These preschool spring themes are a great way to keep your preschoolers motivated and happy as we head into a time of new growth and life! The warmer weather might have you itching to get outside as much as possible. You will love our spring theme ideas for preschool or pre-k! Check out our ultimate list of preschool themes for even more ideas.
Spring Preschool Themes
Though winter has its own kind of beauty, the earth seems to come back to life every spring. Rainer Maria Rilke says,
Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.
Spring brings a sense of new life, new beginnings, and something fresh- much like the heart and spirit of preschoolers.
With the longer days and change of weather, it’s wonderful to bring this theme to life outside. Our preschool and pre-k spring themes incorporate ideas that can be taught both indoors and outdoors.
This is the perfect time of year to plant seeds with your preschoolers, to teach them about plant life cycles, and to look for the return of birds and other insects. Our spring themes include ideas focusing on:
- Author Studies
- Bugs and Insects
- Flowers and Trees
- Rainbows and Weather
- Nothern Hempishere Spring Holidays
I’ve made a free printable preschool theme list to help with all your planning!
The possibilities with animals are endless! Kids love learning about all different kinds of animals from their own pets, to farm animals, to wild animals both large and small. There are so many activities for you to choose from including mimicking animal sounds and movements, singing animal songs, learning about different habitats, reading books about animals, talking about the differences between animals, listening to different animal sounds, or making crafts focusing on animals. This is one theme where you can go absolutely wild!
For a great starting point, check out our animal lesson plan.
Bees are one of the hardest workers on the planet. By pollinating many of our fruits, vegetables, and seeds, they are one of our planets most important caretakers. Not only are bees hard workers, but they live in sophisticated colonies where they work together to gather food and to protect themselves. Working hard and working together are great concepts to teach preschool children! Our torn paper flower craft is a perfect hands on activity for you to utilize as you talk about these busy helpers.
Birds are an important part of any habitat and are easily recognizable to children. Your preschoolers probably learned at an early age to recognize the singing of birds and that fact that birds can fly. Spring is a perfect time to look for the return of the birds and to see if you can spot any birds nest around your playground or backyard. Try attracting some birds into your yard with a classic pine cone bird feeder.
Visit our friends at Preschool Teacher 101 for an entire bird lesson plan filled with ideas and activities you can incorporate in your classroom.
Bubbles might just be one of the most wonderful things around! Every preschooler, and most teachers too, love bubbles. The possibilities with bubbles are endless- blow them, paint with them, put them in a sensory table, and more. For a science themed sensory experiment, try making a kitchen sink bubble explosion.
Get an entire bubbles lesson plan from Preschool Teacher 101.
Bugs and Insects Theme
While you might not love bugs and insects, this is one of the most popular themes among preschoolers. Preschoolers are fascinated with and love to explore and observe bugs. Did you know that bugs and insects are different? Focusing on these differences is a wonderful teaching opportunity, as this is a great way to look at the the variety of life around us. Many bugs, particularly butterflies, have the amazing ability to completely transform, which captivates the minds of preschoolers.
See our bugs and butterflies unit lesson plan for ideas on incorporating the study of bugs into your classroom!
Dr. Seuss Theme
March 2nd is Dr. Seuss’ birthday and the perfect time to read through some of your favorite Dr. Seuss books. One that my preschool class always loves is One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. You can use this week to talk about rhymes and spend a little bit of time learning about Dr. Seuss himself. Or, get creative with your classroom meals, maybe having some green eggs one day for lunch.
Eric Carle Author Study
An Eric Carle book study is a great theme to incorporate into your preschool classroom. The books incorporate colors, animals, and repetition. You can choose one book to focus on for the week or can do a different book every day. An easy and fun idea is to pair The Mixed-Up Chameleon with this process art activity for a great preschool story unit.
Farm life is one of the most beloved preschool themes. Kids absolutely love learning about different animals. Farms also offer different sensory experiences beneficial for children. You can even use the animals as a gateway to math! The possibilities with our farm theme are nearly endless.
Visit our store for our farm themed lesson plan.
Five Senses Theme
Our senses help us organize and classify the world around us. Focusing on the senses is a great way to help children learn the differences between sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell and how these senses work together. Having five senses and five days in a school week makes studying one sense a day easy to do.
For ideas for each sense, see our five senses lesson plan.
Preschoolers love learning about flowers! Flowers come in a huge array of shapes, sizes, and colors making them an easy theme for your preschool class. You can focus on popular flowers or stick to those local to your area. There are several fun flower crafts to incorporate into your theme. Not only are flowers a great stand alone theme, but they also easily tie into our spring, bee, or garden theme.
Head to our store for an entire flower themed lesson plan.
A garden theme is a great way to get children excited about gardening, planting, life cycles, and fruits and vegetables. This is also a great time to teach your preschoolers about what plants need to grow, and how plants and plant processes benefit us.
For an entire garden theme lesson plan, visit our friends at Preschool Teacher 101.
Ladybugs are an all-time favorite bug! Both teachers and preschoolers love these bright colored, unique, beneficial bugs. Ladybugs are extremely helpful to have around in a garden, so this is a great theme to tie into a garden theme. Or you can use this as part of a bug and insect theme, or all by itself. Because of their spots, ladybugs make a great counting and math aid. Here is one of our favorite ladybug math activities.
