What your Preschooler will Learn by Pressing Flowers and Leaves:

- The various parts of leaves

- The various parts of flowers

- How to dry flowers and leaves to preserve them for always

What you will Need for a Nature Book:

- Leaves and flowers

- A phone book or another heavy book

- Tissue paper or parchment paper

- Construction paper

- Glue

- Sheet protectors

- 3 - ring binder

What To Do:

Step one: Go for a walk with your preschooler and have them collect attractive leaves and flowers. If the weather is poor, go to a local indoor garden, hothouse or arboretum.

As your preschooler collects the flowers, point out the different parts—the petals, the anthers (the inside fuzzy looking bits,) the stigma (the vase shaped inside), the stem and any pollen. Point out that flowers start off as buds and over time gradually open into flowers. Teach your preschooler that flowers contain the tiny seeds that will grow new plants.

Explain the different parts of a leaf. Point out the blade (the main part of the leaf) and the veins. Teach your preschooler that leaves help the plant get sunlight and air that they need to grow big and strong.

Step two: After you and your preschooler have collected enough leaves and flowers, you'll want to press them between two pieces of tissue paper or parchment paper. You can put several leaves and flowers together to use the same piece of tissue paper, but try not to let the flowers and leaves touch.

Step three: Put your tissue paper between the pages of your heavy book. Leave your book alone for a week to ten days.

Step four: After a week or ten days, take your tissue paper out of the book. Your flowers and leaves should be perfectly dried out and ready for your greeting cards.

Step five: Have your preschooler glue the flowers and leaves onto your construction paper. Write down the common names of the plants beneath the pressed flowers and leaves

Step six: Slide the pages into sheet protectors

Step seven: Arrange the sheet protectors in a 3-ring binder your preschooler has decorated.

Step eight: Have your preschooler continue to add to it.

Variations:

- Don't feel you're limited to just pressing flowers and leaves to make a nature book. Have your preschooler create homemade thank-you notes, greeting cards, holiday cards, gift tags or simply art with their pressed flowers and leaves.

Hi! I'm Theresa Halvorsen, the preschool science and nature writer for Preschoolrock.com. I have twin boys and am blown away by their fascination with preschool science and how the world works around them. I am always looking for fun and simple science activities so preschoolers can learn about science and the natural world. Please contact me with any suggestions, ideas or questions you have about this site.

Helpful Tips for Parents

• Outdoor science (nature observation, weather tracking, garden study) is as rigorous as lab science and has the added benefit of physical activity and environmental connection.

• Safety first: always supervise, taste-test nothing, wash hands after experiments. Model good safety habits — goggles, careful pouring, cleanup. Safety habits built in preschool persist.

• Always ask "What do you think will happen?" before running an experiment. Prediction is the core of scientific thinking, and preschoolers' predictions are always worth hearing.

• Repeat experiments multiple times. Reliability — the same result happening consistently — is a key scientific concept, and repetition gives preschoolers the proof they find satisfying.

Frequently Asked Questions

My preschooler loses interest in the experiment before it's done. What do I do?

Most preschool attention spans support 5–15 minutes of structured science activity. Design experiments with quick visible results — the baking soda + vinegar reaction, the pepper + soap demonstration, the oobleck — rather than long-waiting experiments as a first experience. Save multi-day experiments (crystal growing, plant sprouting) for when the child has developed patience and the routine of checking daily has been established through previous successful experiments. End an experiment early rather than forcing continuation — a positive incomplete experience invites return more than a forced completion.

Related reading: See also our color mixing science and our garden science guide for more ideas on this topic.

🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🔄 Flexible Thinking — When an experiment produces an unexpected result, children practice adapting their thinking — a form of cognitive flexibility that makes them more resilient learners across all subjects.
• 🌍 Nature Literacy — Learning the names, habits, and relationships of plants, animals, and natural phenomena builds the nature literacy that connects children to the living world and lays the groundwork for environmental stewardship.
• 🔍 Observation Skills — Paying close attention to what happens during an experiment — noting colors, textures, movements, and changes — builds the observational precision that all scientific and analytical work requires.
• 🔬 Scientific Method — Even a simple experiment teaches the predict-test-observe cycle that is the foundation of scientific thinking — and preschoolers who internalize this process approach problems with genuine scientific confidence.

With this preschool plant activity, your preschooler can actually create a homemade nature book. You will also be creating an educational moment for your preschooler with this preschool plant activity. By pressing your own flowers and leaves and noting the names of the plants, your preschooler can learn all about flowers, leaves and plants.