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Outdoor Learning Made Easy

Spring Forest School Activities: Fresh Ideas for Early Years Practitioners

by | Nov 29, 2025 | Blog | 0 comments

Outdoor Learning and forest school

Spring is one of the best seasons for Forest School. As the weather warms and nature reawakens, children have endless opportunities to explore changes outdoors—buds opening, insects returning, birds nesting, and plants growing. For Early Years Practitioners, spring brings a rich invitation to refresh your Forest School planning with sensory, playful, hands-on experiences that connect children to the season.

Below you’ll find a collection of Spring Forest School activities designed to support the EYFS, develop confidence outdoors, and nurture children’s natural curiosity. All activities are simple, low-prep, and work in any outdoor space.

For ready-made lesson plans and outdoor trainings, explore Muddy Puddle Teacher® resources:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/outdoor-learning-resources/
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/outdoor-learning-training/

🌱 Why Spring is Perfect for Forest School

Spring aligns beautifully with the principles of Forest School:

  • Nature changes daily, offering endless discovery.

  • Weather becomes milder, encouraging longer outdoor sessions.

  • Wildlife becomes more active, supporting observation skills.

  • Flowers emerge, providing opportunities for colour, scent, and sensory learning.

  • Natural loose parts (petals, sticks, seeds, buds) become abundant.

Using the season as your teacher makes sessions meaningful, mindful, and deeply engaging.

Top Spring Forest School Activities

🌼 1. Spring Bud Spotting & Tree Identification

Take children on a walk to look for budding branches, new leaves, or blossom.

Ideas:

  • Compare buds from different trees.

  • Predict what colour the blossoms will be.

  • Record findings in a simple nature journal.

Try the Muddy Puddle Teacher® tree and plant ID activities:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=tree

🐛 2. Early Spring Mini Beast Hunts

Spring brings back beetles, ants, bees, worms, and caterpillars.

Activity prompts:

  • Look under logs for hiding insects.

  • Compare how different mini beasts move.

  • Create a mini beast hotel using sticks, moss, and leaves.

Explore mini beast resources:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=mini+beast

🌸 3. Nature Colour Matching

Spring is full of vibrant new colours—perfect for a colour hunt.

How to do it:

  • Provide paint swatches or colour cards.

  • Children match items outdoors to each colour.

  • Sort findings into “spring shades,” strengthening vocabulary.

For outdoor colour activities:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=colour

🐦 4. Bird Song Listening Walk

Birds are especially active in spring, making it a great time to introduce children to bird identification.

Try:

  • Standing still and identifying high vs. low sounds.

  • Mimicking bird calls.

  • Observing behaviour (nest building, collecting food).

Bird-focused resources:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=bird

🌿 5. Spring Scent Exploration

As flowers bloom and grass grows, spring offers beautiful sensory opportunities.

Ideas:

  • Smell herbs, flowers, bark, and mud.

  • Create natural “spring scent pots.”

  • Use blindfolds to heighten awareness (optional).

Sensory exploration resources:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=sensory

🍃 6. Nature Weaving with Spring Materials

Provide sticks or a simple frame made from twine and let children weave petals, long grasses, feathers, or leaves.

Why it’s great:

  • Builds fine motor skills

  • Encourages calm, mindful moments

  • Helps children observe textures and patterns

🌼 7. Flower Petal Potions (Mud Kitchen Extension)

Spring flowers (fallen—not picked unless permitted!) can be added to imaginative play.

Prompts:

  • Make nature perfumes or petal tea

  • Mix colours and observe changes

  • Sort petals by size or colour

Mud kitchen ideas and printables:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=mud+kitchen

🌦️ 8. Spring Weather Science

Spring weather is famously unpredictable—perfect for exploration.

Activity ideas:

  • Measure rainfall using homemade rain gauges.

  • Observe rainbows and prism colours.

  • Explore wind using ribbons, streamers, or bubbles.

Wet-weather activity ideas:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=rain

🐣 9. Nest Building Challenge

Discuss how birds build nests in spring.
Provide natural materials: twigs, moss, dry grass, feathers.

Task:
Children work together to build a nest strong enough to hold a pebble “egg.”

This develops teamwork, engineering skills, and empathy for wildlife.

🌱 10. Seed Planting & Growth Observation

Spring is an ideal time for planting activities.

Try:

  • Planting fast-growing seeds (peas, beans, cress).

  • Setting up a “plant progress” log.

  • Comparing seeds: shapes, sizes, colours.

Link to outdoor plant-growing ideas:
👉 https://themuddypuddleteacher.co.uk/?s=plant

🌷 Spring Forest School Safety Tips

  • Check for pollen allergies and communicate with parents.

  • Review water safety around puddles and streams.

  • Remind children about respecting growing plants.

  • Conduct a spring-specific site risk assessment.

  • Dress appropriately—spring can still be muddy and chilly.

🎒 Useful Muddy Puddle Teacher® Spring Resources

To save planning time, try:

These resources help practitioners confidently deliver high-quality Forest School-inspired sessions tailored to early years.

🌼 Final Thoughts: Spring Brings Your Forest School to Life

Spring is bursting with opportunities for exploration, investigation, and imagination. By incorporating child-led, nature-rich activities, you nurture curiosity, resilience, independence, and a lifelong love of the outdoors.

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