The Educators' Spin On It

Learning Games and Activities

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Who gives a hoot about saving seeds?

Saving seeds is an essential part of keeping our plants diverse. Organizations may follow strict guidelines to keep varieties of plants separate from each other. We are pretty casual in our saving seeds.

saving seeds

Teaching Kids About Saving Seeds

We want our kids to know

  • where seeds come from
  • how seeds form
  • how plants begin
  • how nature assists plants in making more (wind, other animals…)

There is just something extra special about teaching children to grow something from their own seed.  How powerful can one seed truly be? Well, in our case, one seed grew this GIANT sunflower which we all enjoyed.

saving seeds to grow more sunflower plants

Then it turned brown, but we didn’t dig it up. Over time, the seeds formed and when they were complete, we took the whole plant and hung it upside down in the garage to dry. This week, we brought it inside and the kids took all the seeds off the plant.

Saving seeds preserves plants for another generation.

They decided to split the pot 50-50. Half for the bird feeder and half to save for planting next summer.

Can you believe it? With only one seed, we were able to feed our birds AND have tons to plant for more flowers next year. Seeds are pretty powerful!

Watch the video to see my saving seeds in action!

You may also enjoy these activities with your child…

Learning with Seeds Printable inspired by the book The Tiny Seed
Kids in the Garden Learning and Growing Activities
A math and science spin off the classic green bean germination science experiment

 

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Comments

  1. Maybe a month or until the whole plant dies and starts to wilt- they will start to look like they do in the grocery store isle.

  2. This is awesome, Amanda! Do you remember how long you hung the seeds to dry before pulling them out?

  4. Thanks everyone! My 5 year old requested an owl headband this last weekend – so a tutorial is coming =) Em – I would love the space to have a field full. I am trying to plan ahead so maybe we can have a maze of flowers… but the space that I have with full sun is very limited!

  6. That first photo is really cute! …what a great idea with the seeds! Hopefully you'll have a field full of sunflowers next year!

  8. What a fantastic idea, taking something so simple and turning it into an awesome teachable moment. Thanks for the reminder about taking the ordinary and making it fabulous 🙂 And thanks for linking it up at Rub Some Dirt On It!

  10. That is so awesome! You need to share with us which type of seed you bought so we can experiment in our garden next year. I'm just impressed that you were able to keep it away form your birds and squirrels in the yard.

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