Seeds Everywhere!

While exploring the schoolyard "forest", the students began to notice all of the dandelion and thistle plants turning into white fuzzy flowers. These were of course referred to as "wishing" flowers with the children happily blowing the seeds into the air while they made a secret wish. During conversations with the students, they were able to communicate the parts of the plants they were discovering in the garden. We decided to bring some of the plants and weeds into the classroom so the students could make further observations at the Science Centre. Using the magnifying glasses, many children took a closer look as they dissected the vegetation. As they explored, we asked questions about the importance of each of the parts. A few of the children observed that they could find seeds in some of the plants but not in others. This lead to us reading a book about seeds and after we did a small group investigation, the students were busy finding seeds everywhere! They found them in the fruits and vegetables during snack time, in the flower heads, in pods from a local tree, EVERYWHERE! They compared some of them by size and colour and even talked about the seeds that animals and humans eat. Recently, the students observed how the cattails changed their composition at the science table. They began as thick brown stalks and turned into fluffy white clouds as they went to seed. At the end of the day, some of the children made "seed snow" when they released the cattails to the wind to be carried off throughout the schoolyard. It was great fun as they learned about the lifecycle of a plant.