Here are our favorite garden-based homeschool resource picks for kindergarten and elementary! We’ve had a beautiful homeschool year so far and I’m so thankful for that. With the arrival of Spring, we’re now knee-deep in our Spring garden and transitioning into our big gardening-based subject months. I’ve separated these digital printable resources into subject categories and arranged them into unit studies similar to ones that I will set up for Elliot. All of these resources are also very complimentary so there’s a lot of freedom for overlap. I’ll also share some of our most asked about tools and supplies that we used for homeschooling at the end of the post. For subjects we generally follow Exploring Nature with Children‘s schedule for season-based subjects each week and swap out ones that are not of interest to E for specific garden subjects (such as strawberries during berry season). Make sure that you also check out the nature-based homeschool curriculum blog post if you missed it for more resources that we use and love!
Seeds
1. Seed flashcards from Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Spring Journal). This set contains a few select spring/summer vegetable and flower seeds such as tomatoes and pansies. We study things as we plant them in our garden, so these are great to display as we plant each particular seed!
2. Garden seed flashcards from Green Urban Creative. Illustrated cards of a wide variety of common vegetable and herb seeds such as corn, beans and radish. We display these also during weeks that we plant particular seeds.
3. Garden seed poster from Green Urban Creative. A poster that shows all of the the garden seeds from the flashcards above.
Seed Life Cycle
1. Life cycle of a seed poster from Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Garden Notebook). This poster illustrates the complete life cycle of a seed, from germination to pollination and production of new seed pods. We use this chart every season as we plant new seeds.
2. Photosynthesis poster by Simplyalove. A chart that shows how plants grow by using photosynthesis to create energy and food. This is a great addition to the seed life cycle chart and we like to display them alongside one another.
Parts of a Plant and Life Cycle
1. Parts of a plant chart by Honeycomb Cabin. This poster illustrates the different parts of a plant and talks about their specific function. We like to use this chart alongside our plant life cycle resources and anticipate using it during every planting season.
2. Parts of a flower flashcards from The Little Oak Learning (part of the Flowers Field Guide). This set contains illustrated cards of different parts of a flower as well as a few life cycle stages. We display and use these cards during our flower studies.
3. Parts of a daffodil activity by Fiddlesticks Education. Beautiful hand-painted watercolor activity that illustrates the different parts of a daffodil! We’ll be using this in Elliot’s morning basket all Spring as it is one of his favorites.
Vegetables
1. Vegetable category flashcards from Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Garden Notebook). This set contains a few different categories of vegetables, such as nightshades, greens and root vegetables. We use these seasonally as we plant vegetables from each category.
2. Vegetable count cards from Chickie & Roo (from a previous garden unit study, see the latest version here). This unit study has a bunch of great materials that cover a wide range of garden topics such as vegetable classification and plant life cycle.
3. Potato life cycle flashcards and poster by The Masterpiece Studio. These flashcards are part of a fun comprehensive unit study and cover all of the stages of potato growth. We’re growing potatoes this year in our garden so we’ll be using this entire unit study in a couple of weeks.
4. Square foot garden planning activity by Fiddlesticks Education. This fun activity includes illustrated raised beds and different crop squares that you can mix and match together. We use the square foot method in some of our garden beds so Elliot really likes this one.
Fruits
1. Strawberry writing worksheet by Gabitat Emporium. A letter worksheet that can be filled with loose parts or traced. The loose strawberry counters are from here and here.
2. Anatomy of a strawberry chart by Chickie & Roo. Part of a unit study that also includes fun hands-on activities and life cycle charts. Strawberries are Elliot’s favorite fruit, and we grow them in our garden so we will use this all throughout berry season.
3 / 4. Lemon life cycle poster, flashcards and counting cards by The Masterpiece Studio. The very first tree that we bought for our garden was a lemon tree and we’ll be using all of the resources from this unit study throughout the season.
Medicinal Plants
1. Plant ally study units by Tanglewood Hollow. These unique unit studies contain recipe and information cards on select medicinal plants. We’ll be using the elderberry plant study, blue violet plant study and echinacea plant study throughout the season.
2. Dandelion life cycle poster by Gabitat Emporium. This poster illustrates the complete life cycle of a dandelion, from bud to dispersal. We’ll be using this unit study during our general plant life cycle studies.
3. Medicinal herbs flashcards by Brave Grown Home. This set contains illustrated cards and facts for a variety of medicinal plants and herbs. We’ll be using a lot of these this year as we study things we are growing in our garden, such as chamomile, yarrow and elderberry.
4. Parts of a dandelion flashcards by Gabitat Emporium. Included in the dandelion unit study with the life cycle poster above. These are in black and white and can also be colored in!
Additional resources we love:
– Children’s herbalism course by Herbal Academy
– Wildcraft herbalist game
Garden Flowers
1. Garden flowers poster by Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Garden Notebook). This poster shows a variety of different garden flowers that are ideal for cutting gardens! This is a great resource for general garden flower studies.
