Your students will love a plant theme during the spring or summer months! I love teaching my students about plants, seeds, life cycles, and growth; they learn so much. Plus, it is such an easy theme to decorate and create with manipulatives that are found at most dollar spots. Keep reading for tons of plant activities for preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students.
Grab the Plants Math and Literacy Centers, All About Plants Science Unit, and the Garden Shop Dramatic Play to get all the printables to bring this theme to life!
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Science Plant Activities for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten
Exploring Seeds! Grab some seed packets from the dollar store and explore seeds with your students. I got 2 packs of each kind of seeds so that I could put one pack in the bags and one pack in the sorting tray. Be careful when using any tiny seed around students that put things in their mouths. The sorting tray is a hardboiled egg tray. I placed the seeds in the middle, and students will sort the seeds into the smaller areas. Each zippered bag has some seeds in it. I taped the packet to the bag and taped the bag shut.
Planting Seeds! What better activity than planting seeds? Students can be involved in planting, caring for, and watching the seeds grow. I like to use clear cups and bags so students can see the parts of the plant. In the bags, I use cotton balls and spray water inside so that the students can see the full growth of the plant. You could also use a paper towel instead of a cotton ball.
Plants Science Tables! I set up four science tables so you can pick which one fits your needs best for your science center! You can study vegetables, plants, seeds, and the needs of plants. All are great for teaching about the plant life cycle. Grab all these science printables in the Little Learners Science All About Plants Unit.
Literacy Plant Activities for Kindergarten, Preschool, and Pre-K
Plants Book List! Check out my book list for my favorite plant books to read to little learners. There are fiction and nonfiction titles to share with your preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students. Books are a great way to show students things that you may not be able to get your hands on.
Planting Letters! Make a butcher paper activity with a cute plant theme to practice letter matching in a hands-on fun way. I wrote letters on the bean seed, and students matched them to the leaf on the paper. Students are strengthening their shoulder and gross motor muscles by stretching and moving around the table to complete this activity.
Writing Plant Letters! Use these plant letter writing strips for an easy way to practice letter formation and identification. Students can use seeds, pom poms, or dry erase markers to form the letters.
Planting Compound Words! This compound word game is one of my favorites when planning plant activities for pre-k, preschool, or kindergarten students. I attached the compound word picture to a paper envelope and then the seed pictures to popsicle sticks. Students will identify the 2 parts of the word and place them into the seed envelope.
Flower Name Cutting Craft! Grab these adorable flower printables to make a fun name activity for your students to practice cutting, fine motor, gluing, and more! Depending on your students’ needs, precut some flowers beforehand so you are prepared for tired hands.
Flower Words! Hot glue a pipe cleaner to a fake flower and give your students some letter beads and plant vocabulary cards to practice fine motor skills, letter identification, and spelling skills.
Plants Writing Center! Another favorite of my plant activities for preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten is a great writing table with a plant theme! I add lots of fun writing utensils, themed writing paper, plant vocabulary cards, stickers, and plant letter formation strips.
Spring Letter Sound Math Light Table! Use these spring letter and sound match game boards to practice letter recognition on the light table. Young children can match capital to capital or uppercase and lowercase letters, or older kids can work on identifying beginning sounds.
Math Plant Activities for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten
Plant Measurement Freebie! Grab these free printables for measuring plants in the classroom. I love using bean rulers to further the theme and practice nonstandard measurement. I use a piece of packing tape, lay my beans on it, and then fold it over. I write my numbers on the lima beans first, so they don’t rub off. Lastly, I trim the excess tape off the top and sides. Bean rulers are great for little learners that are struggling with fine motor skills and are easier to use since the beans don’t move around while counting.
>>Get the freebie by filling in the form at the bottom of the post.<<
Bean Numbers! Use some lima beans to create a DIY letter and number manipulative that is great for a plant, spring, or farm theme. Just use a permanent marker to write the letters or numbers.
Flower Count to 20! This math skills counting game is a great addition to your lesson plans for some plant activities for preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten students. Students flip a number card and find it on the number mat. Then, they can use a manipulative to cover the number. In the picture, a pool noodle is cut in half so it lays flat on the table. Then I cut a slit in the top so students can place the numbers in the slit in number order.
Flower Count to 100! Need something a little harder for your students? Practice number identification to 50 or 100. Play is similar to the activity above, with students picking a number card and covering the matching number. This is a simple way to explore harder numbers.
