10 Spring Activities to Keep Your Elementary Students Busy

Spring is a wonderful time for elementary students to engage in various creative and educational activities. 

As the weather becomes warm and nature comes to life again, opportunities open up to explore the outdoors and learn about plants, animals, and other natural elements. 

This is an exciting time for kids to witness the blossoming of life after the cold months. 

Keeping children active and entertained with Spring activities during this season is important. 

After all, human beings have historically considered this time of the year a moment of rebirth and new beginnings that inspires us to “wake up.” 

Take this chance to improve their comprehension and memory skills in a different way than traditional classes—schooled or homeschooled. You can give them a sense of a break from their daily routines. 

Read this list of 10 engaging arts, crafts, indoor and outdoor activities we suggest, and Spanish activities to reinforce their language learning in a fun, relaxed environment.

From planting a garden to learning Spring vocabulary words to playing scavenger hunt, they’ll love it!  

Whether a teacher, parent, or caregiver, you can use these activities to help your kids connect with nature, have fun, and discover new interests and hobbies. 

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1. Planting a Garden

The crown of these Spring activities has to be planting a garden, of course!

Help your children learn about plants, nature, and patience by cautiously placing seeds into the soil and sowing them in your backyard or in little pots.

We suggest you select something that will grow fast so kids can see the progress easily.

A great, more elaborate idea is to grow a full vegetable patch. You can find all the necessary elements—seeds, soil, pots, and even a complete gardening set for kids—at farmers’ markets and stores like Home Depot. 

A great example of this activity is growing a bean. They germinate in about five to seven days and can be harvested in as little as six weeks.

For this one, you need to place a bean inside humid cotton and leave it in a crystal jar. Then, you can move it to a pot with soil when it starts growing roots.

These are more seeds that grow relatively quickly:

• Radishes: Three to four weeks to mature
• Lettuce: It germinates in two or three days
• Spinach: They germinate in six days and can be harvested in six weeks
• Cress: Depending on the variety, some can mature in a week 

Here are 10 Tips for Setting up a Vegetable Patch and 10 Easiest Vegetables to Grow at Home so your elementary kids can enjoy the full experience!

2. Art and Crafts

Get your children’s creative minds flowing by doing Spring activities like arts and crafts. 

After spending the day outdoors, sometimes it’s important to have a relaxing time sitting at the table.

Pick an especially tiring day to color Spring printouts, help them cut out butterflies—the ultimate Spring symbol—as well as other shapes, and make bird feeders together. 

This is a great opportunity to make bedroom decorations too!

Find a theme: flowers, bees, butterflies, insects, and make different sizes of them. Then, they can color them and paste different fabrics on top.

If your paper motifs have wings, you can hang them from the ceiling!

If you consider your kids old enough, you can show them how to make origami.

Another fun idea is to place their toys—say cows, lions, dinosaurs—in the sunlight during sunset. Then, they will project a shadow on the ground, where you can place a blank sheet and crayons or colored pencils so they can outline and color them.

But remember, the clock is ticking, and once the sun goes down, they won’t see the shadow anymore!

Want to have Spring words in Spanish lessons? See this:

• Tropical Animals in Spanish (Free Spanish Lessons for Kids)
• Zoo Animals in Spanish (Free Spanish Lessons for Kids)

As you know, Earth Day is during the Spring season, so you can honor the grandness of nature by recycling or reusing old stuff and junk.

It’s important to let them know through our actions and Spring activities that our planet is worth saving and restoring.

Show them how we protect the environment by having fun and creating these pieces!

See also: 5 Earth Day Crafts and Spanish Vocabulary Words for Kids

3. Spring Words in Spanish

Spring is the perfect time to make Spanish activities way more fun! Take a trip to the backyard and tell your elementary children what they see in a different language.

Try introducing them to the words below, and you can play “I Spy with my little eye” afterward. 

