Favorite Gardening Books I love it when our themes seamlessly join, such as when we move from our butterfly theme to our gardening theme. Both are related to nature in the spring, when we bring some the outdoors inside, while also going outside to explore. Our gardening theme not only invites our toddlers and preschoolers to play with gardening activities, but it also gets them involved in actually planting seeds that they will take care of and eventually take home. We have a nice collection of artificial flowers, gardening gloves, market tote bags, and watering bins. Edited in 2024: Because we love this dramatic play activity so much, we’ve created an entire gardening packet, complete with signs and labels: GARDEN NURSERY PACKET I created the Flower Market open/closed sign that hangs at our flower market’s entrance. If you’d like a copy of this sign, scroll down for the link! We turned our train table into a flower sorting station, where one of my favorite flower books, My Garden, is displayed. We also have some food sorting going on, with a basket for vegetables and a basket for fruit. I purchased this window greenhouse over a decade ago, but you can easily make your own with a sealable plastic baggie. (This can also be done in a jar, which you can see here.) In case you are wondering, we ordered our caterpillars here and got them quickly with our prime membership. You can get your own set of free labels, and see how we go through this planting process, here. You can read more about this activity over at Play, Teach, Repeat. I added my favorite square plastic woven baskets for sorting, and dyed rice brown for extra scooping and pouring. After adding pom poms and flowers that were leftover from this spring math activity, I found some alphabet stones that one of my co-teachers made. Read more about this sensory bin: Alphabet Flower Sensory Bin for Toddlers and Preschoolers I cut a blue, yellow, orange, and green circle out of paper and taped them in the centers of the flowers. I then found matching colored pom poms. The children can sort and transfer the pom poms to the matching flowers. The Little Gardener Up, Down, and Around The Tiny Seed Don’t forget to grab your free Flower Market sign! Setting Up the Classroom for Spring and Easter Each activity is easy to follow and includes modifications and adaptations to meet the needs of all learners. For more information, click on the graphics below: Here is my Privacy Policy
