TeachingSpace

Plants don't have legs!

Source:

Wee Green Fingers Fun Pack (SNH)

OBJECTIVE

To discover all the clever tricks plants use to get about

Time

10-15 minutes or longer

You will need

variety of different plants to find

Did you know?

Plants can fly, trade, hitch-hike, explode and shake!

Before the activity

Teach children never to touch or eat berries, seeds, flowers and fungi unless you know, and have said they are safe. Only play with seeds, nuts and fruits of recognised human food plants and keep packets of seeds out of children's reach.

Some very common plants have very poisonous seeds or berries, such as honeysuckle, laburnum, broom, holly, ivy, privet and old man's beard.

The activity

Go for a walk and look for:

Fliers: look for dandelion seeds - count the hours; thistle seeds - catch the 'fairies' and make a wish; sycamore and maple seeds - throw them into the air and watch them twirl (single wings twirl best!)

Food traders: look for brambles, wild raspberries, rowan berries and all the other berries. The seeds fly away with the birds and come out unharmed in their droppings (plus they get a little free fertilizer!)

Hitch-hikers: see if you can find a sticky plant like 'sticky willy' or sticky seed cases like burs. What would these stick onto? (the hairy coats of dogs and other wild animals like deer and badgers). Stick one onto your jacket, how far is it going to travel?

Exploders: look for broom and gorse bushes and other plants with pods. On a sunny day you can hear the seed pods exploding out the seeds. See if you can spot a seed pod which has just pinged open. (Pre-school - Pretend to be a seed pod, curl up tight, and then jump up with arms out-stretched - shout ING!)

Shakers: look for seed cases that look like sugar shakers or pepper pots. Knock them gently and see the seeds fall out. Poppies and campion are great shakers!

Suggested Follow up

Look at the illustrations in the ‘Wee Green Fingers Fun Pack’, especially the factsheet Super-Duper seeds. Talk about them with the class and get them to talk about the seeds they saw.

Grow some seeds and see how one seed becomes thousands of seeds. See the factsheet Groovy Growing in the ‘Wee Green Fingers pack’ for some suggestions.

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