Kinesthetic Learning Preschool Spring Activities

Encourage Gross Motor Skill Development – Teaching How Plants Grow

Mar 5, 2009
Renee Carver

Act Like Seeds in a Preschool Dance Activity - Zsuzsanna Kilián

Use kinesthetic learning preschool spring activities and teach how plants grow while encouraging gross motor development. Kids act out plant growth and seed movement.

Encouraging gross motor skill development in young children strengthens muscles and increases coordination and overall health. Additionally, some kids are kinesthetic learners, who master new information best through physical activities that require them to move their bodies around.

When teaching preschoolers information about spring and how plants grow, then, use gross motor activities that appeal to kinesthetic learners and help children develop their gross motor skills.

How Do Seeds Move? Preschool Dance Activity

Use the illustrations from a picture book such as The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle [Simon & Schuster, 1987], From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons [Holiday House, 1991], or How Flowers Grow by Emma Helbrough [Usborne Books, 2007] to introduce students to the different methods by which seeds spread.

For example, seeds can:

use hooks to stick to passing creatures
shoot out of pods
float on the wind or on water

Play classical music and have children make up a dance for each way seeds move. For assessment, have kids discuss how they acted out each kind of seed movement.

How Does a Flower Grow? Preschool Drama Activity

Use the illustrations from a picture book such as From Seed to Plant or I'm a Seed by Jean Marzollo [Scholastic Inc., 1996] to introduce students to the stages a seed follows as it grows into a flowering plant and produces new seeds.

Adjust the complexity and number of steps based on children's level of ability. Stages of plant growth might include:

A seed is planted in the ground.
The seed receives water and sun.
The seed sprouts roots that grow down.
The seed sprouts a shoot that stretches up and turns into a stem.
The plant spreads out leaves.
The plant grows buds.
The buds open to reveal petals.
Bees and butterflies visit the flowers and spread pollen.
The petals drop off and the flower makes seeds.
The seeds leave the plant and travel to other places to grow.

Post simple pictures of each stage on a bulletin board for reference. Then, play a piece of spring-like classical music such as Antonio Vivaldi's violin concerto "Spring" from his The Four Seasons, the 2nd Movement of Vivaldi's Guitar Concerto in D Major, or the first movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F Major (the Pastoral Symphony).

As students listen to the music, have them act out stages of plant growth. As necessary, call out suggestions for actions. Scenarios students could act out include:

the life cycle of a sunflower (see The Little Seed by Elaine Greenstein [Viking, 2004] for ideas)
the life cycle of a dandelion (see Dandelions: Stars in the Grass by Mia Posada [Carolrhoda Books, Inc., 2000] for ideas)

For assessment, have children discuss the motions they performed for each stage.

How Do Plants Grow on a Farm? Preschool Drama Activity

Use the illustrations from a picture book such as One Bean by Anne Rockwell [Walker and Company, 1998] or How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan [HarperCollinsPublishers, 1992] to introduce students to the stages a bean goes through when growing into a plant. Discuss the actions a farmer takes to grow beans, such as sowing, watering, hoeing, harvesting, and eating the beans. Post on the bulletin board two series of pictures: one showing the stages of bean growth and the other showing the actions a farmer takes to help the beans grow.

Next, assign parts, having some children take the role of the farmer and others take the role of the bean seed. Play the song "Oats and Beans and Barley," which can be found on Raffi's 1980 album Baby Beluga. While the song describes the actions the farmer takes, have the bean seed children grow and the farmer children tend to the beans.

For assessment, have the farmers and beans discuss the motions they performed.

By incorporating physical movement in kinesthetic learning preschool activities, kinesthetic learners who learn by doing will remember scientific content knowledge better...and everyone will have fun and get some good exercise! To wind down after any of the above exercises, put on more classical music, pass out colored scarves, and have children dance like flowers in the wind in another preschool dance activity.