Gardening: Activities for 3-5 Year Olds - 2nd Edition Updated 2012 edition

Gardening offers children a wealth of knowledge and experiences and many opportunities to develop new skills. They may learn to grow and care for seeds and plants and to observe, discover and record how and why they grow, or fail to grow. The practical activities include growing gardens in jars, creating miniature gardens, investigating how much different types of soil weigh, making leaf prints and pressing fl owers. An early years group without an outdoor area of their own could carry out many of the activities indoors. All of the play activities are designed to develop important preschool skills and a deeper understanding of the world and are linked to the Early Learning Goals of the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage, revised by the Department of Education for September 2012.