Outdoor Spring Activities for Preschoolers

The weather is warming up, and the children are ready to spend more time outside. Spring activities provide the opportunity for moving around, discovering the growth of the season, and burning off the winter’s pent-up energy. There are many possibilities for spring activities for preschoolers, and the ones listed here should give you ideas for even more.

Create an Outdoor Journal

Before the little ones go outside, it is a great idea to create a journal to document their adventures. The pages can be filled with drawings or photographs of discoveries, leaves and seeds that were found, and much more. With a little help from an adult, the journal can even be a calendar for growing seeds or a reference for bugs and other things found outside.

Growing Seeds

Growing seeds is a wonder-filled part of spring. Whether your preschoolers are growing flowers, tomatoes, or beans, this is the time of year for seeds to germinate. Use cotton balls with 2 to 3 seeds per ball, and keep them damp by storing in an old egg carton. Once the seeds germinate, transport the cotton ball and all to a pot with potting soil, or take the plunge and grow a mini-garden plot outside with a variety of plants to observe.

Bug Safari

Once the planted seeds have become plants, they will also be attracting insects. Make a game out of how many different bugs your child can find. To make it even more educational, separate the hunt area into different types of terrain and find out where insects are the most common. Take pictures of each new bug and add them to the journal.

Scavenger Hunts

Preschoolers love to play and explore and discover new things. For them, a scavenger hunt is just trying to find certain things while enjoying the discovery process. Create a spring-themed hunt list, including items that you add to the list and hide. A scavenger hunt of a different sort is to try and identify all of the birds you see on a walk through the park or forest. Remember to document it all in the journal for review on days when the kids can’t be outside.

Sidewalk Chalk

Easily handled sidewalk chalk is an inexpensive way to let preschoolers be creative on the patio. Because it washes away easily, you can let the kids draw and doodle to their heart’s content. Help the children make up new games to play or practice drawing numbers.

Keep in mind that many preschoolers will not remember a previous spring, so this will be a memorable time of discovery and exploration. The best thing you can give your little one is the chance to be curious, and the encouragement to investigate everything.

At Montessori Children’s Center in Fremont, CA, our teachers encourage students to get outside with their families and enjoy and learn from all that nature has to offer.  To learn more about the hands-on Montessori Method, contact us today!

This article originally appeared on the Happenings in Education blog at: https://happeningsineducation.wordpress.com/2018/04/22/outdoor-spring-activities-for-preschoolers/.