Free Garden Preschool Lesson Plans
Spring is the perfect season for gardening preschool lesson plans, giving little learners a hands-on way to explore nature. As part of spring preschool themes, gardening activities teach kids about plant life, the needs of a garden, and the magic of watching things grow. Whether planting seeds, watering flowers, or digging in the soil, preschoolers love getting involved.
Gardening lessons naturally support science, math, and fine motor skills while encouraging responsibility and patience. Plus, nothing beats the excitement of spotting the first sprout! With simple activities and engaging books, this garden theme makes learning fun, messy, and full of discovery.
There’s something exciting about digging in the dirt, planting a seed, and watching it grow! That’s why gardening preschool lesson plans are a wonderful addition to spring preschool themes, bringing hands-on learning and nature exploration into the classroom.
Preschoolers love the chance to plant flowers, water vegetables, and explore soil, all while learning important concepts like life cycles, weather, and plant needs. Plus, gardening activities help children develop patience, responsibility, and observation skills.
These gardening theme preschool lesson plans are packed with fun, simple activities. Even if you don’t have an outdoor garden, container planting or sprouting seeds indoors can be just as exciting!
These also pair well with our flowers preschool lesson plans, and our bees lesson plans for preschoolers, too!
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Engaging, hands-on themes that complement your math and literacy curriculum.
Gardening Lesson Plans for Preschool
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 so 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 Name Recognition Activity – 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.
Garden Themed Children’s 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.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may earn a small sum if you click through and make a purchase.
- McQuinn, Anna (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Ransom, Candice (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Matheson, Christie (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Dahl, Michael (Author)
- Gerardi, Jan (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Bracken, Beth (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Messner, Kate (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
Math Activities for Garden Theme
Ten Frame Counting Flowers Cards – 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!
Flower Height Measuring Cards – 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.
Sensory 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!
Plants and Gardening Activities for Preschool
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.
Veggie Garden Process Art – Cut out pictures from garden magazines and create a collage. Read this post for details.
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 the video below.
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 the video below of a time-lapse 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.
Garden Theme Educational Toys
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!
- Upgraded Flower Building Set – 148 totally PCS in abundant Colors, let your kids create gorgeous…
- Easy to Clean and Store with a Portable Box – Every pieces can be washed, and these building blocks…
- GROW YOUR IMAGINATION: Develop Imaginative play and social skills
- DEVELOP SOCIAL SKILLS: Provides an ideal way to develop vocabulary and social skills by kids talking…
- PLAY AND PRETEND – Create your own pretend play flower garden in an ultimate sensory play…
- SENSORY BIN – Sensory bins allow children to discover, imagine and learn while engaging their…
- ONLY on Amazon! This fun learning toy is EXCLUSIVE to Amazon, where you’ll also find many more of…
- Growing New Skills!: This deltoddler gardening set helps kids to develop imaginative play and…
- Montessori Fun Sorting Game: The carrot planting game Toys is a new kind of learning toy for…
- Safety and Practicality: Montessori wooden toys all the pieces are well sanded and painted. The…
Get Your Free Preschool Gardening Lesson Plans
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.
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 helps children connect with nature, develop responsibility, and learn about plant life cycles. It also provides sensory experiences through touching soil, smelling flowers, and observing plant growth. Plus, it encourages patience and care as they watch plants grow over time.
Introduce basic plant needs—sun, water, soil, and air—and discuss how plants grow from seeds. Teach the names of common garden plants like flowers, vegetables, and herbs. Explain the roles of helpful insects like bees and worms in the garden.
Grow bean seeds in a clear plastic bag with a damp paper towel to watch roots sprout. Compare plants grown with and without sunlight to see the effects. Test soil moisture by sticking a finger in the dirt and discussing why plants need water.
Play “Grow Like a Plant,” where children curl up like a seed and slowly stretch into a tall flower. Have a garden scavenger hunt to find different colors, textures, or shapes in nature. Act out the life cycle of a butterfly or a growing tree through movement.
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.
