5 Great Spring Lesson Plan Ideas

Girl with Sunflower

5 Great Spring Lesson Plan Ideas

Spring is in the air and it is time to get out some seasonal activities. We have put together 5 great Spring lesson plan ideas that will surely drive out any remnants of the winter blues, that might be hiding in your classroom.

1. Listen To Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

We like to play classical music as background music during quiet times in the classroom. It signals the need to keep the volume down and there is lots of research about classical music being beneficial to concentration.  Seems like a win-win idea for our Spring classroom.

2. Paint Spring Flowers

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Georgia O’Keeffe is known for her beautiful flowers. We let ourselves be inspired by her style and create our own art pieces. Her style is easily imitated, and even very young students can feel successful. You can learn more about it right here.

3. Make Potato Planters

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Potato planters are so much fun to make. All you need is large potatoes, grass seeds, soil, and decoration. You can learn more about potato planters right here.

4. Memorize A poem

There are many spring poems to choose from. We like to chart our poems and choral read until everybody has memorized the entire poem. This way your class will not only learn a beautiful new poem but also get plenty of fluency practice. You will be surprised how quickly your students will memorize even difficult poems. Once a poem is committed to memory, students work on projecting their voice and enunciation.

5. Sing A Spring Song

Spring makes you feel like singing. The birds are chirping, the bees are humming, and your students are tapping their feet. What better way than to harness all this energy and learn a new song! There are lots of beautiful spring songs to choose from.

 

Why Mozart Should Be Your Teaching Assistant

Albert Einstein playing his violin.

The secret is out, classical music has a positive impact on focus, learning, and mood. At the Little Digital Schoolhouse we like to call it the “Mozart Effect”.  It truly works. You simply turn on the Pachelbel Canon and the class relaxes and quiets down. As you monitor your classroom you can almost feel the sigh of relief as students are able to focus.

Science backs our experience that classical music can greatly enhance the quality and quantity of learning. Researchers in France have found that students, who listen to classical music during a lecture, scored significantly higher on assessments than students who listened to the lecture without background music. Another study at UC Irvine found that music also enhances memory functions in Alzheimer patients. Even plants seem to grow better with Mozart. In 1973 Dorothy Retallack showed with her experiments that plants grow better when classical music is played to them.

The proof is in the pudding however.  Why not try it? Here are some of our favorite selections for your listening pleasure:

  1. Bach, Suite No. 3 in D Major
  2. Pachelbel, Canon
  3. Schubert, Ave Maria
  4. Kreisler, Liebesleid
  5. Strauss, Blue Danube
  6. Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Itunes also offers classical selections that have been compiled for this purpose.  Nice examples are:

  1. Classical Music for Meditation and Yoga
  2. Start Smart: Learning Tools For Your Child’s Mind
  3. Smart Kids: Invigorating Music for Young Minds

Enjoy!