onto paper, seeing what kind of print they create. For leaves, it may work best to apply the paint to them with a paint brush and then stamp it onto the paper.
12. Make an Egg Carton Caterpillars, Bugs, or Flowers
Turn an empty egg carton into an adorable caterpillar by cutting out a row from the egg carton and painting each section. Let it dry and then add googly eyes, a smile, and pipe cleaner antennae. Or, cut out each section of an egg carton and turn them into ladybugs or trim the edges to create flowers.
Extend Learning: Caterpillars can make a great introduction to exploring the life cycle of a butterfly, which children will increasingly see as the weather warms. Use our free printable butterfly coloring pages to help with the lesson.
Outdoor Spring Activities for Kids
13. Do a Flower Smelling Test
Whether outside in a garden or in the flower section of the grocery store, invite your child to smell the flowers, noting which ones have a strong fragrant smell and which ones have a more subtle scent. For an added challenge, have your child close their eyes during this activity to see if they can pick up more nuances of each flower’s smell.
14. Color a Garden in a Garden
Print out our free printable flower coloring pages and pack up a lap desk or clipboard and some crayons, markers, or colored pencils. Head to a park or public garden and use inspiration from the flowers around you to color in the flowers of the coloring pages. As your child colors, make note of the real flowers you see that look similar to those they colored.
15. Worm Observation Station
Dig up a small patch of soil or find worms after it rains. Place them in a clear container with damp soil and watch them move! Talk about how worms help gardens grow by loosening the soil. After observing, gently return them to nature.
16. Rain Collection & Measuring Experiment
Set up a rain gauge using a clear plastic bottle with marked measurements. Each day after it rains, measure how much rainwater has been collected. Keep a rain journal and track how different days get more or less rain. Compare with weather reports to see if the predictions were correct.
Expand Learning: Tracking rain and the weather creates a natural opportunity to explore bar graphs as a form of data collection. Use our free printable graphing worksheets to help explain the concept.
17. Take a Nature Walk
Practice observation skills and appreciating nature with a walk outdoors. Watch out for wildlife, such as birds, squirrels, and rabbits, and discuss their behavior and what they may be doing. Look for plants with leaves just beginning to unfurl or flowers starting to bloom. Talk to your child about how these are all signs of spring. Repeat the walk a few weeks later and talk about the changes that happened since your last stroll.
18. Measure Plant Growth
Walk through your yard with your child looking for a plant that’s just beginning to sprout. Use a ruler or tape measure to record the date and the plant’s size. Check back every day (or when you have time) and record the plant’s height, noting how much it’s grown and any other changes your child notices.
More Than One Child? Let each child pick a new little plant to keep an eye one. Take the whole crew outside and measure the plants and encourage them to notice differences in their plant.
19. Build a Fairy or Dinosaur Garden
Encourage creativity by setting up a mini-world in a planter, small corner of the yard, or even a large tray. Gather sticks, pebbles, moss, and flowers to build tiny houses, paths, and ponds for fairies or dinosaurs. Kids can add small toys, paint rocks to look like stepping stones, or create little storylines about their enchanted world.
20. Plant a Small Garden
Choose easy-to-grow plants like sunflowers, lettuce, or herbs and let kids get their hands dirty planting seeds. Use this as a learning opportunity to discuss what plants need to grow (sunlight, water, soil). Make it fun by keeping a growth chart where your child can measure and draw pictures of how their plants change over time. Decorate plant markers with painted rocks or craft sticks to personalize the garden.
21. Pick Strawberries
If strawberries are in season in your area, visit a local farm and let kids experience picking their own fresh fruit. Talk about how strawberries grow, from flower to fruit, and why bees are important for pollination. Once home, use the fresh berries for a fun cooking activity, like making homemade strawberry shortcake, smoothies, or a fruit salad.
22. Jump in Puddles
Spring is known for its rain storms. The next time one rolls through, put on rain boots and splash around in puddles! Make it more fun by counting how many puddles you can find or measuring which puddle makes the biggest splash. You can even bring out sidewalk chalk and draw around puddles to see if they change shape or disappear as you splash around them.
23. Try a Spring Scavenger Hunt
Make a list of springtime sights like blooming flowers, leaf buds, bunnies, butterflies, bees, birds, and puddles. Kids can explore the yard, park, or neighborhood to find and check off each item.
24. Make a Spring Sidewalk Comic Strip
Grab your chalk and head outdoors to the sidewalk or driveway. Explain to your children that they’ll be creating their very own spring-themed comic strip outside. Begin by brainstorming things that make them think of spring, such as flowers, birds, and rabbits. Then, use the squares of the sidewalk (or create your own) to contain each frame of the comic strip and see what the children come up with!
25. Play in the Mud
Get ready for a mess but one that’s so much fun to make! After it rains, gather up some old spoons and plastic plates and bowls. Change into old play clothing and gardening gloves and head outside. Tell your child the backyard has turned into a Nature Kitchen and they can use the mud, twigs, leaves, and flowers as their ingredients to create meals that Mother Nature would love!
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