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Seeds Up & Down

What happens when seeds are planted? Children document plant growth from planting to harvest.

Lesson Plan

Supplies Needed

Gather all the supplies needed to bring your craft ideas to life! From paints and markers to glue and scissors, our crafts section has everything to spark creativity and make every project truly special.

  • Notebook
  • Recycled Plastic Containers
  • Ruler
  • Seeds
  • Soil
  • Water

Steps

  • Step 1

    Together, read books about how plants grow and the people who care for them, such as Plant a Little Seed by Bonnie Christensen.

  • Step 2

    With Crayola® Watercolor Colored Pencils, children list and then chart the plant growth steps outlined in the book. Choose one type of plant such as corn, peas, sunflowers, or tomatoes. Discuss important questions such as: What do plants need to thrive? Why?

  • Step 3

    In small groups, children plant seeds in recycled containers or in an outdoor garden. If possible, choose a type of plant that can be harvested fairly quickly (peas or lettuce, for example).

  • Step 4

    Children begin their journals with colored pencil sketches andDescriptions of the seed planting. Children are responsible for caring for their plants as they grow. Each day, children document in their journals—with dates, labels, measurements and sketches—what happens to the seed.

  • Step 5

    When the plants are mature, enjoy the harvest!

  • Step 6

    Ask students to prepare final documentation illustrations of their plants at any stage of their growth. Study the illustrations by Bonnie Christensen and their own journals. Encourage children to try crayon resist by heavily outlining parts of their drawing with Crayola Construction Paper Crayons. Then fill the spaces with Watercolor Colored Pencils or Crayola Watercolors and a damp brush.

  • Step 7

    Display the journals and culminating art in a show for families and other children in the school.

Standards

LA: With prompting and support, identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.

VA: Select art objects for personal portfolio and display, explaining why they were chosen.

LA: With prompting and support, describe the relationship between illustrations and the text in which they appear.

LA: Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative/explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic.

MATH: Describe and compare measurable attributes.

SS: Identify and use various sources for reconstructing the past, such as documents, letters, diaries, maps, textbooks, photos, and others.

SCI: Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

SCI: Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live.

VA: Through experimentation, build skills in various media and approaches to art-making.

VA: Create art that represents natural and constructed environments.

Adaptations

Visit a local greenhouse to see lush plants growing any time of year. Ask families to accompany the group. Children document their observations in their journals with drawings and words.

Discover Wangari Maathai, who won a Nobel Prize for her work planting trees in Kenya. Read “Seeds of Change” by Jen Cullerton Johnson. Notice the similarities in the illustrations by Bonnie Christensen and Sonia Lynn Sadler.

Also read “Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story From Africa” by Jeanette Winter. Compare and contrast the books by Johnson and Winter about a woman who made a difference in the environment and in people’s lives.

Ask a botanist, horticulturalist, farmer, or other person who cares for plants to talk about careers in working with food, flowers, landscape, or other plants. Which plants are native to your area? When is the local growing season?

Start with a farmer’s market and work backwards in stages of plant growth. The school year typically begins at the fall harvest, so explore local produce first.