Flower Clip & Count! Glue some pipe cleaners to the back of these flower numbers and grab some clothespins. Students will clip the matching number of clothespins to the flower stem. Clothespins are a great tool to use to strengthen fine motor muscles in little learners.
Flower Addition! Here is a way to differentiate the activity from above to be harder for your older or more advanced students. Try some flower addition! Glue a pipe cleaner to the back of the addition flower and then give students some clothespins. Students can use 2 colors of clothespins to show the addition problem and come up with the sum.
Flower Color Lacing! Hot glue some pipe cleaners to the end of fake flowers and give your students some beads to sort by color to match the flowers. It is so simple, but it is one of my students’ favorite plant activities for preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten learners that I use in my classroom.
Leaf Domino Counting! Draw the leaves and give older kids a new manipulative to practice more counting skills. Dominoes are a fun way to practice informal addition skills with young children.
Sensory & Art Plant Activities for Preschool, Pre-K, and Kindergarten
Worm Escape! Place some paper shreds in a small container and put some rubber fishing worms in too. Be sure that the worms do not have hooks in them. Them place tape over the top in a crisis cross design and give your students tweezers to try and help the worms escape! Students practice problem-solving, teamwork, and fine motor work.
Plant Play Dough Tray! Your little learners are going to love this plant play dough tray! I put brown play dough for dirt; store-bought or add instant chocolate pudding to your homemade playdough to get the perfect brown color. Then I add rocks (seeds), plant markers, buds in different colors, leaves (seedlings), and pots so students can act out the life cycle of a plant in their play dough tray. Also, add a watering can so students can pretend to water the seeds.
Planting Sensory Bin! I used black beans for the base, then added pom poms that matched my flower colors. Students can sort by color or pretend to plant the pom pom seeds and help the flower grow. Add in mini erasers, gardening tools, fake flowers, pots, and water cans for even more pretend play by little hands.
Flower Still Life Art! Set out a fake flower bouquet and let your young children paint what they see. I pick different floral textures and colors so students can add more details if they want. These are the perfect way to decorate your classroom or bulletin board to match your theme.
Garden Collage! Use strips of paper and tissue paper to create this adorable plant activity for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten students. I pretear the stems, and students tear to the length that they would like. Then, they take the precut squares of tissue paper, crumble them up, and glue them for the flower.
Flower 3D Art! Make some fringe from a piece of paper, roll it into a cylinder, and tape it. Then roll a piece of green paper into a cylinder and tape it. Tape the flower fringe to the top of the stem. Then, add some leaves to complete your flower!
Flower Printing Art! Use fake or real flowers to paint a beautiful masterpiece! Be sure to leave a small amount of stem on the flower so students can hold on to it while they dab it on their paper. Don’t stop with just flowers; use evergreens, leaves, sticks, etc. When you are done, wash the fake flowers and keep them for next year!
Blocks & STEM Plant Activities for Kindergarten, Preschool, and Pre-K
Spring Blocks & STEM! Set up your blocks center for some plant activities for preschool students to build and construct some amazing creations! I set out fake leaves and flowers, rocks (seeds), insects and worms, and sticks and wood pieces. I accompany them with the Spring STEM I Can Build cards to encourage little learners to explore these types of structures. I love adding different ways for my students to build and construct with my STEM I Can Build cards.
Dramatic Play Plant Activities for Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten
Garden Shop Dramatic Play! The garden shop dramatic play is the perfect addition to a plant theme in the classroom! See how I set it up in this post.
I hope you can find some plant activities for preschool, pre-k, or kindergarten that you love! Plants are great for teaching life cycles, growth and change, or just welcoming in spring after the long winter months. Grab your lesson plans and prepare to bring nature into your classroom with these hands-on activities!
Get the Plant Math & Literacy Centers to get the printables to help your little learners grow!
Grab the Little Learners Science All About Plants Unit to explore and learn this spring or summer!
Create a Garden Shop Dramatic Play area to complete the theme in your room.
Check out this post to learn more about the Little Learners Science Curriculum here.
Need some ideas for spring? Check out the Spring Centers and Activities blog post here.
Check out the video to see the plant activities in action!
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hey, i’m jackie!
I’m Jackie, your go-to girl for early childhood inspiration and research-based curriculum.
