Seed Pictures

Posted by Rosie

In the sixth of our series of nature games and activities for children today we have:

Seed Pictures

For this activity you need a selection of seeds that use use to create a picture of your choice.  You can either add the seeds onto a template or build up your own image.

Robin pictures made with seeds

To make Seed Pictures you will need:

• A selection of seeds
• Paper or cardboard
• PVA Glue
• Paintbrush  
• Toothpick and/or tweezers
• Paper or cardboard
• Black and white templates (optional) 

Seeds from your kitchen - soup mix, red lentils, aduki beans, split peas, quinoa, soya beans

Method

• Collect together your seeds - if they are gathering from outside and they are are wet you will need to dry them.  If collecting seeds is not an option or you need more, you can use seeds left over in garden seed packets or you can raid the kitchen cupboards - suitable seeds include dried beans, lentils, rice, pumpkin, sunflower, chickpea, spice seeds, poppy seeds etc.
• Find and print off a template if you are using one.  I went to Google, typed in robin and searched under black and white plus line drawings ... be warned though, in this instance I had to trawl past a lot of batman type Robins first!
• Add glue with a paintbrush to the first the part of the picture you want to add the seeds to.  
• Add the seeds.  Large seeds can be added individually and smaller seeds poured on.  Seeds can be pushed gently into place with a toothpick or placed more accurately with tweezers. Once this is completed, shake excess seeds off the dry areas move to the next section.  I would not recommend adding lots of glue in one hit as seeds easily get dropped and land in the wrong place.  
• Continue until the whole picture is filled in with seeds.

Seed robin by P, aged 3

Do let me know of you have a go at making seed pictures and I'd love to see your masterpieces.  You can either post them up on Twitter linking to me at @greenrosielife or pop them on our Facebook page.

For more children centred activities why not head on over to Let Kids be Kids and see what other children have been playing at this week.  You can also see all the nature games and activities we have detailed so far by clicking here.