Grade 3 School Garden Lesson Plan - Seed Lesson; Seed Balls: Try your Hand at Seed Dispersal ~ Massachusetts |=> In this activity students will learn about re-vegetation efforts on disturbed lands and make seed balls to re-vegetate their own area of disturbed land ` For more information, Please see websites below: ` Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children http://scribd.com/doc/239851214 ` Double your School Garden Food Production with Organic Tech http://scribd.com/doc/239851079 ` Free School Gardening Art Posters http://scribd.com/doc/239851159` ` Companion Planting Increases School Garden Food Production by 250 Percent http://scribd.com/doc/239851159 ` Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success http://scribd.com/doc/239851348 ` City Chickens for your Organic School Garden http://scribd.com/doc/239850440 ` Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide http://scribd.com/doc/239851110

1. Try your Hand at Seed Dispersal: Seed Balls
Grade Level: 3
In this activity students will learn about re-vegetation efforts on disturbed lands and make seed
balls to re-vegetate their own area of disturbed land.
Time of Year
Ideally any time in the spring, after frost and before summer vacation.
Background
This activity looks at an innovative method used around the world to re-vegetate damaged
disturbed land and other barren landscapes where the soil is dry, thin, compacted and/or rainfall
is unpredictable. This land-restoration method is used to re-introduce plants and biodiversity into
a challenging landscape where growing crops with other methods is too expensive or too hard to
do.
This is an innovative but simple technology, called a “seed ball.”
Seed balls can help seeds germinate, and give young plant all the nutrients they will need
following germination to get established. To make a seed ball you will be rolling a seed, or many
seeds, in clay and compost to create a ball that you will then dry. Seed balls are usually made by
the hundreds or thousands. Once they are dry they can be dispersed: thrown by hand or truck, or
even dropped from an airplane or hot air balloon. Seed balls are usually made from a wide
selection of different kinds of local plants that have been known to do well in similar areas. The
hope is that even if some seeds are not able to do well, some will sprout, and start to take hold,
and the process of re-foresting or vegetating the area will begin.
Why can seed balls work?
In dry areas, the shade created by the shape of the ball actually helps to conserve moisture. When
the seeds begin to germinate and the ball breaks apart, the small pile of crumbled clay and
compost provides the starting medium for the root system, and is still heavy enough to anchor
the emerging seeds to the ground. The clay also provides protection from hungry birds and other
animals during germination.
The small leaves of the new plants then provide shade for the soil to conserve more soil moisture
so it can be used by the growing plant. Those plants that are able to mature, will then produce
their own seeds and provide shelter once the second generation seeds fall to the ground. The
seeding and regrowth continues until hopefully complete plant cover is achieved.
Materials
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

2. * Three parts dry, sifted compost
* One part seeds: Best to use a mix of local native wildflowers or other beneficial plants
attractive to birds, pollinators and animals.
* Five parts dry red clay powder (available at pottery or art supply stores or ask your local potter.
You could also use river clay, if you have access to a place to sustainably harvest it.)
* One to two parts water
* Cookie sheets or other surface, for drying the balls
* Large containers to mix the ingredients in
* Wooden spoons to mix with
* Aprons and gloves if you like, also a ground throw such as an old table cloth.
* Paper bags or cardboard boxes to store the seed balls in.
Preparation
Gather the materials and identify an area of your schoolyard or neighborhood that could use
re-vegetating. If you don’t have one, you could simply see how seed balls work when put on the
surface of a garden bed, or send them home with students to put in abandoned areas around
town! To measure out the parts, I use 8oz plastic cups.
Introducing the Lesson
Introduce the lesson by talking about seed balls, and about disturbed lands around the world. You
might want to talk about the problems of expanding deserts due to human activity. You could talk
about why seed balls are a hopeful thing that we can do to help to address this problem. You
could perhaps show a short video about seed balls (Several videos are included in resources,
including one about the Thai government’s seed ball initiative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=IpN9-45XPrs)
Activate prior knowledge
Who can remember the ways in which plants disperse seeds? Why is seed dispersal important to
a plant? How do we usually plant seeds in our garden?
Engage Student Interest
We are going to join people from around the world in making seed balls to help encourage plant
cover and biodiversity around the planet.
Procedure (Total time approximately 1 hour to make, plus time to dry and ‘sew’ the seed balls)
Introduce the lesson (10 mins)
Outside (optional, 15 mins)
1. Visit your site. What makes this place a disturbed area? What problems might plants have
when trying to grow here? Look at the soil, plants growing already etc. Why would we want to
re-vegetate places like this? (to help pollinators, animals, to look beautiful, to contribute to world
wide plant cover, to increase bio-diversity etc.)
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

3. In the Classroom:
2. (5 mins)
Get out your seeds and have students mix them in a large container. Talk about why you picked
those particular seeds, and why we include so many different kinds of seeds.
3. (20 mins)
Next mix the compost, clay and half the water together in a large bowl, or a few bowls if you
have a lot of kids. You could provide aprons and gloves to do this as it can get messy. Mix and
add water, a little at a time, until the mixture is about the consistency of dough, and can be balled
up easily without falling apart - about the consistency of modeling clay.
4. (10 mins)
Now add the seeds. Kneed them in until they are evenly distributed, then roll the clay up into
small balls about the diameter of a quarter.
5. Place the balls on trays to dry for about 2 days, or until hard. Store in a paper bag or cardboard
box (not a plastic bag).
6. Now head out to sow them. Tossing them gently is more fun than placing them! Do not water
or bury them.
7. Visit them in a week or so to see what has happened, and then periodically to see how your
re-vegetation efforts have come.
Assessing Student Knowledge
What does a plant need? How do seed balls help plants get what they need? Why are people
around the world using seed balls?
Extensions
Track vegetable growth in your disturbed area by mapping how much plant coverage area there
is in a square foot. You can do this by drawing a grid and coloring in squares that have more than
a certain percentage (e.g. 75%) of cover.
Other extensions could be to gather and dry naturally occurring clay to use in your seed balls.,
and/or to gather local wildflower seeds in the fall to use in your seed balls in the spring.
* MA Department of Ed. Standards in this lesson (for grade 2) *
Life Science Standard 1. Recognize that animals and plants are living things that grow,
reproduce, and need food, air and water.
Life Science Standard 3. Recognize that plants and animals have life cycles.
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

4. Life Science Standard 8. Identify the ways in which an organisms habitat provides for its basic
needs.
Books and Resources
Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Newsletter on Seeds
http://aginclassroom.org/Newsletter/spring2006.html
NPR story (written and audio) about organizations in Brooklyn NY using seed balls:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103129515
Egyptian Seed Ball Campaign: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTZcxCZWFbw
Thai Government seed ball initiative: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpN9-45XPrs
(photo: Dave Miller 2009)
P. O. Box 345 Seekonk, MA 02771
www.aginclassroom.org
Please Visit the Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Website
to tell us how you used this resource.
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

5. Thanks!
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.