Bee – La abeja

Bird – El pájaro

Butterfly – La mariposa

Flower – La flor

Fruit – La fruta

Insect – El insecto

Leaf – La hoja

Petal – El pétalo

Pollen – El polen

Pot – La maceta

Rainbow – El arcoiris

Root – La raíz

Season – La estación, la temporada

Seed – La semilla

Spring – La primavera

Soil – La tierra

Stem – El tallo 

Sun – El sol

To blossom – Florecer

To dig a hole in the ground – Cavar un hoyo en la tierra

To grow – Crecer

To plant – Plantar

To smell – Oler 

To sprout – Brotar

To water – Regar

Tree – El árbol

Vegetable – El vegetal

Warm – Templado, cálido, tibio

Weather – El clima, el tiempo

Another idea is to make these into flashcards. You can write the Spanish word on one side and ask your elementary children to draw on the other. This way, they will be involved in both parts of the process. 

Hand-picked for you: Spanish Spring Words for Kids (Free Lesson)

4. Scavenger Hunts

Kids love Spring activities like this one!

Scavenging outdoors is a great idea to keep them entertained and active. First, buy little prizes or toys that are relatable to the season. Then, hide them outside your home, at a park, or indoors depending on the weather.

Why don’t we turn this into one of the Spring activities in Spanish that we discussed? 

Tell them what to look for in Spanish so they can connect the Spanish word with the figure, image, prize, or toy. If they find something else, they must put it back until they get to the correct item.

Another way of playing is to say the word in Spanish and let your kids point with their fingers or flag with little marks with pins on the object.

You can always switch places and let them read or call out these Spring words in Spanish as well.

Consider helping your kids make their hunter outfits from recycled materials if this is a whole-day activity.

You can do something crazy and paint cardboard, cut open plastic bottles, or simply cut out old magazines. You could offer them badges for every item they discover and collect them by pinning them to a sash. 

Children can do a second scavenger hunt at night inside the house with a flashlight and a magnifying glass.

Remember how much fun was it to disguise yourself as a brave character? Let your little ones feel the whole experience and become a true scavenger hunt. 

They can collect all their prizes in treasure chests and re-do these spring activities every week or so!

Read next: 15 Preschool Spanish Spring Activities To Do This Year in 2022

5. Nature Walks

Nature walks to explore the great outdoors is a must for your Spring activities!

Take your elementary kids to a park, protected area, or botanic garden. Not only to enjoy the day but to discover new plants, insects, and animals and meet with nature after the long winter. 

Trust them with your magnifying glass and let them enjoy watching up close “the little things.”

Don’t forget about talking about the importance of sunscreen, continuously hydrating, and finding shadows to step under from time to time.

Take little breaks to sit down, chat and watch the surroundings. Motivate them to give themselves these minutes of silence and be amazed.

These tasks will help them remember to be careful when they go out. 

Take pictures of all the animals and flowers your little ones consider fun, and make an album with them. You can also print a family photo and help them make a frame with sticks and strings. 

6. Nature Journal

According to studies and psychologists, journaling is a healthy way of expressing oneself, discovering and rediscovering emotions, and reflecting on what we learn daily. 

You can make out of these Spring activities a whole experience from beginning to end.

Buy a notebook—preferably one with recycled paper to discuss the importance of reusing the material we produce—and help your elementary students decorate with Spring-themed ideas. 

Encourage them to write on it at the end of the day during the school break—and hopefully keep this healthy habit for good! 

They can talk about their nature walks and scavenger hunts, and paste some pictures and crafts to make it memorable. You can do this every year. 

7. Picnics

Take your elementary students outside for a picnic class. Choose a beautiful day for these Spring activities.

Don’t forget hats or caps and sunscreen!

Share easy-to-make snacks and turn them into a Spanish lesson while enjoying the warm weather and fresh air.

