April Activities For Kindergarten and First Grade
April activities that go perfectly with spring themes! Does that mean spring is finally in the air? Look at the beautiful flower petals floating…um…wait…no those are snowflakes! Are there still snowflakes whizzing by where you live? With the cold temperatures and precipitation in my area I still can’t decide what season I’m in. But I want to pretend that spring is here so please indulge me. Do you know what you are teaching in April? Hey! If it’s already planned out that is wonderful! Teach on! If you are looking for some new ideas OR have no idea what you are doing – Read On!
Living & Nonliving
I like to start April out with a living and nonliving unit. I want them to understand fundamental differences between the two. I make a chart on the white board (or poster board) and we list things that are alive on the lefthand side and things that are not alive on the righthand side. We love to sing so I make sure to start our unit with a song.
You can also gather pictures of things that are living and nonliving and have them sort them with you as a class into a pocket chart. Then discuss the characteristics of living and nonliving things.
Farm Animals
What better way to teach kids about living things than by teaching a farm animal unit. We sing, work in centers, play games, learn information and write about farm animals. Many of these activities can be done in a whole group setting, small group setting or during centers.
Chicks
My favorite time of the year is spring because we raise chicks in our kindergarten class. The week after spring break (when learning about living and nonliving things) we start the process and the eggs have been delivered and I’m prepping my students for these chicks. Some time during this week the chicks are ready to hatch. Before they even hatch we are learning information about the chicks and singing about animals that hatch from eggs. We do chick reports, center activities and a reader’s theater.
If you want to read about my adventures with raising chicks in the kindergarten classroom (including how I did it), check out this blogpost:
Plants
Although you could spend months teaching kids about animals, it’s great to teach them that plants are living things too. During this week we grow plants. I’m wrote a whole blogpost about how I plant flowers with kindergarteners. Check it out here:
Growing Plants In The Classroom
I have a FREE Plant Journal for making observations while the plants are growing. Click the picture below to get this FREE download.
Once again I love to teach them information about plants, sing a plant song and practice our writing skills. We also read lots of plant books. I connect all themes to reading, writing and music.
Weekly Plan With Themes
Do you need a plan laid out for you with the themes shown in more detail? To download this thematic plan below and see these April reading and writing activities, click the Download button at the bottom. You can also go directly to any of these resources by clicking on each picture.
Enjoy planning out April! I hope you can find some fun April activities to use AND are staying warm. Spring really is just around the corner!
