Listen to the story “The Tiny Seed” By Eric Carle.

Ready, Set, Sequence! After listening to the story “The Tiny Seed” have your student write five sentences on five separate pieces of paper that describe what happens in the story.

Your child can also draw pictures to illustrate their sentences. Younger children may wish to draw pictures and write a few words or short phrases. Then have your child mix up their papers and challenge you to put them in order.

After you are done sequencing the plot, you can switch roles. Read the story The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle, and then discuss the following questions: What are some things that happen in Autumn? What happens to some of the seeds in Autumn that keep it from growing? What are some things that happen during the Winter? Why is the mouse interested in the seeds? What happens during the Spring? Name some different parts of a plant. Describe Summer.

 

Follow the link to listen to the story with your child. Help your child come up with the actions for each part of the seed’s journey. For the resources, try to find items throughout the your house that your child can explore while reading the book: for the wind find a fan, when the seed lands on the mountain have your child touch ice/ice pack, when the seed grows into a flower have your child smell a real flower. Download/print  and help your child write or have them dictate what they want you to write, one sentence for each season.

Follow the link to listen to the story with your child  Go through the actions with your child during the story or go back through it after the story. If you can, find the resources throughout your house and use those to go through each action.

Subtraction Count the seeds that begin the journey in Autumn. Subtract one seed that cannot grow and write a number equation: 10 – 1 = ? Do the same for each seed that failed to grow until you get to the five that sleep through the winter. Begin again in the spring to subtract one plant that cannot live and write the number equation. Continue subtracting until one tiny seed has grown into a very tall flower and is the only one remaining.

Have your child help you find small items in your house (i.e. beads, seeds, blocks, pebbles ect). Start with 10 and follow the prompt from above under “Math”.

Have your child help you find small items in your house (i.e. beads, seeds, blocks, pebbles ect).

While listening to the story with your child, help them take away an object each time a seed can not grow.

Start over when the left over seeds start to grow and go through removing one item each time a plant can not grow.

Chart the lifecycle of the seed in the book noticing the cyclical pattern. What are some other cyclical patterns that exist in nature? Make a list of edible seeds. Go on a collecting walk to gather wild seeds in the fall. See how many different kinds of seeds you can find. See if you can decide how the seed got to that particular place. If the seeds are still on the plant see if you can guess how they might be dispersed.

Go on a nature walk with your child. You can use this Backyard Scavenger Hunt or create your own list of things you and your child can hunt for.

Create an Eric Carle style flower! Sketch the flower, stem, and leaves. Paint construction paper. After the construction paper is dry, we cut petal shapes from the painted paper. Cut out the stem, leaves, and grass from green construction paper, glue them on. Splatter-paint the background paper. Glue on the petals and a yellow circle for the center of the flower. Kids have the option of outlining their flowers and leaves with a black permanent marker after everything is dry.