Welcome, teachers! If you are looking for a way to creatively engage and teach your preschoolers about the wonders of gardening, then you have come to the right place! Today we are offering free lesson plans for preschool that focus on helping young students learn all about how plants grow. Grab these free preschool garden lesson plans all centered around a preschool gardening theme.
Through fun activities such as planting seeds and caring for their gardens, your classrooms will be transformed into green oases where children can explore the joys of nature.
Free Preschool Lesson Plans for Garden Theme
Hands-down, this is one of my ABSOLUTE favorite themes to teach preschoolers. I stalk the hardware store in late winter for the seeds and make plans for lots of growing opportunities in our preschool classroom!
I didn’t grow up with much experience gardening and would even go as far as to say that I had a black thumb because when I did attempt simple houseplants, I would often kill them due to over or underwatering. As I have had my own children, we have made it a high priority to learn how to garden and to learn new habits from our mistakes.
It hasn’t been the easiest road but it has taught my own preschooler that sometimes we need to adapt and make changes, nature (and pesky garden bugs) will often throw new challenges at you, and gardening (as well as life) is all a big experiment.
Start simple with your garden plans and use these fantastic garden activities to help you plan your preschool garden theme. The free download is available at the bottom of this post and we certainly hope it brings you springtime joy!
FAQ About a Garden Preschool Theme
You may have a few questions about teaching gardening in preschool! Check out these frequently asked questions for how to teach your preschoolers with a garden theme.
Gardening teaches SO many things to young children. Gardening teaches preschoolers about how plants grow and why we need plants but it also teaches us to respect and cultivate nature. Preschoolers can learn about the parts of plants and what plants need to survive and grow.
Learning to garden at a young age teaches much more than just the plant life cycle. It teaches young children to be responsible as they care for and tend to their plants. Children learn about cause and effect and the balance of caring for a living thing (for example, too much water will harm the plan but not enough will also hinder its growth). Preschoolers also learn patience and develop confidence as they wait and see their seeds sprout and enjoy the fruits of their labor!
Teaching children to grow from a young age cultivates respect for nature, encourages healthy eating habits, and teaches important life lessons. Time in the garden promotes communication skills and gives kids a sense of purpose and responsibility. Plus it’s so exciting to see the joy on their little faces as they engage with their first sprout or even taste!
Important Info About These Garden Lesson Plans
The Learn at Home Preschool Lesson Plans are free lesson plans you can use to teach your preschooler at home.
All the preschool learning activities are quick and easy to set up, designed to save time, requiring hardly any (if any at all) prep and only requires the most basic of household materials. This makes them especially easy for parents to implement…and this makes preschool teachers especially happy, too!
Just glance over the lessons each day, gather the very few materials needed, and you’re ready to go!
But don’t be fooled by the name “at home” preschool lesson plans! These activities work wonderfully in the classroom as well, and if you’re a preschool teacher who is remotely teaching you can send these lesson plans to your student’s parents.
Get all Our Learn At Home Preschool Lesson Plans
This is an ever-growing collection of free lesson plans. Everything from your classic themes like spring or gardening theme to some less traditional ones like pirates or rocks…this is the ultimate collection of weekly lesson plans for preschoolers.
Or Get the Convenience Bundle!
Save time searching the website and just grab the convenience bundle of themes.
Hands-On Activities for Garden Preschool Theme
Whether or not you have a green thumb or even a garden, these garden theme lesson plans are great for preschoolers. That’s right, you don’t need a garden for these homeschool preschool lesson plans! They might be designed for preschoolers, but soo many of the included gardening activities are great for toddlers, too. You read that right, you can tweak these lesson plans for toddlers, too!
Garden Theme Literacy Activities for Preschoolers
Garden Seeds Letters – Write the letters of the alphabet on a set of index cards. Then, invite your preschooler to form the letters by placing dried beans over the lines of the letters. If you don’t have dried beans on hand, you can use any small object like pebbles, or mini erasers, or even place the cards in a zip-top baggy and use frozen peas.
