Thursday, May 24, 2012

I-See-You Seeds

We had some left-over seeds after planting the garden, so we decided to plant them in clear containers to teach us how seeds turn into plants.  We did a version of this in elementary school, and I still to this day remember how exciting it was when they started sprouting!  So, here is how we did it:

I cut the top off some plastic 16oz soda bottles.  This made a perfect see-thru container so we could catch some root action.  I filled some with wet balled-up newspaper and others with wet paper towels (it was a little easier to see what was going on in the bottles with paper towels).  Then, we stuck seeds down about an inch along the sides of the container.  Since we don't have much direct sunlight in our house, we found a home for them on the back porch (if you have a bright window, that would be a perfect place).

Our seeds started changing after just two days!  I seemed just as surprised by the quick turn-around as my kids did. 


After a few more days, the roots were growing down and the plant was headed up. Before long, the plants had broken thru the top of the container!


Once we were done viewing them, we carefully removed them from the bottle and planted them in the garden, paper towel (or newspaper) and all.  You can see the one in the picture above that we removed from the bottle.  They are super-easy to get out!.  We learned so much from this project and can't wait to continue watching our plants in the garden!  

Oh yea, these are great for show and tell, too!  My son took his in and was excited to explain to his class what was going on..