Preschool Science – How Does a Seed Grow?
I love science projects for kids that use things we have around the house already. It’s a great way to recycle things that would ordinarily be thrown away and it allows you to do some really educational science activities without spending a lot of money. This simple science activity is perfect for preschoolers and elementary school aged kids and it’s a great way to teach about the structure of a seed and how a plant grows.
To prepare for this project, I saved eggshells for several weeks. I washed each eggshell half out and kept them in the fridge just to make sure everything stayed fresh (I realize that once we started the project I put all the eggshells outside but it made me feel better knowing they weren’t rotting on my kitchen counter.
Materials Needed
A dozen or so eggshell halves, washed and stored in the egg carton
Potting soil
Seeds – Look for something that germinates quickly. We opted for green bean seeds but anything will do
Instructions
Once you have collected enough empty eggshells for this project you can take your egg carton outside and fill each eggshell half with potting soil.
This is a great chance for kids to get their hands dirty — something that doesn’t happen enough most of the time.
Have your kids gently place one seed on top of each eggshell and then push it down into the dirt with their finger. Be sure the seed is towards the middle of the eggshells so it has soil all around it.
Now For the Fun Part . . .
Water your seeds and leave them to grow for 3-4 days. You can watch them if you want. They don’t grow any faster unfortunately.
Once they have had a chance to be in there long enough for some changes to start taking place, have your kids pick one eggshell to crack open and have a really good look at the seed.
Have your kids notice how the seed has changed. It may be helpful to have your kids draw a picture of what the seed looked like at first (or take a picture) and draw a picture of what it looks like after being in the soil for a few days then compare the two.
Repeat every few days and have your kids pay attention to the details that are happening as the seed grows.
You may want to leave the last few seeds in the eggshell and allow them to grow into a mature plant. You can use the eggshells as planters and place them directly in the ground to grow.
You can expand this activity by talking about the parts of a seed, what things a plant needs to grow, the parts of a plant, and the plant life cycle.
Additional Resources
Science Fun you can Eat – Parts of a Plant Salad
Plant Seeds and Watch them Grow
How a Seed Grows (Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science 1) – I HIGHLY recommend this series
