Mr or Mrs Cress Head!

Today, six of Henry's 3-4 year old friends completed this fun activity. This is one from my childhood that is considered by some to be a "must do" before you reach 10 yrs old!

Incorporating a craft project, science, and fine motor skills, kids learn without even realising it.

What you will need

Egg shell or top half of a plastic Easter egg (the type used for Easter egg hunts)

Cress seeds

Cotton wool

Decorating materials (we used stick on stuff, but you can just use felt pens on egg shells).

Small container for easy water pouring

Egg cup or something similar to hold the project safely.

Having completed this many times before i made my own way through the project, but for a comprehensive outline and more info check out this great web page.

www.planet-science.com/parents/easter_pdfs/cress+foil.pdf

Firstly i had Henry and all the other kids decorate their eggs. We used plastic egg halves as we had plenty left over from Easter and they are less fragile for small hands. We used googly eyes, felt and sticky foam bits for extra fun. But on egg shells you can easily just use felt pens.

Next, we put cotton wool inside the egg shell, and added water. No science here, just keep pouring till the cotton wool is saturated. Using a small jug, even the

smallest kids were able to water their own eggs.

Next i measured out cress seeds into a small pot, which allowed the kids to put their own seeds onto the cotton wool with very little intervention. Some just tipped the lot on top then spread them with fingers, others carefully places seeds a few at a time into the egg shell - fantastic for fine motor skills.

We will continue to water the cress seeds for the next few days, and look forward to a full head of cress sprouting in a few days time.

FYI, none of my friends in USA knew of cress. You could use fast growing wheat or cat grass instead and have a grass head instead of a cress head if you can not get hold of cress seeds.