Kids love seeds. They are fun to find. They hold mystery and power.
Materials: Cherry tomatoes (or other fruits with seeds), Paper towels, Cup 1/2 full of water
1: Gather the young ones ask “If you were a plant and you wanted to make more plants what would you do?” Encourage all kinds of answers, and finally arrive to the one we are thinking on this day, SEEDS!
2. Acting Seeds. Have all the students pretend to be a seed. Then encourage all of them to grow roots (legs), they stems and leaves (torso and arms) tell them to keep there hands in a tight ball and focus on making a seed, ask “what will you seed look like? color? shape?” finally have them open there hands and show there friends what kind of seed they created.
3. Next tell that that today we are not going to draw or write about seeds we are going to learn through finding them and holding them in our hands. Lead the children to a plant that has a withered flower. Take the flower in your hands and extract the seeds. Show the seeds and explain that the best way to find seeds is by looking for the dry flower.
4. Send the children off to search for seeds in the different regions of the garden or space you have. Encourage them to thank the plant for its seeds. Have the children return to the meet up area. Give the magnifying glasses to look at the variety of seeds they have found. Place all the seeds in a box and put aside.
5. Have the children sit in front of a paper towel or plate. Place one half cherry tomato in front of each child (or pair) and ask them to remove the seeds from inside the tomato. All the seeds should then be placed in a cup which is half full of water. After the seeds have been placed in the water tell the children to eat whatever fruit/pulp that is left.
Ask the children to thank the tomato plant and say ‘good bye my friends’ to all the plants as they exit on there merry ways.
6. Save the seeds in the cup with the water and place a cover on it that has holes for circulation. Let it sit at room temp for 5 days. It will ferment. Pour the seeds and water through a screen. Remove the seeds from the screen and let them dry. Save the dry seeds for planting.