Flying into First Grade

Hi Teacher Friends!

Today I wanted to share about some of my favorite Spring Read Alouds and of course there is a FREEbie just for you!! I will also share an extension activity that you can use with each book.

I began thinking about my favorite read alouds for Spring and I thought I would share them with you! These are my favorite Spring read alouds and my students always love them.

1. Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert

When I taught Kindergarten, this was always one of my favorite spring books. It is a great story about a mother and child that plants a rainbow of flowers in their family garden. This book is great for teaching colors, plant life cycle, and seasons.

Extension Activity: You could have each student color a flower in their favorite color. Then, take all the flowers to make a class rainbow garden. This is perfect for a spring bulletin board titled “Mrs. ____’s Class Planted a Rainbow!”

2. When Spring Comes by Kevin Henkes

I just love this book! It is a great story about waiting for spring. It also talks about the changes you see from winter to spring. This book is great for teaching about spring and seasons.

Extension Activity: I would guide students in comparing and contrasting winter and spring. Students can use sentence frames such as “In the spring…”, “In the winter…”, and “Winter and spring are alike/different because…”. You can use this Venn diagram freebie to have students write their ideas down.

3. Spring is Here by Will Hillenbrand

This is a story about a mole and a bear. Mole wakes up and sees that it is spring. He tries everything that he can to get bear to wake up. It is a cute book that your students will love. This book is great for teaching about spring and hibernation.

Extension Activity: I would do a writing activity and let students respond to the prompt “To wake up bear, I would…”.

4. Finding Spring by Carin Berger

This story is about a little bear that is in search of spring. When it is time for him to go to sleep for the winter, he sneaks out in search of spring. This book is great for teaching about seasons, hibernation, and animals in winter/spring.

Extension Activity: The little bear saw many things in the winter and spring. As a class, brainstorm things you see in the winter and spring and make an anchor chart.

5. Abracadabra, It’s Spring! By Anne Sibley O’Brien

This story is about the magic of spring. In the book, students will see changes that happen from winter to spring such as birds hatching, butterflies coming out of cocoons, and trees blooming leaves. This is a great book for teaching about seasonal changes.

Extension Activity: I would have students to work on their predicting skills. The book has the way things looked in winter. Then you can open up the page to see the change. I would have students predict what they think the spring change will be.

I hope you enjoyed learning about my favorite Spring books and got some good ideas. But before I go…I want to share about my Spring Break packet. Your students will have the opportunity to keep their learning going over spring break. I needed something NO PREP for my students and I created them a packet for Spring Break. This Spring Break packet is for students to enjoy over their Spring Break vacation! With this packet, you can keep the learning going!!! This NO PREP workbook includes a week of engaging activities for you to print and send home with students. There are 5 days each for reading, math, phonics, and just for fun activities. If you want to check it out…you can find it in my store by clicking HERE!