Early Science  /  Plants  /  Hands-On  /  Activity

Artful Seeds

 

Plants
Hands-On

Children use collage materials to create art of plants and seeds with sprouts and roots.

Materials set up on a table. Student tapes yarn to a piece of paper.

Set up art materials and provide sprouting seeds in plastic sandwich bags to examine.

Children can use yarn, twine, or raffia to create roots and sprouts.

 

Materials


  • Markers, crayons, or colored pencils
  • Children’s scissors
  • Glue sticks
  • Plain paper
  • Colored paper cut into seed shapes
  • Raffia, yarn, and/or cotton twine (or other materials to represent roots)
  • Sprouting seeds in plastic sandwich bags with moist paper towels (from the Planting Seeds activity, the Class Garden, or the extra bags with sprouting bean seeds prepared by the teacher at the beginning of the unit)
  • Optional: Magnifying lenses

Preparation

  1. Cut colored paper into a variety of seed shapes (see the slideshow for size). Children can choose to use these shapes and/or free hand cut their own.
 

Directions: Lessons 4, 5, 8


Learning Center
  1. Children will use colored paper (precut into seed shapes or cut by children) and raffia, yarn, and/or cotton twine to create collage art of sprouting seeds. The sprouting seeds in the plastic sandwich bags will serve as inspiration.
  2. Encourage children to talk about the sprouting seeds in the plastic bags. Possible discussion ideas:
    • Seeds in the bags:
    • Tell me about the seeds in the bags—what do you see?
    • What happens to a seed after it is planted?
    • Can you find a seed that is smaller than this seed? A seed that is bigger?
    • Can you find the biggest seed? The smallest?
  3. Then have them talk about their drawings. Possible discussion ideas:
    • Now tell me about (your drawing/this part of your drawing). Which plant parts did you include?
    • Show me a root on your drawing. How do roots help real plants grow?

Length of Play

10–15 min.

Group Size
In the Schedule

 
Vocabulary

  • bigger, biggest
  • different
  • long
  • root
  • root hairs
  • same
  • seeds
  • smaller
  • sprout
 
Learning Goals

Science
  • Observe and describe plant parts and their functions.
Math
  • Compare size (big/small).