Spring is here and new plants and flowers are popping up everywhere! You and your preschooler are probably spending more time outside playing and observing nature. With all of that exploration comes lots of questions about how the world works.
Preschoolers learn best through play and exploration. Your 3-5 year old will have so much fun playing games and doing hands-on learning activities found in our preschool subscription box, My Pre-K Box! Every month, our team of experts pack our themed boxes with games, activities, and crafts for endless fun!
The best part?
You don’t have to prep anything! It’s ready for you to open with your preschooler and start having fun while learning!
Science Experiments to do at Home
It's important to do science activities with preschoolers for a variety of reasons. Teaching science to preschoolers helps to build foundational skills and a lifelong interest in the topic! The more they know, the more confident they become, and the more interested they are in the topic! Doing science activities at home with your preschooler also helps to build their language. As you are conducitng the experiment with your child, you are engaging in rich discussions and often using higher level academic vocabulary that your child may not otherwise be exposed to. Think of all of the content-specific vocabulary words like prediction, experiment, hypothesis, and results that your child is learning!
Preschool aged children are inquisitive, curious, and open-minded. They are literally designed to be young scientists! Science at the preschool level is so much fun. You will just love seeing the world through your child's eyes.
Today's experiment will be so much fun for your 3, 4, or 5 year old...on up! It combines your preschooler's love of building, art, and creation along with their natural love of nature! And bonus...at the bottom of this article, you'll find a free download to turn your Sprout House into a fairy and gnome garden for some amazing (independent!) dramatic play time!
Growing a Sprout House
Hands-on exploration helps your preschooler learn about the world around them in a fun and engaging way. This easy sprout house experiment will help your preschooler get hands-on experience growing plants from seeds and is the perfect companion to My Pre- K Box’s The Garden Box!
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Free Garden Themed WorksheetsCheck out our FREE garden-themed preschool worksheets! These garden themed worksheets are the perfect compliment to your Sprout House exeriment and teach your preschooler important skills like:
Garden Preschool Fun Pack |
Materials to Make Your Sprout House:
- 4 sponges
- Scissors
- Toothpicks
- Plate or tray
- Chia seeds*
- Spoon or butter knife
- Spray bottle
- Water
- Large bowl or cover (optional)
- Hot glue gun
* Any fast growing seed will work here. You can try grass, radish, alfalfa or wheat berry seeds
Sprout House Construction
1 Have your preschooler choose a sponge for the base and place it on the plate or tray.
2 Pick a sponge for the roof and cut in half.
3 The remaining two sponges will be the walls of the house. Cut both sponges in half. Cut one of the halves in half again. You should be left with 3 medium sized rectangle sponges and 2 smaller rectangle sponges.
4 Carefully place toothpicks into the base of each of the walls until about half an inch is left sticking out. Your preschooler may need some assistance with this.
5 Push the visible end of the toothpicks into the base sponge to create the walls.
6 An adult will hot glue the roof onto the walls. You can also reinforce the walls with hot glue where they meet if you like.
You should have an extra half of a sponge leftover. You do not need to use this, however, my preschooler wanted it to be a patio for her house, so we just placed it on the plate next to the base.
7 Add some water to the bowl of chia seeds and stir to make a chia seed paste. This will make it easy for your preschooler to spread the seeds.
8 Using a spoon or butter knife, spread the seeds all over the roof, walls and base of the house. A word of caution here; a little goes a long way. You only need a thin layer of seeds on the house. Too many seeds in a thick layer will make it more difficult for your seeds to sprout.
9 Use the spray bottle to water your sprout house. You will want to keep the sponges pretty damp throughout the day so the seeds don’t dry out. This is a perfect job for your preschooler to do a few times each day!
10 This step is optional, but if you want results a little faster, you can place a large bowl over the entire house after it has been watered. This will create a greenhouse like environment for your sprout house. The sponges will retain their moisture and the seeds will be warmer under the bowl, causing them to begin sprouting more quickly.
11 Keep your sprout house somewhere well lit and water it daily. Observe and discuss changes in the seeds each day. Your seeds should begin to sprout within a few days!
Imaginative Play With Your Sprout House
Your little gardener will have so much fun making this sprout house and seeing how seeds germinate! The tiny sprout house is sure to stir up their imagination. Encourage imaginative and dramatic play play with our (free!) Sprout House Fairy and Gnomes printable.
Materials:
- My Pre-K Box Sprout House Fairy and Gnome download
- Cardstock (reccommended) or printer paper
- Crayons, colored pencils or markers
- Scissors
Fairy and Gnome Fun!
1 Download and print our fairy and gnome freebie! We recommend printing it on cardstock for longer play.
2 Color the fairies or gnomes they want to add to their sprout house.
3 Cut along the dotted lines. This is a great way for your preschooler to practice their scissor cutting skills! (Don't worry, we kept the cutting in nice straight lines for your little one!)
4 Fold one half of the base forward and the other half backwards. This will give your magical creature a more sturdy base.
5 PLAY! Give your new friends names, place them around the sprout house and start imagining! What kind of adventures will unfold?
Share Your Sprout Houses with Us!
We want to see what you can grow! How did your houses turn out? What kind of fun did you preschooler have with the fairies and gnomes they made? Give us a follow on Facebook or Instagram for more fun activities to do at home with your little learner and tag us @myprekbox with your sprout houses!
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Don't forget to grab your free pack of Garden themed preschool printable worksheets!
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Looking for more fun for your little gardener?
Check out our FREE Mother's Day flower bouquet craft!
This fun and easy craft is perfect as a gift for your favorite mom or grandmother in your life!
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Need My Pre-K Box in Your Life?
My Pre-K Box is the BEST hands-on, play-based preschool subscription box out there! Each month, a new themed box arrives at your door filled with ready to use games, crafts and hands-on learning fun! Sign up today and get the first month free with a multi-month plan! Just pay shipping and handling!
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All the materials you need to explore, learn, create, and play!
My Pre-K Box is a monthly subscription service that delivers the best, fun-filled preschool learning materials, right to your front door!
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