Flowers in Springtime

Anzu the Great Listener written by Benson Shum

Anzu the kaiju loves to tend to his bonsai. Whenever he feels overwhelmed or unsettled, it helps him pause and reminds him to just…breathe.

Don’t Touch That Flower written by Alice Hemming

Squirrel is apprehensive about the arrival of Spring until he spots a wildflower and tries to claim it as his own, not understanding his overbearing protectiveness is doing more harm than good. Includes information on flowers.

A Crown for Corina written by Laekan Zea Kemp

Corina’s Abuela helps her select flowers that mean something to Corina from the garden for her Mexican flower crown that she will wear on her birthday, and explains the symbolic meaning of a birthday crown.

Tisha and the Blossoms written by Wendy Meddour

Tisha and Mommy are always having to hurry up. What would happen if they slowed down? A gentle, gorgeously illustrated story of mindfulness–and sharing the small moments.

Wildflower written by Melanie Brown

When little Daisy finds herself blooming in a garden she is happy to stretch her petals to the sky. How lovely it feels to be a flower in bloom! Until, Rose tells her that she doesn’t belong in the garden. Daisy is a weed, and just gets in the way. Other flowering plants and herbs in the garden agree with Rose, but some of the other garden inhabitants don’t. They suggest that Daisy is actually a wildflower, that can grow within or outside of gardens and has a purpose all of her own. Is Daisy a weed or a wildflower?

Have You Ever Seen a Flower? Written and illustrated by Shawn Harris

A child experiences a flower by seeing its colors, smelling its fragrance, and imagining a tiny world within it.

Welcome Flower Child: the magic of your birth flower written and illustrated by Brigette Barrager

Illustrations and rhyming text describe the birth month flowers, including March’s daffodils, June’s roses, and September’s asters, as well as how each represents children born in that month.

Dear Little One written by Nina Laden

This lyrical picture book celebrates all the wonder and beauty in the natural world, featuring Mother Nature personified. From the treasure of flowers to the mystery of insects this book encourages children to explore their world and be grateful for all that surrounds them.

Nonfiction

Flowers and plants written by Andrea Debbink

This field guide highlights 100 flowers and plants found throughout the world. Readers will gain a greater understanding about these living things and will be able to identify them in the wild. Features include a helpful introduction to the topic, a glossary, additional resources, and an index.

Georgia O’Keeffe: she saw the world in a flower written by Gabrielle Balkan

Have you ever wondered exactly what your favorite artists were looking at to make them draw, sculpt, or paint the way they did? In What the Artist Saw: Georgia O’Keeffe, meet famous American painter Georgia O’Keeffe. Step into her life and learn what led her to look closely at nature and paint her iconic paintings of flowers and bones. See the vast New Mexico landscapes that inspired her work. Have a go at producing your own close-up still-life artworks!

Dissecting a flower – preschool botany: https://www.giftofcuriosity.com/preschool-botany-lesson-part-3-dissecting-a-flower/

Homemade Watercolors from Fresh Flowers: http://www.learnplayimagine.com/2013/08/homemade-paint-natural-watercolors.html

Magic Blooming Flower Kids’ STEM Activity: https://thestemlaboratory.com/magic-blooming-flower/

Spring Science Activity for Kids: Chromatography Flowers: https://buggyandbuddy.com/spring-science-activity-for-kids-chromatography-flowers/

Spring Seeds

Plant the Tiny Seed by Christie Matheson

Plant a seed to watch it grow. Press on the cloud to make it rain. Jiggle the book to scatter the seeds. Interactive text teaches very young children how flowers sprout and mature.

Seed Magic by Natalie McKinnon

How can a tiny handful of seeds become a whole mountain of seeds? Seed Magic, that’s how! In this simple story of friendship, Little Spider teaches her friend Anxious Ant about the life cycle of plants, showing nature will provide all we need if we are not greedy.

Plants Can’t Sit Still by Rebecca E Hirsch

Describes some ways in which plants can move, from sunflowers turning towards sunlight and vines creeping up a fence to tulips folding in at night and maple seeds whirling like helicopters in the wind.

What Will Grow by Jennifer Ward

Seeds can be big and small, round and pointy, and all sorts of colors. But they all have one thing in common–inside waits a new plant life, waiting to emerge! This lush journey through an entire year follows seeds that bloom in the very beginning of spring, all the way through ones that sprout in winter.

