Looking for Change Using Seeds

Did you already take a neighborhood walk together or invite your students to draw what they could see out the window? Perhaps the children already noticed plants in your neighborhood.

This exploration offers the opportunity to focus on seeds and observe how plants grow. Young children may be surprised to discover all the seeds around them and to observe how plants grow. Depending on where you live, you may see plants sprouting from seeds in outside gardens, on windowsills, or through cracks in the sidewalk.

You are welcome to do as much or as little of this exploration as you like. Depending on the materials you have available and the growing season in your community, you may already have some seeds sprouting nearby.

Suggested Materials:

1.  Seeds from store or home: sunflower, basil, marigold, squash, pole bean) or home (dry beans in pantry).
2. An envelope
3. Soil
4. Egg crate/recycled container

Explore

In this exploration, we will focus on seeds and observing how plants grow. You might begin by telling students, “A seed is a baby plant waiting to grow. For a seed to become a plant, it needs four things: soil, water, sun and air.”

Or, you may want to have them watch this time lapse video of a seed growing into a plant:

For an exploration over time, have students plant seeds and watch them grow.

If you have not yet had students grow plants in your classroom, here are some different ways you can plant seeds indoors:

• Materials and suggestions for planting seeds in egg cartons
• Or in glass jars
• Or, outside

These are easy, student friendly directions: Use an egg crate or recycled container as your plant pot. Be sure your container contains a small hole in the bottom for water to drain. Fill container with soil, sow/plant seed, water, place in a sunny location and wait! Most seeds take 5-10 days for germination. Check soil daily to ensure it remains moist (not too wet/dry). Your seed may or may not grow. It’s okay either way. This is an experiment.

As the teacher, you may want to consider planting more than one seed, different kinds of seeds and/or different locations for your pot.

For reference, here is what a sunflower seedling beginning to grow looks like.

Create

Student writers can

Design a seed packet for a real or an imaginary plant. For this, they can describe the size of the seed and label it and give their seeds a name. This could be the scientific name of the plant or a name they create! They can draw the plant or flower on the front of the seed packet and then, on the back, write directions for growing it and taking care of it once it is planted.

-or-

Write a story about the plant that will grow from this seed. Will the plant be large or small? What will people do with the plant when it has grown?

Examples: kid-designed seed packets:

Step 3: Connect

Part of being a writer is sharing your work and ideas with others. Make sure that students get to share their writing in class, at a larger school gathering or with family or friends.

Resources

Find books about Seeds and Plants. Here is one we love:

The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle