3 Easy and Exciting Spring Science Activities to Celebrate the Season

Spring is just around the corner, and it’s a wonderful time of year filled with blooming flowers, butterflies, and (depending on where you live) lots and lots of rain! Spring brings so many GREAT opportunities to do some really fun activities in your science class. So, today, I wanted to share with a few of my favorite spring science activities!

Butterfly Craft

This is a simple craft that helps students learn about the anatomy of a butterfly! Students will have fun making beautiful butterflies they can take home, while also being able to identify the parts of a butterfly’s body. Here’s what you need for each student:

1 clothespin
3 pom-poms
2 pipe cleaners
2 small google eyes
1 small square of tissue paper
1 small piece of a thin straw
Glitter spray (option)
Glue

Step 1: Students will glue their 3 pom-poms to the top of their clothespin. This represents the 3 sections of a butterfly’s body: the head, thorax, and abdomen. (Note: the “head” should be the pom-pom nearest to where the clothespin opens).

Step 2: Glue the two google eyes onto the head of the butterfly. These, obviously, represent the eyes!

Step 3: Cut both pipe cleaners in half to make 4 smaller sections. Take 3 of the smaller sections and twist them together in the middle, so that there are 3 ends stick out either side. These are the butterfly’s legs. Pinch the clothespin open and slide the legs down as far down as possible. Close the clothespin, securing the legs in place.

Step 4: Take the remaining pipe cleaner half and slide it in the clothespin like you did with the legs. Clamp it shut, then take each end of the pipe cleaner and twist at the center around the butterfly’s head to make two antenna.

Step 5: Slide the tissue paper square in the clothespin, clamp it shut, and fan the paper out to make wings.

Step 6 (optional): Spray the wings with glitter spray to represent scales.

Step 7: Stick the tiny piece of straw in the end of the clothespin near the head to represent the proboscis.

Weather Journals

As I already mentioned, the weather in the spring can be a little bit crazy! Because of this, one of my favorite spring science activities is to study and observe daily weather patterns!

The best way to learn is to make it relevant, so I like to use daily weather journals with my students when we study weather. Each day, we will take a few minutes to observe the weather outside. Students will make weather observations about the temperature, type of weather, and type of clouds, and record it in their weather journal for the day. Then, they will use their observations to make predictions about tomorrow’s weather.

These weather journals are available in my TpT store, and I have digital version as well, for those of you who are teaching virtually!

Make a Kite STEM Challenge

Kite flying is such a fun spring activity – and it’s even more fun if you make that kite yourself! Students will love this spring STEM challenge in which they will make their own kite.

It’s super simple too! All they need is a plastic grocery bag, some straws or sticks/skewers, string, tape, and scissors!

Students will use the grocery bag to cut a shape out for their kite. Then, they will tape the sticks/skewers/straws in a cross shape in the middle of their kite. Students can use the excess from the plastic bag to make a tail if desired. Then, tie a string to the kite, and head outside to watch those babies fly! Super easy, and cheap, too. Plus, it makes a great STEM challenge!

For more spring STEM challenges like this one, click here.