Year 3 Seeds & Life Cycles Activities

Discover the Amazing World of Seeds and Plant Life Cycles

Transform your Year 3 Science lessons with this comprehensive resource featuring six hands-on activities that explore seed dispersal, germination, and plant life cycles through exciting investigations and outdoor learning.

Six Complete Activities Included:

1. Seed Hunt: Take learning outdoors! Explore the local environment to find and collect different types of seeds, developing observation skills and understanding that seeds come in many shapes, sizes, and forms
2. Seed Dispersal: Investigate the ingenious ways plants spread their seeds! Explore wind dispersal, animal dispersal, water dispersal, and explosive dispersal, understanding how each method helps plants colonize new areas
3. Copter Seed Investigation: Conduct a scientific investigation into helicopter seeds (like sycamore)! Test how wing size and shape affect flight distance and time, developing fair testing skills while understanding wind dispersal
4. Seed Expulsion Investigation: Explore explosive seed dispersal through hands-on experiments! Investigate how plants like peas and balsam forcefully eject their seeds, measuring distances and understanding the mechanics behind this dispersal method
5. Seed Bomb: Create seed bombs and watch them grow! This practical activity combines environmental awareness with understanding germination, as children make and plant seed balls that will grow into wildflowers
6. Plant Lifecycle: Explore the complete journey from seed to plant to seed again! Understand germination, growth, flowering, pollination, and seed production through observation, diagrams, and hands-on planting activities

Why Teachers Choose This Resource:

• Curriculum-Aligned: Fully supports Year 3 Science objectives for plants in the National Curriculum of England
• Hands-On Investigations: Practical experiments and outdoor activities that make plant science engaging and memorable
• Ready to Use: Complete lesson plans with learning objectives, equipment lists, and step-by-step instructions
• Develops Scientific Enquiry: Activities include fair testing, observations, predictions, and recording results
• Outdoor Learning Opportunities: Several activities encourage exploration and investigation beyond the classroom
• Cross-Curricular Links: Connects to KS2 Geography (environments) and Design & Technology (seed bombs)
• Accessible Materials: Uses seeds, everyday items, and simple equipment readily available

Perfect For:

• Year 3 Science lessons on plants and life cycles
• Key Stage 2 biology teaching
• Homeschool science curriculum
• Developing scientific investigation and fair testing skills
• Outdoor learning and environmental education
• Building understanding of plant reproduction and ecology

Learning Outcomes:

Through these activities, children will identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants, explore the requirements of plants for life and growth, investigate the way in which water is transported within plants, understand seed dispersal methods and their importance, and explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants including pollination and seed formation.

What Makes This Resource Special:

Seeds are small but mighty—each one contains the potential for an entire plant! These investigations help children appreciate the incredible adaptations plants have evolved for spreading seeds and the fascinating journey from tiny seed to flowering plant. By investigating real seeds and growing real plants, children develop genuine scientific understanding through firsthand experience.

Building Scientific Understanding:

Understanding plant life cycles is fundamental to biology and environmental science. These activities develop not just knowledge about plants, but essential scientific skills including observation, fair testing, recording data, and drawing conclusions—skills that form the foundation for all future science learning.

Bring plant science to life! These engaging activities help Year 3 students discover the fascinating world of seeds and plant life cycles through hands-on investigations, outdoor exploration, and real growing experiences that make biology tangible, memorable, and genuinely exciting.