Celebrate Spring With These Five Activities!

After three months of winter, spring is finally here! It’s time to celebrate with these five fun activities you can do with kids at your child care center to celebrate the changing of the season. Let’s get started!

1. Plant a Garden

Gardening is the quintessential spring activity and a fantastic way to get kids outside to teach them about the natural world. Imagine their delight as they watch a tiny seed — one that they planted, no less — grow into a fully fledged flower or tomato plant in the following weeks!

If you care for older children, you can dig deep into plant science. Teach them about the different parts of the plant and photosynthesis.

One of the best things about gardening is that you don’t need a lot of space. You don’t even need to go outside. If your child care center has a small yard, try using window-sill containers such as small flower boxes or even mason jars.

2. Embark On a Nature Hunt

Nature hunts are similar to scavenger hunts. But instead of looking for plastic eggs, small candies and other random prizes, participants search for items found in nature such as sticks, rocks, flowers and squirrel sightings.

Nature hunts are a ton of fun for kids and are an amazing way to celebrate spring.

Best of all, nature hunts require zero preparation!

You don’t need to hide goodies in the yard. You don’t need to brainstorm clues. You don’t even need to come up with a list of things for kids to look for. You simply have to walk into your center’s yard, spot an item and then ask the kids to find it.

To make things even more enjoyable, buy a few sets of cheap magnifying glasses. Then distribute them to your kids so that they can get a closer look at the things they find during their hunt.

3. Make Spring-Themed Crafts

Spring is known for plants and sunshine, but it has its fair share of rainy days, too. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to celebrate spring while remaining indoors: make spring-themed crafts!

The internet is filled with crafts that you and your kids can do to celebrate the changing season.

Here are some ideas:

Pipe Cleaner Daffodils

Pipe cleaners are cheap, fun and can be used to create a wide variety of crafts, including these cute flowers. Here’s how to make a beautiful floral arrangement of your own:

Fold three yellow pipe cleaners in half to find their midpoints. Then open each one back up and twist their middles together and arrange them into a six-point star.
Take each of the six points and roll them up like a snail. Make them as tight as you possibly can. Stop when you get to the center of the star.
Grab a green pipe cleaner and bend it at about the one inch mark. Then loop the bend through the center of the yellow flower that you just made. Twist the stem to secure it.
Take an orange pipe cleaner and wind it up tightly like a snail — but stop after a couple of rotations. Then wrap the rest of the pipe cleaner around your finger.
Pull the orange pipe cleaner off of your finger and squish it between your fingers to compress the spirals. Then glue it to the middle of your flower with hot glue.

Ladybug Stones

Ladybug stones are a fun and creative craft that every kid in your child care center will enjoy. Make one or two (or three or four!) of your own to display in your garden, around bushes, etc.

Head outside and collect a few stones. Gather at least one stone for each child. Bring the stones inside and wash them with soap and water.
Cut out small pieces of red and black tissue paper. Then arrange the paper on the stone so that it resembles a ladybug. Paint over the tissue paper with Mod Podge.
Twist two small pieces of black tissue paper between your fingers and Mod Podge over them to create antennae. Glue the antennae onto your ladybug.
Finally, glue two googly eyes to your ladybug and let the craft dry. When your ladybug has dried for a sufficient amount of time, display your creation to the world.

Paper Plate Rainbow

After seeing rainbows in the sky, kids may want to make one of their own. Here’s how:

Grab a paper plate and cut it in half. Then cut out a small semicircle from the flat edge of your severed half. This will give you the rainbow shape.
Paint your rainbow-shaped plate with the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Or let your kids go crazy and paint them how they want.
When you paint has dried, glue white cotton balls to each end of your rainbow. The cotton balls represent clouds.

4. Go Crazy With Bubbles

Have you ever met a kid who doesn’t love bubbles? Nope.

Head to the store and purchase bubbles. Or combine water, dish soap and glycerine to make your own. Then take your kids outside and blow bubbles until their little hearts are happy and content.

If you’re looking to spice things up, try playing a bubble game or two.

For example, you could gather all the kids in your center together. Then play music and blow bubbles into the air, while your kids dance and pop them. As soon as the music stops, have your kids freeze in place — no more dancing or bubble popping allowed. Kids who don’t freeze are out and can’t participate in the next round. (Skip this last step if very young kids are playing.)

Or you could play bubble tag, which is basically the same as normal tag, except the child who’s it must blow bubbles on the other kids rather than tag them.

Bubbles and spring just fit. Plus, they’ll give you another excuse to get kids outside and enjoy the improving weather!

5. Get Ready For Easter

There are tons of Easter-themed crafts you can do. For example, you can dye eggs, make popsicle stick chicks and clothespin carrots or draw Easter bunnies.

Swing by your local Walmart or Target and you’ll see that both retailers are already selling Easter-themed candies. Pick up a few bags and give your kids treats for winning games, completing projects or displaying good behavior.

While you’re at the store, buy a few decorations, too. Then let your kids help you hand them out around your center.

Finally, pick up a few Easter and spring books. Here are a few ideas:

Digitizing Documents Means More Time to Spend Outside!

Spring is a wonderful time of year and a time to get outside after being cooped up during cold weather. It’s a terrible time to be stuck inside with stacks of papers to fill out … for child care administrators AND for parents.

The Procare Solutions eDocuments feature gives centers a solution to create, send, review and store digital documents. It’s a way to digitize a significant part of workflows that too often rely on pen and paper by allowing centers to send and manage all sorts of documents, including enrollment contracts, incident reports, permission slips and more. 

It’s available on computers or the Procare app and takes much of the hassle out of reminding parents and staff to complete their paperwork. The ability to digitally sign a document eliminates the need to download, print, sign, then return documents.

Want to learn more? Request a demo today!

Celebrate Spring With These Five Activities!

1. Plant a Garden

2. Embark On a Nature Hunt