Bean Sprouts for Earth Day (+Freebie)

Despite what the weather here in Washington would suggest, it is spring time which means Earth Day is coming up. If you are looking for a hands on learning activity to do with your class, then read on my friends!

This activity is one I did last year with my preschooler's and plan to do this year with my kindergartner's as well. You can get it for free here: My Little Sprout House! I've recently updated this freebie with a graph as well as an instructional sheet. 

Check out below to see how I used this product in my own classroom.

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My Little Sprout House Activity

Day Before: For my preschoolers I pre-cut out the center squares where the plan shows. (Older kids could probably do this on their own.) The night before I soaked all the beans for 8 hours in an open container to get them ready for germination.

 My little learners each began by coloring their house and cutting them out along the outside boarders. I'm going to let my kindergartners cut out the outside and center. 

Next, each student got a paper towel to fold then used a sponge to dampen it a bit. 

Each student then got to pick three beans to place on the wet paper towel which we then placed in the plastic baggy. Make sure to leave the top zipper accessible so the plants can be watered and get some air!

Once they had their baggy ready, each student got two pieces of tape to secure the sides of the baggie to the house (so that the majority of the baggy shows through the open space. Then we hung them on our window so the would get plenty of sunshine.

Over the following two weeks, we monitored our little garden and collected data. Each day we graphed the number of sprouts we saw as a class. This year with my kindergartners, I will be having them collect data on their own graph as well.
(Sorry the photo is so terrible.)

If you would like to check out how someone else used this freebie, go here to see how Sharon at Mama Chit Chat used it with her daughter's preschool class for Tu Bishvat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees. Too cute!