Sprouting Seed Activity

Spring is right around the corner, and I am SO excited!  There is something about new life sprouting up that makes me really happy.  While visiting my parents, they engaged the kids in a simple sprouting seed activity.  My mom loves to garden, so this was the perfect project to take on while visiting her.

I love her seed stash.  She enjoys saving seeds and has a number of different varieties of seeds she has collected over the years.

We created simple mini greenhouses with recycled tins, damp paper towels and a plastic bag.  Lay a damp paper towel on the bottom of your container and gently “plant” your seeds.  We planted a variety of seeds in each container so we carefully mapped out where each seed was to refer to later.  Everyone plants in their PJ’s right:)

Once everything was planted in our greenhouses, we each made predictions on which seed would be the first to sprout.  It was fun listening to the kids make predictions.  Two of the kids were convinced that the Oak Trees would be first:)


We were amazed that by the next evening the cucumbers, broccoli and scarlet runner beans had already started sprouting.  Who knew that it could happen that quickly!  The kids loved peeking in to see what was happening to the seeds.  The seeds that had not sprouted were starting to swell getting ready to sprout.  We talked about germination and each type of seed will have a different germination period.

A few days later, the trays were exploded with sprouted seeds and plants.  We were all intrigued by the roots, they were everywhere.    It was also fun to see the leaves.  No soil, and they still were growing.

I’m sure the plants would not last long growing like this, but it was a great teaching moment to show the kids how plants roots grow.  We ended up having to fly home before we could plant the seeds in soil, so we left that job up to mom.  Thanks for the fun project mom, the kids loved it!  Now I need to get my seeds started, maybe after Easter.
Here is a link to a fun list of great experiments that my kids love.