Creating a school garden with preschoolers with 10 Easy Steps. Read how to set up your preschool garden for opportunities for learning outdoors with kids.
Gardens are a great way to integrate social and academic learning into a practical life, every day activity. There is so much potential in a garden classroom and Dayna, is here as a guest writer today, to showcase some of these school garden learning activities and advice for starting up and maintaining a school garden. She is an enthusiastic, hands-on parent who shares her natural living, homeschooling and sensory play ideas at Lemon Lime Adventures. ~Amanda
School Garden Learning Activities
I am so excited to be part of the Gardening Team for Kids in the Garden at The Educator’s Spin On It. As an early childhood educator for 12 years, I have always loved gardening with children. It is one of my favorite parts of the year. A few years ago, I had the pleasure of creating a Preschool Garden with my co-teacher at our urban public school. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I had in all my 12 years of teaching and I hope to encourage you to try starting a preschool garden with these 10 tips.
Tip One: Build Children’s Background Knowledge
* Sort flowers by colors
Tip Two: Plan the Garden with the Children
* Encourage drawings and labels of what the children want the garden to look like
Tip Three: Involve the Parents and Community
Tip Four: Prepare Your Materials Ahead of Time
Tip Five: Take Children on a Field Trip to Purchase the Plants (if possible)
Tip Six: Involve the children
Tip Seven: Allow time for Explorations
Tip Eight: Remember Not All Children Will “Plant”
Tip Nine: Plan for the Future Care
Tip Ten: Have Fun!
Free School Garden Printables
Don’t forget to visit Lemon Lime Adventures for her FREE garden printables.
Want More Gardening Learning Fun?
Sensory Benefits of Gardening with Kids
Wiggly Worms: A Garden Science Activity
Checklists and Printables for Gardening with Kids
Dayna is a National Board Certified teacher with over 12 years of experience in the primary classroom. She recently began homeschooling her 3 children against her will. She writes at Lemon Lime Adventures, where she writes about the trials and errors of their life, life living as a blended family, and dealing with a son with Sensory Processing Disorder. You can find Dayna rockin’ it over on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and G+!
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Wonderful tips Dayna – thank you!! My favorite has to be – "allow time for exploration" – the most important in my eyes!! 🙂
Thank you! I completely agree!