Spring is a wonderful time to get outside and see all the beautiful new growth and colors. It’s also an excellent time to explore flowers as a learning theme. Whether you see them popping up along highways, adding splashes of color to gardens and even trees, or enjoy their beauty in a vase in your home- flowers are everywhere! Over the years, we have shared many different ways to explore some hands-on fun and learning with flowers across the curriculum. Most of these activities are designed for kids ages 3 through 5, but many can be modified for younger and older kids as well. Check out these flower activities for kids to inspire your own learning at home or school.
Flower Activities for Kids
WHY IT’S FUN
Flowers invigorate the senses by adding beauty, color, and wonderful smells to our lives. They can also brighten up a room or mood in an instant. Young children learn best through hands-on exploration of the world around them. Flowers provide the perfect resource as you can step right outside, bend down, and get eye-level with them. And what kid doesn’t just love to pick some wildflowers?!
WHEN TO TEACH A FLOWER THEME
A flower theme can be taught any time of year, but we enjoy exploring this theme in spring. As the season changes from winter to spring, flowers are freshly popping up everywhere. It’s fun to follow the seasonal shift and explore what’s happening in the world around you. Studying the life cycle of a flower is a good introduction to learning about and understanding living things.
TEACHING TIPS & MAJOR CONCEPTS KIDS WILL LEARN
If you’re planning a preschool flower theme there are many possibilities for incorporating meaningful early learning skills.
These are just some of the concepts kids can learn about during a flower theme:
- parts of a flower
- flower life cycle
- seeds
- pollination
- trees that flower
- food that begins as a flower
- colors, shapes, and counting using parts of a flower
You can also use silk flowers, flower petals, or seeds as manipulatives for many learning activities to teach math and literacy concepts.
ITEMS TO COLLECT AND REQUEST IN ADVANCE
If you get parents, friends, and family involved you can enrich the experience kids have during your preschool flower theme.
Collect or ask people to help you collect:
- silk flowers
- real flowers
- vases (non-glass) for dramatic play or display
- seeds
- magnifying glasses
You might even invite special guests (or go visit if you can) to come and share about fields and hobbies related to flowers. You could include:
- a florist
- a gardener
- a nursery worker
PRINTABLE FLOWER THEME LESSON PLANS
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
This set currently includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:
1) Initial Sound Flower Building Activity
2) Flower Number Cards
3) Flower Petal Counting Emergent Reader
4) Flower Alphabet Matching Set
5) Uppercase and Lowercase Flowers for Hands-on Games and Activities
6) Flower Life Cycle Cards
7) Flower Roll and Graph Game
8) Flower Patterning and Sorting Cards
9) Name Letter Sorting Activity Mat
10) Shape Pieces for Flower Building with Shapes
GET YOUR LESSON PLANS
Home Preschool Flower Theme Lesson Plans
Preschool Classroom Flower Theme Lesson Plans
Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.
RELATED FLOWER PRINTABLES
Spring Flower Roll and Color Math Games with over 15 math games to play as you practice early math skills with kids.
Flower Theme Number Sense Activities with small group and center activities for hands-on number sense practice.
INDIVIDUAL FLOWER IDEAS ON FANTASTIC FUN AND LEARNING
Here on Fantastic Fun and Learning we’ve shared the following art, sensory, math, and literacy activities to do while having fun learning about flowers.
Art and Sensory
Create a rainbow garden with in this pom pom painting spring art project.
Grab some pipe cleaners to design your own flowers. Then use them to stamp paint a flower garden.
Create a flowery garden and mix in some math too with this spring flower garden art.
This quick and easy feathery flower art is sure to be a hit with little hands as they manipulate pipe cleaner and soft feathers.
Explore trees that bloom with flowers with this flowering spring tree art activity. You’ll have fun painting with materials other than a paintbrush!
Grab some flower petals and watercolor to create Chrysanthemum inspired flower petal name art.
Create gorgeous flower art with air dry clay in this hands-on creative play flower craft.
Apply a hands-on way of learning about trees that bloom with flowers in spring using play dough and loose parts.
Grab some paintbrushes and design your very own bouquet of flowers.
Create a sensory squish bag where you can squish loose parts into a flowery garden scene.
Using craft sticks and colored dried beans, you can create a flower garden that would be perfect for a Mother’s Day gift or spring craft.
Create a beautiful garden out of flower petals with this sensory garden art. Kids will love getting their hands on the contact paper!
Ditch the paintbrushes for flower petals and explore the different textures as you paint with petals.
Check out this unique handmade flower petal card that would be perfect for any occasion!
