Science & Growing Activity & Lesson – Grass man
Grass man is a fun simple activity to implement with pre k kids growing plants.
This works well as a science activity and growing activity for preschoolers or kindergarten aged children.
If you are looking for growing activities or planting themed lesson plans for kids, this would be a good activity to use with the children in your class.
Your Grassman will grow hair (grass) over several days or weeks providing he is placed in a well lit room near some sunlight and that he is watered (a little bit at a time) every couple of days or so to keep the soil moist for the grass to thrive and grow. The children love to look for new things each day as the grass begins to grow.
What is Required for this Science & Growing Activity?
- Felt or construction paper
- Blunt or rounded scissors
- Glue or Hot glue gun (Supervision required)
- Eyes, nose, mouth etc. (Craft store or online in a printable form)
- A plastic container or old tin/aluminum container (eg.) empty coffee tin, large soup can, etc.
- potting soil
- grass seeds
- water
*CAUTION*
If using any tin, metal or plastic containers–please ensure that there are ‘NO SHARP EDGES’ where children or yourself can be cut!
How to Prevent sharp edges:
Use some duct tape or other suitable tape or try to file around the edge to cover over any sharp or jagged edges. Most coffee containers come with a smooth edge now so it shouldn’t be hard to find one.
What to do for this Kids Science & Growing Activity:
- Measure the construction paper or felt to the height and the circumference (distance around the container).
- Cut the felt or construction paper to the height and length needed to wrap around the container.
- Use the hot glue gun (Supervised – Keeping children clear) or craft glue to wrap container in chosen material.
- Print out our sheet of eyes, noses and mouths and color if desired. Cut out the eyes, nose and mouths you wish to use on your Grass-man. Paste them on.
- Fill the container with soil – about an inch or so from the top.
- Sprinkle in some grass seeds. Lightly sprinkle a little bit of soil over the grass seed.
- Lightly water the grass seed (not too much-just make it moist)
- Place in a well lit window that receives lots of sun or light. Watch daily as the grass (hair) starts to grow. Water it every other day or as needed without over watering.
- While observing the Grass-man each day the children can look for changes.
- Keep record on a piece of paper of when the grass started to grow, the length, the color etc. Each day or every other day you can observe changes with the children and review and discuss them when the grass has finished growing.
Asking the Children Open Ended Questions:
- How is the grass growing?
- What does it look like?
- How long is it?
- What color is it?
- Does the soil look dry or wet?
As the Grassman’s hair has grown full length, the hair (grass), can be trimmed and cut or bows etc. be clipped in.
Have Fun with this fun kids learning and science activity.
Additional Ideas for Preschoolers:
Once you have trimmed some of the Grass-mans hair, you can keep it in a container and study what happens to it as time goes on. You could let the children examine it with tweezers and magnifying glasses etc. They will see the grass slowly turn brown and become dry and brittle like straw.
Talk about the changes taking place and why they are happening. Kids are fascinated by new discoveries like this and that is what science is all about-discovering new things.