Garden activities for kids provide them with opportunities to engage with nature through sensory experiences like cloud watching, smelling flowers, or listening to birdsong.
Bug hotels are an engaging garden activity for kids that encourage insects to visit your garden and can serve as an educational way of teaching conservation principles.
Make a bug box
Kids love getting creative, and an ideal place for them to do this is in the garden. Kids will delight in using paper, paint, and pens in gardening activities that are both educational and enjoyable for them.
Bug boxes are a fun and affordable gardening activity for kids that will help support wildlife in your garden. Easy and cost-effective to make, you may already have materials lying around in your shed that can be used.
Kids of all ages will enjoy this exciting garden activity for kids! It is an effective and safe way to let off some steam while at the same time keeping active minds engaged in an engaging activity that’s both safe and healthy – ideal if your garden has fencing so they won’t run directly back out! However, planning ahead will be necessary; kids must know where they should stand.
Make a wigwam
Garden activities for kids are sure to get them outside and enjoying nature, whether that be foraging flowers and leaves for decorative art or mixing up their own mud potion to encourage microgreens to sprout, or designing an outdoor den for garden adventures. With all this fun-filled activity at their fingertips, these super-cool garden activities for kids are guaranteed to get them moving more and exploring outside!
Build a longhouse for your children to play in using sapling poles such as willow, birch, or sassafras saplings. Construct it as a dome shape using these saplings before covering it with strips of bark that can be hot-glued over its entire surface area to form “bark.” Leave one door opening for entryway use on one side as well as one hole at the top for smoke ventilation purposes before protecting the wood with waterproof paint to ward off elements – making this an easy project that older kids can complete themselves!
Make a fairy garden
Fairy gardens can be an engaging way for kids to play outside and experience nature. Not only are they enjoyable ways of getting kids involved with gardening, but they’re also great ways to teach about plant growth and symbiosis – not forgetting their beneficial effect on vegetables! Marigolds, petunias, Johnny-jump-ups, and mosses make ideal kid-friendly options!
Making a fairy garden is easy: simply choose a container or location, add plants that flourish there, then decorate with fairy features like ladders made of sticks, bridges from rock and moss, or streams made up of blue glass globs and fish tank gravel. Kids will also have fun adding features like ladders crafted out of sticks or ladders created from sticks for climbing plants – plus special touches like ladders crafted with sticks or blue glass globs and gravel created a stream!
Children can create their own fairy garden accessories using sculpting clay, such as mushrooms and toadstools, for easy and cost-effective garden activities for kids to complete.
Make a bug hotel
Building a bug hotel is an effective way to attract beneficial insects like bees and ladybugs into your garden, where they’ll pollinate plants while also controlling pests like greenfly.
Bring the kids outside to explore your garden and collect natural materials like twigs, straw, leaves, pine cones, and bark – as well as using terracotta pots, old bricks, or recycled roof tiles as base components of their insect hotel.
Fill containers with soil and sow seeds like radish or lettuce into them. As soon as their seedlings emerge, move them to a sunny windowsill and watch their growth! This activity provides children with an incredible learning opportunity while teaching them to appreciate food as they grow themselves! It also creates opportunities to talk about different animals playing their unique part in an ecosystem garden environment – even ones they find creepy!
Make a garden light
Gardening activities for kids can be both educational and enjoyable. From planting seeds or flowers, tracking daily growth can help children understand the scientific process better.
Make the hunt more nature-themed by assigning each child different flowers and bugs that they must identify, which will teach them the value of conservation.
Make science accessible for them with this fun activity by showing how plants breathe using the technique of placing a leaf in water and drawing and labeling each part. They can then learn what each component plays in ensuring the survival of a plant’s survival. Get creative by making your own garden lantern from recycled plastic bottles using this creative project guide here, or build one together using this kit shown above!
Make a butterfly garden
Looking out your window and watching butterflies flit through your garden is one of the great joys of gardening, providing beauty, color, and peace all at once.
Encouraging butterflies in your garden by planting blooms they love, such as native species, or mixing up colors will do just fine. Do your research beforehand as to which ones will draw them in!
Butterflies like to rest on moist surfaces like mud or soil to absorb minerals, so why not create your own butterfly drinking station by placing a shallow dish of water or a mixture of sand and soil in direct sunlight? Butterflies will happily enjoy sipping from these drinks of minerals!
Make a bird feeder
Your children will love crafting a bird feeder out of recycled plastic bottles if you have an outdoor space. Decorate it with natural elements such as leaves or sticks while coloring in various hues for an eye-catching display!
This easy, fun activity will encourage your kids to care for and appreciate wildlife in their gardens. Birds help pollinate flowers while simultaneously controlling pests like greenfly.
Make learning fun by creating a paper sundial for an additional educational experience! Your children will learn about the shadows cast by the sun at different times throughout the day while keeping track of time easily – not to mention an excellent opportunity to discuss recycling and material life cycles!
Make a bee hotel
Bee hotels are man-made habitats designed for non-aggressive bees like mason and leafcutter bees who don’t form colonies but still play an essential role in keeping our gardens healthy and diverse. These pollinators help to maintain biodiversity.
Bring your children together by creating a simple bee hotel from a tin can, yellow paint, and construction paper. For stripes on the bee hotel, cut strips of black construction paper to glue onto the yellow can leaving spaces between each strip.
Once the frame is dry, fill it with canes, reeds, and stems from around your garden that can be secured using string. Hang it somewhere sheltered from the rain where bees might find shelter – this activity makes for an easy gardening activity suitable for kids while teaching them about bees’ importance in our environment!
Make a fairy door
One of the best garden activities for kids that will foster their imagination is creating a fairy door. This project can easily be accomplished in just a few hours using wooden lollipop sticks. Decorate it further by adding buttons for doorknobs and other fun embellishments to bring an element of magic into their fairy world.
Fairy doors make an enchanting project that will provide years of enjoyment. Try placing one on trees, planters, and even posts or large rocks throughout your garden – this magical project can truly become part of family tradition!
An outdoor-themed treasure hunt can also be an engaging way for children to gain knowledge of their environment. They could hunt for bugs, birds, or butterflies; identify leaves and flowers; odor-scented blooms or simply go barefoot through the grass (see our sensory garden ideas for more ideas). Furthermore, having your children water plants regularly is another fantastic gardening activity that helps teach children the value of caring for living things.
Make a planter
A garden can be an incredible place for children, providing endless activities that encourage outdoor learning in an enjoyable way. From creating dens for garden adventures, planting bulbs in lasagna, or crafting outdoor potion kits; children will delight in discovering a whole world outside!
Employing an old toy truck as a planter is an excellent way to encourage children to get involved with gardening while simultaneously teaching them about how plants develop. Another great idea would be creating a milk jug bunny planter to upcycle materials and foster creativity.
Make a LEGO planter with your children to help develop skills and gain knowledge about various shapes and sizes, plus they’ll love seeing their designs come to life in your garden!