This easy flowery card craft would be perfect for Mother’s Day or a birthday.
Create a beautiful garden of flowers with some play dough and loose parts.
This flowery tea gift would be a perfect flower craft and present for Mother’s Day or a birthday for a tea lover!
Dive right into spring with this butterfly flower craft that uses bits and pieces of flowers to decorate a butterfly.
Engage in some imaginative play as you plant your own flowery garden using real flowers, play dough, and seeds.
Get hands-on with this sensory play activity with flower petals. Kids will love running their hands through the water and watching the petals and glitter move.
Using Indian corn husks and their kernels, create spectacular sunflower art for a fall decoration.
Grab some coffee filters, markers, seeds, and glue to create a beautiful sunflower sun catcher.
Literacy and Math
Work on name building as you plant a “garden” with this fun flower name activity.
Work on number identification and formation with this hands-on flower petal math activity. Just grab some contact paper and pick some petals!
Step outside and use some sidewalk chalk to practice number recognition, matching, and counting with this flower garden counting game.
Apply hands-on learning as you create a play dough math garden. Just count petals to match the corresponding numbers stamped.
Practice letter recognition and “pick”flowers at the same time with this fun alphabet flower game.
FLOWER ACTIVITIES FROM CREATIVE EDUCATORS
Extend your fun and learning about flowers into snack time with any of these healthy flower snacks.
Check this list of different ways to play and learn with real flowers.
INFORMATIONAL YOUTUBE VIDEOS
Take a look inside a flower to learn the very important job they have (pollination).
Learn about what flowers need to grow as you visually see all the parts labeled with play dough.
Watch the life cycle of a flower from seed to sprout to pollination.
Discover the names of some common flowers with this informational animated flower video.
YOUTUBE SONGS
Sing a song about flowers and explore all the colors you may see too!
This spring flower song works on counting, number identification, and even shows real flowers in nature.
This flower lullaby song takes kids right into nature with flowers.
This fun finger play, Five Little Flowers, would be a fun and engaging song for a flower theme.
OTHER ONLINE RESOURCES
Finger plays and action rhymes are a great addition to your preschool themes. Here are a few terrific options to go along with a flower theme.
We adore this action rhyme, I’m a Little Seed as it gets kids moving and enacting the growth of a flower.
Preschool Express has a great collection of finger play songs about flowers and spring.
Check out these action rhymes and songs about flowers, seeds, and planting from Little Miss Teacher. All sung to familiar tunes!
If you’d like to supplement your hands-on learning with some online games you might try:
PBS Kids has a fun and engaging Cat in the Hat flower finder game that covers lots of science!
Create your own flower garden with PBS Kids and Curious George.
Primary Games has a variety of online flower games that feature how plants grow, the life cycle of plants, and flower matching games.
BOOKS ABOUT FLOWERS
Looking to dive into a good book about flowers? Check out these favorite flower books for kids.
FAVORITE FLOWER BOOKS
There are a ton of wonderful books to read for your flower theme preschool activities. Below are some of our favorite picture books for a flower theme.
OTHER PROPS AND TEACHING TOOLS
Reinforce learning with these hands-on materials for your flower theme. They can be used for sensory bins, crafts, and learning activities.
Gears are always a hit with little learners, and I love how they promote creative thinking and problem solving. This set goes perfectly with a flower theme!
FREE PRINTABLES
Practice early math skills in a fun hands-on way with this flower roll and color game.
This printable number sense flower math game covers representing numbers in various ways.
Practice letter recognition or sounds with this free printable roll and say spring ABC game.
Practice addition facts with this flower petal addition activity.
Practice math skills with these flower number sense activities.
Pick some flower buds or some petals and use them as math manipulatives on this free spring tree math printable.
Practice comparing larger numbers with this number comparison flower petal activity and free printable.
Work on simple addition by adding flower petals with this flower addition math game.
Build the letters of the alphabet with these free printable uppercase and lowercase flower ABC mats.
WHAT NEXT?
As you wrap up your flower theme preschool activities take note of what the kids were most interested in throughout the theme. Continue on by investigating one of those concepts more in depth. Below are some possible suggestions. Themes we have printable lesson plans for include links after them.
- Plants
- Forest Animals-lesson plans available for home preschool and preschool classrooms.
- Leaves-lesson plans available for home preschool and preschool classrooms.
- Trees-lesson plans available for home preschool and preschool classrooms.
- Seeds-lesson plans available for home preschool and preschool classrooms.
- Spring-preschool lesson plans available
RETURN TO OUR MAIN PRESCHOOL THEME PAGE FOR MORE IDEAS TO EXPLORE
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