Seed Study

The shift from summer to fall is always bittersweet but oh so exciting. Nature offers an abundance of changes to observe and experience first hand. It is disheartening to see the beautiful blooms and vibrant colors of summer begin to fade and droop. However, it is quite amazing to witness nature at work preparing for the next season. As plants prepare for the changes to come, seeds are dispersed all around us. We made an effort to examine a wide variety of trees, plants and flowers dispersing their seeds into the world. We discovered pods opening, seeds falling from trees, others floating in the creek, and more traveling on our dog and our socks. We paired our curiosity with a variety of activities to accompany our seed study at home.

Most of our seed books came from our local library. We went on a search for a variety of genres and information. The kids were really fascinated by seed dispersal so that became the focus of our study. Taking their cue, we kept this topic in mind as we browsed.

Here are some of our favorite activities with seeds!

Painting with Seeds:

I just happened to have a cardboard tray on hand but any box will do. We place the preferred colors of washable paint on a separate paper plate. We had a variety of seeds on a tray close by. They kids discussed their predictions of how the seeds would roll and what the trail of paint would look like. They took turns dipping seeds in paint and rolling them around on the tray. They began by testing each seed by itself then gradually added more seeds to the tray at once. The discussion and artistic end result made this a wonderful activity to complete together.

Baby Safe Jars:

Charlotte is still quick to put anything and everything in her mouth these days. To include her in our seed activities, I simply placed a collection of seeds in small jars. I still monitor closely as her little fingers are discovering more and more each day, but as of today she wasn’t able to screw the lids off.

Math Activities -

Tens Frame:

Acorns became math manipulatives for our tens frame. We created addition sentences with our number stones. Madelyn represented the addends with the acorns and tens frame to determine the sums.

Tracing Board:

Madelyn is able to recognize and write numerals but continues to struggle with reversals. I used recycled cardboard to create a tracing board. We used our birdseed mix to fill and trace the numbers as reinforcement and to add an additional sensory element.

Pattern Cards:

We created patterns with the photographs of our seeds. After the patterns were created, I printed the pattern sheets on cardstock and placed them in plastic sleeves. After matching the seeds with the proper labels, the kids used our physical seeds to complete the pattern cards. These are available on our Etsy Shop as digital downloads with flash cards of different seed varieties!

Being immersed in the natural world will always be my favorite family activity. We are very fortunate to be surrounded by woods with many trails to explore. Each trip out we challenged ourselves to find new seeds. What a variety we found! With our goal of new discoveries, we found seeds we probably would have overlooked on a typical hike. We went off trail to examine small plants up close. Looking up high we spotted seeds still clinging to the treetops. We even discovered seeds we unintentionally brought home on our socks and the dog. It was fantastic to hear the kids make connections from the books we have been reading to nature in real time and excited to get home to work on their nature journals! Have you tried nature journaling? It has been such a great activity for the kids, you can read more about it HERE!

We would love to hear about some of your favorite experiences exploring the great outdoors! Comment below or tag us on Instagram, @playbeyondthelines!

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