Spring is the perfect time to dive into a garden study with your special education preschoolers! Gardening-themed activities provide so many opportunities for hands-on learning, sensory exploration, and language development. Using the Garden Study Bundle as a guide, you can bring this theme to life in a way that’s engaging and accessible for all learners.

Garden-Themed Crafts

🌻 Vegetable Stamping – Cut potatoes, carrots, or celery and dip them in paint to make fun vegetable prints. This is a great way to explore different textures while working on fine motor skills.

🌸 Paper Plate Flowers – Have kids decorate paper plates with markers, stickers, or tissue paper to create their own flowers. Add a pipe cleaner stem to complete the look!

🌿 Garden Collage – Provide seed packets, magazine cutouts, and real dried leaves for kids to glue onto paper, making their own unique garden scenes.

Garden Sensory Bins

🌱 Planting Bin – Fill a large bin with dry black beans or brown string to act as soil. Add small pots, fake flowers, and scoopers so kids can “plant” their own garden.

🌼 Flower Petal Bin – Add real or fake flower petals to a bin of water for a calming, scented sensory experience. Include cups and spoons for scooping and pouring.

Hands-On Garden Activities

🌻 Seed Sorting – Let kids explore different types of seeds or seed packets and sort them by size, shape, or color. This helps build early math and categorization skills.

🌿 Sprouting in a Cup – Plant quick-growing seeds like beans or grass in clear cups so kids can watch the roots grow day by day.

🦋 Garden Dramatic Play – Set up a small area with play gardening tools, hats, gloves, and faux plants. Let kids pretend to plant, water, and care for their own little garden.

🌱Garden Study File Folders: These low-prep garden study file folders are a perfect way to engage students and expand the garden study through hands-on instruction. It includes three file folders focusing on counting, colors, and errolress learning. 

Read Alouds:

A garden study is a fantastic way to bring nature into your classroom while supporting your students’ developmental needs. Whether they’re exploring textures in a sensory bin, creating colorful flower crafts, or observing seeds grow, your preschoolers will be engaged, curious, and learning through play.

Want to make your life easier? Check out the Garden Study Bundle for ready-to-use materials that align with these fun activities HERE and even more garden-themed resources HERE!

Happy gardening! 🌱✨