My Seed Book

Parent and child sorting seeds on a baking sheet.

Sort seeds and make a seed book. What is a seed?

20 minutes

 

Get Ready

Materials you will need:

  • Collection of different seeds of various shapes, sizes, colors, and textures (such as sunflower, lima bean, corn, chickpea, kidney bean)
  • Baking pan or box lid
  • Crayons or markers
  • Roll of packaging tape
  • Sheets of paper
  • Stapler

Things to do before the activity:

  • Look for seeds at grocery stores or garden shops, get them from your (or a neighbor’s) garden, or collect them from fruits or vegetables you eat. Make sure to gather a variety of seeds whose differences are easy to see (size, texture, color, and so on).

A character with a speech bubble and rabbit with a thought bubble.

Did you ever notice how small a seed is?

But it can grow to be a big plant!

Explore!

Step 1.

Explore seeds. Spread your seeds out on a baking sheet or box lid so they do not scatter. Talk about seeds:

  • Things a seed needs to help it grow into a new plant (such as soil, water, space)
  • How a seed helps a plant grow (provides food for the young plant/seedling)
  • That most seeds come from flowers
  • How a seed will grow into the same type of plant that it came from

Step 2.

Sort seeds into groups. Notice some features that different types of seeds have in common, such as size or color. Sort seeds into groups based on a given feature.

  • How is this group different from that group?
  • How are the seeds in this group the same?

Step 3.

Make a seed book. Press one group of seeds onto the sticky side of a strip of clear packaging tape. Make sure the seeds are spread apart so that they are easy to count. Turn the tape and seeds over and stick onto a sheet of paper. Make a page for each seed group. Write the feature the seeds in each group have in common on the page. Staple the pages together. Add a cover sheet and write the title My Seed Book on the front.

  • How many different groups do we have?
  • Count the number of seeds in each group. Which group has the most?

Review!

Read My Seed Book together.

  • How will these seeds grow into plants?
  • Which group do you think has the fewest number of seeds? Count to find out.
  • Count the number of seeds on each page. Do any groups have the same number of seeds? More than four seeds?
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