🥕 color and match fruit and veggies
Same exact thing we did last week for spring week, just different characters to match the weeks theme.
🥕 Explore Seeds
cut open a couple of seed packets I grabbed at Dollar Tree and let her touch, count, and talk about them. In addition to this, we did the old seeds in a wet paper towel in a plastic bag on the window trick to watch and see if they’d sprout. Later in the week, I used this same set up and had her match the seed packet to the appropriate seeds and count out the seeds. Lots of fun stuff you can do with just a simple packet of seeds!
🥕 Separate Fruits and Veggies
Printed out these fruit and veggies I found on Twinkl.com. It came with cute printable baskets too but I opted to just use some small baskets we had at home for her to put them into. We talked about the difference between fruits and veggies, the colors, the taste, etc.
🥕 Sink or Float/Sensory Table
This was great entertainment for her outside and kept her busy for a while. I put some tweezers and scissors in there, filled one side with water, then gave her some fruit and veggie seeds and stuff we had on hand. This pic has cranberries (some whole sum cut), bell pepper core with seeds, and an apple core with the seeds. No direction, no objective, no “don’t be too messy”. I just let her be curious and play. She loves it.
🥕 Color and Learn Plant Parts
Another printable from Twinkl.com. We colored these then glued them together while learning what each part is and does for the plant. The one on the left is meant to be glued together, but I chose to glue the individual pieces onto construction paper and leave it separate so she can put the plant together over and over and not just the one time.
🥕 Alphabet Flowers and Pots
My personal favorite of the week. I found these pots and flowers on Pinterest. Printed them out and glued the bottoms and edges of the pot to an old piece of cardboard we had so the flowers can be taken out and put back in. So much potential with this! Eventually, will be used to practice matching upper and lower case letters. But we’re not there yet. For now, we start with only a few of the pots empty and sing the alphabet together. When we get to an empty pot, I stop singing and make a huge deal about the flower being gone (oh my goodness, where is our letter H!?) and we look for it to put in the pot (phew that was close, thank goodness you found it!) then start singing the alphabet over again starting from A. She loves it
🥕 Garden Yoga
free printable from childhood101. This was a fun movement activity to help get all the wiggles out when she got restless during “school”. She loved it so much. Lots of giggles, lots of stretching. Will definitely carry this over into other weeks and change the names according to our theme
🥕 Make a koinobori
Not necessarily on theme for “garden week” but May 5 was Children’s Day (Japanese national holiday) so we made this then. This was so much fun to do together and she has shown it off to everyone and anyone who has come to the house since. She points it out to me every day. She loved it so much we made a second one to look like a stegosaurus (she’s really into Dino’s right now). To make, we cut out circles from construction paper and glued them onto an empty toilet paper roll, overlapping each circle. The eyes are also just construction paper. Then we glued Pom Poms onto it to give it some extra fun and streamers are glued inside to make the tail. Possibilities are endless with these and I’ve saved some more rolls cause I know she’s going to want to make more.
Not pictured is stuff I carried over from last week, like our flower towers counting and matching sheet, vocabulary cards, and crafting this week which consisted of making Mother’s Day gifts for the family (air dry clay trinket dishes with her finger prints as blueberries and cookies).#preschoolfun #homepreschool #toddleractivity #learningthroughplaying
Expanding on the garden-themed activities shared, one of the most enriching parts of this learning process is how it combines hands-on, sensory experiences with educational concepts. For example, when exploring seeds, using the classic sprouting method with a wet paper towel not only teaches kids about plant growth but also encourages observation skills and patience. I found that pairing this with simple counting exercises enhances both math and science understanding. Separating fruits and vegetables introduces children to categories and characteristics such as taste, texture, and color, which is a fantastic vocabulary-building activity. Using printable resources or even everyday kitchen items can make this more relatable and fun. At home, turning this into a sorting game with small baskets or containers helps improve fine motor skills and cognitive sorting abilities. The sink or float sensory table is a brilliant way to engage kids outdoors while fostering curiosity and experimentation. No strict rules allow children to explore freely, making the experience joyful and memorable. Including a variety of fruit and vegetable seeds offers tactile and visual learning opportunities. Learning plant parts through coloring and assembling printable puzzles encourages creativity and reinforces knowledge about how plants function. Leaving the pieces separate so that children can repeatedly assemble the plant is a clever way to deepen understanding. Alphabet flowers and pots provide an interactive letter recognition game that can grow with the child’s skills—from identifying letters to matching upper and lower cases. Making these items from simple materials like cardboard enhances creativity and offers a reusable learning tool. Garden yoga brings movement and mindfulness into the routine, helping kids to release energy and focus better during learning sessions. Fun, themed yoga poses tied to garden elements keep children engaged and promote physical health. Crafting koinobori from recycled materials like toilet paper rolls not only celebrates cultural events but also fosters artistic expression. Adding details like pom poms and streamers personalizes the experience and stimulates imagination. Lastly, integrating previous crafts such as flower towers counting sheets and creating personalized gifts helps children connect past lessons with new experiences, giving a sense of accomplishment and continuity. Overall, the combination of these activities supports holistic development through playful learning and meaningful interaction with nature concepts.