Inside: Add some of these gardening books to your classroom or home library. This is our favorite collection that we include in our gardening theme. Includes a free printable list for your convenience.
Spring is here, and that means gardening with our preschoolers!
I’ve made sure to stock our library with favorite gardening picture books. I also love to display them in our science area and on top of our shelves.
Do you have these books in your preschool collection? I’ve included a free printable list that you can download and use as a handy reference. Scroll down towards the end of this post to find it!
12 of the Best Gardening Books that Preschoolers Love
Planting a Rainbow
We read this book often during our spring theme because not only is it a fun gardening book, but it also focuses on the colors of the rainbow. It’s a great book for working on color recognition, and we’ve created a fun rainbow sensory bin based from it.
My Garden
Would you like to grow chocolate rabbits, flowers that change color, tomatoes that are as big as beach balls, and seashells in your garden? That’s exactly what happens in this book. You can then ask your preschoolers what they’d like to grow in their garden!
The Carrot Seed
This is a classic book that is part of our gardening theme year after year. We watch a little boy plant a carrot seed and take good care of it, even though everyone tells him it won’t grow.
Flower Garden
A little girl and her father buy plants and make a colorful window box to give to her mother as a gift. This is also a nice book about living in the city.
The Tiny Seed
A strong wind blows the flower seeds in the air and carries them far away, getting lost along the way. Some are burned by the sun, some are eaten by a bird, some fall into the ocean. Eventually only the tiniest seed remains, growing into a giant flower. We love to read this book while we plant our sunflower seeds.
Growing Vegetable Soup
This is a wonderful, simple book that introduces children to a variety of vegetables such as green beans, peas, zucchini, and carrots. The different seeds are shown as well as the tools that are used. A fun extension to this book is making vegetable soup with your children!
The Surprise Garden
This is another fun book that introduces children to vegetables that can be grown in the garden, and how tasty they become once they grow.
Inch by Inch: The Garden Song
This is a picture book version of one of our favorite gardening songs! We watch as a young gardener plant and take care of the seeds, eventually being able to eat them.
From Seed to Plant
This is a great resource to have at your science table while planting seeds. The drawings are big and beautiful, perfect for displaying.
A Seed Is Sleepy
This is a great book to use when comparing different types of seeds.
Sunflower House
Invite your preschoolers to wonder what they would do if they planted a sunflower house. It can create a great discussion during circle time and while planting your own mammoth sunflower seeds.
Butterflies in the Garden
The illustrations in this book are beautiful! We like to display this book on our science table when we are learning about the butterfly lifecycle.
And here are a few books I’ve since added to the list (especially for younger children):
The Little Gardener (Lola Reads)
What Happens Next? (Rookie Toddler Edition)
Lola Plants a Garden (Teenie Greenies)
More gardening resources:
- Over 240 gardening activities on my pin board!
- Flowers & Trees Preschool Lesson Plans
- Preschool Seeds Lesson Plans
