This week at Rio Vista Elementary we celebrated the new fall season by planting some new seeds! For younger students, we started class by discussing plant lifecycles and the 6 parts of a plant (root, stem, leaf, flower, fruit, seed). In this lesson students learned about how the seed is the first and last stem in the plant’s life cycle. For older students, we started class by observing the anatomy of a seed. Students then were able to split open sprouted pea seeds to see the endosperm, embryo, and seed coat, and then sketch their own seed drawing.
The hands-on part of the class involved planting seeds in the garden! Students planted peas, mustard greens, onions, and celery. Younger students were able to learn about what a seed needs to sprout, and what an adult plant needs to stay thriving in their preferred growing season. Older students were able to go more in depth into the process of seed germination, and how it is affected by factors such as water and temperature.