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Hands-On Spring Centers for Kindergarten

Have you ever noticed how spring centers have a way of making the classroom feel brighter and more cheerful? It may be the combination of warmer weather, less inside recess, and the fact that you can even take some learning outside. I may enjoy going outside just as much as my students!

It is an entirely new season to look forward to and these hands-on spring centers for kindergarten that I am going to share will definitely add to all of the fun and excitement.

An example of a kindergarten spring centers activity. This is a hands-on math activity where students sort circles that have ten frames, dice and number words on them for numbers 1-10 or 11-20.  Then, they use those circles to build a caterpillar.

Spring is the time of year in kindergarten when they are continuing to learn new skills, but they also are reviewing skills they have learned throughout the year in order to keep them fresh in their minds and to even begin mastering those skills.

Often it can be hard to find ways to teach both new skills and review already taught skills. That is where spring math and literacy centers come in! With 38 different math and literacy center activities to choose from, there are tons of opportunities for your students to get to practice new skills and review old skills.

Let’s take a look at some of these spring centers! While you are reading along, there is a FREE activity that you don’t want to miss!

Spring Literacy Centers

Your students will get to practice a variety of literacy skills with these spring-themed centers. There are 17 spring literacy centers included that go over skills that have been taught at the beginning of the year, skills that are continuing to be reviewed, and even new skills being taught during this time of the school year.

CVC Words

In this Secret Code literacy center, students get to use a code to build a CVC word. Once they build the word, they read it to determine what the word is. Lastly, they find the picture that matches the CVC word that they built.

At this time of year, students have had lots of practice with letter sounds. This Ants Go Marching CVC Words center has students building CVC words that go with the picture on the anthill to practice blending the individual phoneme sounds together.

I love how much more engaging these CVC word centers are for my students by just adding magnetic letters to build the CVC words. Have you ever tried this trick? If not, give it a try and the amount of excitement your students have will make you always include magnetic letters in your centers!

Beginning, Middle, and Ending Sounds

Beginning, middle, and ending sound activities are skills that are great to review this time of year. This Beginning Sounds Umbrella center has students match the picture to the correct beginning sound letter. When they are matched, students build an umbrella.

Have you been hearing the birds starting to chirp? This Birds Nest Middle Vowel Sound center gives lots of spring vibes and is oh so cute! Students match the middle vowel sound letter to the correct picture on the nest.

Flowers are starting to bloom in the spring and this Tulip Ending Sounds center will have students excited to build a flower by matching the picture on the tulip to the ending sound letter on the stem.

Now that beginning and ending sounds have been practiced, challenge your students by finding both the beginning and ending sound letters of a picture with this Flying Kite Beginning and Ending Sounds literacy center.

Sight Words

You can never get enough sight word practice. The more opportunities we can give our students to practice sight words the more it will help them learn sight words. The more students learn sight words the more fluent students become as readers!

Use this interactive sight words activity in your April centers! Students will use the letters on the raindrops to build different sight words.

This Raining Sight Words literacy center may be a little gloomy, but it is definitely fun! Students get to practice building different sight words using letters on raindrops.

Word Families

Did you know that word families help early readers recognize and understand word patterns when they are learning to read? Word families is another skill that when given more practice, our little learners will become stronger readers.

This kindergarten spring literacy centers activity will help students learn to recognize word families. Students will look at the picture on the pot, then place the correct word family that goes with the picture in the center of the flower.

This Blooming Word Families center has students placing the correct word family in the center of the flower that goes with the picture on the pot.

Digraphs

It is crazy to think where we started at the beginning of the school year when it comes to letters and sounds to now teaching beginning and ending digraphs.

Use this digraphs activity for your spring literacy center! Students will practice sorting beginning and ending digraphs by placing frogs on the logs. Students will sort the frogs with pictures by placing the frogs on the specific logs with the same beginning or ending digraphs sound.

Students get to practice sorting beginning and ending digraphs by placing the frog on the log that has the same beginning or ending digraph sound as the picture on the frog.

Building Words

Some of your students may still need more practice with CVC words, but others may be ready for more of a challenge.

Your students can practice matching CCVC words to the correct pictures with this Watering CCVC Words center activity.

OR have your students work on this Garden of CVCe Words literacy center where students practice building CVCe words that go with the picture above the flower pot.

FREE Bunny Ears Center Activity

Grab this FREE Bunny Ears center activity where students will practice finding the beginning and ending sound letters of the picture the bunny is holding.

A free hands-on spring literacy centers activity where students practice finding the beginning and ending letters for the picture the bunny is holding. Students place the correct bunny ears on the head to show the beginning and ending letters of the picture.

Students will place the correct bunny ear letters on the head to show the beginning and ending sound letters of the picture. There are 2 options included to choose from.

