The Seeds of Learning

Ok, yes, that’s a bad pun!  We are still exploring seeds and plant life (among other things, of course!)

The children had planted grass seed and the seeds we took from our pumpkin.  We’ve had some growth! Some pumpkin seeds have grown, others have not. Some grass came in thickly, others a bit sparsely.

On of our goals is to get children to really LOOK at nature and really pay attention to what they see. What are the colors?  What shapes do you see? Are there straight  lines or curves?

The children had the opportunity to look at their grass (and pumpkin sprouts) and observe, touch, and even smell their plants!   The put unifix cubes into “towers” to match how high their plants have grown. “Mine is 13 high!”

 

 

Because grass is pretty straight, the actual drawing of it was pretty simple. One child wanted to color it pink.  Since the goal was to draw and record what they saw, I asked if she saw pink. “No, but I like pink.”  I asked, “How about if you draw a picture of YOURSELF in pink next to your plant?”  Her eyes grew wide, her smile deepened, and she said, “WOW!!! YES!”

 

 

Some delight in squeezing their grass!

 

The children then dictated or wrote a description of their plant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The finished entry?  “This is a grass. It is amazing.”

 

The children were give the option of cutting the grass (with scissors) if they chose.  The loved it! They cut a little at a time and took much longer than we’d expected!

What did we do with all of the grass clippings?  We gave it to the guinea pigs and rabbit, of course!