Playing with Grass

Playing games is the best way to teach children and now the weather is so lovely it's even better to be out in the garden or park while you are learning. Here are some matching and sorting ideas to try out with grasses and seeds for you to find.

1. Pick some grasses and see how many you can hold without dropping!
2. Match the grasses: Find grasses with feathery seeds and interesting leaves. Try to get 2 of each sort.  Lay them in a line and see if the little ones can pair them up, matching the same 2 grasses together.
3. Counting: Count the grasses together.  Take a few away and count them again.
4. Put the grasses in order according to their length.  Sort them by size and line them up to see the size differences.
5. Sort the grasses by shade and colour (if you have some green, some brown, some dark green).
6. Blow: Hold each grass and see what happens when you blow them.  Do seeds fly off, do they bend or break?
7. Bug hunt: Sit and watch the grass for a while and see how many bugs and spiders you can spot scurrying about.
8. Shhh: Sit down and listen to the noises you can hear: cars, buzzing bees, laughter, a siren.
9. Picture: Take the grasses home and make a seed and grass picture with them.

As a follow-up diary project, put some seed into a pot of soil and watch over the next few weeks to see if the seeds germinate and grow into new plants?