Making Lines – One of the most fun ways to practice writing is by drawing lines in different “writing trays.” This week, make a garden writing tray by sprinkling a little dirt into a baking tray and use a stick to write names or draw line shapes. Better yet, have your preschooler draw planting lines in the garden itself.
Don’t Forget the Garden-Themed Picture Books!
These picture books are a great way to introduce a garden theme to preschoolers! We hand-selected some of our favorite garden books so click each book cover for more details about each book.
Garden Theme Math & Science Activities for Preschoolers
Counting Flowers – These ten-frame counting cards are a fun way to celebrate gardening. Watch the flowers grow as the numbers increase. Featuring numbers 1-20, the cards can be used to teach preschoolers about teen numbers, too!
Tracking Plant Growth – Read about how to track the growth of a plant watermelon in this post. Of course, if you don’t have watermelons growing in your garden, you can use any plant, even a dandelion! Using paper strips creates the best visual for preschoolers, but you can also create a traditional graph. Check out these free watermelon lesson plans too!
Measuring Flowers – Here are some printable flower measurement cards. Preschoolers can use just about any uniform object to line up and practice measuring the height of flowers.
Playful Learning Activities for Preschool Garden Theme
Go on a Walk – Gardening doesn’t have to be limited to vegetable gardens. Go on a walk around the neighborhood with your preschooler and talk about the flower gardens you might see in front yards.
Plant a Garden in Playdough – Use this favorite playdough recipe and plant a pumpkin garden in the play dough. Print the counting cards for some added math. If you don’t have tiny pumpkins, you can use dried beans, floral pebbles from the dollar store, or even crumpled paper.
Plant Something – Planting a real garden doesn’t have to be on acres of land or in neat raised beds. Check out this post on how to plant sunflowers (or any plant) with preschoolers. Sunflowers are especially fun because they grow so quickly and so tall, too!
Hands-On Garden Themed Activities for Indoors
Grow Plants From Foods in the Kitchen – Lots of vegetables will continue to grow once cut and then placed in water, like onions and celery. Just cut the vegetable down to about an inch from the roots. Place the roots in a cup for water and the vegetable will continue to grow.
Playdough Gardens – Whip up this fail-proof playdough recipe and make playdough gardens. Just roll a pancake out of the playdough and push some real plants into the play dough. You can use the leaves of any kind of plant. Make them into rows and pretend to plant a garden.
Garden Collage – Cut out pictures from garden magazines and create a collage. Read this post for details.
Just for Fun Garden Activities for Preschoolers
Lego Challenges – Look up some interesting plants online here and build Legos with your preschooler. Can you make your Lego structure look like a plant? Or, you can even make a planter out of Legos and plant real succulents in them.
Tearing Newspaper – Tearing paper is not only fun for preschoolers, but it helps develop their prewriting skills because it increases coordination and develops fine motor skills. The torn newspaper can then be soaked and used as natural weed control in a garden bed. Learn more about it in this video.
Safe Online Preschool Activities About Gardening
Read Online – Go to Storylineonline.net and listen to the book A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Robertson. Look for a red button under the video called “Activity Guides” to find related activities that pair with the book.
Videos – Go to YouTube and watch this time-lapse video of seed germination and plant growth. Ask your preschooler what they think is happening. Maybe even act it out.
Fingerplay – Practice counting and rhyming by playing along with this fingerplay Planting My Garden. Try doing all the actions and then challenge your preschooler to come up with more verses.
Make Your Garden Theme Even Better!
These garden-themed hands-on toys are a great way to bring the fun of gardening into the classroom! We’ve hand-picked some of our preschool favorite garden activity kits. Click the images to learn more about each product!
GET YOUR FREE WEEKLY LESSON PLANS FOR PRESCHOOL HERE
Think these homeschool lesson plans for preschool are something your students’ parents might enjoy? It sure will make preschool at home a whole lot easier, I promise.
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
