Do some photography
Is there a tree near your home? If so, take a photo of it each day to capture how it is changing over time. After a week or a month or so, edit your pictures into a montage with music. Alternatively, you could do a drawing or painting of your tree each day and make these into a sketch book or a collage.
Play a game
Celebrate the arrival of spring with a game of ‘feather on a plate’. To play this game you will need a paper plate and a small feather for each person. Ask for volunteers from the family and give each contestant a plate with a feather placed on it. Contestants must complete a series of tasks (decided on by the children in the family) such as jumping in the air, walking 10 paces, or pulling a funny face, all the while keeping their feather on their plate (and without touching it). Those who manage all the given tasks without losing their feather could then receive a reward such as a chocolate egg.
Make a spring soundscape
What sounds and smells do you associate with springtime (e.g. buds opening, the smell of cut grass, chirping birds, sheep bleating, cows mooing)? As a group, choose some of your favourite sounds and create a 10 second soundscape, where everyone makes their sound at once starting quietly, getting louder, and then getting quieter and eventually fading out. You could take it in turns to be the conductor – indicating to everyone when to start and stop, and when to get louder and quieter.
Learn about lifecycles
Use this opportunity to learn about lifecycles of butterflies and frogs. Make up a dance to represent each stage, create a presentation for another family member or draw them.
Listen to something new
Many composers and singers have been inspired by this time of the year. Have a listen to some of the following pieces and talk about them. What do you like/dislike about them? What instruments can you hear? What animals are you reminded of? Two examples are Spring by John Denver and ‘Spring’ from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. The following list is a collection of classical pieces relating to spring.
Make some arts and crafts
In the first episode of Kirstie Allsopp’s new programme Keep Crafting and Carry On, she shows viewers how to sew fabric flowers and make a bug hotel with things that you can find around you.
If you search online for hand and footprint spring craft ideas, you’ll find lots of different activities. Paint pictures of a butterfly (two painted footprints side by side for wings with the body, head, and antennae drawn on afterwards) as well as a duck (a yellow hand print – ensure the thumb sticks out. Cut it out and turn it so that the thumbprint is at the top of your picture, then add a beak and eye added to the thumb (which is the head).
Make some music
Create a rhythmic pattern based on the syllables in words associated with spring. Start with simple words with 1, 2, and 3 syllables such as ‘chicks’, ‘blossom’, and ‘daffodils’ and build up to using body percussion to explore the rhythm in phrases like ‘buds are opening’, ‘hear the birds’, ‘lambs are being born’. Create a repeating pattern and teach it to someone else and then try performing it as a round. Your word patterns could also lead onto writing a spring poem. Challenge yourself to include rhyme, alliteration, and onomatopoeia.