Montessori Inspired Seed Study

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Every spring we plant seeds for our summer garden. Little Bee helped me plant cucumbers, tomatoes, kale, and green bean seeds into a little seed starter kit. We watered the seeds, placed them in the sunshine, and protected them from the cold weather. Over time, our little seeds sprouted into seedlings and then grew a little bigger every day. Little Bee explored the anatomy of the seed by dissection and examination of how it grew in our Montessori Inspired Seed Study.

Materials Needed for the Seed Study

Vegetable Seeds (or Fruit Seeds)
Seed Starter Kit
Soil
Montessori Seed Puzzle (or use pieces of colored felt to make your own)
Seed Nomenclature Cards (free)
Dissection Kit
Root Viewer Kit - optional
Root Nomenclature Cards (free)

Nomenclature of the Seed

We studied the seeds by using the Montessori seed puzzle and nomenclature cards of the anatomy of a seed. I like to set up a matching work, for Little Bee, that compares the pieces of the seed puzzle with the nomenclature cards. (You can see an example in the picture below.)

Seed Dissection

I soaked several green bean seeds overnight to help soften them for dissection. Little Bee used his dissecting tools to remove the outer skin (testa) from the bean and to also take apart the other parts of the bean. You can see, in the photo below, that after the bean was soaked, it doubled in size. This lesson can also be enhanced by discussing the various definitions and functions of each part of the seed.

Seedling Root Viewer

I found this fun root viewer on Amazon and Little Bee planted several green bean seeds into the contraption. This activity encouraged fine motor work because he had to carefully spoon the soil into the root viewer space and then he used his tweezers to plant the seeds. After a couple of weeks of waiting and watching, the bean seeds sprouted and planted their roots. The root view option was really fascinating to observe. As an added learning experience, I printed and laminated root nomenclature cards so that we could practice identifying the various parts of the root system.

Bonus: Free Fruits and Seeds Printable

This lovely "Fruits and Seeds" bonus printable matches together some of our favorite fruits with their seeds. I created this printable to be a conversation starter with the child. The fruit and the seeds are the beginning and ending of the plant life-cycle. If you extract the seeds from the fruit and plant them, they will grow and eventually produce fruit. The miracle is that each tiny seed is abundantly full of life!