Spring Ideas for Early Years: Inspiring Seasonal Learning in EYFS
Spring is a wonderful time in Early Years settings. As the weather begins to change and the natural world comes back to life, it creates the perfect opportunity for children to explore, discover and learn through real-life experiences.
For children in EYFS, spring offers rich opportunities to investigate growth, change, new life and the environment in engaging and meaningful ways.
In this blog, we share a range of simple and practical spring ideas for Early Years that support learning across all areas of the EYFS framework.
Why Spring Is Important in Early Years
Seasonal learning helps young children make sense of the world around them. In spring, children can clearly see changes happening, which supports their understanding of:
Growth and life cycles
Changes in weather and seasons
The natural environment
Time and sequence
These experiences help develop curiosity, observation skills and language, which are key in Early Years development.
Looking for more outdoor education ideas? Head to our EYFS Outdoor Learning Hub area.
Outdoor Spring Activities for EYFS
Planting and Growing
Planting seeds is one of the most valuable spring activities in Early Years.
Children can:
Plant seeds in pots or outdoor spaces
Water and care for plants
Observe how plants grow over time
This helps children understand what living things need to grow and supports early science learning.
Mini Beast Hunts
Spring is the perfect time to explore insects and small creatures.
Children can:
Search for bugs in outdoor areas
Look closely at what they find
Talk about where insects live
This encourages observation, curiosity and early scientific thinking.
Nature Walks
A simple walk can become a rich learning experience.
Encourage children to:
Look for signs of spring such as flowers and buds
Talk about what they can see and hear
Notice how the environment has changed since winter
Creative Spring Activities
Spring Art with Natural Materials
Using natural materials encourages creativity and exploration.
Children can:
Make collages using leaves and flowers
Create pictures using sticks and petals
Experiment with printing using natural objects
This supports imagination and expressive arts.
Easter and New Life Crafts
Spring is often linked to themes of new life.
Children can:
Make chicks, eggs or nests
Decorate eggs
Talk about baby animals
This links to understanding the world and cultural celebrations.
Communication and Language Development
Spring provides excellent opportunities to build vocabulary.
You can:
Create a spring word bank (e.g. grow, bud, flower, hatch)
Encourage children to describe what they see
Ask open-ended questions such as:
What can you see?
What has changed?
What do you think will happen next?
Maths Opportunities in Spring
Spring activities can easily support early maths skills.
For example:
Counting flowers, insects or seeds
Sorting natural objects by size or colour
Measuring plant growth over time
This helps children connect maths to real-life experiences.
Sensory Play Ideas
Spring is ideal for sensory exploration.
Children can enjoy:
Mud kitchens
Water play
Mixing and pouring natural materials
These activities support physical development and exploratory play.
Supporting Wellbeing Through Spring Activities
Spending time outdoors during spring has a positive impact on children’s wellbeing.
It helps children to:
Feel calm and relaxed
Build confidence
Engage in imaginative play
Nature-based activities can be especially beneficial for emotional development.
Bringing Spring Into Your Setting
You don’t need a large outdoor space to explore spring.
Simple ideas include:
Growing plants on windowsills
Creating a small nature table
Bringing natural objects into the classroom
Even small changes can create meaningful learning experiences.
Final Thoughts
Spring is a valuable time for learning in Early Years. By embracing the season, practitioners can provide engaging opportunities that support children’s development across all areas.
From planting seeds to exploring the outdoors, these activities help children build a deeper understanding of the world around them while developing key skills for the future.
Spring has Sprung, and its time for some muddy outdoor learning! It is that time of year again where the weather warms a bit, and we can peel another layer off our muddies! Spring ideas for early years here we come…
Our advice is for every turn of a season, spend the full day outside. Give the children first-hand experience of the changes in weather and nature. Make clay bunnies and spring stick men, leaf art and other various literacy, art-based tasks.
Spring EYFS Ideas. Try some of these muddy puddle favourites too.
Maths – The Bunny Hop
Collect up some rocks and number them from 0-20. Maybe start this task as a whole class, then move to the children doing it themselves. Place the rocks in a row and let the children count while hopping over the rocks, like a bunny. Then take one away, then another, then another. See if they can remember the number. Try also going backwards to add mastery to their learning and take a more in-depth look at this learning area. Ask the children to point the even and odd numbers out. Maybe, take the numbers that are multiples of 10, 5 or 2?
Phonics – Sticky Sticks
For all of you Muddy Puddle-trained teachers out there, you will know that sticky sticks are a phonics favourite. Hand the children chalk, ask them to write words from the sound you are working on, and then ask them to read that word back to themselves using the sticky stick. The sticky stick can be any stick found in your space, or it can be one you have personalised (warning: the children can become very attached). The child then has to tap the sounds out and scrape to blend the word. Then, ask them to find another person’s word and use a sticky stick to blend their word.
Linking books is another great way to help get Spring in the Swing.
Here are some of our favourites
Here are some great activity books for spring:
