From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons (Holiday House, 1991) is a detailed Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out book with details on how seeds grow into plants. It includes charts with the parts of the seeds details on how pollination occurs, and clear charts of the various stages of photosynthesis. The detail provides a nice full instruction in how plants reproduce, with lots of specifics and details for any eager learner.
For a school unit on plants, here are some of the concepts addressed in full that can be fleshed out into lessons.
- Seeds grow into the plant that made them. Match seeds to the plant it will become. (The book uses sunflower seeds and an acorn in the image.)
- A flower is made of many parts. Dissect a flower.
- Pollination takes pollen from one flower to another flower. Practice pollination with Cheetos.
- Seeds grow in a pod or fruit. Examine different types of seeds (think berries, peaches or apples, and/or dandelions, maple “helicopters”, etc).
- Some seeds have hooks. Play with Velcro strips.
- A beginning of a plant inside a seed. Dissect a softened bean to discover “seed coat” and the “baby plant.”
- Growing a seed. Plant a bean seed in clear plastic baggie with soil and moisture to see stages of growth. Maybe put baggies in different places to test no sun?
So plenty to learn and do when you read this “Read and Find Out” book!
