Egg Shell Gardens - Fun Preschool Science Experiment!
We started a set of egg shell gardens last week...you know how fun it is to try something new with an "old" item? This. is. awesome!
It all started about a week ago when Cerys from Rainy Day Mum shared a picture of her cress-egg-shell-heads on the Virtual Book Club Facebook page. My first reaction was, wouldn't this be awesome with vegetables?!!
So I saved eggs for a couple days. With 5 kids, it didn't take long to get two dozen shells! We rinsed out the eggs, drew faces on them, and put them in the cardboard egg cartons to set up our egg shell garden.
Aren't they adorable?! Drawing faces on the egg shells was a great activity for my preschoolers, but my older kids had just as much fun designing theirs!
I chose the cardboard egg cartons because you can bury the cartons right in the ground with your eggs!
Sidenote: It is only April 16th, and in Virginia we have a chance of frost until May. I'm going to wait a few more days until I have a 10-day forecast into May with no freezing temperatures before we plant them outside.
Sidenote 2: Egg shells will most likely not crumble as the plant grows. I'm going to poke through the bottoms of each shell to make sure the little lettuce roots can crack their way through the shell and cardboard. I still think the shell and cardboard will make fantastic mulch for the plants as they grow!
Okay, on to the planting!
We decided to plant lettuce and carrot seeds.
We've grown lettuce before, but never had much luck with carrots. Still, we decided to give both a try--we're always up for a little science experiment!
The seeds are so tiny that you can just sprinkle them on top of the soil.
I kind of imagined we'd just put one or two seeds in each shell, but that's pretty intense fine motor skills for 3-year old fingers! Most of the shells ended up getting about 6 seeds! 😄 💗
We used spoons to put soil into the egg shells, and then again to pour water on the planted seeds. Either spoons or a spray bottle help control the water so you don't wash your seeds away!
Finally, we gave them lots of sunlight and kept the soil moist! Most of the seeds had sprouted within a week.
Once we get to May, I'm going to plant them outside, but I thought I'd post this in case any of you want to give it a try too! This way, you have plenty of time to start them indoors before your summer season hits too!
Final Sidenote: Our little "baby lettuce" plants were especially well timed because my 6-year old announced she wanted to study plants this spring! So, we're doing a Plant Theme too! That girl has the best timing ever!
Have you tried anything new this week? Are you growing a garden? Do you have any tips for growing carrots? I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to send me an email, leave a comment, or find me at Preschool Powol Packets on Facebook!
Happy Educating,
Carla
I may share at any of these parties!
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