Preschoolers Will Love These 3 Fun Activities with Seeds

I’m so excited to share our #PlayfulPreschool activities for today. As a little girl, I remember making lots of bird feeders for the birds come wintertime. We had a set of woods beside our house that were home to cardinals and blue jays that didn’t migrate for the winter. As winter approaches (maybe faster than we would like, considering the snow storm we got stuck in last week), it’s a great time to do some fun activities with seeds with my preschooler and my other girls. 

For us preschool is all about play, so when we are doing an activity I don’t need to stress my daughter out by requiring her to perform tasks in a preset way. I know that when I provide good opportunities for her, she will learn all the necessary skills.

One of the things that Shiloh’s therapists have been very excited about is her great fine motor skills. They are progressing very well in comparison to her other skill levels. Their suggestion was to continue providing her with opportunities to use her hands with detailed tasks. This will help her build on something that she already feels successful with.

Since her pincer grasp is great, but her hand muscles themselves are not great, I thought it would fun to create some seed names and pictures. This was also an opportunity to expose her to letters, particularly those in her name.

Fun Activities with Seeds

Our activities with seeds were done in a special order, so that we could end up with some cute little bird feeders as our final activity.

Seed Names

Squeezing the glue bottle is a good way to work on hand and lower arm muscles. You can spell out a name, draw shapes, practice a spelling word or a seasonal word. It’s totally up to you.

After drawing the name with glue, use the pincer grasp to pick up the seeds and gently sprinkle them over the paper.

For kids with better coordination, you may try to have them follow the letters as they sprinkle the seeds.

Allow it to sit for a minute or two and then gently shake the excess seeds off the paper. (We shook ours back into the bowl we were taking them out of.)

I love the contrast of the seed against the dark paper!

Seed Sensory Bin

After that, we took the leftover seeds and made a simple sensory bin.

I used the seeds, some textured decorative balls, and a silly little scarecrow. My kids added in some Littlest Pet Shop birds after I took the pictures.

I actually did this sensory bin in a disposable cake pan because I haven’t gotten my other sensory bin containers put into our new home on wheels yet. But it’s a great reminder that you don’t need any fancy materials or containers to create a fun activity for your kids.

When they were done playing with the sensory bin, we decided it was time to make some bird feeders.

Seed Bird Feeders

We got out the craft sticks and glued them into triangles. Then, when they were dry, we covered them on both sides with peanut butter (mess alert!) and sprinkled bird seed onto the peanut butter. Add a string to the top and you are done!

Have you done any fun projects or activities with seeds this year? I’d love to hear what you’ve been working on! Leave me a comment to share!

Plan Your Nut and Seeds Learning Week With Activities from the #PlayfulPreschool Team