Planting Seeds With Preschoolers

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.