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Garden Book Based Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

We love being inspired by books and creating our own activities and crafts based on them aimed at Toddlers and Preschoolers here at Rainy Day Mum. One of the themes that we revisit time and time again is the Garden, for both the Virtual Book Club for Kids and for Storybook Summer our two main series that we regularly run we have shared book-based activities and book-based crafts for toddlers and preschoolers over the past few years.

 

Our Garden Week’s are ideal for reading together, learning, playing and getting creative. To make it easier for you we’ve put together our Garden Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers based on books into one handy resource and you can find them all here plus a few extras from our Virtual Book Club for Kids cohosts Kristina at Toddler Approved and Kim at The Educators’ Spin on It.

Garden Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Fun fiction and non-fiction garden book ideas for reading along with toddlers and preschoolers in spring and summer or as part of a plant or garden unit.

Although each of these Garden Projects for Toddlers and Preschoolers is matched with a specific book these aren’t the only Garden Books that they would work with. We have put together our recommendations for the best books for this age range to read aloud together in our Garden Books for Toddlers and Preschoolers recommendations.

What we recommend for our Preschool and Toddler theme week’s is that you look at the selection of books we recommend and then head to the library, your own bookshelf or if you really feel that one, in particular, would work well then purchase it in addition to those. Then place them in a book basket or box and make them available for reading throughout the week.

14 Garden Week Activities based on Book Activities as part of Virtual Book Club Summer Camp

Garden Crafts for Toddlers and Preschoolers Inspired by Books

lola plants a garden inspired craft for kids to make sunflowers from coffee filters

Get creative with this simple Garden Coffee Filter Craft to create a Sunflower inspired by the book Lola Plants a Garden.

Air drying clay garden gnomes sealed and used in the garden as markers and ornaments

With a little help, your toddlers and preschoolers will be able to make and hide these garden gnomes amongst the plants in your garden.

DIY Toddler Plant Labels

After reading The Carrot Seed and before planting our own carrots we made some simple plant markers for the garden.

DIY Whimsical beaded garden ornaments - keep the colours of summer throughout the year in the yard or garden with these simple summer craft for kids and get them to create their own Beaded Garden Ornaments

Practice some fine motor skills at the same time as creating some pretty decorations for the garden in this Garden Craft inspired by The Gardener by Sarah Stewart.

DIY Garden flags to use as seed and garden markers - so easy as a perfect summer craft for kids

Help your toddlers and preschoolers create their own garden plant markers with this Flag Craft for the Garden inspired by the books of Lois Ehlert including Plant a Rainbow and Growing Vegetable Soup. Top tip for doing this with your little ones that can’t draw well mark out the black outline in a sharpie and let them colour it in and your preschoolers that are learning to write – copy the vegetable name out onto a piece of paper and then let them write it themselves on the flag.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar may have eatten through the garden but this Cress Seed Caterpillar Craft Plant and Grow certainly won’t. Plus the little cress plants that you grow can be eatten. A great indoor gardening activity for tots that they can then taste too!

Garden Art Projects for Toddlers

Exploring Artists with young children - Eric Carle and the process that he goes through to create the illustrations for his books and others.

Inspired by The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle use the painting technique he uses to make your own Sunflowers. The kids loved the painting and I enjoyed turning their process painting art work into a picture.

Learning in the Garden Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Count and pick the carrots out of the DIY maths game inspired by the classic The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Ideal for Toddles and Preschoolers this game works on early number work including counting, number recognition, one more, addition and number bonds.

Inspired by the classic book The Tale of Peter Rabbit create your own carrot patch and then pick the numbered carrots to work on counting and number recognition with your toddlers and preschoolers.

Create your own Pumpkin Patch Maths Game with this step by step instructions ideal for some autumn based hands-on learning.

Similar to our carrot patch but based on the book Five Little Pumpkins make your own Pumpkin Patch Counting Game for your Toddlers and Preschoolers with this easy DIY.

Count and climb Jack's beanstalk with this fun early year maths activity for toddlers and preschoolers for the classic Fairy Tale Jack and the Beanstalk

Another fun garden-themed counting activity for your little ones inspired by the classic book Jack and the Beanstalk. Make your own Count and Climb Beanstalk perfect garden theme idea for kids.

Create your own storytelling props for the classic Kindergarten tale of The Enormous Carrot by Vladmir Vagin and help children with reading comprehension.

Have you read The Enormous Turnip? This classic tale has been adapted to The Enormous Carrot and we have a fun activity to retell the story using toys from the toy box. Perfect for some language, and play on the garden theme.

Feed the animals game to identify the parts of the plants that we eat and where they grow

Help your toddlers and preschoolers to learn about the different parts of a plant that we eat with this Feed the Animal sorting game inspired by the book Tops and Bottoms.

How to make a wormery with kids

After reading Underground by Denise Fleming we made a wormery out of a plastic bottle so that our toddler and preschooler could see what the worms get up to underneath the soil.

Garden Themed Food for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Simple lettuce wraps that kids can make inspired by the classic storybook The Tale of Peter Rabbit

Another The Tale of Peter Rabbit inspired activity for toddlers although a lot more tasty than other is to make some lettuce wraps. This is ideal to serve during your garden week at lunch or cut up into smaller sections for snacks.

How about combining a little snack with some learning with this Edible Watermelon Seed Counting Activity from Toddler Improved with the book One Watermelon Seed.

Making Crock Pot Soup with kids to bring alive the book Stone Soup

Soup in the slow cooker is really easy to make and if you have the vegetables from your own garden it’s even better. Inspired by the Story Stone Soup we made our own Slow Cooker Vegetable Soup.

Carrot playdough building

Painted carrot snack

Planting a seed

Seed flower craft

Rainbow fruit and veggie garden

Shape flower garden

Seed sort and count

Vegetable prints

Veggie sort and song

Alphabet soup

Author
Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mum, and home educator from the UK. She loves getting creative, whether it is with simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes that you and your kids can cook together you'll find them all shared here on Rainy Day Mum.

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