Spring is here! Since it’s the season of growth, here are eight spring-themed activities you can do with your students to grow their spring vocabulary in multiple languages.
1) Make a colorful bird’s nest from wool/yarn and glue!
Watch the Jungle Adventure and Forest Adventure videos to learn about different types of birds. Then, make a nest with your students to practice creativity and new vocabulary! Use various shades of brown for a more realistic approach, or go crazy with multiple colors! Put Little Sponges® flashcards with different birds on the wall and discuss which bird each student would like to see in their nest.
2) Go on a rainbow scavenger hunt!
Rainbows are abundant in the springtime, so why not bring them into your classroom? Watch the Garden Adventure with your students and practice naming all seven colors of the rainbow in two languages. Put Little Sponges® flashcards on your word wall and ask students to find the correct color when you say it. Then, paint a rainbow and label each color with the first letter of the word in the target language to create a mnemonic and help students remember rainbow colors in the correct order (example in English: ROYGBIV).
3) Plant a small garden!
After watching the Garden Adventure with Mishka and Frog, create a small garden and allow your students to explore and play! Point out and name vocabulary as you plant, such as garden, fruits, vegetables, water, carrots, peppers, etc. Post relevant vocabulary on your word wall and review it every day in each language that your students are learning.
4) Plant cress seeds in the shape of letters!
If you can’t plant a garden outside, then this is the perfect indoor growing project! Watch the School Adventure to learn the alphabet and practice it using the Alphabet game in the target language. Then, have your students plant their cress seeds in the shape of the letter of the week, or for a more personal touch, the first letter of their name. After it is fully grown, focus on the identification and pronunciation of each letter!
5) Read a spring book by using your Mishka and Frog puppets!
You may already have an arsenal of spring books in your classroom library, and there’s no reason they should be left out this season! To mix it up, use your Mishka and Frog hand puppets to help you tell the story. When you come across a word that has been covered in the Little Sponges program, use the puppets to review that word in both languages.
Hold up Frog’s puppet and say: “If Frog says clouds…”
Hold up Mishka’s puppet and say: “…then Mishka says ________”
6) Create paper or foam flowers to brighten up your classroom!
With all the rain that spring brings, the outdoors can get a bit grey before everything blooms. Brighten up your classroom by watching the Jungle Adventure and making colorful flowers to arrange in vases throughout the classroom. Practice using the single and plural forms of “flower” and naming the color of each flower in the target language.
7) Paint eggs!
With Easter right around the corner, spring is the perfect time to paint eggs. Have each student paint ten eggs and name the colors they use as they paint. Once everyone is finished and the paint has dried, watch the Farm Adventure and have students count eggs along with Mishka and Frog, using their own colorful eggs as reference. Also, post number flash cards on the wall, and practice counting to 10 in each target language. Then, play a game. Ask each student to find the correct number on the wall. Can you find “seven” on the wall? Allow students to come up to the wall and point to the correct number.
8) Raise butterflies in your classroom!
Children are often amazed by the natural world around them. After watching the butterfly life-cycle presented in the Jungle Adventure, students will have a fantastic time watching butterflies grow in their own classroom. You can easily purchase live butterfly growing kit on Amazon and let your students raise and feed their very own butterflies and then release them into the wild! It’s the perfect time to focus on vocabulary words covered in the Jungle Adventure (examples: caterpillar, big butterfly, small butterfly)!
If you have any other bilingual activity ideas, please feel free to share them with us via our Contact Us page!