Signs of Spring
by Judie Haynes
Spring is in the air. Teach your English language learners how to identify the first signs of Spring. Have them track birds and the butterflies on their journey North.
Lesson topic
What are the first signs of Spring?
Proficiency/Grade level
Grades K-5 beginning to intermediate ESL students
Content Concepts & Skills
Identify the first signs of spring; learn vocabulary for spring; compare spring with winter.
Materials or Resources
Internet availability; Venn diagram
Instructional Sequence
1. Take a walk around the school grounds with students. Have them look for signs that Spring is coming.
2.With K-1 students, brainstorm what they can do and see in the spring that they can't do or see in the Winter. With other students, brainstorm the different signs of Spring
3. Download PDF file Venn diagram and have students compare Spring with Winter.
4. Introduce students to the different stages of a butterfly. Use a well-illustrated books or download the Life Cycle of the Butterfly. Have students write a sentence to go with each stage. You may also wish to have Gr.K-1 students color pictures of butterflies from theButterfly Coloring Book.
5. Introduce students to various birds they can find in their neighborhoods. Begin with a general Bird Book and then have students identify birds found in your area of the country.
5. Take older students on A Journey North by having them follow the signs of spring as they move north on this exciting web site.
More Links for Spring
The following activities will enrich your curriculum and help your students build vocabulary.
- Get a free booklet about and their babies from freeworksheets.com.
- Try this Easy Spring Crossword from Kid’s Domain. It uses only 7 words.
- Solve the Medium Spring Crosswordfrom Kid’s Domain which teaches 10 vocabulary words.
- New coloring pages from Jan Brett.
- Download our own PDF fileSpring Puzzle.
- Try our PDF download Spring Flowers which is a word puzzle .
Activity Downloads
Note: To view the classroom activities, you must have Acrobat Reader intalled. Acrobat is a free application available from Adobe Systems.
Spring Puzzle (9k .PDF)
Spring flowers puzzle (121k .PDF)
Venn diagram (2k .PDF)
Related Links
Growing Flowers
Welcome Spring with this lesson on growing flowers for your young English language learners. Teach students to record observations in a journal as they watch their plants grow from seedling to flower.