Helping Students Make the Connection Between Seeds and Plants
Spring, marked as the season of growth and new life, is a great time to introduce your unit on plants. Here's a great idea from Laura at My Montessori Journey blog to help students make the connection between seeds and plants.
At your local home and garden store, pick up several seed packets for flowers, vegetables, and other plants. You'll need two of each different packet. With the seed pouches or their contents you'll be making three different cards your students can use to play matching games. Laura's blog post provides pictures of the final product, but here is an overview of what each card should include. For example, when working with lettuce seeds:
- Card one should incorporate a lettuce seed pouch and a sample of the actual lettuce seeds.
- Card two should include only the second lettuce seed pouch.
- Card three should include only a sample of the actual lettuce seeds.
These three cards should be made for each type of plant to be used in the activity. To play the game, set out card one for each plant. Cards two and three should be mixed and placed into a bag. Invite your students take turns drawing a card and matching the seed pouch or sample of seeds to its counterpart.