The Beautiful Seed
Ages 3 and up (three 30-45 minute session)
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Objective:
- To learn that seeds come in a wide range of sizes, shapes and colors.
- To learn about germination and the requirements needed to bring it about.
- To show the link between the seeds we plant and our kitchen tables.
For these activities, make sure children are old enough to understand that they must not put these seeds in their mouth unless instructed to do so. Be sure to find out about allergies and special eating needs of the children before offering sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin seeds or peanuts. When eating seeds/nuts, use only edible or cooking seeds obtained from a food store.
Materials:
- A mix of dried seeds of different colors and shapes
- Whole green beans or peas.
- Whole oat seeds, groats, and rolled oats. (groats can be found at a health food store, a handful of each will suffice)
- Bean salad, bowls and spoons.
- Edible seeds and nuts.
- Construction paper, markers or crayons, glue, tape, glitter, paint.
- Large shallow Tupperware container.
- Pictures of plants that will grow from your seed varieties.
- Paper towels and paper plates
- Zip lock bags
- Magnifying lens
- Potting soil
- Dixie cups
Set up:
- Soak bean seeds in water overnight for dissection the next day.
- Mix the dry assorted seeds together in the Tupperware container
- Acquire or grow a bean plant, it should be at least 6 weeks old.
Part One:
Start talking about seeds, encouraging the children to touch them. Have the children sort the seeds by size, color, or shape. Let the children try some bean salad, and show which of the beans in the salad come from your collection. Help the children dissect the soaked bean seeds. Use the magnifying lens to look at the various parts of the seeds. Have the children match the parts they see with the diagram provided. Show them the bean plant, whole beans, and bean seeds to show the different stages of that plants life cycle. Have the children handle the oat seeds. Ask them to take the seed coats off of the oat seeds. Talk about what a grain is (it’s just a seed from a plant in the grass family we use for food). Show the children the groats and compare the bought groats to the groat they just found in their oat seed. Show them the rolled oats and see who likes oatmeal! Put some potting soil in a Dixie cup and plant some of the oat seeds and various other seeds. Water them well and place in a sunny warm place to germinate.
Part Two:
Talk about what seeds need to germinate (warmth, oxygen and moisture) and what germination is. Set up a germination experiment using the zip lock bags. Put some dried seeds in one bag and seal it (very little oxygen and no moisture). Put a moist paper towel in the second bag with some more seeds and partially seal it (alfalfa seeds work well for this). Point out to the children that oxygen can get into this bag. In the third bag put some seeds and submerge them in water (no oxygen can get to the seeds because of the water). Put the three bags in a warm place for several days. Have the children speculate on the results. Start an experiment journal and record their responses and the results from the experiments. Pictures of the whole thing could be pasted in the journal as well. Instead of plastic bags, we used old cigar tubes donated by someone’s grandfather and made a holder for them. The tubes resembled real test tubes and added to the experiment experience!
Part Three:
Encourage the children to be creative with the seeds. Draw simple pictures on paper plates and glue various seeds to the plates to add color and texture to the picture. Seeds can be mixed up in bottles or jars to make a collection. Why not draw a circular map of the Earth and glue peas on it (“Peas on Earth”).
Questions to ask:
- What is a seed coat?
- Is a seed alive?
- What does dormant mean?
- What do seeds need to germinate?
- What does germinate mean?
- What happened to the seeds that had been soaked in water overnight?
- Are they the same size as the ones in the Tupperware container?
- Why do plants produce seeds?
- Why do plants make flowers?
- What do we use seeds for?
- What are the seed leaves?
- What is the Cotyledon used for?
Glossary:
Germination: When a seed starts to grow. The process occurs only when all environmental conditions have been met.
Groat: Oat seed that has had its seed coat removed.
Cotyledon: Used for food until the 1st true leaves emerge and the new plant can start to photosynthesis
