Garden Theme Learning Activities and Learning Shelf - Happy Tot Shelf (2024)

Inside: A collection of colorful and exciting Garden theme learning activities for preschoolers and toddlers.

A garden theme is always so engaging and beneficial for children. Exploring a garden theme can:

• encourage children to appreciate little things in naturelike ladybugs, seeds, and leaves. This increases their empathy and capacity to pay attention to details.
• teach them to take care of the natural world and have respect for their environment. Children that have developed fondness for plants and animals, and have positive memories of interacting with them, are more likely to grow up to care for and protect their natural environment.
• help them make the connection between the world around them and the food they eat. Imagine the excitement in discovering for the first time that vegetables and fruits come from the ground?!?

There are an abundance of opportunities for rich learning and colorful discoveries in a garden learning theme. It will also enhance your outings with your child as they connect their home learning with the flowers, trees, and other plants they see out in the world.

We had so much fun learning at home with all the Garden theme learning activities and our Learning Shelf.

Related: Everything You Need to Know about Setting Up a Themed Learning Shelf

Garden Theme Activities for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Looking for fun and educational activities to engage your children everyday? Check out my learning activity membership, The Happy Learners' Club. Find out more details and join the waitlist here.

All the activities have been categorized into the six main learning areas: language, numeracy, motor skills, discovery of the world, arts & creative expression, social & emotional development.

Garden Theme Learning Activities for Toddlers (1.5 to 3 Years Old)

• Dot the Flowers Color Matching Activity (arts & creative expression)

• Pouch Cap Flowers Counting Box (numeracy, fine motor)

• Dot Paint Flowers Painting (arts & creative expression)

• Petals Counting Activity. This is a simple activity to do number matching. (numeracy)

You can download this printable from HTS Printable Library. As a bonus for joining my mailing list, you get access to ALL my printables. Get this printable here>>

• Feed the Hungry Caterpillar: Make a TP roll caterpillar and invite your little ones to scoop pompoms into the TP rolls (motor skills)

• S is for Snail: Paste dot stickers on a spiral line. For young toddlers, simply invite them to paste the dot stickers randomly on the shell of the snail.

• Plant your Name Activity. My son matched the letters to his name as he planted the flowers in the flower pots. (language)

• We did a second variation of the Plant your Name Activity with play dough. Using the same flower sticks, my son matched the letters to the letters on the play dough. I imprinted the letters on the dough withletter beads. (language)

Garden Theme Learning Activities for Preschoolers (4 to 6 Years Old)

• Dot Sticker Name Flower: Paste the dot stickers around the circle with matching letters to make some dot sticker flowers. (literacy, motor skills)

• Dot Sticker Counting Caterpillar: Paste the dot stickers to form a caterpillar by arranging the numbers in sequence. (numeracy, motor skills)

• Ladybug Dot Sticker Symmetry: This activity gets children to explore the idea of symmetry using dot stickers. If you are game, search for some ladybugs in your backyard or find pictures on Google, and look at the beautifully symmetrical spots on the ladybugs. (numeracy, motor skills)

• Sticky Note Addition Butterflies: An easy and fun way for children to practice addition. For the preschoolers, offer them several more options, so they can easily find pairs of sticky notes that add up to the number on the butterfly.For the big kids, set our exact pair of sticky notes, so there’s trial and error, mix and match to get the correct combinations.(numeracy)

• Measure the Worms - Hands-on Way to Introduce Measurement (numeracy)

• Paper Clips Flower and Leaves Counting (numeracy)

• Sticky Note Counting Sunflower: Write numbers 1 to 12 on the flower center and draw 1 to 12 dots on the sticky notes. Invite your child to match the number of dots to the numbers on the flower center. To extend this activity: paste the sticky notes (petals) around the room and invite your child to look for them. Or for older preschoolers, write math problems on the sticky notes.(numeracy, motor skills)

• Flower Parts Puzzle. Learn about flower parts with this printable.(discovery of the world)

Bonus: This printable can be found on my subscriber-only Printable page.As a bonus for joining my mailing list, you get access to ALL my printables. Get them here>>

• TP Rolls Parts of a Flower DIY Toy (discovery of the world)

Garden Theme Crafts and Sensory Play

• Invitation to Create Flowers with felt shapes cut outs. (discovery of the world, arts & creative expression)

• Make some beautiful coffee filter butterflies. Add some water color on coffee filter and let dry. Tie the centre with pipe cleaners.(arts & creative expression)

• Big to Small Flowers: Cut out flowers of different sizes and colors. Invite your children to mix and match the flowers and arrange them from biggest to smallest. Paste them together and you have some beautiful flowers!

• Paper Towel Surprise Flowers - Draw a flower on the paper towel on top with a permanent marker. Then add colors to the paper towel below using washable markers. Now place both paper towels into a tray of water and see the beautiful colors appear!Watch the video tutorial here.

• Garden Sensory Bin using black beans as fillers, flower pots and gardening tools. (discovery of the world)

• Use everyday vegetables to make out a flower. This is a simple yet effective activity about the different parts of a plant. My son is fascinated to learn that some vegetables like broccoli and carrots were flowers and roots respectively.

• Grow Bean Grow: What better way to learn about plant growth than to grow some plant ourselves? Throw in some green beans and cotton pads into a zipper bag. Add some water and seal the bag. Tape the bag to the window and watch your beans grow, grow, grow! (discovery of the world)

• Invitation to Create a Flower Potion. I set out some flowers and colorful pebbles and invited my children to make 'flower potions'. The combination of things that float and sink added some interesting STEM discussion to this activity. (arts & creative expression, discovery of the world)

• Paper plate snail: Decorate some paper plates and make some colorful snails. (arts & creative expression)

More Garden Theme Learning Activities and Resources here:

• 10 Simple and Fun Leaf Activities to explore nature together
• Pinterest Idea Board: GARDEN Theme
• Unique Hashtag on Instagram: #gardenhts
• Spring books for Preschoolers by Days with Grey
• 30+ The Best Garden Themed Crafts and Activities by Happy Toddler Playtime

The Garden theme is such a perfect preschool theme for Spring. Need more theme based learning ideas? Be sure to check out our list of Fall Theme Activities, and the rest of our theme learning activities and shelf!

More Theme Based Learning Activities