The following two kids Spring crafts focus children on the life cycle of a chicken and windy Spring days.
The first activity is intended to be a follow-up after children have studied baby chicks and how they grow. Life cycles of animals are fascinating to children, especially if you get a chance to introduce real creatures into your classroom, borrow an incubator or visit a farm.
The second craft triggers students’ imaginations, with a little help from Curious George, and prompts them to think about what they would see if they were a kite flying up in the clouds.
Kids Spring Crafts – chicks
If possible, arrange a field trip to a local farm so your students can experience real chicks, if not, there are many great short videos available to help them see the process.
Reading books to your students on how chicks develop, how they get the food they need to grow, and how a mother hen helps keep them safe, will give them a good understanding for this fun chick craft.
Books such as Where Do Chicks Come From? or life cycle posters demonstrate the chicken life cycle.
Review geometry vocabulary as you show students how to make the chicks and review the terms, circle, triangle, and oval.
Materials:
- small squares or oval pieces of background green paper
- cotton balls
- liquid yellow tempera paint
- pastel colored paper
- black dots cut with a hole punch
- cut orange triangle beaks
- cut out egg shapes or egg shape tracer for children
- brown paper for egg shape
- rounded toothpicks (depending on the age of your students you may want to cut the sharp points off first)
Procedure:
Students…
- draw or trace and cut an egg shape, then cut it in half
- glue the cotton ball to a piece of pastel colored paper
- dot yellow paint onto the cotton ball
- drop a black eye on top of the wet yellow paint
- glue orange beaks on to paper
- glue legs to pastel paper
- glue egg pieces on each side of chick
Use the chicks to create a counting bulletin board
Kids Spring Crafts – Curious George Flies a Kite Activity
In the book, Curious George Flies a Kite, the little monkey goes for an unexpected trip up into the sky when he gets a little bit too curious about a big yellow and white kite. Read the story to the students (it is a long story, so you may want to take 2 sessions) and then prompt them to imagine themselves flying through the air like a kite.
- Ask students what kinds of things they would see on the ground if they were a kite up in the sky
- List their responses on cards in a pocket chart – If Jane were a kite she would see a kitten, if Sam was a kite he would see the top of the trees, etc.
- Introduce the concept of viewpoint referring to some of the images in the book (seeing the roofs of houses rather than the sides of the house)
- Photocopy the kite tracer onto lightweight card
- Students draw a picture of what they would see and print the words (can copy from the pocket chart card)
- Tie a string to one end and a ribbon and attach twisted paper for kite ties on the other
