Making seed nests

During one of our guided activities today, several materials were laid out on the circle table waiting for the students: paper towels, cookie sheets, ziploc baggies, markers and a package of seeds.

Interest was soon sparked. "What are we doing here?" they asked ...

I sat with them and told them that we would start with the baggie. Students were given a plastic baggie and asked to write their name on it with permanent markers. Although it sounds like a simple concept ... only having 2 markers and 4 students and asking EVERYONE to write their name created some immediate discussion. Discussion such as, "You go first, then I'll go next," and "I want the rouge pas the bleu," and "Here, let me help you write your name."

They quickly made predictions about what we would be doing with the baggies, the paper towel and the seeds. One little guy even said, "the paper towel is to clean up the mess when we're done!" Too cute. Finally, after much discussion, they came to the conclusion that we would be planting the seeds. Of course, "Duh! Ms. Kidd! That's what you do with flower seeds!" To find out just how much they know, I asked them (straight up), "What three things do plants need in order to grow?" Sure enough, they answered with soil, water and sun. So, low and behold, without teaching this small group about plants (keep in mind that we have NOT been doing ANY sort of unit/theme on plants thus far), they already know so much! I later explained that we would be using the paper towel instead of soil so that we could watch it grow in the window before transplanting them. They made connections and said that the paper towel would be the nest, or the home for the seeds before we put them in the soil. Amazing.

 

This little guy waited very patiently for his paper towel to be completely immersed in the water tray. When asked how he knew that it wasn't all wet, he said, "It's a different colour over here." Then, when I asked him if he could do anything to make it go faster, he pushed his fingers onto the dry areas.

Students carefully selected 3 seeds from the bag to germinate in their paper towels. When I asked them why they thought I was stapling the baggies (I put some staples at the top, and some at the bottom of the bag), some answered that the seeds can't drown. Others said the obvious (or not so obvious to some), to keep them from falling out of the bag if they fall

 

 



Et voila! Our germinating seeds in their nests. When asked where they thought we should put the seeds to grow, some said in the hallway where it's light, some said on my desk because it's safe and others said by the sun. You'll notice a few without a 'nest' ... there were a few students convinced that you don't need a nest. Hmmm.

 

If you don't see another post about germinating seeds, it's because this activity failed to 'plant a seed of inquiry' ... haha. 

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