Hello, caregiver of a budding botanist! If you’re looking for hands-on learning about plants, I share 40 of my favorites in this blog post. Each of these activities is open-ended and meant for older toddlers and preschoolers.
And if you’re here for worksheets, I’m sorry you’re in the wrong place. I truly believe preschoolers and toddlers learn best during engaging, sensory-rich play. Personally, the only thing I would recommend a worksheet for is to use in one of these tearing paper activities.
Set out materials on the table and give children a chance to explore the different parts of the flower. They can use scissors, tweezers, or fingers to break open the flower. While they explore, introduce vocabulary such as:
For older preschoolers with experience with flowers, you can name lesser-known parts of the plant, such as:
Use flowers and flower parts to create a textured nature collage.
Slice a bell pepper in half and set it out for your child to explore. Talk about the bell pepper’s seeds, stem, and skin.
During snack time, you can try this activity and talk about how the pepper tastes.
Set out the nature items in an eye-catching way, such as sorted on a tray. Set out the dough and encourage your child to explore using nature objects to create art sculptures.
While they create, you can talk about the nature objects and how they came from plants.
Add another level of creativity to the mud kitchen. Offer your child nature objects to decorate their mud pies. Take a moment to talk about where each nature item came from and mud’s role in the plant life cycle.
If you’re looking for a plant-centered sensory bin, I recommend picking up a bag of birdseed. This is an often-overlooked natural sensory bin option.
Once the appeal of scooping and pouring wears off, you can enhance the sensory bin with toy animals, jars with lids, funnels, or various sizes of sifters.
Seed sorting is an emergent math and science activity for toddlers and preschoolers. It also has the benefit of being more sensory-rich than sorting plastic bears.
A mixed bag of birdseed will have a nice variety of seeds. But you can add to it by snagging a handful of seeds from your pantry or the garden section at the store too.
A bag of mixed dry beans can turn into a perfect all-natural sorting opportunity—sort by size, color, and shape.
For preschoolers who are beginning to recognize letters, you can also make labels for each type of bean. A simple way is writing on a paper plate or paper towel.
Once the appeal of sorting, scooping, and pouring beans and seeds wears off, your child can turn them into sensory bottles.
Use this activity to talk about the different sounds each sensory bottle makes depending on the size and amount of seeds.
You can also offer beads, bells, and other tiny items to mix into the sensory bottles.
This three-dimensional painting activity will test your child’s fine motor skills and attention.
As an alternative, you can dip pinecones into cups of paint. Let pinecones dry and then dip again to add layers of color and texture.
Yes, more ways to explore natural objects through sorting and classifying. Toddlers and younger preschoolers can learn about pinecones’ sizes, shapes, and weight. Older preschoolers may be interested in learning how pinecones work and the tree each different pinecone came from.
Dough prints are another way to explore the shapes and textures of different plants. Show children how to gently press the items into the play dough. Once the item is lifted, children can explore the print left behind.
Once children are familiar with the different prints, they can use this information to add texture to their play dough creations. This can be an entirely new activity using the same materials.
A pinecone’s scales will open and close to release the seeds inside them. Children can explore how pinecones open and close using water. Then they can observe what happens once the pinecones dry in the air on a towel.
Pay attention to see if pinecones close quicker in cold or hot water.
Heads up: You may need to heat pinecones in the oven ahead of time to open them up for this activity.
Explore the textures of tree bark in this activity. Begin by taping paper onto the tree or unroll paper to wrap around the tree’s trunk. Make sure the paper is hung at child’s eye-level.
Use crayons or chalk to gently press and rub the paper, revealing the patterns of the bark beneath it.
Branch painting is another three-dimensional art activity. Place the branch on a table, along with cups of paint and paintbrushes. As children paint, talk about the textures of the bark and the size and shape of the branch.
In a classroom setting, children can work together to paint the branch. Then display the finished product as a group art project.
Have you seen the photos of DIY paintbrushes with different plants? Pine needles are conveniently already in the shape of a paintbrush, so save yourself the trouble!
Children can explore the different textures and marks that pine needles make. They can explore making paint strokes or prints on the paper.
Use a variety of leaves to make a textured nature collage.
Leaf confetti is slightly less messy than glitter, but at least biodegradable. Use a hole punch to make dozens of tiny circles. Add glue to the paper and sprinkle the leaf confetti onto the glue.
Most toddlers and preschoolers should be able to use the hole punch, with supervision. They may even get entirely absorbed in punching holes that you can save the art activity for later.
Use leaves as a nature-based sensory bin experience. Depending on the season, your sensory bin will look different.
I’ll be honest, I was proud when I thought of this activity. It’s such a unique plant activity! How often do kids get to investigate seaweed?
Personally, I do not want to reach into the water to pull out seaweed to explore. I’m having full-body chills imagining it. But this is the free option.
The other option is to buy dry seaweed at the grocery. Check out the Asian food section for nori, wakame, kombu, dulse, or hijiki.
These dry seaweeds will rehydrate in the water of a sensory bin. Each will have a unique texture for kids to explore.
Use leaves as paintbrushes or to make prints on paper.
Explore the textures and features of a leaf by doing leaf rubbings.
In this activity, children will press, smash, and scrub leaves against white paper to release a green color. Talk about how the green substance called chlorophyll helps leaves get energy and nutrients from the sun.
Create a prop box of flower shop items for children to use for pretend play. Keep an eye on how they use the materials, and you can get an idea for more props to add.
These materials could be used as another small prop box to extend a dramatic play activity. Toddlers and younger preschoolers may be more interested in the action of inserting the stems into the holes of the strainer/colander; no pretend play needed.
I am no expert on drying flowers. A little research says the best option is to hang them upside down, tied together, in a dry warm space like a closet. An alternative is to press them between paper towels inside of heavy books.
No matter which option you choose, flowers become an entirely different sensory experience once dry. Children can dissect them, add them to sensory bins, decorate mud pies, or create sensory bottles. They are a beautiful, unique natural loose part material.
