Seeds K-2nd | Series 3, Lesson #1
Seeds
Key Topics: Seed Coat, Roots, New Leaves, Embryo
Grade Levels: K-2nd
Click here for #3 Series Description
Spanish Lesson Plan
Science Framework
Lesson Overview:
In this lesson, students will explore seeds and learn that each one contains all the information and potential to grow into healthy, thriving plants for our garden. By dissecting a variety of soaked seeds, students will learn important vocabulary words that will help us to understand plant development.
Suggested Activities and Learning Objectives by Grade Level:
- K-LS1-1 What do plants need to survive?
- 2-PS1-1 How do plants disperse their seeds?
Essential Question(s) that Connect CCCs and SEPs:
- Why is it important for a seed to have a seed coat? What does the seed coat do for the seed? (Structure and Function; Construct Explanations and design Solutions).
- Why do you think some seeds are bigger than other seeds? (Scale, Proportion and Quantity; Asking Questions and Defining Problems).
- What ways do seeds change when you plant them and give them water? (Stability & Change: Asking Questions and Defining problems)
Vocabulary
Seed Coat- The protective outer coat of a seed
Roots- The part of the plant that is hidden under ground.
New Leaves- The leaves that a plant grows after it pops out of the ground
Embryo- The first stage of life for a plant, a baby version of the plant help within the seed.
Materials:
- Soaked Seeds (Fava Beans, corn seeds, and sunflower seeds are good choices)
- Seed Dissection Worksheet or a blank sheet of paper
- Paper towels
- Compostable baggies
- Dry, Large Seeds (Any type of bean or pea seeds work great)
- Something to color with
- Kid Safe Scissors
- Biodegradable Tape
- Series #3 Garden Journal (optional)
Prep:
This lesson can easily take place inside or outside. Having a whiteboard and ample sitting space for the dissection activity is needed.
- Familiarize yourself with basic seed anatomy and drawing the structures (refer to diagram example below).
- Soak seeds in water about 12 hours prior to activity so they can be easily dissected.. Bring to class. If conducting the optional adaptation for 3rd-5th graders, soak one type of bean for a variety of different time periods ie. one batch for 5 days, one batch for 3 days, one batch wrapped in damp paper towels for one day.
Activity Procedure:
Engage:
Greet your class with a riddle to get them thinking about what the day’s lesson will be.
Read: Seed Riddle by Laurel Anderson
I appear dead before I am alive
Although often quite small, I can have a tree inside
I can be large as a football or small as flea
Both humans and animals eat me
Food and water I can live without
I can survive freezing, fires and drought!
I can swim and fly!
What am I?
(Answer: a seed!)
After sharing the answer to the riddle, ask students what type of seeds do we eat? How do seeds swim? What kinds of seeds fly? What seed is as large as a football (a coconut).
Explore:
Hand out a collection of different types of seeds for the students to handle and observe. These can be the same ones that you have soaked for seed dissection or other ones saved from the garden. If there are plants in the garden that have gone to seed, you can have students observe the seeds on the plants. Ask the students to share what they notice about the seeds. What do they feel like? What do they look like? What color are they? What shape are they? What things about them are different from the other seeds? What things about them are the same?
Explain:
Seeds have different parts. They have something called a seed coat.
Think, Pair, Share: Why is it that people wear coats?
Just like us, seeds need protection from temperature. The seed coat is the shell on the outside of the seed that protects it. There are also starches inside the seed that provide food for the seed to grow.
Thumbs up/down: Do you think it takes a lot of energy for a seed to sprout leaves and roots?
That is why most of the seed is made up of stored food. Most seeds split into two halves, and these two halves become the first leaves that pop out of the ground before the seed is able to make more leaves. Take some time to define the vocabulary words.
Action:
- Review you Garden Agreements
- If you haven’t already, hand out the soaked seeds.
- Demonstrate step by step how to do the dissection. Using your thumb and forefinger rub off the seed coat.
- Using your thumbnail, bisect the seed in two halves.
- Point out the starch and the small pointy part that is the cotyledon.
- If old enough, challenge the students to identify the parts mentioned in your explanation earlier.
- Ask them to describe what they see in their seeds. Do you notice any patterns between different seeds? Are there any similar structures? Why might different seeds have the same internal structures? (Patterns; Asking Questions and Defining Problems)
- Turn so that you’re facing away from the students and explain that you’ll be drawing a seed based on their descriptions, without looking at the seeds yourself. As they describe the seeds, draw one somewhere so that everyone can see it. For example, you might ask: Who could describe the shape of the seed? As one student describes it, draw whatever they describe. They can modify their descriptions based on how accurate your representation is. Then you might ask, Who can describe something they see on the inside of the seed? Continue until you have a full picture of a dissected seed. Ask students to draw a similar diagram of the parts of a seed and label it with you. Refer to the bean below for a simple and accurate representation.
Reflect:
What are the different parts of a seed? What do the different parts do for plants?
Extension Activities:
- Read a picture book such as The Bad Seed, A Seed is Sleepy or Seeds Move or Planting the Wild Garden.
- Set up a seed sorting station! Mix seeds like corn, beans, sunflower seeds, etc in a large bowl or Tupperware, allow them to work in groups to sort the seeds and group them by type, color, or shape
- Have students go into the garden and collect seeds from different plants. The seeds are ready when the seed pods are brown and dry. Describe and categorize these seeds. Use this Seed Saving Packet Template
- Investigate How Seeds Travel
- Plant beans (or peas depending on time of year) in a newspaper cup in moist soil for planting out in the garden. Students will get to observe the different stages of plant development.
- Watch our virtual lesson video as a preview or review
Gardens Change Lives! Page of