The Parable of the Sower - Observing Plant Growth in Different Environments

The seed exploration and planting activity which I carried out with my son last week was so popular that he has been asking every day if we could do some more planting.  We had plenty of seeds left and a spare seed tray so we had another planting session, but this time we planted the seeds into different environments to see how the environment would effect the growth of the plant.

We based our activity on The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:3-9) where Jesus tells the story of a sower planting seeds in a field.  Some seed falls on the path (which the birds eat up), some on rocky ground (which causes the plant to shoot up only to wither later as the soil is too shallow to let the root grow deeply), some among thorns (which eventually choke the plant) and some on good soil where it thrives.  (In our scene I had to use weeds instead of thorns, but the principle is the same).

The parable itself is a story Jesus told to demonstrate the fruitfulness of God's Word in people's lives. The seed that falls on the path to be eaten by the birds signifies the "evil one" who snatches away the truth that is sown into the listener's heart, the seed that falls on rocky ground refers to the person who receives it, but does not let it take root and is overcome by persecution and trouble, the seed that falls among thorns signifies the person who hears the the word but is choked by the worries of this life and the seed that falls on good soil is the person who receives the word and is fruitful.

Wugs has been observing our Parable of the Sower scene for a couple of weeks now and we have plants shooting up in good soil, one in the weeds, some in the rocks and none on the path.  It has been outside for almost the whole time so the birds could have eaten the seed or the wind may have blown them away or to other parts of the tray.  It will be interesting to see if that tall shoot that has grown among the rocks will wither away as it becomes bigger and whether the shoot among the weeds will eventually be overcome by them (as the parable describes).

Whether our little activity will demonstrate these agricultural principles perfectly is unlikely, but it was a fun way to let Wugs participate in the parable by being the "sower" who has planted the seed, watered it, observed it and will hopefully see some "fruit".

What we used:
Seed Tray
Potting Mix
Seeds
Trowel
Weeds (from the garden)
Stones (from the garden)
Stones to create a path (store bought - something more level and without gaps would have worked better like a stone slab)
Craft sticks
Label
Marker

Please click here for more Botany-related activities:

The Parable of the Sower Small World Play

Today we attempted another bible-related activity and this time it was one that both Wugs and Dooey could participate in.  For me, this means a bit of thought regarding the materials that Dooey (the child who eats everything!) could safely use.  The idea to create a small world play around The Parable of the Sower came from observing Wugs' interaction with a jar of play dough and modelling tools that we have collected over the year.  One tool in particular that he uses all the time reminded me of a plough - hence the agricultural theme.

The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-23) is a story about a farmer who goes into a field to sow seed, some of which falls on rocks and eventually withers away as it cannot form roots, some falls on the path and is eaten by birds, some falls amongst the weeds and thorns and is choked and some falls onto good soil and grows into a bountiful crop.  The "seed" in this parable is the message of the Kingdom of God and how it is either fruitful or unfruitful to the listener.  Although my boys are too young to appreciate its significance, I'm hoping that "playing in the parable" will form a memory or impression that they can link back to when they are older or at least an experience that makes this stuff fun for them now.

In Wugs' small world, we used the following:
Playdough for the soil (following this recipe) and the green was leftover from a tub we bought
Brown food colouring
Saga seeds
Cotton buds
Yellow Felt-tip pen (to colour the cotton bud)
Yellow Paint (to colour the cotton bud stick)
Fake flowers
Stones
Bird Figurines

Lego Figurine

Cardboard (for the path)

Grey acrylic paint

Tools (I've mentioned the tools we used at the end of the post)

The saga seeds were an interesting addition to this small world because it connects the activity to South East Asia.  The saga seeds have traditionally been collected as counters by children or turned into jewellery.   Saga seeds were also used in ancient India to weigh gold (as each saga seed is of a similar weight, 4 saga seeds:one gramme).   There is even a Singaporean legend behind the saga seeds.  My husband used to collect the seeds as a child and we collected ours at the Singapore Botanic Gardens a few months ago.

I started the activity by reading The Parable of the Sower to Wugs and showing him a video clip from you tube.  Once the small world was brought out, he started scattering and planting his seeds using his play dough tools to make a hole and then covered up the seeds.  Some of the seeds fell outside of the soil onto the weeds, rocks and the path.  The seeds that had fallen onto the soil were then given a crop or two.  Wugs played with this for two hours - first with his box and then Dooey's!

For Dooey's small world play, we used the following:
Playdough for the soil (following this recipe)
Brown food colouring
Raisins
Lollipop/popsicle sticks (for the crop)
Fake flowers
Grey and black Fischer Tips (made from potato starch)
Bird Figurines

Happyland Figurine

Cardboard (for the path)

Grey acrylic paint

Tools (See the end of the post)

As Dooey didn't really follow the story, I scattered his raisins for him.  It wasn't so much the birds picking up the seed and eating them so much as a 15 month old boy gobbling them up!  He used the tools and enjoyed jabbing the lollipop sticks into the dough.  The sensory side of the small world play was fully appreciated by him and he happily played with it for about 30 minutes before going off and finding a London bus and Singapore taxi to drive down the little grey path!

For those interested in the play dough tools we used.  Here is a photo of them:

The tools on the top row are a selection from the Early Learning Centre Soft Stuff Bumper Activity Jar  (here's a bit of free advertising for them!) and the bottom row are a selection from Melissa and Doug Shape, Model and Mold kit