Science · Kindergarten to Grade 1–2
Seed to plate
What a seed needs, and how a bean becomes new beans.
On a painted garden bed, your child finds the three things a seed needs by tapping them. Then they put a bean's growth in order, from a dry seed to a pod full of new seeds.
- Kindergarten to Grade 1–2
- 8 min
- Nothing to prepare
- On the screen
Free to sign up.
Is it a good fit?
- Ready if Your child can tap things in a picture and has seen a seed or a bean before.
- Too much today? Start with What lives in the pond?: tap the painted pond and hear each thing named.
- Too easy? The Grade 1–2 level: seed, sprout, flower and pod, and what is inside the pod.
What your child practises
- What plants need
- Putting steps in order
- A cycle that starts again
“Inside the pod there are new seeds.”
If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.
Your part
- Nothing needed on the day
- Each question has a Read it to me button
- Plays alone: a wrong tap gets a clue, never a cross
Take it off the screen (optional)
Take the Pet's bet: a dried bean on a wet paper towel in a jar. The root usually shows in two to four days.
More like this
The full design
What it is
A painted garden bed with a jar, a watering can and a trowel beside it, and a sun in the sky. Your child finds the three things a seed needs by tapping them on the picture: the can for water, the sun for light, the soil to stand in. Then a bean's moments appear on the rows of the bed, out of order, and your child taps them in the order they really happen. This is the first life cycle most children meet, and the game ends with the reason it is a cycle: the pod is full of new seeds.
How it goes
The Pet asks a question ("dry seeds sleep, what wakes them?") and the screen says what to tap. A wrong tap gets a clue, never a cross: "light comes from above, look up". In the order rounds a wrong moment gets "not yet, what comes before the plant?", a moment already placed says so, and a tap on the can or the jar sends the child back to the bed. If your child sits still, the Pet asks a smaller question, then makes the right thing glow, then taps it with them. The notebook on the screen keeps each answer as it is found, and a game left half-way carries on where it stopped.
The Pet
Asks the question at the start of each round. Notices the fact behind each need: the seed swells when it drinks; the sprout leans towards the sun; roots hold on to the soil and drink from it. Dares (K only): "bet you can grow a bean on a wet towel". That bet is off the screen. The app records only that your child said yes; the bean, the towel and the jar are yours, and the root usually shows in two to four days.
By band
At K: the three needs, then seed, sprout, plant. At 1–2: the three needs, then seed, sprout, flower, pod, and one more question over a plant with a fat pod on it: what is inside? New seeds. After this game the real bean is the next step, in Grow it.
Done, and what counts as evidence
Done is the order found. What to keep: at 1–2, the notebook line "inside the pod: new seeds" is the whole idea in four words, and a child who can say why the pod matters has the loop.
What's personal
Nothing beyond the plan's done mark. The notebook is the child's own answers for this play; the finish card says what they did this time, from those answers, not a fixed line.