Try out this fun game to get kids into the mind of the simple seed!
A Note about this lesson:
This lesson works really well when paired with the book Five Tough and Tiny Seeds by Steve Metzger, which is the original inspiration for this game, but you are also welcome to play the game without using the original book.
Teaching kids about seeds
One of the most foundational principles in gardening is the simple act of planting a seed. Many children are introduced to this concept early in their lives, so by the time they arrive in garden class, they usually understand the story goes something like this: Human gathers seed, human plants seed, human waters seed, seed sprouts, plant grows.
This is a wonderful baseline understanding, but as gardeners know, this story represents just one of thousands of ways seeds are planted and grown in nature. Some seeds plant themselves (hello, volunteer tomato!). Some seeds are planted by animals. Some seeds need more than just water, they might need fire, or frost, or heat. Some seeds will travel for hundreds of miles in a bird's stomach and will come falling like a rock out of the sky in a jet of bird poop to be planted. My favorite seed strategy to share with the kids is the idea of a velcro seed -- those burrs that stick to your shoe laces when you go on a hike. Those seeds get stuck on other things too, like animal fur. The idea of hitching a ride on a bear's back always gets a big reaction from the kids.
In many ways, talking about seeds is a great way to change the human-centered narrative we often use when discussing gardening in general. This lesson is an easy way to open kids' minds to the big wide world of ideas for how seeds can evolve and disperse in nature. Different seeds use clever tricks to get around, some of them involve humans, but a lot of them don't at all! So, if you're looking for a fun activity that turns students into tiny little seeds, keep reading.
Making the story of a seed into something new
When we go to learn about seeds in our garden classes, how can we make it something these kids haven't heard before? What if you became the seed instead of the human in the story? How would you move, where would you live? What would it feel like to sprout towards the bright, warm sun?
For our littlest gardeners, we invite this fun role reversal through our tiny seeds game. Students are given puppets that represent the different types of seeds (in our case, we used the seeds in the story linked above) and they get to pretend to be that seed for the game, sorting into their seed type with other seeds, flying out of their flowers along the springtime winds, and landing somewhere around the garden to sprout and bloom when the rain falls. This is one of those hands-on activities where you're learning, but you don't realize you're learning. We are talking about the plant life cycle, seed dispersal techniques, plant identification, weather, seasons, sorting, and growing conditions all while playing a game and having fun in our garden.
So, if you're interested in giving this one a try, let me share more about how you can play it at home or in your school garden (plus I'll explain how we set up our lesson around the game too).
To play the Tiny Seed Game
What age is this game designed for?
I originally wrote this game for 5-6 year olds, but it could be adapted for older children if you incorporate more details around seed germination requirements, and add more variety of seed. It could also be adapted for pre-k kids easily by using fewer details, or focusing on just one type of seed at a time.
What you'll need:
Free Seed puppet print out (linked below):
Wooden sticks or skewers to make your puppets
Tape
Crayons, markers, pencils (if you'd like to color your puppets first)
Sidewalk chalk
Optional: pollinator bug puppets (my favorite are at folkmanis, this is not an affiliate link, I just personally love their puppets (https://www.folkmanis.com/cat-148-1-3/finger-puppets.htm#categoryFiltered)
Set up before class:
On the ground somewhere draw out big flower shapes, large enough for the kids to stand in. If you can resemble the flower your seeds are from, even better!
Cut out the seed puppets and color them, if you'd like. Then use tape to secure them to your sticks
Keep your puppets close by if you're using them, it can be a fun surprise later to reveal them
How to play:
Hand out a seed puppet to each student being sure to get a nice blend of all the seeds represented.
Take a moment and allow the students to observe their seed puppets. This is a great time for them to do a think-pair-share with other students to share what they notice about their seeds. Once they have had a chance to observe, if anyone would like to share their observations, you could even do a sentence frame where students can raise their hands and share their ideas:
I notice my seed _______.
I observed ________.
I learned that my seed is ______.
I think my seed travels by ________.
Now that you've discuss the seeds, it's time to sort into your flowers! Introduce the students to the chalk flowers drawn on the ground and identify for them what seeds go with which flower. Then have students sort themselves into their correct flower, standing as if they are mature seeds waiting in their flower to begin their journey.
From here the seeds will travel on the big bursts of spring time wind throughout the garden. On the count of three, you, the teacher, will pretend to be that wind and give them a big WHOOSH, WHOOSH! This is the cue to your little seeds that it's time for them to leave their flowers and fly! Students will scatter all around the space.
When students find a spot they like, they will crouch down into a ball as if they have been planted right there on the spot.
Now this is where you can decide how complex to make the next step. If you would like to keep things simple, count to three and start to sprinkle your fingers and make sounds like spring rain. If you have specific seed needs, or you want to layer in more steps to make the seed germinate, you can add them now. Maybe a frost happens or a fire passes through first and then it rains. You can customize it to any seed need you'd like.
Once the seeds get everything they need, students will sprout, standing slowly and unfurling their arms and hands like leaves, and turning their faces to the sun.
Now that your seeds have grown into big, lovely flowers, it's time for pollinators to visit! If you have bug puppets you can use them here, or have a few students switch roles to become pollinators. Travel from flower to flower and tap on each one like they're being visited and pollinated. As students are tapped they go back to your gathering space from the beginning of the lesson to switch seeds and do the whole cycle again.
Bonus activity: Check out the real seeds while you're at it!
A fun way to round out this whole lesson is by looking at the actual seeds. Students may even be able to figure out which seed is which based on what they've learned from doing the game. If you have small bowls to pass them around in, they can pick up and hold seeds too getting that great sensory experience of feeling the prickles and pokeys in their hands.
Or, you may have a lot of seeds from one type of plant, say sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or bean seed, that you could offer up as seed packets students could take with them after the lesson is over. I hope you enjoyed this fun activity! It's definitely become a favorite in our school garden!
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