Gail Gibbons Spring Unit Study for Homeschool: Seeds, Plants, and More

Spring has a way of turning kids into full-time noticers. They spot buds you didn’t see, ask why worms are on the sidewalk, and suddenly care deeply about what’s happening in every patch of dirt. This spring unit study is built for that season of curiosity—when science feels less like “a subject” and more like what your child is already doing.

Explore Spring with Gail Gibbons is a spring homeschool unit study for preschool through early elementary that focuses on how plants grow, where food comes from, and how spring changes the world around us. It’s open-and-go, hands-on, and screen-free—so you’re not hunting down supplies or trying to piece together a plan in the middle of an already-busy week.

Gail Gibbons is one of those authors a lot of homeschool families come back to again and again, especially in the early years, because her nonfiction is genuinely built for kids. Her books are known for clear, kid-friendly explanations, bright illustrations, and simple diagrams that make big topics feel understandable without watering them down. She’s written and illustrated well over 100 nonfiction titles on everything from deserts and owls to weather and community helpers, and her style is consistent in the best way: short chunks of information, strong vocabulary support, and visuals that actually teach (not just decorate).

This unit is centered around four Gail Gibbons titles that make plant science feel clear and doable for young learners:

• The Vegetables We Eat
• The Fruits We Eat
• From Seed To Plant
• From Seed To Plant Workbook

The books give you the vocabulary and the “big picture,” and then the activities make it real—because kids remember what they can touch, build, and observe.

This first part of your spring unit study is the “how plants work” foundation, and it’s the part that makes everything else in the unit click. You’ll read From Seed To Plant and use the workbook pages as quick check-ins, so kids aren’t just hearing new words like seed, sprout, roots, and pollination—they’re seeing how those ideas connect.

We start simple with the big idea that plants are living things, then move into seeds (what they are, what they do, and how they spread). From there, kids learn the parts of a plant and what each part is “in charge of,” and then they jump into hands-on activities that make it all feel real. There’s a growing project where kids get to watch a seed change over time, plus a few creative projects that let them show what they’ve learned without it feeling like a test.

You’ll also cover flowers and pollination in a way that makes sense for young kids. And because kids learn best when their hands are busy, this section mixes in playful practice, too—like a reusable flower garden mat where kids use playdough to build flowers and “grow” their garden. It keeps the learning light, keeps them engaged, and quietly reinforces the plant vocabulary you’re introducing through the book.

This section is where plant science starts showing up in everyday life—like in your fridge, on your cutting board, and in the “wait… so carrots grow WHERE?” conversations. You’ll read The Vegetables We Eat and help kids understand that vegetables aren’t just “food,” they’re different parts of a plant. Some grow underground, some grow above ground, and each one has a job in the plant’s life.

To keep it hands-on (because those bright little brains learn best while their hands are moving), kids get to build and play their way through the ideas. There’s a veggie math mat where they roll a die, match the number to a vegetable, and use playdough to make it—so they’re practicing number skills while creating their own little garden. It’s simple, but it keeps them invested, and it naturally leads to great questions like “Why do we eat the root?” and “Which part is the leaves?”

This section also includes a standout art project that helps kids really “see” what they’re learning: drawing and painting vegetables the way they exist in real life, with the tops above ground and the roots or bulbs below the soil. It’s one of those activities that sticks, because the next time they pull a carrot out of the ground (or even just see one at the store), they’ll remember exactly what was happening under the dirt!

After vegetables, fruit is the part that usually makes kids feel like they’ve cracked a code. You’ll read The Fruits We Eat and connect it back to what they already know about flowers, pollination, and seeds. It’s a simple shift, but it helps kids understand why fruit exists in the first place (and why it’s usually full of seeds).

This section also includes your strawberry growing project, which is a great way to practice patience and observation without it feeling heavy. Kids get to care for something over time, check for tiny changes, and notice how a plant develops in stages. And since waiting for sprouts can feel like time moving backwards to kids, the unit balances that out with hands-on activities that keep the fruit theme going while the seeds do their slow, impressive work.

Here are a few of the kinds of things kids will be doing in this section:

• Talking about seeds and why fruits have them

• Comparing different fruits (how they look, where they grow, what’s inside)

• Creating strawberry-themed art that ties back to what they’re learning

• Growing their own strawberry plant and tracking changes over time

This last stretch of the unit is where everything comes together in a celebration of growth. Instead of just learning about spring, kids get to watch it and build it—life cycles, insects, plants, and a whole garden scene they can show off when they’re done!

The Butterfly Garden is a highlight for a reason. We are SO excited to include a full butterfly garden kit in this crate, including a voucher for caterpillars at no cost to you. Watching a caterpillar change over time is one of those experiences that turns “life cycle” from a vocabulary word into something a child actually understands. It also gives you the easiest kind of science conversation, because the questions come naturally: What looks different today? What do you think is happening now? What do we notice that we didn’t notice yesterday?

To keep the momentum going, there are hands-on art projects that connect back to what they’re observing. Kids create pop-out plant projects that reinforce plant parts and growth, and they make a Pop-Up Doodle Bug that lets them design their own insect with patterns and details—so they’re noticing what bugs look like while also getting a really fun mixed-media craft.

Here’s a quick peek at what this section includes:

• Observing a real butterfly life cycle up close and recording what changes

• Building pop-out plant crafts that show how plants grow and bloom

• Creating a 3D doodle bug with watercolor patterns (and lots of personality)

• Wrapping up with a spring-themed diorama that pulls the whole unit together

The diorama is the final project, and it’s the perfect wrap-up because it lets kids use everything they’ve learned in one creative build. Using the Knowledge Crates box, air-dry clay, and construction paper, they can create a spring scene with flowers, a garden, and one or more life cycles (seed to plant, bud to bloom, caterpillar to butterfly—whatever they want to show). It’s open-ended in the best way, because it gives kids ownership, but it still clearly shows what they learned when they explain their finished scene.

Kids will walk away understanding:

This unit is a sweet mix of books, hands-on projects, and real-life observing—so kids aren’t just learning about spring, they’re paying attention to it. By the end, they’ve built, grown, watched, and created their way through the season in a way that feels fun (and somehow still counts as school).

If you like having a little extra structure (or just backup ideas in your back pocket), we’ve built in a few helpful supports:

• 4-Week Pacing Plan – When you purchase the Explore Spring with Gail Gibbons crate, you’ll receive a four-week plan via email outlining which activities to complete each week. It takes the guesswork out of pacing and helps you stay on track without overthinking it!
• Free Spring with Gail Gibbons Library Book List – We’ve created a curated book list to expand your learning even further. It’s completely free to download (no purchase necessary), so you can grab additional titles from your local library and deepen the experience.