9 Spring Crafts and Books for Kids
Spring is in the air! It's time to take some time to slow down with your family and enjoy the bright colors of spring, celebrate Women's History Month and read (or create!) inspiring stories for Read Across America Day. Try these activities and a book list to enjoy March as a family!
Celebrate the Women You Know This Women's History Month
March is Women's History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements of women in history and the present. Women's History Month began as Women's History Week, a local celebration done by educators in California in 1978. The idea caught on, and the celebration eventually became a national one. In 1987, Congress designated March as Women's History Month, and we continue to celebrate it each year.
You can celebrate with your kids at home by honoring the women who surround and support your family.
Create drawings and tokens of gratitude for remarkable women. Help your child identify the women that support and inspire them. Ask your child about what qualities and strengths these women have that they are grateful for. Brainstorm and write down the names and qualities together. Then, have your child create drawings, notes or other tokens of gratitude for these remarkable women. If the women you choose live far away, you can mail them some of what you made!
Try making a song together to celebrate one of these special women.
- Ask your child to think of four or five qualities about a special woman in their life and to draw images that represent these qualities on pieces of paper. You can ask questions to prompt their thinking like, "What makes ____ different or special?" "What does she do well?" "How would you describe ___ to someone who has never met her?"
- Help your child plan their song. Ask them to arrange their drawings in the order they would like to sing about. Once you have settled on the order, help your child write page numbers on the pages to make the order clear.
- Practice creating a beat together with instruments made from items around your home. Experiment with different combinations of solid and hollow objects like tapping hands on a table, hitting a paper towel roll on an empty pot, or hitting wooden spoons on a hollow box.
- Music is made up of repeating patterns of sounds. Incorporate patterns (an important early math concept) into your song by exploring different repeating patterns of sound together. For example, two patterns are "hit with two spoons, one spoon, two spoons" or "tap, tap, pause." You can start the pattern and ask your child to copy it. Then, ask them to create their own pattern of sounds!
- Take turns singing about the woman you chose. If location permits, you can even perform the song for the special woman who inspired your child or record the song to share it with her.
Inspired by PBS KIDS for Parents' Create a Hero Song activity.
Book Suggestions: Read About Strong Women
Encourage reading and telling stories about strong women's struggles and accomplishments at home all year. As Michelle Obama said,
All children can benefit from reading about women who are leaders, dreamers and achievers. There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish.
Here are four books that celebrate great women's accomplishments and incorporate math:
Written by Julia Finley Mosca and illustrated by Daniel Rieley
The story of a gifted mathematician whose ideas changed how modern ships are designed.
Written by Cheryl Bardoe and illustrated by Barbara McClintock
This book tells the story of a woman who solved math problems that were thought unsolvable and laid the groundwork for modern architecture.
- "She's on the Money" (ages 7-10)
Written by Andrea Hall and illustrated by Li Zhang
Learn about 15 extraordinary women who have appeared on coins or bills on currencies worldwide.
- “Latinitas: Celebrating 40 Big Dreamers/Latinitas: Una Celebración de 40 Soñadoras Audaces” (Ages 8-12)
By Juliet Menéndez
Narrates the first steps that 40 inspirational Latinas took to become artists, scientists, activists and more.
Need more book ideas? PBS KIDS for Parents has a great book list for Women's History Month. You can also find more awesome book lists on PBS SoCal.
Make Your Own Book for Read Across America Day
March 2 is Read Across America Day, which works as a national call to action for educators and families to help encourage a love of reading for children. Reading is an important skill to improve literacy and help build empathy and creativity by reading stories about people and places different from ourselves. Start celebrating Read Across America Day by getting tips to help reluctant readers to discover the joy in books and on how to raise readers to help you incorporate more reading time at home.
After you read, try making your own book together! Creating a book is an excellent way for children to create their own stories for others to read and enjoy.
- For this activity, you will need to gather 10 or more sheets of paper for the pages (depending on how long you want your book to be), two pieces of colorful and thick paper for the book covers (thick watercolor paper, craft paper, a paper grocery bag or pieces of paper decorated by your child work well), a stapler and duct tape.
- Make sure all pages are the same size and cut to size if needed.
- To make the book, arrange the pages, with the two cover pages on the outside.
- Bind the book by stapling along one edge of the book three or more times, trying to staple as close to the edge as possible.
- Cut a strip of duct tape that's the same length as the book and wrap it around the edge. You can also find ideas on how to bind your book more creatively.
- As you build, incorporate math talk about counting, addition, subtraction and patterns.
- Have your child count out loud and write the number of each page on both the front and back sides of the pages. For young children, you can use physical counting objects like fingers, dice or pieces of cereal to help them find which number comes next.
- For slightly older kids, you can also use the page numbers to talk about addition and subtraction. For example, turn the page from page two to page four and ask your child, "How many more is that?" Turn the page again to page six and ask the same question again. See if your child can identify patterns of adding and subtracting by twos each time the page is turned. You can also use physical counters like pieces of cereal here to help find solutions to the equations and uncover patterns.
- Encourage your child to fill the pages with a story! If your child is unsure what to write about, that's okay! Beat writer's block and help get the story rolling with a story cube. Story cubes are cubes with images or words of story prompts on each side. You can roll the story cube and write about the prompt the cube lands on. For example, story prompts could be dogs, castles, flower fields or outer space. Continue to roll the cube whenever the story needs new inspiration. If you don't have a story cube, you can try the templates from PBS KIDS or Imagine Forest and use scissors and tape to cut and build them.
- If you have a little one who can't write yet, you can talk out your story together while an older sibling helps write it down.
Make a Nature Crown and a Bird Feeder to Get Outside and Celebrate Spring
Springtime is finally here! Celebrate by venturing into the outdoors and making a regal nature crown you can parade around in and a bird feeder that will make the birds in your neighborhood sing with joy!
To make a regal nature crown craft, you'll need to go outdoors and gather natural materials that will go on your crown. You'll also need a paper grocery bag, scissors and glue. After you gather your materials, you'll need to measure out the size of your crown and glue the natural materials to it. This fun craft is an excellent opportunity to help your preschooler develop early math skills like sorting, identifying patterns, counting and measurement!
Make a bird feeder.
- You'll need a pipe cleaner, hole-shaped cereal, blueberries, and ribbon.
- Lay out your cereal and blueberries on a surface for your child to make observations about color, texture, scent, taste and size.
- Have your child sort the food items into different piles (sets) by one or more of these attributes. You can incorporate extra sorting into this activity by using a cereal that comes in various colors — snacking while you sort is okay!
- Ask your child to create patterns using the cereal and berries. You can start by laying out a pattern for them to copy like "blueberry, cereal, cereal." When they finish copying the sequence, ask, "What comes next?" Then, encourage your child to create their own repeating pattern!
- Make a small loop at the end of the pipe cleaner so that the food items will not slip off. Then, have your child slide the food items onto the pipe cleaner in a repeating pattern. You can help them with the berries.
- When the pipe cleaner is full, fasten the two ends of the pipe cleaner by twisting the ends together. Help your child bend the pipe cleaner into a circle, heart or another fun shape.
- Use ribbon to hang the bird feeder from a tree or fixture outside your home. Then, watch for birds and make observations about what snacks they enjoy the most!
Inspired by Happy Hooligans' Homemade Bird Feeders with Cheerios and Blueberries.
