Preschool Toddler
SpringHomeschool PlanningResources for EducatorsTheme Units
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The old saying goes that April showers bring May flowers, but for a preschool teacher, the month of April brings way more than that!
Warmer weather hits and the Spring season is in full swing of course, but more importantly, the first of the month ushers in a whole host of new learning opportunities along with a brand new list of fun April preschool themes that your students are going to love!
April Preschool Themes Your Students are Going to Love
Whether you’re looking for a few new ideas to supplement your lesson plans or you’re wanting to put together a few new thematic units for your preschool classroom, this list of April preschool themes is the perfect place to start!
From bugs and butterflies to weather and rainbows, this list of April themes has plenty of fun activities, ideas, and topics to keep you and your preschoolers busy all month long!
Bugs and Insects
With the warmer weather comes the bugs and insects making it the perfect time to teach your little learners all about these tiny creatures.
Incorporate some printables to work on letter recognition or grab a few simple materials and have your kids try their hands at making some insects of their own!
Gardening/Flowers
As the temperatures rise, so do the plants and April, being Lawn and Garden Month, is the perfect time to try building your own flower garden by planting a few seeds out in the backyard.
It would also be a lot of fun to mimic the bright colors of nature with a few flower crafts or introduce a little sensory exploration while practicing those math skills with a sensory bin filled with plastic vegetables! You can cover everything from shapes and colors to even life cycles and the parts of a plant with a few fun hands-on activities!
Earth Day
It just wouldn’t be a complete list of April preschool themes if we didn’t mention Earth Day!
Started in 1970, Earth Day is celebrated each year on April 22nd. While taking care of our Earth, our environment is a big responsibility, there are so many things that little ones can do to help and so many resources available to help you put together a theme unit dedicated to a day celebrating our planet!
Recycling
Continuing along the same lines as the Earth Day theme unit, one devoted to recycling can be a ton of fun! Gather supplies ahead of time and teach your preschoolers the fun of recycling by showing them how to reuse old things to create something new.
Make your own recycled paper, for instance, is an excellent learning activity and a perfect example of reusing something that would normally be thrown away but instead, turning it into something new!
Rainbows
While most have never heard of this special day, April 3rd just so happens to be National Find a Rainbow Day, so it makes it a timely addition to this list of April theme units.
From rainbow crafts that’ll have you working on colors to activities that’ll have you learning a little about the science behind these incredible light shows, there are so many amazing things that you can include in a rainbow theme unit. Not to mention all of the bright and colorful rainbow books that you can add to your preschool lesson plans for the duration.
Squirrels
These furry little creatures seem to just come out of the woodwork once the Spring season hits and there are so many ways to incorporate them into a fun day, or week, of learning.
Use one of their favorite foods (acorns) to work on math or create a sensory bin that works on literacy skills. You can even take a nature walk with your toddlers or preschoolers to see if you can find a few of them running around outside!
Weather
There is no better opportunity to teach your children all about changes in the weather than when it is changing right in front of you.
Since Spring tends to bring with it a variety of different weather patterns, it’s a great time to learn about things like thunderstorms and warmer temperatures while observing them for yourselves.
You can even add talking about the daily weather to your circle time routine if you haven’t already!
Caterpillars and Butterflies
If you’ve never watched a caterpillar turn into a butterfly, well I’ll tell you, it truly is incredible. It’s also a fantastic learning opportunity for your students and would make an excellent spring theme for your preschoolers!
Another awesome learning opportunity? Gaining some fine motor practice while you lace up the stages of a butterfly life cycle or work on those scissor skills while making a few beautiful butterfly crafts! The possibilities really are endless with a theme unit like this!
Easter
Obviously, an Easter theme could easily fit into March, but we’ve added it to this list of April preschool themes as well. It will all depend on the year of course, but you could easily work on a number of concepts like colors, patterns, shapes, and more with an Easter theme unit!
Plastic Easter eggs, for example, are an excellent way to work on fine motor skills and jelly beans are perfect for working on colors or practicing sorting!
You could also get your students involved in making their own Easter themed snack or give them the opportunity to work on their number sense skills if they’re ready for that!
Zoo
If you’re a zoo lover, you’ll be pleased to know that there is an entire day of the year devoted entirely to you!
Plan a field trip to your local zoo in honor of National Zoo Lovers Day on April 8th to learn about the various animals that call the zoo home or work on those visual discrimination skills by matching those animals to their shadows!
Can’t make it to the zoo yourselves? That’s okay too! We’ve got a few links to some live animal cams (ocean animals too!) that your students are going to love!
Whatever you do, your little learners will have a blast with this wild theme unit!
Kites and Wind
We’ve already covered weather, but did you know that April 12th is National Big Wind Day? Well, now you do! And now you why we’ve added kites and wind to our list of April preschool themes!
Work on patterns, shapes, colors, and more. Add in a few science experiments, try to build a flying kite of your own, there is just so much that you can do with a theme unit on kites!
Community Helpers – Trash Collector
Finished with your spring cleaning? Where does all of that trash go?
As curious as most preschoolers are, they’re probably all wondering the very same thing. Add a community helper theme to your list for the month and answer all of their burning questions about trash collectors and garbage trucks.