Option 1: No middle vowel sound letter on the bunny. Option 2: Middle vowel sound-letter shown on the bunny.

Included in this free download:

  • Beginning and ending sounds center activity (2 options)
  • Recording Sheets (2 options)
  • Kid friendly ‘I Can’ Posters (2 options)
  • Answer Keys
  • Teacher Directions


Spring Math Centers

With 21 spring math centers included, students get tons of opportunities to review math skills and practice new math skills in a hands-on way.

Addition and Subtraction

At this point of the year, some students are starting to memorize addition facts and maybe even some subtraction facts. Continuing to practice addition and subtraction helps kids master the relationships between numbers and will prepare them for more difficult math skills. 

This Bug Swat Addition math center brings some laughs to the classroom. Students get to swat a bug! Solve the addition equation on the bug and place the swatter with the correct answer on top of the bug.

Acting out subtraction equations has been incredibly helpful for my students to not only solve them, but to really get a good understanding of how subtraction works. This Honeybee Subtraction math center has students using a subtraction mat to find the answer to the equations. Students act out the subtraction equation on the card by placing the correct number of bees on the hive. Then, they move over the correct number of bees to the honey jar to show “taking away”. However many bees are left on the hive is the answer.

An example of an addition and subtraction spring math center activity. Build a flower by sorting the addition and subtraction equations on the flower petals and placing the correct equations on the stem with the correct answer.

I love to give my students a little challenge by combining both addition and subtraction together. This Build A Flower Math Facts center does just that and really makes students pay attention to the symbols in the equations. Students sort the addition and subtraction equations on the flower petals to the stems with the correct answer. Then, they take the flower petals to build a flower on the stem.

Mental Math

Taking a number and being able to show it in different ways will truly set your students up for math success!

This kindergarten math center strengthens students' mental math skills! Students will sort circles that have ten frames, dice and number words on them for numbers 1-10 or 11-20.  Then, they use those circles to build a caterpillar.

This Crawling Numbers math center has students sort ten frames, tallies, dice, and number words to the correct number. Then, they use those circles they sorted to build a caterpillar. You can use numbers 1-10 or 11-20.

Base Ten Blocks

Base ten blocks help students with number sense, place value, and counting. The blocks represent a number and students can count in groups rather than one block at a time.

This base ten blocks activity for spring math centers has students matching each bug with a number on it's back to the card with the same number of base ten blocks. Students place the correct bug on the net. Numbers range from 10-19 or 20-30.

This Buggy Base Ten Blocks math center has students placing the number on the bug to the net with the same number of base ten blocks. This is another center you can differentiate or choose what works best for your class because the numbers range from 10-19 or 20-30.

Counting and Numbers

Counting is a skill that students will use for a lifetime and there can truly never be enough practice. However, keeping students engaged while practicing a skill often is important. Centers are great when it comes to this because the activities are different each month, there are different types of activities to practice this skill, and the activities are hands-on which feel like games and not repetition.

This Ducks in Order spring math center has students putting scrambled numbers in the correct order from least to greatest. Students look at the scrambled numbers on the duck. Then, they place those numbers in the correct order on the pond using the baby ducks.

This ducks in order math center is perfect to introduce to students in spring! Students find the scrambled numbers on the white duck. Then, they use the yellow baby ducks to arrange the numbers in the correct order from least to greatest on the pond.

This Counting Bees center activity gives students hands-on practice with one-to-one correspondence. Students place the correct number of bees on the hive to show the number. Choose from numbers 1-10 or 11-20.

Practicing one more and one less will help strengthen students’ number sense and number relations, as in, they will strengthen their knowledge on how numbers fit together. Instead of starting to count at the number one, students get to practice finding one more and one less with this Counting House math center.

Patterns

Making patterns has always been a skill that I have found that students enjoy. They not only help students make predictions of what comes next, but they teach them how to make logical connections and use reasoning skills. Patterns are also important because they can be found everywhere in our daily lives and students often point them out once they understand what patterns are.

A kindergarten center where students practice continuing patterns with different colored flowers.  An option where students can build their own patterns with the flowers is also available!

This Bundle of Patterns center is so bright and spring feeling! Students get to practice continuing patterns with different colored flowers. There is also an option where students can build their own AB, ABC, AAB, or ABB pattern with the flowers.

Spring Math and Literacy Centers

I am so excited for spring and especially the spring weather! Thanks for taking a look at some of the 38 spring math and literacy centers. You can find all of these engaging and hands-on kindergarten centers for spring in my A Spoonful of Learning Shop or at my TPT Store.


Save These Spring Centers for Later

Be sure to save these hands-on spring centers for kindergarten to your favorite Pinterest board so that you can come back any time for engaging and interactive center ideas that you can add to your classroom or home!

An assortment of kindergarten hands-on math and literacy spring centers!

In Case You Missed This FREE Spring Center Activity