Seed Mosaics and Parts of a Seed
Recommended for ages 5 and up
Today we are going to learn about seeds! Seeds are everywhere, when a flower is pollinated it grows seeds so that more plants can grow. Sometimes these seeds are scattered by nature, sometimes they are planted by people to grow new plants. But people and animals also like to use many kinds of seeds for food. A lot of the things we like to eat are seeds, like beans, lentils, popcorn, sunflower seeds, wheat, rice, peanuts, and others. Many of our spices for cooking are also seeds, like mustard, cumin, fennel, coriander, dill seed, sesame, poppy seeds, etc. Not all seeds are edible for humans, but the ones that are, show up in a lot of our food!
Seeds come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, and colors, but they all have the same parts which can grow into plants.
We can also use seeds for other things, like arts and crafts. Today we are going to use seeds to make a mosaic. A mosaic is a picture or design made out of any materials assembled together. People have been making mosaic art for thousands of years, and all kinds of materials can be used. We are going to use seeds and glue them into a picture! You can make whatever kind of design you want.
Materials:
• Various seeds (beans, lentils, popcorn, and whole spices, etc.)
• Glue
• Cardboard, paper plates, or sturdy paper
Directions:
1. If you want you can draw your design with a pencil before you start adding seeds, or you can make a design free-hand.
2. Layout some seeds to see how it will look before you start gluing. Using different colors, sizes, and textures of seeds can help you make the different parts of your picture.
3. Once you are ready, you can start using glue to attach your seeds and make your pattern or picture.
4. Let the glue dry and you have your mosaic!
More Fun
Seeds:
• If you want to know more about seeds you can open one up and look for the parts we talked about. Large dry beans are best for this. Soak the beans for about a day or until they begin to absorb water and swell up. Then you will be able to split the seed open and look at the inside.
• https://garden.org/onlinecourse/PartI5.htm
• Planting seeds is a great way to see how one small seed can grow into a big plant!
• Video: https://youtu.be/pg92cspLy0I
• Look around your kitchen for seeds that we eat as food!
Mosaics:
• Mosaics can be made from almost anything! You can use beads, buttons, pebbles, bits of torn up paper, sequins, and all kinds of other objects to create pictures.
• People have been making mosaic art for thousands of years. A lot of these are made from tile or glass.
• More information and images of mosaics:
• https://kids.kiddle.co/Mosaic
• https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Mosaic
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