Activity: Love Food? Love Seeds! – Growing Seeds – Early Learning

Quick summary: In this activity children explore how plants grow from seeds. Children begin by looking for plants in their yard and identifying the parts of a plant. They then participate in a guided role-play activity where they act out the way a seed grows into a plant. Children plant seeds into tubs which they then remove at different stages of growth to observe how the roots and shoots form. This activity is designed to help connect children to the wonders of the natural world through sensory and play-based learning.

This activity has been developed in partnership with  

 

EYLF Learning Outcome	Elaborations
Outcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world	4. Children become socially responsible and show respect for the environment
Outcome 4: Children are involved and confident learners	1. Children develop dispositions for learning such as curiosity, cooperation, confidence, creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, persistence, imagination and reflexivity 2. Children develop a range of skills and processes such as problem solving, enquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating 4. Children resource their own learning through connecting with people, place, technologies, and natural and processed materials
Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators	1. Children interact verbally and non verbally with others for a range of purposes

 

Unit of work: Love Food? Love Seeds! – Early Learning

Resources required:

Ages 0 – 2 – 

• You will need four or five small planting tubs filled with soil, a class set of gardening gloves, as well as equipment to label the tubes. You will also need as many seeds as you have tubs (quick germinating seeds include watermelons, beans, peas, zucchini and pumpkin – check your local nursery). You should choose just one type of seed to plant. Alternatively, you could choose to sprout seeds in a jar. 

Ages 3 to 5 – 

• You will need at least ten small planting tubs (unfilled) and soil, a class set of gardening gloves, as well as equipment to label the tubes. You will also need as many seeds as you have tubs (quick germinating seeds include watermelons, beans, peas, zucchini and pumpkin – check your local nursery). You should choose just one type of seed to plant. Alternatively, you could choose to sprout seeds in a jar. 
• Optional – Plant Life Cycle Factsheet.

Cool Australia would like to acknowledge the support of the Seedlings Early Years Education for Sustainability (EYEfS) program.