2. Sunflower anatomy poster by Simplyalove. This poster illustrates the different parts of a sunflower. This is a garden favorite of ours and we’ll definitely be doing a complete unit study for it.
3 / 4. Sunflower life cycle poster and flashcards by Fiddlesticks Education. This poster illustrates the complete life cycle of a sunflower and is part of a larger nature pack that has a bunch of great resources! We’ll also be using this one during our sunflower unit study.
5. Parts of a sunflower activity by Fiddlesticks Education (part of the Vegetable Garden Pack. A fun labeling activity that teaches the parts of a sunflower. We put activities like these in our morning basket during weeks we are studying the subject.
Additional resources we love:
– Sunflower life cycle unit by Green Urban Creative
– Flower of the month club by Chickie & Roo
Pollinators – Bees
1. Honey bee wheel by Little Oak Learning. Interactive wheel that illustrates jobs of a worker honey bee. This is one of our favorite bee resources and we use it every year!
2. Bee pollination poster by Honeycomb Cabin. This is a great little poster that has information on how bees pollinate flowers. This is a part of a larger wildflower and pollinator bundle that has a bunch of other great resources!
3. Bee chart by Gabitat Emporium. This chart shows different types of bees alongside a fact about them. This is a great general poster to use during a bee unit study.
4. Bee flashcard by Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Garden Notebook). This set contains a few common garden bees such as mason bees, bumblebees and honey bees.
5. Beekeeping flashcards by The Little Oak Learning. This unique set of flashcards contains different elements related to beekeeping. There’s a card on beeswax which we also display during candle-making season!
6. Bee life cycle poster by Honeycomb Cabin. This poster illustrates the complete life cycle of a honeybee from egg through adulthood. This is another one that we will use during our bee studies.
7. Bee anatomy labeling activity by Gabitat Emporium. This labeling activity teaches the different parts of a bee. We will use this activity in Elliot’s morning basket during our bee study week.
Pollinators – Butterflies
1. Swallowtail butterfly anatomy poster by Gabitat Emporium. This poster shows the different parts of a swallowtail butterfly. It’s in black and white so it can be colored in and is a great addition to a butterfly unit study.
2. Monarch flashcards from Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Spring Journal). This set contains a few major garden pollinators along with some facts about them.
3. >Monarch life cycle flashcards
Garden Friends
1. Black ant life cycle poster by Gabitat Emporium. This poster illustrates the complete life cycle of a black garden ant as well as their anatomy. We’ll be using this poster study during our ant unit.
2. Ant colony poster by Honeycomb Cabin. This poster beautifully illustrates of the different elements of an ant colony and is an essential resource for an ant study.
3. Mini beast flashcards by Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Garden Notebook. This set contains a selection of a few garden helpers which are great to display during your studies.
4. Garden ant anatomy poster by Fiddlesticks Education. This poster illustrates the different parts of a garden ant and is another great poster to display during an ant unit study.
5. Ladybug anatomy poster by Simplyalove. This poster illustrates the different parts of a ladybug. This would be a great addition to a unit study on garden helpers or specifically on ladybugs!
6. Ant number flashcards by The Masterpiece Studio. We’ll be using these fun numbered flashcards during counting activities during our ant study week.
7. Earthworm puzzle by The Little Oak Learning. One of Elliot’s morning basket favorites. The set contains several different mini beasts.
8. Earthworm poster by Twig and Moth. A fun poster that contains some fun facts about earthworms as well as labeled illustrations. We study worms often since we have started composting and will use this often.
Garden Foes
1. Garden pest poster by Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Spring Journal. This poster shows a selection of common “garden pests” and is a great addition to a general garden insect unit study!
2. Mini beast flashcards by Raising Up Wild Things (part of the Garden Notebook. This set contains a selection of a few garden pests which are great to display during the appropriate studies.
3. Grasshopper flashcard by The Little Oak Learning. This grasshopper flashcard is a part of the Insect Field Guide and is a favorite of Elliot’s. We display it often as well as use it when we study grasshoppers!
4. Grasshopper anatomy poster by Simplyalove. This poster illustrates the different parts of a grasshopper and has become another favorite of Elliot’s.
5 / 6. Snail lacing card and counting cards by Chickie & Roo. These are my absolute favorite (of course) and are included in this great snail pack. I know these will make an appearance in Elliot’s morning basket often.
Additional resources we love:
– Grasshopper prep pack by Chickie & Roo
Some of our favorite homeschool supplies:
– Paper cutter: for cutting all of our printables
– Cardstock paper: this is the heavy weight paper that I print all of our postcards and flashcards on.
– Wood card holders ( one | two ): for displaying flashcards during lessons and on Elliot’s nature table
– 3 part card tray: for use with 3 part matching cards
– Paper roller: We have this mounted on the wall in our homeschool area and I write our lesson plan on it every week!
This post contains affiliate links but all opinions are my own. I only recommend resources that we actually use ourselves. Read more about affiliate links here.
Lexi says
These resources are beautiful. Do you sell them?
Woodlark says
Hi Lexi,
I don’t but they’re all linked in the blog post!
– Ashley