I am so excited to share with you a super simple activity that is awesome for teaching kids about seeds! I did this germination activity with my preschoolers and they loved it.
Here’s what you need:
- jars
- wet paper towels
- seeds
Set several wet paper towels in a jar. Make sure to wring out the paper towels so there’s no excess water in the jar. Then place seeds in the jar, near the bottom half of the jar.
If you do multiple seeds, label the jars. Then place them by the window and wait. After a couple of days, you will see them start to sprout!
After about a week, they will really start to grow!
We tracked the growth of the seed with a journal. (The printable is found at the bottom of this post.) The journal has 10 days to draw a picture of the seed growing.
We’ve had ours growing for about 16 days and they now look like this! So fun to see them grow so tall and to see the beans and peas start to grow on the plant. The flower plant was definitely slower to grow, but the seeds were also much smaller.
It was so fun watching the seeds grow in our window.
I hope you’ll try this science activity out. To download the printable journal, click here —> My Seed Journal
To put the journal together, simply print the first page. Then flip over the page and print the second page on the back. Then fold the page horizontally.Â
Did you water them daily??
I keep an eye on the paper towels. If they look dry, I spritz them with water.
Do you happen to have a pdf of the directions for the experiment that you can share with me?
I’m sorry, but I don’t at this time.
I am a Pre-K teacher with a class of 12 kiddos. Teaching remotely for next 4 weeks. Is there a way that I can send your seed journal page To parents to use with their child? I am mailing seeds out to each child.
Yes, you can definitely do that! So sweet of you to send them to your students.
Hi … do you have an example of a completed journal for the bean in jar experiment for comparison reasons?
Thank you
Este
I’m sorry, but I don’t! I can try to take a picture of it when we do it next!
thanks a lot for sharing, definitely will try with my little one.
If you soak lima beans over night in a cup of water they will triple in size. Then carefully peel off the outer skin and very carefully split the seed. Get your magnifying glass and you will see the tiny first leaves inside and the first root! Exciting for kids to explore
do you use fresh seeds or dried
I used dried seeds.
Thank you for sharing!
Like the activity……. children will enjoy it ,
Hey! I love this…just wondering exactly what type of seed you used?
I used peas, flowers, and beans. I don’t remember which brand, but I think it was from The Dollar Tree.
really good..:)
Hi,
Many thanks for sharing your germination activity. I have been about ways in which my Y2 children could simply and regularly record the changes in their seeds over a couple of weeks and your seed journal is just perfect for them to do this independently.
You have saved me time!
Thanks.
Do I need to add water to paper towels regularly?
No need to add any water 🙂
What type of water did you use?
Just regular tap water.
Hey! This may be a silly question… but how are they able to grow without nutrients from soil?
That’s a good question! The seeds are able to grow from the sunlight and water, but they only lasted for about three weeks before they started to wither and die. I believe it’s because they weren’t in soil that they died. I’m not a scientist, but that’s just my guess 🙂 This activity is a way to show kids how seeds begin to grow. I’m guessing you could transfer the seeds to soil after they’ve started in the jar. Hope that helps!
Seeds contain nutrients (stored food) for the germination process, but need soil to continue to grow after it uses up the stored “food”.
What a wonderful idea! I will be doing this with my kids this week!
Thank you! I just printed out the journal for my kids.
They are so excited to get started.