A School or Home Project - Watching The Seeds Grow

A school or home project of growing seeds. This is a very simple lesson plan for teaching children at any age the basic steps of growing a plant. This is a fun project and is also inexpensive. You can incorporate the project when planning a science lesson or family time for any age. Create a children's garden at school or home and learn gives you a few different ideas of a fun activity. Take a look at the simple materials and process of doing a single or group venture.

• The first step is to talk about the entire plan. Have all your materials in front of the child or children so they can see each item. Talk the importance of planning each step correctly in order for the plants to grow. Preparing the soil before planting is as vital as watering.
• Let the child or children touch the materials. Any of these items can be purchased at a local store or gardening center. Take a look at the base try and four individual pots.

  Base Tray	Individual Pot

  The base try is used for putting the soil mixture in. Follow the detailed guide in Herb growing from seed and learn how easy it is to get a seedling started. If you are doing a school project, create a group with three or six children and give each of them an individual pot.

Another option is buying a group of smaller pots, called plug trays or pots.

Tray With Six Plugs	Indvidual Plug

The plug pots are a little less expensive. Using the small pots or plugs will be up to you and the number of children you have in your classroom. If you are doing a family project, each of you could have your own six little plugs. Think of different ways to have the child create the plant with their own identity. Putting a name tag on the pot or using individual or group colors. Depending on the age group, create a theme or have each group develop their own theme. Tie it in with your over all lesson plan.

• Decide what type of seeds you want to plant. You have two options. Do just one type of seeds or do a variety of small plants such as herbs, vegetables or flowers. This will be up to you but I think it is nice to for a child or children have a choice on a couple of different seeds. This also will broaden their knowledge of different plant specimens.
• Once everyone is set to start, place newspaper in the area where you want to plant. Read up on different seeds as some require a dark location for the germination process, and others require full sun light.
• Hands on learning is one of the greatest tools in any school or home project. Have each child get as physically and mentally involved as you can. Make each step fun and special. This doesn't matter whether you are dealing with a young group of children or teenagers.
• Once the seeds are planted, give each child or group of children a special place to monitor the plants growth. If you are working with a young age group, create pictures around of plants. Get your camera and take photos of the child and each step in this process. Older students can do journals or make a wall chart. This is another reason for doing a variety of different plants. A wall chart for an individual seed type will show a child the overall growing process of each plant specimen. Do the wall chart at school or home.
• It can be very exciting when the first seedling spouts. In reality, there is always a chance some seeds not germinating. Decide what alternate plan you can do in case of a few not growing. Doing extra plugs or pots is an option. I had over 5,000 seedlings in my greenhouse and companies will usually put the germination rate on each package. Always plan for a few non growers.
• Once the plants have started growing, allow the children to explore each others species. Keep the plants in the classroom or at home in a special place. Talk about different options the children can do once their plant has matured. Create a small garden space and transfer the plant into the ground, or eventually transplant into a bigger pot. I like to take a picture of a few seeds and the plant once it has grown. Below is a picture of a group of seeds along with a purple Ornamental Pepper plant. This plant germinated from seed about three months ago.

A Group Of Seeds	Ornamental Pepper Plant

This project also can be done in any non - project organization or any type of youth group. These are just simple steps to follow in doing any type of school project or fun activity for your child or children at home. The three different articles were intended to help you get an overall view of different things you can do with your own child or a group of children.