Pond Life Theme
Ponds support a huge variety of plant and animal life. Frogs, lily pads, ducks and even insects live in ponds. In spring, as the weather gets warmer, ponds begin to thaw out and to come to life. You can use this theme to study these various animals, plants, and insects, or incorporate this into a study on weather and its affects on different bodies of water. If you’re lucky enough to have a local pond, you may even be able to arrange for a visit to see some of these insects and animals in action! Blue Goose and 5 Little Ducks are felt board stories we love to use with this preschool spring theme!
You can grab an entire pond lesson plan from our friends over at Preschool Teacher 101.
There is nothing as quintessentially spring as a good rain shower- particularly that fresh, after the rain shower smell! Raindrops not only signal that it’s spring, but they also play a vital role in helping plants grow. Our rain theme is a great spring theme for preschoolers to incorporate into a study on the weather, where rain comes from, and how beneficial rain is to our earth. For an easy and fun art activity, be sure to look at our rain cloud suncatcher.
You can also visit our friends at Preschool Teacher 101 for an entire rain themed lesson plan.
Spring rain showers are very often followed by beautiful rainbows! Our rainbow theme is perfect for exploring colors, weather, or even fantasy. Be sure to look out for rainbows and show your class when you see one. The activities you can do focusing on rainbows are endless. We love rainbow games, science activities, fine motor practice, sensory play, discovery bottles, process art activities, sight words, and rainbow crafts!
You can also visit Preschool Teacher 101 for rainbow lesson plans and other ideas.
Robots are the perfect way to help bring STEM into your classroom. Make a robot craft, manipulate nuts and bolts, use robot stickers to count, or build a cardboard robot. There are tons of ways to make a robot theme accessible to preschoolers. We love this recycled robots activity!
Or take a peek at this robot theme lesson plan in the Preschool Teacher 101 store.
Preschoolers are absolutely fascinated by rocks. The kids in my class are forever bringing them in from the playground and washing them off so they can take them home and show their parents. You can teach children about the three different kinds of rocks, talk about how rocks are formed, or go on a scavenger hunt in your area looking for different kinds of rocks. Rocks are also great as a math tool, make a fantastic canvas for art and rock painting, and can be used as blocks for building and creating.
For an entire rock lesson plan, visit our friends at Preschool Teacher 101.
All plants begin as seeds. This fascinating process is a great way to help teach kids about life in general, as well as how things change as they grow. Preschoolers love watching seeds grow. Spring is the perfect time to start different kinds of seeds in your classroom. You might even add a watering helper to your list of classroom helpers. This theme is great on its own, but also easily ties in with our garden theme or even a rain theme. The Tiny Seed is always a good read.
For even more ideas, Preschool Teacher 101 has seed lesson plans.
Spring is so full of life, sunshine, flowers and baby animals. The possibilities with spring are only limited by your imagination and may need more than one week of classroom instruction. After the short days of winter, spring is a great time to make a suncatcher! For ideas and spring-themed activities, see our spring lesson plan.
Many trees bloom, blossom, and grow leaves throughout spring. Trees are beautiful, magical, enchanting, and practical, as they provide shade and resources. You can use this theme to teach your preschoolers about air and the environment, focus on different types of trees, or explore what animals live in trees. If you live in an area with different types of trees, you may even be able to arrange a short walk to look at differently shaped leaves.
For a tree theme lesson plan, visit our friends at Preschool Teacher 101.
As a preschool theme, Easter has many options. You can celebrate this holiday as a faith-based theme focusing on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, or as a non-religious holiday focusing more on the Easter bunny. Either way, coloring eggs is always a big hit with preschoolers, as is an Easter egg hunt. There are also plenty of fun Easter art activities, crafts, and Easter games.
Or get an entire Easter lesson plan from the Preschool Teacher 101.
Earth Day is the perfect spring holiday as this is a great theme to incorporate learning about nature, recycling, and taking care of our world. This holiday ties in with many of the other spring themes like trees, animals, birds, bees, insects, and gardens. You can include sensory play with our earth day slime. I also love reading The Lorax, as it ties in perfectly with Earth Day.
For more ideas, our friends at Preschool Teacher 101 have an Earth Day lesson plan.
St. Patrick’s Day Theme
St. Patrick’s Day is always a fun theme for kids. They love talking about leprechaun’s, magic, pots of gold, four-leaf clovers, and rainbows. You can also spend time teaching your preschoolers about the real St. Patrick, who risked his life journeying to Ireland to tell the Irish about Christ. He faced many adventures on his way, including begin captured by pirates, but fearlessly followed what he believed in. Or try our leprechaun slime for some sensory play and spend some time learning about Ireland and Irish culture.
Margaret Atwood wrote,
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.
So go ahead and get your hands dirty, listen to the birds sing, and enjoy the warmth of the sun on your face and encourage your preschoolers to do the same! And let our spring preschool themes help you incorporate the joy and wonder of spring into your preschool classroom.
For even more great ideas and themes, visit our Ultimate List of Preschool Themes. Our themes are sure to keep your preschoolers engaged, happy, and excited to learn year-round!