Circle time suggestions:

Flashcards

• Use the flashcards and let the students sort them together. Ask the students why they picked these cards and why they belong together.
• Use the flashcards but don’t show them to the students. Give a description or a first letter, or an animal sound and let the students guess the specific flashcard.
• Use the flashcards from the autumn or winter and mix them with the spring flashcards. Start sorting them, ask the students if they belong to spring or not and let them explain the reason why it belongs to  spring or not.
• Lay down all the flashcards, ask the students to have a good look. Then they must close their eyes and you take a flashcard and hide it. Ask the students which card is missing.
• Lay down all the flashcards. Name 3 or 4 flashcards out loud and let the students lay the cards down in the exact sequence as you mentioned them.
• Use three vases with fake flowers (or real ones) for a math lesson. Get three different colour flowers and start by sorting them by colour. Then ask the students in which vase the most flowers are, which vase has the least. Get the students to make an even number in all three vases. Continue by giving one vase 3 flowers, let the students make a vase with more and less flowers. Expand this based on the level of your students.

• Use several kinds of real or fake flowers in vases (preferably 3 to 5 different kinds, if you cannot buy them because of a tight budget create the flowers first with the children. Make sure they’re differences in colours, kinds and length) and stick price tags on the vases. Hand out real or fake money and ask how many flowers a student can buy. Give out assignments like, or ask questions such as:

1. Buy as many flowers as you can.
2. Buy three different flowers and make sure you still have money left.
3. How many of the most expensive flower can you buy?
4. Do you have enough money to buy one of each flower?
5. Buy the tallest flowers in the shop.
6. Buy the smallest flowers in the shop.
7. How many yellow flowers can you buy?
8. Buy 2 flowers and have no money to spare.
9. Ask the seller of which flower he sold the most.
10. When the shop closes you can ask how much money the seller made.

Let one student be the buyer and one student the seller of the flowers. Make sure they interact like you would in a shop.

Before you start you’ll need a couple of items:

1. 2 big dice
2. paper circles
3. black strips of paper
4. 2 caterpillar-faces (see example)

• Divide the students into two groups. Each group will get circles in three different colours. Let a student from each group throw the dice. The spots indicate how many circles can be laid down. Discuss which students has thrown more and how much more. When every student has thrown the dice, then it’s time to determine which caterpillar is longer. But longer doesn’t necessarily mean more circles (see example). Count each caterpillar and then really determine which group has the longest caterpillar.

Extra suggestions:

• Make a sequence with the circles. As shown on example.
• Let the children use a different color every time they throw the dice again. This way you can see exactly how MUCH a student has thrown and also if that is less or more than his competitor.
• Let the student lay down the legs. If he has thrown 3, he needs to twice as much for the legs. The time table of 2 is applicable here.
• After this activity the children can make their own caterpillar by cutting circles (see example and the crafts-page).
• A worksheet is also available (see the spring download page).

 

• Walk around the school and pick wild flowers. Back at school try do determine which flowers are growing in the neighborhood of the school.
• Plant garden cress in the classroom as a growth project. Also plant sunflower seeds and discuss which seed grows quicker and which grows taller.

Phonics spring:

Which word is the odd one out?

nest – snowman – egg – bird
mitten – flower – seed – sun
chestnut – bee – honey – beehive
grass – insects – flowers – ice cream
leaf – stem – earth – fire
water – rain – hose – light

Riddles:

1. I love flowers and I make honey (bee)
2. I am very hungry and eat a lot before my big transformation (butterfly)
3. I am a baby sheep (lamb)
4. I have an oval shape and I come in different sizes (egg)
5. I wake you up in the morning, I sound like this (rooster)
6. I have feathers, I lay eggs and a rooster is my husband (chicken)
7. My boss is a queen, and I live in a hive (bee)
8. I am small and pink (piglet)
9. I swim, I fly and I quack (duck)
10. I give milk and my baby is a calf (cow)

True or false

1. It’s time for bears to hibernate during the spring.
2. In spring the temperature rises.
3. Baby horses are called foals.
4. A daffodil is another word for dandelion.
5. Frogs start out in an egg and have a tail.
6. A pig can give birth to 12 piglets.
7. Chicken eggs can be brown, white, or black.
8. After spring comes autumn.
9. Before spring comes winter.
10. Spring start on the 21st of March.