Crafts for April

What crafts will you be doing for April? Im doing a spring theme for April and haven't really been able to find many crafts other then flowers and butterflies. Any other suggestions? My group is 18 months - 2 years. Thanks

Birds and bird nest, leaves emerging, buds on plants (thumbprints make great buds), squirrels are more active so pull out anythign you did in the Fall for squirrels but concentrate on them running up and down trees and along fences rather than gathering nuts.

Talk about what you will be able to do now that the snow is gone - we can see our sandbox again.

Change of clothes in terms of jackets vs snowsuits, less sweaters, mitts.

Rain, umbrellas, puddles, rainboots works - cut out a large boot outline and let them decorate it with spring stickers.

I have a unit I haven't been able to find but it was called "A Sense of Spring" and it used the five sensess to explore the coming of spring (taste-maple syrup, chocolate easter eggs, smell - grass, feel - mud, cold ground, etc. One sense was done each day but repeated three times for a three week theme. I used to run my themes for three weeks with no theme the week between as a down time. I so have to get my stuff organized.

My theme this week is butterflies so today we made pompom caterpillars, put them into cocoons (covered toilet paper roll with tissue paper stuffed into each end) and they are sleeping overnight to turn into butterflies tomorrow. I'm going to have the children colour coffee filters with markers then you spritz a little water onto that and let it dry and gather it in the middle with a pipecleaner to make the butterfly.

Next week our theme is insects so we'll make our insect craft with a painted egg carton section and pipecleaners, googly eyes, etc. The next week our theme is birds and once I used mostly intact eggshells dipped in blue food colouring, turned them upside down and put little wings and eyes on them and made nests out of shredded paper. We'll do that again this year. I'm able to recycle craft ideas this year because I have had an entire enrollment changeover since I started.

Then we have a trees and leaves theme and we'll make a mural for the wall. I cut tree trunks out of brown construction paper and let the children glue on oval leaves from green paper. Then they add stickers of squirrels, birds, butterflies, insects, etc.

I'm singing a spring song to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell. You can say anything you can think of like: The bears are waking up, the bears are waking up, springtime is merry-o, the bears are waking up. Then lots of other choruses: the grass is getting green; the flowers start to bloom; the birds begin to sing; the trees are getting buds; the bunnies start to hop; it's endless.

Google for any idea you have and you'll find tons of stuff.

Those are awesome ideas Momof4! I love the butterfly one specially! Do they glue the pompoms together? or how do they keep them together?

We will be doing several of the above mentioned projects as well as this one, which I am really excited about, titled April showers bring May flowers.
http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts...loud-craft.asp

http://sweetandsimplethings.blogspot...int-robin.html

http://pinterest.com/pin/232850243203830046/

http://pinterest.com/pin/232850243203830041/

http://pinterest.com/pin/232850243204225372/

http://pinterest.com/pin/7810999326197812/

http://pinterest.com/pin/1618549836441587/

Plant seeds of sweet pea or large sunflowers as you teach the plants life cycle, I also love taking about frogs, from being frozen in the mud...