OBJECTIVE

Students will be able to differentiate between different varieties of crops. Students will be able to read and gather information from primary source documents, and share that information with their class. Students will understand why it is important to know where our seeds come from.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How do seeds grow? Where do seeds come from? How do we use seeds? Why is it important to know where our seeds come from? What do seeds need? What seeds should be plant in the garden? How do we choose our seeds?

MATERIALS NEEDED

Seed packets and/or seed catalogs (one per student), Planting calendars, “My Seed” worksheet

PROCEDURE

Introduction
Ask students: “Raise your hand if you ate seeds for breakfast.” Go through the different meals that students ate and how they each contained seeds. Explain that seeds are all around us, and that we couldn’t survive without them.
Review what season we are in, and what types of things are happening in the garden. Explain that this is a very important time of year, even though we may not be outside working in the garden, planting our seeds. This is the time we have to think about our garden, and what we would like to plant!
Activity
Hand out seed packets/catalogs to each student. (If using seed catalogs, give students one minute to choose a crop to focus on before beginning this exercise.)
What kinds of information do you think you can find? Give them a few minutes to look through and find a few pieces of information:
– crop/variety
– days to maturity
– what the seed likes/doesn’t like
– bonus piece of information

Students fill out their “My Seed” worksheet. They are now experts on this seed! Bring the students together in a circle. Explain that they are now going to greet each other, not as themselves, but as their seed. They shake hands, say their name, their age (how many days to maturity), what they like/don’t like, and one other special piece of information (what they look like, what they taste like).
Students greet each other, then move on to a new person.
Wrap–up/Assessment
With their worksheets completed, come back together as a class and share some of the exciting things they have learned. Ask students:
–Who takes the least amount of time to grow?
– Who takes the most amount of time to grow?
– Who loves the sun?
– Who loves the shade?
– Who likes cold weather?
– Who likes warm weather?
– Who grows the biggest?
– Who grows the smallest?

FOLLOW UP & EXTENSIONS

Seed-Root-Flower-Fruit game
“The Seed” poem, by Eileen Fischer Start seeds inside