During the month of March it’s fun to “change up” your calendar and weather routine to include tracking lion days and lamb days to see if the phrase “March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb” holds true.
What Does “March Comes in Like a Lion, Out Like a Lamb” Mean?
A week or so before March begins, I explain to students that spring begins on March 20th and winter ends. Therefore, during the month of March, the weather can change from cold winter weather to warm spring weather.
There is a famous saying about the changing weather that goes “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb”. It usually roars in (begins) with cold, unpleasant, winter-like weather days but ends with sunny, mild, pleasant, spring-like weather days.
A great read-aloud book for introducing this concept is In Like a Lion Out Like a Lamb by Marion Dane Bauer.
Lion and Lamb Weather Sorting Activities
To help students better understand the difference between lion weather days and lamb weather days, we do hands-on sorting activities.
First, we sort different weather pictures into Lion Weather (cold, snowy, winter-like) and Lamb Weather (sunny, warm, spring-like).
Next, we dress children in the correct clothing for each type of weather.
Then, I have students complete cut-and-paste pages to show their individual comprehension.
March Lion and Lamb Weather Song
Music is a great way to help students remember concepts! I like to use this simple song to help students learn and remember the difference between lion weather days and lamb weather days.
March Lion and Lamb Crafts with Writing Prompts
Once students understand the difference between lion days and lamb days, I have them create adorable lion and lamb crafts and pose the question: Would you rather have more lion days or more lamb days in March and why?
Each student completes a writing prompt and either creates a paper plate lion or a paper plate lamb, depending on their answer to the writing prompt.
March Bulletin Board
These crafts make the cutest bulletin board display for March and help students practice opinion writing, fine motor skills, and weather!
March Lion and Lamb Weather Tracking
Students love tracking the weather to see if the saying “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb” is true.
I like to have students make predictions before we begin tracking the actual results. They record their predictions on their own weather tracking pages by circling their answer choice.
Each day during calendar and weather, we decide whether it is a lion day or a lamb day and hang up the appropriate animal card.
There are several different ways you can tally and display the results.
Place the animal cards under headings either on a wall or in your pocket chart.
Display them on a chart.
Use calendar cover-ups to mark the lion days and lamb days on your calendar. This provides a visual for students to see if the month came in (began) like a lion and went out (ended) like a lamb.
You can also use smaller lion and lamb pictures with your existing calendar numbers.
If you have limited wall space or are teaching virtually, you can also use digital Google Slides.
I love using the graph and calendar for meaningful math practice during our morning meeting. We discuss our results and practice greater than less than, more or less, comparing numbers, tally marks, etc. It’s the perfect opportunity for meaningful math practice!
At the end of the month, we tally and record the final results. Students use their personal weather tracking pages to discover whether or not their predictions were correct.
Bring This Fun March Activity to Your Classroom!
Tracking lion and lamb weather is a simple, engaging way to make March weather exciting for young learners!
🌟 Want to make this even easier? 🌟 Grab my Lion & Lamb March Weather Activities Pack, which includes:
✅ Lion & Lamb Crafts (instructions, patterns) + Writing Prompts
✅ Bulletin Board Letters for an Easy Display
✅ Sorting Activities + Weather Song
✅ Weather Tracking Activities & Math Extensions
📌 CLICK HERE or on the cover image below for full details.
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