4 Easy Gardening Crafts for Preschoolers
April 19, 2017
It’s easy to get your preschooler interested in gardening and growing plants with a few easy gardening crafts. An interest in gardening at a young age can turn into a lifelong passion, and now it the perfect time to start. Since your preschooler’s attention span is relatively short, you should start out with small projects. Alternately, you can involve your child in a larger project but break it down into shorter sessions to hold her interest.
Growing Seeds
Purchase a packet of lettuce seeds at the hardware or gardening store. With a little bit of potting soil and a container, your child can watch the seed germinate and grow into a plant. Place the pot in a sunny window and you will soon have lettuce for your salad. Of course, your plant will be happiest in the garden, so if you have a small corner of the garden you can give your child, that’s an even better solution.
Garden Markers
Decorate your garden and teach your child how to identify plants by creating colorful planting tags. Find some flat rocks, and let your child paint them with acrylic paint. Then use waterproof markers to write the names of the plants on the rocks, one for each type of plant. Help your child place the markers next to the appropriate plants in the garden.
Fairy Garden
One of my fondest memories of my childhood was creating a fairy garden. Give your child a corner of the garden and help her create a garden for the fairies to visit. Building materials can include pine cones, popsicle sticks, small stones, and bits of moss. Let her add her favorite plastic dinosaur, a tiny car, a cottage made of popsicle sticks and glue, and special rocks and seashells.
Cucumber in a Bottle
This is a fun project to do if you have cucumbers growing in your garden. Wash and remove the label from a 2-liter soda bottle. Carefully poke three or four ventilation holes in one side. As the plant starts to fruit, push the tiny cucumber into the bottle. As it grows, it will become too large to exit the hole. Tuck the bottle underneath the leaves as the cucumber is growing, so it doesn’t get too hot.
What other types of fun gardening crafts do you do with your children?
