Wild Seed Fun



This lesson developed by Reach Out!
Recommended Age: Preschool and Early Elementary


Questions

What do seeds look like?
If I plant seeds, will they grow?



What You Need

  1. Big pair of white or light colored socks.
  2. Baggy sweat pants.
  3. Paper lunch bag or baggie.
  4. Woods, park, empty lot or a yard that is overgrown with weeds.
  5. White piece of paper
  6. Styrofoam coffee cups
  7. Potting soil
  8. Aluminum pie plates



What You Do

  1. Put the big socks over your shoes. Put on your baggy sweatpants.

  2. Go for a walk in an area that is overgrown with grass and weeds.

  3. Rub your pant legs against wild plants and bushes so seeds can stick to your pants. Walk on top of areas where there are seeds on the ground. If you see some seeds that aren't going to stick to your socks or pant legs, pick them up and collect them in your bag or baggie.

  4. Go back home or to your classroom and take your socks off. Pick off the seeds that are stuck on the socks. Take out the seeds you picked up and put in your bag or baggie. Pick off the seeds that clung to your pants.

  5. Put the seeds on the white piece of paper. Separate and sort the seeds into piles of seeds that look alike.

  6. Take the pencil and poke a hole into the bottom of the styrofoam coffee cups. This hole will help drain out extra water when you water the soil and seeds. Too much water will rot the seeds and they won't grow.

  7. Fill each cup half full with potting soil. Sprinkle seeds into the cups. Put similar seeds into the same cup.

  8. Fill the cups nearly to the top with the potting soil. Put some water into each cup's soil. Don't over water.

  9. Set the cups into the pie pans. This is so the water that is extra and drains out of the cups won't run onto a table or the floor.

  10. Put the pie pans in an area where they will get plenty of sunlight.

  11. Watch your cups. As the plants begin to grow, can you guess what plants or wild flowers they are?



What Is Happening

Seeds are pretty cool. Some seeds grow in pods. Some seeds look like little feathers or wings. Other seeds are pricky and sticky. Some seeds fall off a plant and fly in the wind or float onto the ground. Other seeds grow on the stems of their plants. Somtimes seeds are found in puffballs like dandelion seeds. Grass seeds will grow and be found at the very top of blades of grass that aren't clipped and mowed. Seeds get moved by the wind if they are light and can fly. Other seeds get moved by being sticky and pricky and getting onto the fur of animals or onto our clothing and then falling or being picked off. Every seed has within it all it needs to start growing and to become a plant just like it's mother or parent plant it came from. It just ne eds some sunlight and moisture to start sprouting. After it starts to grow, it will have used up all the nutrition and food it had within itself. Then it will need soil and the food it can get from the soil to keep growing and to become a mature plant.

Every plant or wild flower has its own unique seeds. These unique seeds know exactly what they will become. As your plants start to grow from the seeds you collected and found, could you tell what plants they were? You may need to do some research to f igure that out!