Pandora by Victoria Turnbull

Pandora the fox lives alone in a junk yard. She’s depressed and has no contact with the outside world. Then, she rescues a blue bird. As she nurses him back to health, the bird collects seeds and trinkets for her. One day, the bird grows strong enough to fly away, but the garden seeds he brought begin to transform Pandora’s landscape.

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

While planting seeds in their garden, two animals learn the value of kindness.

Rooting for You : (a moving up story) by Susan Hood

A seed, afraid but bored in the dark soil, decides to put out one little root, then one little shoot, before learning that there are plenty of friends around for encouragement.

Plants Feed Me by Lizzy Rockwell

Watermelons are fruits. Cabbages are leaves. Walnuts are seeds. Carrots are roots. People eat many parts of plants. Even flowers!

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle

A simple description of a flowering plant’s life cycle through the seasons.

Comparing and sorting seeds: https://www.howweelearn.com/seed-activity-kids-gardening/

Giant sunflower craft: https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/04/in-the-garden.html

Garden Discovery

The Children’s Garden : Growing Food in the City by Carole Lexa Schaefer

 Youngsters explore the sights, smells, sensations, and tastes of growing their own food in a community garden. Story based on the Children’s Garden in Seattle.

Anywhere Farm by Phyllis Root

All it takes for an anywhere farm is one farmer, plus soil and sunshine, some water, and a seed.

Florette by Anna Walker

When Mae’s family moves from the country to the city, she is sad to leave behind her beloved backyard garden but before long, she finds a way to start a new garden.

Stories from Bug Garden by Lisa Moser

The garden was old and forgotten, with a tumbledown wall and a one-wheeled barrow. So they moved in one by one, by one. What may appear to be an abandoned garden is actually home to an eclectic array of insects, from a ladybug who prefers making mud angels to acting like a lady, to a roly-poly bug who loves to roll, to a cricket who dreams of grand adventures.

Snail has Lunch by Mary Peterson

When Snail’s bucket home is turned over, a ladybug takes him on a journey through the vegetable garden, discovering delicious new foods while encountering new animals.

Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner

Up in the garden, the world is full of green–leaves and sprouts, growing vegetables, ripening fruit. But down in the dirt there is a busy world of earthworms digging, snakes hunting, skunks burrowing, and all the other animals that make a garden their home.

Square Cat ABC by Elizabeth Schoonmaker

Eula, the square cat, grows many vegetables in her garden but cannot be persuaded to like spinach.

A Year in Our New Garden by Gerda Muller

Join Anna and Benjamin as, with a little help from their neighbor, they spend a year learning about all the wonderful things you can do in a garden: planting, harvesting, playing, enjoying picnics and spotting wildlife.

Sticky Window flower garden:https://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2013/03/sticky-window-flower-garden.html

Coffee Filter Art Flowers: https://fun-a-day.com/coffee-filter-art-flowers/

Learning Science the Montessori Way

Teach Me to do it Myself by Maja Pitamic

This practical book is filled with fun, simple and inexpensive activities that you can do with your preschooler. Each activity has a picture next to its description, a numbered list of directions, a list of what you will need and similar activities to try. The book is divided into sections:

• Life Skills
• Developing the Senses
• Language Development (including letters, word building, and first sentences)
• Numeracy Skills (learning numerals, learning quantities, adding and subtracting numbers and quantities, and shopping number and numeral vocabulary)
• Science Skills

Some examples of the activities are:

• Distinguishing sounds with objects such as 2 pan lids or a jar of coffee to shake
• Musical scales using 5 glass bottles with varying levels of water.
• Discovering colors using paint color sample strips
• Understanding volume and estimation with water in different glass sizes
• Making land models with disposable dishes, paint and play dough

The book How to raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way has a chapter on exploring the wider world with the key idea that children are little scientists, with a drive for discovery. It includes ideas for working in the family garden, taking a walk in the forest, and making your own nature museum. Another chapter includes ways to build sensory awareness and sensory activities that help children learn such as texture matching.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

My Garden by Kevin Henkes

Up, Down and Around by Katherine Ayres

Find a number of suggested science activities by using the links below:

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/gardening/science.htm

http://www.preschooleducation.com/scgarden.shtml

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/gardening/gardening_science.htm

Animal Behavior

In the Garden: Who’s Been Here? by Lindsay Barrett George

Print different animal tracks from the internet and have the children guess what animal made them.