Every winter, we struggle with the same thing in Wisconsin: the cold months seem to drag on. By mid January, I’m itching to start our garden Or stop by a local farm stand to get some fresh fruits and vegetables. Luckily, we found a few cold-weather friendly garden themed things to do to make January, February and even March more tolerable!
These simple winter garden activities for preschoolers make getting through the cold months so much more fun. Plus, you’ll be able to garden year-round regardless of where you live!
Most of these activities don’t require a ton of supplies. They’re a great way to spend the day if you’re feeling the winter blues, too. Keep reading to find the perfect easy winter garden activity for you and your preschooler!
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Winter Garden Activities for Preschoolers
Create a Windowsill Herb Garden
Windowsill herb gardens are such a delicious way to garden in the winter. One of the reasons we love indoor herb gardens so much is because it can help us teach gardening skills in a much smaller setting. This way, our daughter is able to help us with our outdoor garden a little more.
Don’t let not having the perfect windowsill for your garden stop you, either! You can easily create an indoor herb garden that can be moved with the sun throughout the day.
Learn how to make an indoor herb garden so you can enjoy fresh herbs all winter long.
Create a Garbage Garden
If you’re looking for a fun experiment to try in the winter, try regrowing plants from fresh produce. It’s a cool way to see what can grow in soil, water, or even just pebbles.
You can also grow a leafy garden with the tops of beets, carrots, turnips, celery bases, or other root vegetables. Check out this guide to garbage gardening to get details on growing everything from apples to pears, lemons to limes, parsnips to radishes and more.
Read Garden Books
One of our favorite ways to spend days where we’re stuck inside because of the temperature is to read spring themed books, especially garden ones. It’s a temporary escape from the gray days of winter and it gets us excited for planning our garden.
Check out these gardening books for toddlers for some ideas. A few of our favorite gardening books for preschoolers are listed below.
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Make Seed Bombs
Can’t wait to plant flowers in the spring? Make a seed bomb! Seed bombs are an easy garden activity that can be done in winter and saved for spring.
With just a few supplies, you’ll be able to make seed balls that are ready to be tossed in your backyard in an hour or two. Learn all about how to make seed bombs.
Build a Birdhouse
Building a birdhouse is a great indoor and outdoor winter garden activity for preschoolers. With a some help cutting the wood and assembling, kids have a blank canvas for them to decorate with paint. If you don’t have the tools available for cutting the pieces for a birdhouse, consider this birdhouse kit that comes with everything precut.
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If you’d prefer to build a bird a super simple feeder, here’s a few ideas that you might be able to make with things you already have at home:
- Cover a pine cone in peanut butter and roll it in bird seed
- Smear peanut butter on a bagel or a piece of toast and cover it in bird seed‘
- Hollow out an orange peel and fill it up with bird seed
Then just tie these homemade bird feeders up so they can hang from the tree. You can also make your own birdseed that can be formulated to attract more of your local birds. This is a fun way to teach kids about the birds that are native to your area.
Make a Terrarium
These are so many DIY terrarium ideas out there that this alone could keep you busy all winter long. If you’re missing the ocean, consider this beach inspired terrarium. Embracing winter or looking for a cute Christmas gift? Try this winter wonderland terrarium.
Or grab a terrarium kit that has everything you need to get started:
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Grow Houseplants or Succulents
Houseplants can turn a home into a tropical paradise – even in the middle of winter. There are tons of plants that you can grow with your preschooler that can help teach them the importance of proper plant care.
You can also grow succulents if you’re looking for a slightly more forgiving plant for your family. If you already have one or two, consider learning how to propagate or regrow succulents.
Paint Garden Stones and Pots
Painting garden stones or pots is a great way to get preschoolers interested in gardening. After they paint their items, they’ll get to appreciate their artwork all garden season long.
While you’re at it, you can paint some watermelon coasters out of the bottoms of your terra cotta pots.
You can also try making a handprint stepping stone out of air dry clay or grab this kit to easily create your own.
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Make Your Own Seed Markers
Seed markers are easy to make and can be done in so many ways. Popsicle stickers, rocks, clothespins, paint sticks, etc.
If you’re looking for something that won’t fade in the sun, check out these clay stamped seed markers.
Vermicomposting
We have yet to try Vermicomposting, but this is a great indoor winter garden activity. Vermicomposting uses worms to decompose waste, similar to regular composting. This makes a worm manure that can be used for a fertilizer. Learn more about vermicomposting or try out this Vermicomposting kit:
Plan Your Garden
This is probably my favorite winter garden activity for preschoolers because I love seeing what our daughter wants in our garden. Not only is it a great teaching opportunity, it also allows for a ton of creativity. We learn about spacing, measuring, plant needs, the garden season and more. But we also get to have fun with what we’d plant in our dream garden if we had all the space and resources.
We use our garden planner to plan ours out which helps us keep a record of everything we need to do throughout the harvest season.
Start Your Seeds
What better way to get through the colder months than to start your seeds for the garden? There are multiple benefits to starting your seeds indoors, but my favorite is that we can usually get our harvest even a little sooner.
This activity is great for preschoolers because they get to easily see the transformation from seed to plant. Plus, it’s a great activity to spend even a few minutes on every day.
Play Garden Games
Board games are one of our favorite things to do in winter so it only makes sense to add gardening board games for kids to the mix! Check out a few ideas below:
Books That Can Help With Winter Gardening
If you’re looking for some more ideas for gardening during the winter or with you kids, check out these books.
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I hope these ideas for winter garden activities for preschoolers help you make the most of long winters! If you have any other garden activities that you like to do in the winter with your young kids, I’d love to hear about them in the comments!