Back in the beginning of May we planted pumpkin and sunflower seeds (if you missed that post you can see here) and I wanted to give you an update as to how they look now. I am always amazed at how quickly the plants grow. In the picture above I am standing next to some of the sunflowers we planted and most of them are as tall or taller than me already!!

We planted a variety of different sunflower seeds and the colors turned out so beautiful.  We really love the red ones but they are all so pretty.

After the sunflower seeds started to grow in the cups that we planted them in we transplanted the plants into bigger pots and the children helped take care of them by watering them.  We also measured and recorded the growth of the sunflowers.

After the pumpkin seeds started to grow we put them into a garden plot and after a while they really started to vine off and flower.

We have quite a few pumpkins growing and more on the way.  We planted different varieties as well ... jumbo ... jack-lantern ... pie ... and white pumpkins. We are super excited to see what they look like as they grow further.  Once the pumpkins have grown more I will be sure to share what they look like.

If you have not yet done any gardening with your early learners I highly recommend that you give it a try as there is so much the children can learn and observe from it.

Every year we plant sun flower and pumpkins seeds with the children and then transfer the plants into our garden area when they reach the right size.  I chose these two kinds of plants because they are rapid growing and larger plants which makes it easier for the children to observe their growth.

When we plant seeds I make sure I have all of the items we will need already set up outside.  You may choose to do your set up differently but these are the materials we use and the process by which the children plant their seeds.

We use:

Peat Moss Cups
Miracle Grow Potting Soil
Variety of Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds
Hand Trowels
Watering Cans
Clear of Frosted Containers With Lids

We start by having the children fill the peat moss cups with potting soil.  They use hand trowels to scoop up the soil and put it in the cups.  They then pick the kind of seeds they want to put in the cup and put one or two in the soil. They cover up the seeds with a little more soil and and water them. 

After they add water to the cups they put them in one of the plastic containers.  The containers act as small greenhouses when you put the covers on them.  Over the next couple of weeks the children will check the plants daily to see if the seeds have germinated.  Once they have they then check to see how the plants start to change as they grow. 


I choose not to write the children's names on the cups because sometimes there can be seeds that do not grow.  When we are planting the seeds we talk about how everyone is helping to plant and take care of all the seeds so they belong to the whole class to enjoy.