Beyond the Book: Eric Carle's "The Tiny Seed"

What is Shavuot without flowers? And one of my very favorite children's books about flowers is The Tiny Seed, written and illustrated by Eric Carle. This beautiful story chronicles a group of sunflower seeds through the seasons. As they make their journey through the pages and through different terrains and trials, one question remains--what will happen to the tiny seed? Will it succumb to its humble stature or triumph over the obstacles placed along its way? In addition to sequencing the four seasons of the year and the physical journey of the tiny seeds and its larger counterparts, this book also demonstrates the life cycle of a plant.

We have explored the themes of flowers, plants, and gardening before here through a variety of play activities and wonderful children's books on the topic. We have even read The Tiny Seed before and done extension activities with it. When it comes to Story Stretchers, repetition is OK! After all, how many times does your child request to read and reread a favorite book? I have even talked before about the benefits of using Story Stretcher activities to expand upon themes and concepts presented in a favorite book. This can encourage your young reader to engage in fabulous pretend play, sensory exploration and expand upon language development and other pre-reading skills. It can also eliminate some of the monotony of reading that same book again and again and again...

I find it helpful when engaging in a story stretcher to set out certain activities ahead of time and to have others prepared in advance to introduce throughout the day. I did a slight remodel of our toy/materials shelf to include some of the day's themed activities.

In the morning, I had set out this simple Flower Garden sensory bin for Table Time:

I included plastic flower pots, artificial flowers, scoops and tongs and a fluffy bed of paper grass. S LOVED planting flowers. He even went to our STEAM cart to add more flowers to the scene from another activity!

I introduced our target book at our Morning Meeting. S loves this book so much he wanted to read it twice in a row! It is a rather lengthy story so young readers may prefer a paraphrased version to reading it word for word. I also like resources like YouTube or audio books/Scholastic videos from the library for introducing children's literature. We did indeed listen to The Tiny Seed from the YouTube video posted above as we ate our lunch!

S genuinely wants to play with Y now that he is growing into more up and alert periods of the day and quite smiley and playful to boot. I have been eagerly brainstorming ways beyond our "brothers' basket" of toys to include Y in our play and learning activities. Creating a Tiny Seed Sensory Bottle seemed like a great activity to do with S that he could then share with his baby brother. I set out two plastic bottles (I bought these at a craft supply store, but you can use a recycled bottle if you have), some dry black bean "seeds" in a tall cup with a small scoop, a funnel with an opening large enough for the beans to fit through, and a collection of colorful silk flowers. I had a roll of thin duct tape with a fun floral print on hand for tightly sealing the bottles when we were done. You could use any type of duct tape or even hot glue your lid on if you wish.

S was so proud to be making sensory bottles himself and especially eager to share it with his brother...

...so eager, in fact, that delivering his gift could wait for nothing, not even a nap to be done!

The materials are quite simple, but the burst of color and the sound of the black beans as the bottles are shaken are wonderful elements to intrigue the sensory development of infants (and older siblings!).

While Y finished his nap, S and I took a Seeds We Eat Scavenger Hunt in our fridge and pantry. We looked for foods that

• have seeds on the inside (we found apples and pears, cucumbers and peppers, oranges and grapes, even frozen blueberries)
• have seeds on the outside (strawberries were a perfect candidate for this category--we had some in our freezer as well for use in smoothies)
• are seeds! (We had a snack of trail mix made from mixed nuts and seeds. We also talked about foods like beans and peas that are seeds we eat!)

Speaking of beans, transfer activities have been a longtime fine motor favorite for S--I set out this simple transfer tray and he played with it for quite a while! 

Next, it was time for a game! We played "Whose Seed Is That Anyway?"--a simple matching game I devised from recycled and laminated seed packet photos and ziplock bags of leftover seeds (ones we had from our planting earlier this season).

To play the game, I set out the pictures and held the bags of seeds. Each bag is labeled (so I know what's inside!) and one at a time, I presented a bag of seeds. Certain seeds, S recognizes quite well--like beans and peas. These are seeds that look like foods he is familiar with. I still present a series of clues with each bag, although as he familiarized with the game (and asked to play again and again!) I simplified my clues and eventually eliminated them altogether.

We had a lot of fun with The Tiny Seed story stretcher activities we did at home. Perhaps you'll try some of them in your own home or classroom. Want to do more? Here are some other play and learning activities related to The Tiny Seed:

• Plant some seeds of your own! Whether indoors or outdoors, planting seeds is a great way to take the journey in this book into your own hands and garden! You can chronicle your own seed's journey as it grows into a sprout, a plant, a flower or vegetable... Visit your seedlings often to observe and discuss their progress.

Observe a variety of seeds and photos of their mature plants. How are seeds different and how are they alike? Do big fruits and vegetables always have big seeds? What other things do you notice or wonder about seeds?

• Get crafty!

This was a cute handprint/footprint painting our local playgroup instructor did with everyone to create a sunflower painting. S loved getting his hands all painty and Y tolerated his foot being dipped in. We glued on poppy seeds and voila! 

Painting/printing with flowers is another great activity to try. We had some flowers on the wilt last year around this time and used red and yellow paint to create our own sunflower like the one on the cover of The Tiny Seed.

Aww, look at little S! He had such a great time dipping and dabbing those flowers on the paper plate that had been prepared with slits around the edge to resemble petals of a flower.

Once the paint was dry, we glued on some dry beans in the center to resemble sunflower seeds. You could certainly use actual sunflower seeds if you have them on hand!

• Get moving! Create motions or choose from Yoga poses to act out the story of The Tiny Seed!

What fun even the most familiar stories can be when we stretch our imagination and expand into a world of play and hands-on learning! Instilling a love of literacy in young readers is as simple as planting a tiny seed. Hope you enjoyed reading and playing along with us...

Happy Playing!