Books about Plants/Gardens

The Carrot Seed
Planting a Rainbow
Let's Grow a Garden
Growing Vegetable Soup
The Little Red Hen
Eating the Alphabet

Plants and Gardens Crafts

Coffee Filter Flowers
Get coffee filters and watercolors and let the children paint them. When they are dry, pinch the middle of the coffee filter with your thumb and pointer finger and twist it so it looks like a blossom or a pansy. Twist a pipe cleaner around the bottom of it for the stem. Spray them with perfume.

Lai Making
Cut out small flowers out of construction paper. Punch a hole in the center of them. Cut colored straws into different sized segments. Cut a piece of yarn for each child large enough for a necklace. Let the child alternate using the flowers and straw pieces.

Vase Decorating
Use clean baby food jars (taller ones) for the vase. Let the children cut crepe paper into small pieces. Using a paintbrush, spread glue on one side of the jar at a time and place the crepe paper on it. If you spread glue over the whole thing at once it is rather messy and hard to hold. The children might need help brushing a thin layer of glue over it to keep it all on an laying flat. They will need to dry overnight.

Flower Picking (Picking Songs)

Make a flower garden on a piece of construction paper. Have the tops of the flowers separate from the stems (detachable). Laminate the page with the stems and laminate the flowers seperate (so they can be removed). Write songs on the backs of the flowers and then velcro or tape them to be on top of the stems in the garden. Have a child come up and pick a flower from the garden and sing the song that is on the back of it. Great opening transition.
You could make any background you would like. You could do a clown holding balloons, bubblegum balls in a machine, fish in the sea, etc. It could fit any theme.

Musical Flowers

Make flowers out of construction paper and laminate them. Make one for every child in your class plus a few extra (just in case). I made my flowers different colors and put # in the center of them. You could put shapes on them too if you wish. Then you put on some music (something to do with spring or plants or gardens would be fun) and have then children walk around the flowers. Then when the music stops, you call out a number, shape or color (adjust to their age/ability). The child standing near that flower holds it up and then they get to choose a treat/sticker and then be your helper and watch the other children until the activity is over. This is great because you can ask your 2 year old what color their flowers is, your 3 year old what shape they have, and your 4 year old the number. It is quickly and easily changed to fit every age.