Growing Pains: Seed to Plant
Summary: Seeds do not stay small. A little soil, water, and sunshine are all it takes for these little pods to break free and put down roots. Using their imaginations, students will canvas the garden trying to match small seeds to their plant counterparts.
Pre-Visit Planning:
-
- Gather: Seeds of all shapes and sizes, magnifying glass, paper, crayons, old magazines, scissors, and glue
-
- Explore: The garden!
-
- Read: The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
In the Garden:
Today, we’re going to use our imaginations and guess what each of these small seeds will grow into after it is planted. As you can see, these seeds begin very small—we may even need a magnifying glass to see them well—but they will start to grow and change once they’re planted. Let’s walk through the garden and see if we can match these little seeds to the plants growing there.
Questions to Explore:
-Do you see anything that is the same between the seed in your hand and the plant?
-What do you see that is different between the seed and the plant?
-How long do you think it took for the seed to become this plant?
-Which seeds look the same? Do the plants of those seeds look similar?
Activity:
We’re going to be seed engineers and imagine our own seed and the plant it will become.
- Use your crayons to draw a seed on your paper and name your plant.
- Assemble a plant that will grow out of your seed using the scissors to cut images of stalks, flowers, and leaves out of the magazine. Glue the pictures together to assemble a plant collage.
The seed is just the very beginning of a plant. As we’ll see, with some tending, those seeds grow from microscopic to monstrous!
Beyond the Garden | Exploring Your Own Growth!
When you get home, see if you can find pictures of yourself as a baby. Like a seed, you started out small but look at all the ways you have changed. Look through photos and see if you can spot the ways you look the same and different from photo to photo.
Continue Exploring | Supporting Materials
- The Life Cycle of Plants: http://www2.bgfl.org/bgfl2/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks2/science/plants_pt2/index.htm
- Find a seed lending library! http://seedlibraries.org/
