More classroom resources

Florida Wildflower Foundation resources:

Planning your school garden (Practical information on wildflower gardens and creating garden teams with volunteers)
Linking your garden to your curriculum (Ideas for creating curriculum goals and projects that incorporate your campus wildflower garden)
Wild About Wildflowers! Activity Guide (A 139-page activity guide addressing Florida native wildflowers and their purpose and place in Florida’s unique habitats. Activities are correlated to third- and fourth-grade standards but are amenable to all grade levels.)
Wildflower Crossword Puzzle (Grades 3–5)
Wildflower Maze (Grades K–2)
Wildflower Word Search (Grades 3–5)
Flower Friday (200+ wildflower profiles)

Order seeds for your garden:

Wildflower videos:

Choosing wildflower species for your garden:

UF/IFAS Extension offices:

To find your local extension agent or office, visit solutionsforyourlife.ifas.ufl.edu/map/.

Classroom and garden activities:

Florida Wildflowers and Butterflies, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida (Click on photos for identification and gardening information)
School garden resources and grants, Sarasota County IFAS Extension: http://sarasota.ifas.ufl.edu/Hort/schoolgarden.shtml
Florida Automated Weather Network Factsheet (Calculate the proper amount of water needed for irrigation)
Kids Gardening (Lesson plans, activities)
A Nature Art Journal by Elizabeth Smith (Nature art journal template and coloring pages)

Classroom environmental education:

Celebrating Wildflowers, US Forest Service
League for Environmental Educators of Florida (LEEF)
Center for Invasive Species (Learn about and report invasive plants and animals in Florida)
Marvelous Explorations Through Science and Stories: MESS®, Florida Museum of Natural History (Science-centered curriculum for 3–5 year olds)
Project Budburst, Chicago Botanical Gardens (Investigate climate change through plant phenology)
Project Learning Tree, University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (Educational resources and guides for early childhood, elementary, middle and high school)
St. Johns River Water Management District Teacher Resources
Southeast Environmental Education Alliance (SEEA)

Butterflies:

Project Butterfly Wings, Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida
Live Monarch (Raise a butterfly online)
Monarch Joint Venture, University of Minnesota (Help collect longterm national data)

Other insects:

Pollinator profiles, Florida Wildflower Foundation
Million Pollinator Garden Challenge (Register public and private gardens to support pollinators)
Northeast Florida’s Native Bees (Gardening for bees in Northeast Florida; native bee identification)
Dragonfly Pondwatch (Register your pond and track dragonflies)
Florida Bug Club, University of Florida, Entomology Department
Bumblebee Watch (Identify and track North American bumblebees)

Birds:

Amphibians and reptiles:

Kids’ Corner, University of Florida, Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation (Amphibian and reptile coloring and activity books)
How to Make a Treefrog House, University of Florida, Department of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation

Links to school gardening sites:

Links to Florida wildflower and native plant information:

Grants and other resources:

Children’s books on gardening and nature in Florida:

The Florida Scrub Coloring Book, Mark Deyrup & Kevina Vulinec
The Nature of Florida’s Neighborhoods: Including Bats, Scrub jays, Lizards and Wildflowers, Cathie Katz and Jim Angy
Creatures and Plants in Florida: Education for Everyone Series, Jacqueline Gonzalez
National Audubon Society First Field Guide Series, Chanticleer Press
The Tiny and Tough Miami Blue Butterfly, Geena M. Hill and Sarah Steele Cabrera, Florida Museum of Natural History (coloring book)

Children’s books on nature education:

On One flower: Butterflies, Ticks and a Few More, Anthony Fredericks (Grade K–4)
A Kid’s Ecojournal Series, Toni Albert
Citizen Scientists: Be a Part of a Scientific Discovery from your own Backyard, Loree Griffin Burns and Ellen Harasimowicz
Homes for Wildlife: A Planning Guide for Habitat Enhancement on School Grounds, Marilyn C. Wyzga
Greening School Grounds — Creating Habitats for Learning, Tim Grant and Gail Littlejohn (Grades K–12)
Interpreting the Great Outdoors: Wildflower Series, Beverly Magley
The Nature Connection — An Outdoor Workbook for Kids, Families and Classrooms, Claire W. Leslie
Restoring Wetlands (Let’s Explore Science), Jeanne Sturm
The Flower Hunter: William Bartram, America’s First Naturalist, Deborah Kogan Ray
My Schoolyard Garden, Steve Rich (Grades K–3)

Other children’s books:

The Tiny Seed, Eric Carle
Hare and the Big Green Lawn. K.C. Robey & L MacDougall
Big Yellow Sunflower. Frances Barry (Ages 3–8)
Flip, Float, Fly: Seeds on the Move, JoAnn Early Macken
Mother Earth and her Children, Sybil Van Offers & S. Shoen-Smith (Ages 4–12)
A Seed is Sleepy, Dianna Hutts Aston (Ages 4–12)
Once Around the Sun, Bobbi Katz & LeUyen Pham (Ages 4–12)
From Seed to Plant, Gail Gibbons
Roots Shoots Buckets Boots: Gardening Together with Children, Sharon Lovejoy
Gardening with Children (Brooklyn Botanical Garden), Hanneman, Hulse, Johnson, Kurland, Patterson
The Curious Garden, Peter Brown
Echoes for the Eye: Poems to Celebrate Patterns in Nature, Barbara J. Esbensen
Saving the Seeds of Wonder, Marc Rogers
Garden Crafts for Kids: 50 Great Reasons to get your Hands Dirty, Diane Rhodes
Miss Rumphius, Barbara Cooney

Identification guides and websites:

All About Birds, Cornell University Lab of Ornithology (Online bird guide, bird ID help and bird sounds)
Flower Friday, Florida Wildflower Foundation (250+ wildflower profiles)

Free smartphone apps:

Florida Gopher Tortoise Smartphone App (Help document gopher tortoise locations)
North American Bird Guide, National Audubon Society

(Resources updated 09/2018)