FREE Ten Frame Gardening Printable for Preschoolers
Spring is finally in the air which means it’s the perfect time to teach a gardening theme in preschool. This ten frame gardening printable not only teaches counting from 1-20 and number identification but also a little about the lifecycle of a flower. With it being low prep, this printable garden activity is perfect for you too!
This is a FREE gardening printable for preschoolers, so be sure to grab it from the end of the post.
FREE Ten Frame Flower Gardening Printable for Preschoolers
Who else is excited to flood your classroom with flower crafts and bug games? This time of year is so colorful and cheery, it makes me extra happy to teach! The bright and sunny activities feel like pure fun for kids and also happens to be when they learn the best!
But I have to admit. I love these flower garden ten frame cards! I know it’s tacky to “toot my own horn”, but I know you’re going to love them as much as I do.
Featuring daisies and grape hyacinth flowers, these printable ten frame counting cards are the perfect addition to your spring lesson plans and gardening theme preschool centers.
My grape hyacinths are just starting to bloom, and soon will be taking over my front flower garden as they are a bulb the spreads a little more each year. I’m not complaining, though. They create these pretty pockets of blue among the other white and yellow flowers consuming the walk up to the front porch. And against as gray-green of my house, they just make me smile.
And they smell delicious! The smell of hyacinths reminds me of my grandmother but also of spring. You can be walking along and the breeze will blow in just the right direction and carry you off in their fragrance, which is sometimes so very strong! My grandmother used to purchase hyacinth bouquets for her dining room table as soon as they appeared in the stores.
And my preschoolers totally noticed that the pretty, crooked stemmed flowers on these ten frame cards are just like the flowers in my front yard.
Which also makes me smile.
So, yeah, I kinda’ am loving this flower gardening printable for preschoolers. We first used them in small group (which for me is only four children since I cap my classes at eight) but I have since added them to my preschool math centers. I imagine they will stay there for all out spring theme activities.
Flower Gardening Ten Frame Printable
Like all my printables, there is a lot of counting practice going into a single ten frame card. Using ten frame printables is a fantastic way to help children learn to count to ten. It is not repeating one number after another but really truly understanding the concept of the numbers 1-20.
If you are looking for something for strictly numbers 1-10 try these Composing A Ten printables.
Materials
- Gardening Printable Ten Frames (found at the end of this post)
- Dry Kidney Beans
- or other math manipulatives
The materials needed for this can be simple. As you can see we used dry kidney beans as the counters, because they are easy to find, but also because they look as little like seeds, which helps if you are using this for a gardening theme. If you don’t like to idea of using dried beans, no worries! Instead of using kidney beans you could use other manipulatives such as:
The Set Up
I like to laminate my printable activities. This will help keep the paper protected from ripping, tearing, getting spilled on or getting drawn on. Does that ever happen in your preschool, or just mine?
Laminating will is also best if you want to try using dry erase markers, dry erase crayons, or playdough instead of counters. The smaller counters will help encourage a mature pincer grasp, but holding a writing instrument is good for those children who are reading to work on handwriting skills.
Some of our other favorite activities that use dry erase markers are our Beginning Sounds Tracing Cards and Free Printable Prewriting Practice In Insect Theme.
If you prefer not to laminate or don’t have access to a lamination machine, that is absolutely okay!
We also love dry erase pockets, they are also a fantastic alternative. (Actually, dry erase pockets are my favorite way to “laminate”). You can slide the ten frame printables, or any printable activities for preschoolers, into the pockets and do the activity exactly as if they were laminated. Dry erase markers draw on and erase well on the pockets as well as allowing children to place playdough on the pocket.
*** Don’t forget to grab your free copy of this gardening printable at the end of this post! ***
Using this Gardening Printable for Preschoolers
Each card has a number listed, the fun flowers, and then the ten frame. The cards go from 1-20 which makes this a great counting activity for preschoolers! We are always working on 0-10 mastery, but by the time spring rolls around I always have a few preschoolers who are more than ready for teen numbers! Learning teen numbers can be tricky for preschoolers, so using a ten frame math activity like this one is a good way to introduce it.
Give the child one card at a time. I usually start by asking what the number listed is. So if we are working on card ‘1’, I ask what number it is. When number 1 is identified, I ask the child to write the number with a dry erase marker, or fill with playdough in the bubble number.
The next step would be to ask the child to count to that number out loud. Your preschooler can use the flowers to count if they are less familiar with the number on the card. In fact, your preschooler can get even more practice with counting by having them place the kidney beans on the flowers as they count the first time, and then move them to the ten frame boxes, thus counting a second time.
It’s important to supervise your preschooler doing counting activities like this one so that they really understand a few important concepts.
- Beans don’t share boxes in the ten frame. Just one bean per box.
- The number of flowers should be exactly the same at the number of beans in the ten frame.
- Each number counted directly corresponding to a flower/bean. This is called one-to-one correspondence and is a pivotal skill in mathematical understanding.
This can continue from 1-20, it could be random order or just a few at a time.
More Activities Using This Ten Frame Gardening Printable
I know you have a range of skill sets in your classroom. Mine is like that too! So when I have a basic ten frame printable like this one, I like to share a few alternate ways to use these same printables to meet the needs of every student in my classroom.
Then keep reading for gardening activities for preschoolers and don’t forget to grab your free printable at the end of this post!
- Try introducing this activity during circle time or small group time. Allow the children plenty of time to play as a group before adding it to your spring theme math centers.
- For younger preschoolers, hand select the small set of numbers to work on during any single sitting. This helps them from feeling overwhelmed.
- If you have toddlers in your classroom, allow them to play with playdough and fill in the ten frames, even if the number isn’t correct. The concept of adding a single ball of playdough to each box in the ten frame still reinforces 1:1 correspondence skills.
- If you have older preschoolers, make things a little more challenging by only offering teen numbers.
- If your preschoolers have already mastered 1:1 correspondence, invite them to sequence all the ten frame cards in ascending order, and then for even more challenge, in descending order.
- Make this gardening printable more meaningful to your preschoolers by pairing it with gardening picture books and other spring themed activities.
This is an easy activity to be done individually, but it is also fun for small groups. Kids can do the same parts of the activities, just share the options. OR you could print multiple cards and all the kids work individually but together.
Looking for More Gardening Themed Printables and Activities?
These are a few brand new posts from some fellow blogging friends. They are so creative!
And you can grab the free printable right below these links!
FROM LEFT TO RIGHT:
Flower Garden 10 Frame Activity
Garden Flower Lowercase Letter Tracing
Grab your FREE Gardening Printable for Preschoolers
Think these cute ten frames are something you need in your preschool lesson plans? Go ahead and grab your own copy by clicking the image below.
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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.
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