Maple Seed Mix Up

As part of our study of plants, the kids in the 1-2s have been learning about seeds and the conditions that allow them to grow. Sadly, despite the staggering number of seeds dispersed by trees and plants, very few are lucky enough to land in conditions that enable them to sprout and grow. And even when those conditions are available, there are other hazards to the successful germination of a seed into a new plant.

To illustrate this point, we played a game this week to show kids how unlikely it is for a seed to become a new plant. In this game, each child took a card and looked at it secretly. Their card may have assigned them the role of a maple seed or one of the conditions needed for the seed to grow (water, sunlight, good soil, warm spring days) or even one of the dangers seeds face (lawnmower, hungry deer, poor soil, drought).  Once they had their "secret identity" in the game, they began to run the bases of the baseball field for a count of 10. Once they were told to stop, they needed to stay on the base they were closest to and then reveal whether or not the "seeds" in this round had landed in conditions conducive to growth.

Only once in the many times we played did our "seed" land on a base with all the essential growing conditions and none of the hazards (that group is pictured at the bottom). We reviewed the random nature of the game - you didn't know what anyone else was, you just "landed" on a base and hoped the other cards would reveal positive circumstances, and how this mirrors the random chance of seeds in nature.  The kids had a lot of fun and  learned that most seeds do not grow into new plants and that is why plants put forth so many seeds - in the hope that one or two will grow into a new plant.

Check out the pictures below from our game!