The Garden Classroom Hands-On Activities in Math, Science, Literacy, and Art

Creative ways to use the garden to inspire learning, for kids ages 4-8

Packed with garden-based activities that promote science, math, reading, writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts, The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoor play and learning ideas—however big or small your garden.

Every garden offers children a rich, sensory playground, full of interesting things to discover and learn about. There's a whole lot of science happening right before their eyes. The garden can also be a place to develop math and literacy skills, as the outdoors offers up plenty of invitations to weave learning into everyday gardening. The garden classroom is a place where plants grow, and where children grow too.

CATHY JAMES is passionate about kids, play, and gardens. She's spent half of her working career coaching and training adults and switched over to working with babies, toddlers, and preschoolers after she had her two daughters. She used to run a home daycare and a School Gardening Club project. She now writes and publishes the successful kids' activities blog, NurtureStore; she also writes for BabyCentre and KidsActivitiesBlog.com. She lives in the UK on the edge of a city and has a tiny walled garden.

List of activities:

1. Let's Grow! Garden Basics
Planting Seeds / Egg Heads and Tin Can Hair Salon / Quirky Eco Planters / Painted Plant Pots / Grow Your Own Meadow / Snipping Garden / Plant Labels / DIY Watering Can / Garden Power Potion / Harvesting Your Own Seeds

2. Play and Imagination
How to Build a Fort / Pretend Play Potting Shed / Mud Pie Tea Party / Fairy Garden / Make a Dinosaur World / Miniature Garden / Garden Sensory Tubs / Sensory Treasure Hunt / Play Dough in the Garden / Snail Races

3. Reading and Writing
Write a Garden Journal / Chalk Observation Station / Sensory Word Hunting / Nature Treasure Bag / Jack and the Beanstalk / Story Stones / Fairy or Gnome Mailbox

4. Science and Math
Math Pebbles / Investigation Table / Growing Seeds Experiment: Part One / Growing Seeds Experiment: Part Two / Mini Beast Bingo / Bird Cafe / Creatures Close Up / Bug Hotel / Ladybug Number Line / One Yard Leaf Race / Host a Plant Olympics / Sunflower Height Chart / Symmetry Butterflies / Tree Trunk Geoboard

5. Arts and Crafts
Handprint Sunflower / Cement Tile Art / Garden Bunting / Finger-Knit a Flower / Leaf Collage / Daffodil Bunting / Daffodil Pinwheel / Large-Scale Landscape Art / Spring Flower Bouquet / Sticky Pictures / Caterpillars / Clothespin Butterfly / Clay Leaf Impressions / Clay Faces and Creatures / Land Art Wreath / Land Art Mandala / Make a Scarecrow

6. Garden Recipes
Customized Soup / Basil Pesto / Zucchini Relish