Colorful Wind Socks
empty 2 ltr *pop bottle per windsock (*soda for you non-northern types)
material scraps (all kinds/varied patterns)
fishing line (at least 6lb or thick nylon thread
hot gluegun and glue sticks
hole punch
�Cut off the top of the coke bottle all the way down to the where the label is, cut off the bottm, to the bottom of the label.....you can make it a bit longer just cut to the spots before the bottle tapers off.
�Cut material the entire width and circumference of the bottle cylinder.
�Hot glue in place.
�Cut long strips of varied material 2 1/2 inches wide by 2 ft long for the streamer part of the windsock.
�Attach material streamers with glue gun all the way around the bottom of the coke cylinder.
�Take the hole punch and 3-4 holes spaced evenly around the top of the cylinder.
�Attach fishing line and knot it together at the top to hang it. (If you are really a good fisherman you have swivels in your tackle box and these work well to hang themfrom so the line does not tangle or twist up.)
These little buggers last forever outside. We made these at VBS one year and we left it out for 2 years straight. The only thing that broke was the line and we just added more!

Be prepared for Rain
Cupcake liners
Scissors
Glue
Crayons or Paint
Pipe Cleaners
Cut several Cupcake liners in half ( these will be umbrellas) . Glue the umbrellas onto a sheet of paper. Make handles, usng pipe cleaners. Glue on the handles. Draw on some clouds and rain drops.


Lillies made from your hands
Trace outlines of the child's hand on paper .
Cut out hand shapes
Using a pencil roll the fingers up so that they curl up.
Curl the handshape vertically into a sort of trumpet/lily shaped cylinder with the finger curls curling outwards.
Staple the flower onto a drinking straw, along with cutout leaves.
Four or five of these make a nice arrangement.

Simple Hand Flowers
Construction Paper
Scissors
Glue
Trace around 1 hand on yellow paper, and trace around 1 hand on red paper. Cut them out; these will
be the flowers. Cut out a long & short stem out of green paper. Cut out four leaves out of green paper.
Glue the cut out hands on the stems on brown paper, add leaves.

Spring Plantings
Potato sprouts. Stick about 4 tooth picks around the middle a potato to support it. Place the potato in a jar fill it with water. The potato will begin to sprout and evntually get leaves and all.
Carrot tops. Cut off some carrot tops and put each one in a dish, add just enough water to cover the bottom of the carrot. Hide the dishes in a place where there is not too much sun. In just a few days, the carrot tops will begin sprouting and turn into plants.
Mustard seeds. Take an old wash cloth and get it wet and ring it out. Place wash cloth in a bread pan and sprinkle with mustard seeds. You'll see sprouts in a few days and little foliage in a wekk or two.

Tulip Cups
Have child make a tulip or make for them (using 2 cupcake liners). Glue the cut-out of tulip on the top of a popsicle stick. Cut a lit in the bottom of a strofoam cup. The slit should be large enough for the popsicle stick to slide through. Pull the popsicle stick down far enough so you cannot see the flower in the pot. Talk about how the flowers need sun, soil and water to grow. Talk about things that plants need, slowly push the popsicle stick up and the tulip will be appear to be growing before their eyes!.

Playing in Pudding Mud Puddles
Make some instant chocolate pudding. Plop it onto a "CLEAN" table. Let the kids draw in the "mud." Sounds messy? It is but it is great fun to!

Playing in the Clouds
Same as above except you use shaving cream and do not let the kids eat off their fingers...ish!

Daffodils
Yellow & White Crepe Paper
Yellow & white Cupcake Liners
Green Pipe Cleaners

Roll up a little ball on one end of the pipe cleaner so that when you stick it through the flower it won't just fall out. First cut the shape of the "back" of the daffodil. Put a small hole in the center for the pipe cleaner. Cut the cupcake paper in half. Roll it till you can glue the pleated edges together, making the part of the flower that sticks out in front like a trumpet. Make a hole and put the pipe cleaner through both parts of the flower; glue the trumpet onto the back of the flower. Add a little edge of orange or red with markers to make them look like the variations of daffodils.

