1-2-3 Come Study Seeds With Me.

I just returned from a wonderful get-away weekend with my husband.  We enjoyed seeing all of the gorgeous fall colors here in Michigan and stopping at several farms to buy fresh produce; lots of apples, pumpkins, corn etc. 

It got me to marveling at how things grow, so I thought it would be fun to make several seed activities.  They are quick, easy and interesting math extensions, that also touch a bit on science.

I decided to match the seeds that I had put in the easy-reader booklet: My Seeds, a few years ago. 

Here students trace and write the various fruit words and color the pictures. If you have the seeds available, students can glue them to the appropriate pages.

The Seed Exploration packet covers quite a few math standards.  If you don't want to foot the bill for all of the seeds, you can send the parent-note home asking for donations. 

This is included in the packet.  Our Dollar Store sells packages of sunflower and pumpkin seeds as well as bags of popcorn kernels.

If you carve a pumpkin in your class to analyze pumpkin data, you may want to save the seeds from that and do these as  follow-up activities.  It's also easy to simply buy a package of pumpkin seeds that are ready to eat. 

To introduce your lesson on seeds, use the KWL for seeds that's included in the packet.

There's also an information sheet defining seeds that you can share with your students.

You may want to set up these activities as a center. Fill paper bowls with the various seeds. 

Have students bring up their Dixie cup and take a spoonful of each kind and put it in their cup.  When they get back to their desk they can spill out their seeds and arrange them on the sorting mat. 

After students are done sorting, they take one of each seed and glue it to their identification worksheet. 

Students can also arrange the seeds in size from smallest to largest and then glue one of each kind on their "sequencing sizes" worksheet.

I've also included a guess-timation worksheet.  You can do this as a whole group, or have students work on their own paper. Students also work on their greater than, less than, or equal to skills with a worksheet incorporating those math symbols.

When everyone is done, gather students in a circle to review what they learned, discuss their discoveries, share their worksheets and do any graphing extensions that you want to follow up with. 

Click on the link to view/download the Seed Sorting activities. 

Thanks for visiting today.  I hope you can pop on over tomorrow for the newest FREEBIES hot off the press.

"Good teaching cannot be reduced to a technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher." -Parker Palmer 

Summer Sunshine And Sunflowers

When I think of summer, I think of sunflowers.

When my children were little we always left sunflower seeds out for the birds.  They were a favorite of cardinals, one of my favorite birds.

The problem with the bird feeders tho’ is the squirrels made a virtual mess of them, so I had sunflowers popping up all over the place.

They are easy to grow and will sprout in just a few weeks, so I decided to see if we could grow some and make a sunflower “hideout” in the back 40.

It was a wonderful jungle and they loved playing in it.

I got the idea from Eve Bunting’s book, Sunflower House.  That book and Backyard Giant, are my two favorite sunflower books.

They are terrific read aloud’s for your kiddo’s.  Afterwards, compare and contrast the books and do a graphing extension.

I’ve included a graph in my Sunflower Packet, along with all sorts of other fun activities.

Click on the link to view/download the Sunflower Packet.

Where Is The Sunflower is an easy reader that works on spatial directions.  Students cut out the sunflowers and glue them to the appropriate places on the page.

Click on the link to view/download the Where Is The Sunflower easy reader booklet.

The Seeds On My Sunflower is another easy reader where students get practice counting to 10, reading, tracing, writing, cutting and gluing, as they match the appropriate numbered seeds to their sunflower.

I’ve included word-wall word flashcards, a math skill sheet, a graphing extension, and certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download the easy reader booklet The Seeds On My Sunflower.

Finally, 123 Count Sunflowers With Me, is the newest addition in the Count With Me collection of easy readers.

As with all the Count With Me booklets, this packet includes: a graphing extension, 40 word-wall word and number traceable cards, covers for the flashcards so you can make Itty Bitty booklets, a plus 1 more math worksheet and a certificate of praise.

Click on the link to view/download 123 Count Sunflowers With Me.

I hope your remaining days are filled with sunshine as warm and lovely as these yellow sunflowers.

Do you have a sunflower idea you’d like to share?  I’d enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or feel free to post a comment here, especially if you use one of my ideas!  Thanks in advance for making the time to do that; you’ll make my day.  I enjoy hearing from visitors.

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I hope you can skip on over tomorrow for more teaching tips that add fun to learning. 

Thanks for stopping by today!