Science Sunday--Learning about seeds

Spring is having a hard time arriving in our neck of the woods, so I thought I would try and speed things up a bit by doing a plant and seeds unit with my kindergarteners.

I used the book Oh Say Can You Seed? as out main guide for this unit. It is the perfect mix of information, using a rhyming text for my 4 and 5 year olds. The first activity we did was to soak bean seeds in water overnight. The next day we examined our seeds. The kids were very excited to be able to find all the parts of the seed...... including the cute little bean embryo.
We then lined a jar with papertowels. Then we gently put several bean seeds between the glass jar and the papertowel.

We were careful to keep the papertowel wet, and then we waited to see what would happen.

While we waited I found this great Garden Preschool Pack at HomeschoolCreations.

Make sure to head over to HomeschoolCreations and check out all free printables available.

We also discovered the hidden "star" in an apple. We also found a lot of seeds!

After 4 days, our bean seeds began to sprout!

At 17 days, we had these marvelous bean plants.

Luke is examining the original seed on his bean plant.

Happy science, everyone!!

It's all about seeds and plants this week

If you have early elementary aged children at home, this is the only book you need to do a very full study into the world of seeds and plants.
It is full of very simple experiments and activities that are very "mother" friendly. One such activity is seeing if we could grow a plant from kitchen scraps.We are beginning to see teeny, tiny progress.
We did the ever popular "sprout a bean seed in a paper towel lined glass".

We then had an interesting time taking apart our sprouted seed and checking out all the parts.
We left a couple of the seeds in the glass to continue to grow. The sprout above and the sprout below
are the same plant within two days.
We have now transplanted our beans and hope to transplant them one more time outdoors to eventually grow some of our own beans.
Gracie made this cute little seed booklet. It is from Enchanted Learning website. You will find many, many activities to add to your plant unit here.