Easy Egg Carton Seed Tray A Simple Garden Project for Kids

A quick and easy growing project for kids to do – we like using our junk modelling box for many different projects and a lot of the materials are perfect for use in the garden as they will easily compost. Cardboard Tubes and Egg Cartons are perfect for seedlings. So here we go a simple gardening project with kids Egg Carton Seed Trays

Materials needs for Egg Carton Seed Trays

Egg Cartons
Compost
Seeds – good ones are peas, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, peppers, beans – discover what are our favourite seeds to grow with kids as they sprout and flower or fruit quickly.

Gardening Project for Kids – Growing Seeds in Egg Cartons

I like setting up invitations to create with the kids or do and this simple gardening project is easy to set up.

You just need some seeds (see our list linked above) some cardboard egg cartons so that they can be buried in a pot or in the soil and some soil.

With gardening there are many different learning opportunities and sitting down with the kids whilst they look at and think about this project gave us an opportunity to talk about what plants need to grow – soil, sun, water, where do the plants grow from – seeds, and what are seeds like – small, big, hard, soft.

Examining the seeds close up led to talk about how the seeds grow and at the same time we set up our bean experiment but with some peas so that we could see what was happening below the soil at the same time as the peas were growing in our egg cartons.

To get out a bit during the day after discussing that seeds need soil to grow in we headed out to collect some soil.

I have a lot of compost in the garden for growing seeds however normal soil would work just as well and will give your kids a nice chance to get outside especially as the weather warms up to collect the soil needed for the project.

Once soil was collected – back to the egg cartons to fill up – filling up led to discussions about maths.

Two rows meant that we could talk about the maths concepts, doubles, volume, level, counting out. How many seeds to grow per hole etc…

Once the cartons were filled with the soil – it was time to add the peas to the soil.

This is great 1 to 1 correspondence counting practice.

With the seeds in place on top of the soil the kids pressed in the peas and covered them over.

With the seeds watered and placed on a window sill we wait for them to grow – with the warm temperatures inside I estimate that growth ready to be planted out will be between 2 and 4 weeks.

Whilst you are growing the seeds why not read a book about seeds with your toddlers and preschoolers.

More Gardening Projects for Kids

• Grow a salad in a pot with the kids
• Make some stone plant markers that when you plant the peas grown in the egg carton you can label.