If you take a walk with children or eat fresh fruits and vegetables together, you’re bound to come across a few seeds along the way. You’ll notice these little (and sometimes big!) treasures can be quite fascinating to preschoolers.
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Here are all the resources you need for planning your preschool seed theme activities.
Why It’s Fun
When we can use concrete materials that kids come in contact with regularly it naturally increases their enthusiasm about the topic and it helps them make meaningful connections.
Kids come in contact with many seeds as they play outdoors. As they eat natural foods and know what to look for they also quickly realize that they eat many types of seeds.
It’s also a lot of fun to plant seeds so this seed theme can lead to many extension activities.
When to Teach a Seed Theme
While you can technically teach a seed theme any time your kids show an interest in the topic, we find that is most fun to teach during the spring or at least during a planting season (which could be year round depending on where you live!).
Teaching Tips & Major Concepts Kids Will Learn
If you’re planning a preschool seed theme there are so many ways to incorporate a wide variety of learning skills.
These are just a handful of concepts kids can learn about seeds:
- What foods come from seeds
- What seeds look like and how they compare to others
- Seeds we eat and seeds we don’t eat
- What happens when you put different seeds in water
- What happens when you try to grow seeds in different materials
- How long it takes different seeds to sprout
- What different seeds look like as plants
You can also use seeds as manipulatives for many learning activities to teach math and literacy concepts.
Items to Collect and Request in Advance
If you get parents, friends, and family involved you can gather quite a neat collection of foods and seeds for kids to explore during your seed theme.
Collect or ask people to help you collect:
- seeds from outdoors
- new or old seed packets
- foods that have seeds or come from seeds
- pictures of seeds and/or plants from a gardening magazine or home improvement store advertisement
Printable Lesson Plans
Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.
In addition to many hands-on activities that require little preparation, this set also includes the following printables:
1) Foods With and Without Seeds Shared Writing Recording Sheet
2) Uppercase Alphabet Seed Packet Cards
3) Lowercase Alphabet Seed Cards
4) A to Z Seed Writing Task Cards
5) 1 to 12 Flower Pot Seed Counting Mats
6) Seeds Science Journal
7) Seed Shape Tracing Task Cards
8) Seed Sorting Mat
9) Seed Theme Beginning Sounds Sort (Seeds T, F, C)
10) Seed Sprouting Graph
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Home Preschool Seed Theme Lesson Plans
Preschool Classroom Seed Theme Lesson Plans
Individual Activity Ideas on Fantastic Fun and Learning
Here on Fantastic Fun and Learning we’ve shared the following ideas to go along with a preschool seed theme.
Math fun with planting seeds sensory bin
An easy way to start seeds with kids
Seed sorting and fine motor play
Comparing seeds science investigation
Which foods have seeds science investigation
More Activities from Creative Educators
We’ve also gathered many clever ways to teach kids about seeds. You’ll find sensory play ideas, art activities, tips for planting seeds with children, and learning activities too.
Informational YouTube Videos
Watch a real seed as it grows.
Peep and the Big Wide World is a great series for beginning science concepts. In this video Peep and friends learn about planting seeds.
YouTube Songs
Get kids up and moving with the Can You Plant a Bean Movement Song.
Sung to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell, kids will quickly learn in and sing along with Farmer Plants the Seeds.
Other Online Resources
Finger plays and action rhymes are a great addition to your preschool themes. Here are a few terrific options to go along with a seed theme.
Five Little Seeds from Not Just Cute
Seed and Gardening Rhymes on Preschool Education
If you’d like to supplement your hands-on learning with some online games you might try:
Sid the Science Kid Vegetable Planting from PBS Kids
Gardening with Caillou from PBS Kids
Plants and Flowers Games on PrimaryGames.com
Favorite Books
There are some fantastic books to read for your seed theme. We’ve provided a brief summary about each of our favorite seed books. 
Other Props and Teaching Tools
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Reinforce learning with these hands-on materials and games to go along with your seed theme.
With these tools kids can plant their seeds and see what happens throughout the plant life cycle.
Build upon the information you’ve learned about seeds and try even more ideas from these gardening with kids resources. We’ve also explore books about gardening and how to garden with kids books here.
Free Printables
What’s Inside a Bean Seed Observation Sheet from Buggy and Buddy
Sunflower Seed Counting form 123Homeschool4Me
Plant Life Cycle Crown from Herding Kats
Possible Field Trips or Adventures
You don’t have to go very far to learn more about seeds! If possible set up a small indoor or outdoor planting space so kids can tend to their own seeds after they’ve planted them. If possible you might also:
- visit a local plant nursery
- visit your local home improvement store’s gardening center
- invite a gardener to come and chat about seeds and taking care of plants
What Next?
A seed theme can quite naturally evolve into one of the following preschool themes if you would like to continue along with the concepts learned in your seed theme. Themes we have printable lesson plans for include links after them.
- plants (exploring different kinds)
- gardening
- flowers-Lesson plans available for home preschool and preschool classrooms
- fruits and vegetables
- insects (and how they impact plants)-Lesson plans available for home preschool and preschool classrooms
- trees-Lesson plans available for home preschool and preschool classrooms
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