Need a Quick Spring-Themed Plan for Your Younger Elementary Music Classes?

Spring is finally in the air! After weeks of winter weather, snow days, and schedule changes, many music teachers are ready for activities that keep students engaged while also keeping the classroom calm and musical.

If you’re looking for a simple, meaningful activity for younger elementary students, the Color By Notes – Spring Edition packet is designed exactly for those moments—whether you need a sub plan, a center activity, or a calm lesson before break.

These 13 spring-themed worksheets combine rhythm recognition and creativity as students color images of flowers, thunderstorms, rainbows, and sunshine. Each page reinforces note and rest identification while pairing the activity with a listening suggestion to maintain a strong musical connection.

How to Use Color By Notes – Spring Edition in Your Music Room

🌷 Listening Activity

Turn the activity into a listening lesson by playing:

• Spring from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi

Students color while listening and reflecting on how the music feels like spring. You can even ask:

• Does the music sound sunny, windy, or rainy?

• Which colors match the mood of the music?

This turns a simple coloring activity into a musical listening experience.

Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Antonio-Vivaldi

🎨 Music Centers

Set up the coloring sheets as a collaborative rhythm center.

Students work together to:

• Identify the notes and rests in the image

• Match them to the rhythm-color key

• Use proper terminology for rhythms

Use whatever vocabulary fits your classroom approach:

• Traditional notation (quarter note, eighth note, etc.)

• British terminology (crotchet, quaver)

• Kodály counting (ta, ti-ti)

• Beat counting (1 & 2 &)

This encourages music vocabulary and peer discussion while reinforcing rhythm literacy.

🌼 The “Day Before Break” Activity

We all know that the class before spring break can feel very long.

These sheets work well as a structured, calming activity that still reinforces music concepts while allowing students to relax and focus.

🎵 Easy Sub Plans

Need to be out for the day?

These worksheets make a substitute-friendly music lesson:

1. Play the suggested listening piece.

2. Students identify the notes in the image.

3. Students color according to the rhythm key.

Because the instructions are clear and visual, substitutes can easily guide the class—even without a music background.

Listening Suggestions Included in the Packet

Each page has a listening suggestion to use while the students perform the activity. Some suggestions I used more than once. Please note that the songs that are listed from Music K8 are linked to their sample pages. If you would like to play the entire song, perform a search on YouTube to see if the song is there.

• Spring from The Four Seasons by Vivaldi

• A Trillion Trees from MusicK8

• Birds from MusicK8

• Down By The Riverside

• Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles

• I Saw a Butterfly by Laurie Berkner

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar Song

• Rainbow Connection

• Hip Hop Shamrock from Music K8

• Umbrella by Laurie Berkner

What’s Included in the Packet

• 13 spring-themed color-by-note worksheets

• A consistent rhythm-to-color key on every page

• Listening suggestions for each image

• Printable PDF format

• Ready-to-use pages you can print year after year

Ready to Add This to Your Spring Music Toolkit?

If you’re looking for an activity that helps students practice rhythm reading while staying creative, calm, and engaged, this resource fits beautifully into any elementary music classroom.

It’s especially helpful for:

• Sub plans

• centers

• calming transition lessons

• the day before spring break

You can download Color By Notes – Spring Edition from my Buy Me a Coffee page, print the pages you need, and use them anytime spring arrives in your music room.

🌸 Happy spring music-making! 🎵