Bird's Nest
Green, white, tan Construction Paper
Glue
Cardboard square for each child
Brown or tan Yarn
Markers
Use scissors to cut the shapes of birds eggs from construction paper. Use blue (for robins), tan for some and white for others. Glue the eggs onto cardboard. Glue some brown or tan yarn under the eggs for a nest allow them to dry completely. Using markers draw tree branches around the nest then add little dots on the eggs as speckles. Cut out some leaves out of construction paper. If possible you could use broken egg shell from real birds in your example one to talk about the kinds of birds that live in your area. Compare their sizes, shapes, and colors. We take weekly walks and look for nests in the trees. Talk about the materials that birds use to build nests and how high or low the nests are in the trees (remember some of the nests maybe squirrels nests too).

Mod Flowers
Several sheets of crepe paper in many colors
green and brown construction paper
florist's wire/or strong wire (you may have in your garage)
old newspaper
scissors, tape, school glue
Form the newspaper into a ball. Tape the ball to one end of a strip of wire. Cut out 2 1/2" petals from crepe paper. Stick a small piece of tape near the bottom of the petal. Tape the petal on the wire, below the ball of newspaper. Place several petals on the wire until the flower is a big as you want it. Cut a long strip of green crepe paper. Wrap this strip around the wire from top to bottom. Cover the wire with the paper. Tape it so it will not unravel. Cut leaves from the construction paper. Put a little bit of glue on the leaves. Attach to the stem of the flower. Use many colors. Make several and put into a vase.

Spring Butterflies these look so cool! (be sure to check out my pages on butterflies)
Food Coloring
Coffee Filters
Eye Dropper or Straws
Wooden Clothes Pin
Pipe Cleaner
Color small bowls of water with food coloring Using an eye dropper or a straw, scatter drops of colored water onto round coffee filters and watch the colors bleed and blend. While the filters dry draw eyes and body details on wooden clothes pins. Gather each coffee filter up in the center and clip with the clothes pin. Make antennea for each butterfly by inserting a pipe cleaner into the end of the clothes pin and twisting it secure. Bend the ends of the pipe cleaner to make it look realistic. Decorate with glitter and buttons.

Rain Sticks
Cardboard Rolls - Wrapping Paper Rolls, paper towel rolls or Pringles Can.
1 1/2 inch nails (lots)
Split Peas
Masking Tape
Construction paper

Cover the end of the cardboard roll with masking tape and then poke in one and half inch nails randomly all over the tube so that they go all the way into the tube but not out the other side. Use quite a few to get a good sound effect. Then you put a half a cup of dried peas in the tube and tape up the other end. Have the children decorate the outside of the tube. You can use paper, fabric, or even natural things such as leaves, flower petals, etc.
Turn the cylinder over and over to hear the rain stick sounds.


Spring Clean-up
(I got this off a list I was on once, not sure who submitted it, If it was you send me your name and I will put it here)
"Every year I let my children have buckets of water, squirt bottles, rags,feather dusters, dusting rags etc. I allow them to scrub down chairs and tables, dust, squirt the windows and wipe them down. The children love to do this ! We have given a bath to each toy and baby in the center, we got a little wet but that is half the fun."

Bird Seed hangers
Waxed paper
bird seed (small, small seeds)
school glue (must be edible)
Give each child a sheet of waxed paper. Let them squiggle glue all over the paper (no big globs or loose ends) sprinkel bird seeds onto the paper let sit over night to dry. In the morning shake off excess seeds (to use later) and hagn your designs in the trees for the birds to eat.


Sensory Table activity
On one of your walks gather many different types of nature, ie, seeds, leaves, buds, acorns etc... Put them on a clean table and give the kids a magnifying glass to study the findings. Allow the children to observe the small details of seeds, leaves and buds. Try to have them recall what they saw later in the day and ask them to decribe details they had seen.