Little Buds Easter Special
Today's Little Bud's Gardening Club was an Easter special! It was nice to welcome back some of the children who had attended two weeks ago and brilliant for them to see how much the seeds had grown that they had planted. More on that later though.
Today's session was all about making cress heads out of eggs. We started the activity by using pins to prick a small hole in the top and bottom of the eggs. We then used screws to make the hole a little bigger. The children were then able to insert a straw into one end and blow the contents out!
Once the egg was empty the children washed them and then, using their fingers, pulled more of the shell away.
The children then used a small piece of cotton wool to line the bottom of the egg shell before stuffing soil in all the way to the top.
They then sprinkled a handful of cress seeds into the eggs....
...before drawing faces on them.
A quick water...
...and hey presto! Egg heads!! The children were able to take their creations home with them with advice from me about where to keep them and how to care for them. I suggested a sunny windowsill with occasional watering if the soil felt dry. I can't wait to hear how they got on in two weeks time! This activity was followed up with an Easter egg hunt in the garden, of which I am lacking photos as the children were so busy asking me questions and trying to get clues!!
And here's how they looked a week later. A pretty impressive head of hair!!
Now, here's an update on how all our seeds are doing that we planted two weeks ago.
Sunflower seedlings at 7 days and 13 days after planting. Just look at the difference a week makes! The children and I will need to thin them out soon and plant them into bigger pots.
Pea seedlings at 7 days and 13 days after planting. Once they are a little more establised we can plant these straight into the ground.
The first sweetcorn seedling appears 13 days after planting as does the first cucumber, with more bursting through the soil on day 15.
Runner beans 13 days after planting and just two days later, look how much they've grown!
The first broad beans appear 15 days after planting.
The first courgette seedling, (climbing variety) appears 15 days after planting, as does the first pumpkin, marrow and climbing bean seedlings. The children were very excited to see our first pumpkin seedlings!!
On day 15 there are plenty of courgette seedlings, (Midnight variety) pushing up.
All in all it was another very successful gardening club. It was particularly satisfying for the children to be able to see how much the seeds had grown in just two weeks. It was the first thing they asked to look at when they arrived!