Here are some examples of Spring words in Spanish you can connect to your picnic:

Apple – La manzana

Banana – El platano

Basket – La canasta

Blanket – El mantel

Bread – El pan

Breeze – La brisa

Cap – La gorra

Cheese – El queso

Cherries – Las cerezas

Cookies – Las galletas

Dawn – El alba

Egg – El huevo

Fresh air – El aire fresco

Grapefruit – La toronja

Grapes – Las uvas

Hat – El sombrero

Juice – El jugo

Orange – La naranja

Parasol – La sombrilla

Rain – La lluvia

Shake – El licuado

Salad – La ensalada

Sandwich – El emparedado, el sándwich

Snack – La botana

Sunlight – La luz del sol

Sunrise – El amanecer

Sunset – El atardecer

Sunscreen – El protector, el protector solar

Umbrella – El paraguas

Warm weather – El clima cálido

Water – El agua

8. Nature Storytelling

Encourage your little students to write Spring-themed stories and unleash their creativity!

This is an excellent way of promoting literacy skills. But wait! If you choose to do this Spring activity in Spanish, it will also boost their proficiency. 

Depending on age and language level, they can do something easy as inserting the words they just learned in Spanish here and there. They will move up gradually. One day they’ll be able to put phrases together and even write a whole story.

Read the conclusions for an extra tip on improving Spanish proficiency dramatically. 

Also, you can choose to read them daytime or bedtime stories in English or Spanish. 

For example, here are 11 Books About Spring in Spanish for Kids so they can start the day better or fall asleep faster. 

9. Flying Kites

Springtime is the best time to fly kites! And your elementary students can have so much fun making their own kites and flying them.

You can have them create their designs using tissue paper, straws, sticks, and fabric. Consider buying one in the shape of butterflies and birds if the handcraft doesn’t fly. 

Don’t forget to spot a windy place nearby. 

It could be something relatively high, like a small mountain, or a broad area with no building obstruction, like a big parking lot or the local university running track. 

10. Language Games

This is one of the best Spring activities to introduce Spanish lessons here and there.

Here are some ideas for language games that your kids can enjoy:

• Hidden Words – Palabras escondidas: Learn new Spanish vocabulary with a fun search game.

Create a grid of letters and fill it with Spring-related words like the ones in this article. Then have the kids find and circle the words on the grid. 

• Spring Says – La primavera dice: This is a variation of Simon Says. You can be “Spring” and say: La primavera dice que toques una flor. So the kid has to touch a flower. 

• Guess the Flower – Adivina la flor: Help your children learn the names of different flowers in Spanish. Choose a flower and give hints about its appearance until they guess it correctly.

Use this vocabulary:

Blue – Azul

Carnation – El clavel

Daisy – La margarita

Daffodil – El narciso

Dandelion – El diente de león

Geranium – El geranio

Green – Verde

Hibiscus – La jamaica

Hydrangea – La hortensia

Jasmine – El jazmín

Lavender – La lavanda

Lily – La azucena

Long petals – Los pétalos largos

Lotus flower – La flor de loto

Orange – Naranja

Orchid – La orquídea

Pink – Rosa

Purple – Morado

Rose – La rosa

Short petals – Los pétalos pequeños

Smell – El olor

Sunflower – El girasol

Tulip – El tulipán

Violet – Violeta

Yellow – Amarillo

White – Blanco

See also: The Four Seasons (Free Spanish Lessons for Kids)

¡Detente y huele las rosas!

Stop and smell the roses! Who knew Spring activities in Spanish could be so much fun?

By engaging in these 10 creative ideas, elementary students can learn and have fun at the same time. This is how they have a better time processing, analyzing, and internalizing information.

From planting a garden to going on nature walks and creating arts and crafts, there are many ways to keep students busy and engaged during this season. 

Encourage your children to keep exploring and learning from their surroundings. This is a grand opportunity to help them create a lifelong nurturing and protecting habit about the world around them.

Let’s inspire learning and appreciation for the natural world. And it’s even better if we can combine these Spring activities with learning Spanish. 

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As we just learned, connecting with others and the world is priceless; in this case, children can learn from true experts.

At Homeschool Spanish Academy, we offer a first-rate, expert curriculum and innovative, human-centered learning strategies. 

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Our trusted support team will take care of their progress. After all, we’ve been teaching Spanish for more than 10 years.

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