It's finally springtime and many of us are ready to shake off winter lethargy and get energized by nature’s awakening. This is true especially for children. Being outside in the warm weather with all the blossoming and buzzing around is a great opportunity for countless sensory activities to stimulate their natural curiosity.
In this article, we will offer you a few great ways to invite the spring season into your home and children's games. Sit next to your child, play with them, run together, and get them actively involved. This will help them learn a lot of new things, plus it will strengthen your relationship. Children thrive when they feel loved and when we provide opportunities for them to develop.
One of the best things about spring is spending time outdoors. Whether it's in the park, at the playground, or just around the block, you can feel spring everywhere. Children can explore as much as they want the sprouting grass, colorful flowers, blooming trees and chirping birds.
Use these moments to ask questions like "How do we know spring has arrived?" and teach your child about the changing seasons. Ask your child what colors they see, count blossoming trees together, go on a hunt for a certain type of flower - you can easily add plenty of educational value to your outdoors time.
Another enjoyable and useful spring activity for young children is gardening. It fosters a sense of responsibility and connection with nature. By planting seeds in the yard or balcony planters, children learn important lessons about the life cycle of plants and get the chance to proudly watch their seedlings grow and develop.
Let your child try on their own and practice their fine motor skills. Don't worry about the dirt. While this type of sensory activitycan be a bit messy, it’s very enjoyable and stimulating, and it also helps build more connections in the brain.
Growing beans in cotton wool
Source: https://theimaginationtree.com/growing-beans-on-cotton-balls/
How about trying out this classic experiment from your science class together with your child? All you need is an empty jar, cotton wool, and regular beans straight out of the packet.
Fill the jar with cotton and put one or two beans inside so they are clearly visible. Wet the cotton. It should be damp but not too wet. Put in a bright place and wait for a few days. Add water if you notice that the cotton is dry.
In a few days, you will notice that the bean has started to sprout. Gradually, a stem, more roots, shoots and small leaves will appear. Observe the development with your child and discuss what is happening. Older children can even keep a journal. When the bean is big enough, plant it in the soil and continue caring for it there.
"Bean Story": A spring finger game (based on poems by Angelina Zhekova)
Continuing the "bean" theme, we offer you a very fun finger game to enrich your child's experience.
Finger games are great for fine motor skills and speech development. They combine finger and hand movements with nursery rhymes, thereby fostering children’s speaking, imagination and concentration and developing a sense of figurative speech. Some classic finger games in Bulgaria are “Dai babo oganche” ("Give me a fire, grandma"), “Hey rachichki”("Hey, little hands") and “Varilo mishe kashichka” ("A mouse boiled porridge").
"Bean Story" is a finger game suitable for children between 4 and 7 years old. Say the verse slowly and expressively and perform the movements with the child.
| This spring grandma Kata was digging up the garden and from her little pocket fell a small round bean into a little cozy hole and sweet sleep fell upon it. Little Bean is sleeping and dreaming how he is slowly getting bigger and on his head he's grown a little hair. And when he wakes up, Little Bean is wondering. "There's no doubt, I'm still me, but I'm a plant". | (bend over, imitate digging with a hoe) (point to pocket) (make circle with thumb and forefinger) (both hands form a hole) (squat and put both hands, palms together, under the cheek as if to sleep) (show with both hands growing bigger) (show with both hands how leaves are growing on the head) (stand up with hands on waist and look at other child from head to toe) (hands imitate leaves growing from body) |
For more ideas for finger games, check out the Prikazki po noti ("Music tales") YouTube channel (see the video at the end of the article).
Springtime fingerprint flowers
Source: https://myboredtoddler.com/springtime-fingerprint-flowers/
Staying on the topic of finger activities, we can't help but add a creative spring activity for little artists. We offer you a wonderful color drawing, for which you only need a sheet of paper, a green crayon or pencil and some paint. You don't need any paint brush, because the brush will be the child's fingers.
Make sure the paint is suitable for finger painting. Acrylic paints are a good choice as they are non-toxic and have good density.
Let the child first draw the grass and stem, and then add the colorful flowers. This is great opportunity to teach them them about colors, counting, or opposites like "short-long" .
"Feed the caterpillars" game with toilet paper rolls
Source: https://happytoddlerplaytime.com/feed-the-caterpillars-pom-pom-drop/
https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/feed-the-caterpillar-spring-math-activity.html
Here is another interesting and educational game that fits the spring theme. All you need is toilet paper tubes and coloring materials. For a greater resemblance to caterpillars, add eyes, a smile and antlers to the rolls.
Play with the rolls freely or stick them to the wall. Now let your child "feed" the caterpillars. One option is to do that with balls or other small objects that match the caterpillar's color. Doing so develops children’s ability to sort by color. Another option is to roll dice to determine how many balls the caterpillar eats. This lays the foundations of the child's mathematical thinking and improves their memory.
Sources:
https://myboredtoddler.com/springtime-fingerprint-flowers/
https://happytoddlerplaytime.com/feed-the-caterpillars-pom-pom-drop/
https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/feed-the-caterpillar-spring-math-activity.html
https://theimaginationtree.com/growing-beans-on-cotton-balls/
https://new-waldorf-sz.blogspot.com/2015/03/blog-post.html
Cover photo by Kelly Sikkema from Unsplash
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