Spring to Life!

From tadpoles to frogs, from poetry to pesticides, Education World provides lessons about the issue -- and issues -- of spring. Included: Five interdisciplinary activities for group lessons or independent exploration.

As spring blossoms into summer and, outside your window, new life continues to emerge, an overabundance of energy is probably evident inside your classroom as well. Every day , you face a gaggle of restless students longing to be free! You can't let them out (yet!), but you can turn that youthful energy into renewed creativity with springtime activities from Education World.

A brief description of each activity appears below. Click any headline for a complete teaching resource!

• Animal Life Cycles
  Students make diagrams of animal life cycles. (Grade K-2, 3-5, 6-8)
• The Case of the Disappearing Frogs
  Students solve a case of disappearing tadpoles. (3-5, Grade 6-8)
• Spring Haiku
  Students read and write haiku about animals in spring. (Grade 6-8, 9-12)
• The Millipedes Are Coming! The Millipedes Are Coming!
  Students develop a pesticide-free plan for dealing with a millipede invasion. (Grade 9-12)
• A Moth Is Not a Butterfly!
  Students complete a Venn diagram comparing moths and butterflies.
  (Grade K-2, 3-5)

   

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

• Spring Fun
  About.com provides an extensive list of resources for springtime activities for kids. The site includes links to facts and information, puzzles and games, arts and crafts, lessons and projects, and more.
• Spring Clip Art
  KidsDomain presents a collection of spring clip art and links to a number of additional clip art sources.
• The Mating Game
  This site's frank and funny talk about some of the usual -- and unusual -- animal mating habits is sure to grab the interest of most middle and high school students.
• Birmingham Zoo Animal Omnibus
  The Birmingham (Alabama) Zoo offers links to online resources about hundreds of different animals. The links connect visitors to sites offering animal facts and information, audio of animal sounds, lesson plans for science teachers, and much more.
• Spring
  Berit's Best Sites for Children includes several valuable librarian-selected Web sites about spring.
• Spring Theme Ideas
  abcteach offers a number of ideas for spring lessons and activities. The site also includes a Butterfly Center, which provides a number of helpful printable work sheets.
• Spring's Journey North
  Students follow spring's progress across the Northern Hemisphere as they watch for signs of the season and track the migration of a variety of birds, butterflies, and whales.
• Signals of Spring
  Students learn to analyze real-time NASA satellite imagery and apply their findings to a study of animal migration.
• 'Mother Nature fell asleep ...'
  LearnFree.com offers a tale about animals in spring and then provides audio and video directions for creating origami animals and other symbols of spring.
• Recycle for the Birds
  Environmental Education for Kids provides directions for recycling an empty plastic container into a birdfeeder.
• How the Seasons Were Set
  This traditional Native American story about how the seasons originated is from Why the North Star Stands Still and Other Stories, by William R. Palmer.