Spring and summer are great times to focus on gardening. I planted a flower garden with the children each spring when I had a Montessori school. The children always loved to see the flowers blooming when they returned to school at the end of the summer. With my own children, we didn’t live where we could have a garden. But you can see what we did in this post: Experiencing Nature and Growing Plants Outdoors without a Garden.
There are LOTS of great Montessori-inspired printables and activities online for a gardening unit. There are too many to begin to cover them all in one post, but I’ll share some wonderful ideas here. You could always do a few activities this year and save others for next year.
Montessori-Inspired Plant/Gardening Activities
Free Montessori Botany Materials for a Gardening Unit (my roundup post with lots of free printables)
Shoots and Sprouts Activities + Free Printable from Montessori By Mom (new in 2015)
Life Cycle of a Bean Plant
Montessori-Inspired Life Cycle Activities (includes life cycle of a bean plant)
Free Flower Printables and Montessori-Inspired Flower Math Activities
Exploring the Garden with Babies and Exploring Outdoors – Finding Smells from Rainy Day Mum
Our Garden (Gardening with a Toddler) from A Secure Base
Parts of a Flower (Photo from The Pinay Homeschooler)
Plant Posts from The Pinay Homeschooloer (Photo from Learning About Flowers)
Spring Sensory Bin (Mama of Many Blessings)
Spring Sensory Bin from Mama of Many Blessings
Botany – The Bean Seed (Photo from The Work Plan)
Botany – The Bean Seed from The Work Plan
Gardening the Montessori Way from Discovery Kidzone Montessori Adventures
Gardening (Photo from How We Montessori)
Plant Posts from How We Montessori (Photo from Gardening)
Make Like a Montessori Mama: Part 2 – Plant Activities by Kylie from How We Montessori at Modern Parents/Messy Kids
Parts of a Flower (Photo from Discovery Days and Montessori Moments)
Parts of a Plant (photo), Parts of a Bean, Our Garden, What Is a Biome?, Plant or Animal?, Plants, Plants ~ for Big Kids, and Seed Collecting from Discovery Days and Montessori Moments
Parts of a Plant with Egg Cartons from School Time Snippets
Montessori Garden Classroom (Photo from Montessori on a Budget)
Creating a Montessori Garden Classroom from Montessori on a Budget
Sunflower Seed Addition (Photo from Lesson Plans to Pots and Pans)
Plant Posts from Lesson Plans to Pots and Pans (Photo from Even More … from Seeds to Plants)
Botany 1 – Montessori Botany Cabinet Work and Botany 2 – Montessori Leaf Cabinet Work from Making Montessori Ours
Child-Led Gardening (Photo from Montessori ici)
Gardening Day from Montessori ici
Planting Our Garden from Our Natural Journey
Montessori Trays for Spring and More Garden-Themed Montessori Trays from LaPaz Home Learning
From the Montessori Garden – A Child’s Flower Salad from Momalog
Gardening from Montesori Life (with Downloadable Documents)
Botany Classification (Photo from Homeschool Escapade)
Botany – Week 1, Botany – Week 2 (Photo), Botany – Week 3, Botany Week 4 – Pollination and seed dispersal, Botany Week 5 – Photosynthesis with buttons, and Botany Week 6 – Nitrogen Cycle and Trees from Homeschool Escapade
Dissecting a Flower (Photo from What DID We Do All Day?)
Dissecting a Flower from What DID We Do All Day?
Flower Activities from Our Country Road
Preparing an Outdoor Garden from We Don’t Need No Education
Greensboro Montessori Gardening Program
Kennedy Montessori Garden for Peace (video)
Montessori Gardens Are Growing Young Entrepreneurs from Capital City Weekly
Plant Posts from Montessori Muddle
Botany/Gardening Unit Study Pinterest Board
I have botany/gardening activities of all kinds at my Botany/Gardening Unit Study Pinterest Board.
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Deb,
What a wonderful list of resources!! Thanks so much for featuring our Spring Sensory Bin, and for hosting! Have a wonderful week!
Nicole
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Mama of Many Blessings! It’s my pleasure to feature your awesome sensory bin! I hope you’re having a wonderful week, too! 🙂
What a great resource and so many inspirational ideas to encourage children to get out and about in the garden.
Thank you so much for including some of our ideas – we love getting out and exploring
My pleasure, Cerys … I love your ideas! Thanks for your kind words! 🙂
Such lovely ideas!! Thank you so much for sharing! Our daughter has her own plot in the backyard to do as she pleases and loves it!
Thanks so much … I had a great time searching for activities and found more than I could even list! It’s wonderful that your daughter has her own garden plot! 🙂
what a great idea for a blog hop. I linked up our seed planting we did a while a go but its reminded me I ought to do a follow up because our plants have really grown.
Thanks so much! I’m glad you linked up … have fun with your gardening! :
This is a great post. Thanks for linking it to the Kid’s Co-op this week. You should also link it up here: http://learnwithplay.blogspot.com.au/2012/06/flower-stencil-spray-painting.html It is a flower blog hop. Part of the Tinkerlab Creative Challenge.
Thanks so much Debs! I just linked it up! 🙂
I can’t wait to explore all of these wonderful activities. When we did our flower scent-sory bin for Earth Day, my toddler turned it into a pond-making activity. It was a perfect example of child-led learning. http://jennifischer.blogspot.com/2012/04/earth-day-scent-sory-bin.html
Thanks so much, Jen! That’s an awesome story … I love your great sensory activities and child-led learning! 🙂
I have added your gardening unit to my diigo list so I can refer back to it for inspiration as we move into summer! Thanks for putting it all together.
Thanks so much, Ali! I wish we were moving into summer now! 😉
Thanks for the list! Lots of fun things to find! Pinned it!
I love all of these fun spring ideas! I’m filing these away for later!
Thanks for linking up the Thoughtful Spot!
What a fantastic resource list! The kids and I planted this year – and things are actually growing! We have also been really good at keeping the weeds away – which is amazing.
I think there are great rewards for everybody in gardening, you know? Thank you for this!
Your idea is great. I’m also doing an indoor garden, we still take care of it every day. And my daughter loves to garden there. Thanks your for great ideas