Gardening offers children a wealth of knowledge and experiencesand many opportunities to develop new skills. They may learn togrow and care for seeds and plants and to observe, discover andrecord how and why they grow, or fail to grow.The practical activities include growing gardens in jars, creatingminiature gardens, investigating how much different types of soilweigh, making leaf prints and pressing fl owers. An early yearsgroup without an outdoor area of their own could carry out many ofthe activities indoors.All of the play activities are designed to develop importantpreschool skills and a deeper understanding of the world and arelinked to the Early Learning Goals of the Statutory Framework forthe Early Years Foundation Stage, revised by the Department ofEducation for September 2012.