Little Explorers: Cress Heads

We’re urging spring to make an early appearance at LittleLife HQ after what feels like a very long cold spell. It may be wishful thinking but we’re having a go with a little indoor planting. These cheery cress heads are sure to get the Little Explorers’ green fingers raring to go for some gardening later in the year. Old school but golden!

You will need:-

• A box of eggs
• Cotton wool
• Cress seeds
• Googly eyes

Chop the top third off the eggs and tip the gloopy goodness into a bowl. Your Little Explorers can help you make eggy bread with this later! You could of course hard boil the eggs in a bid to cut the top off more neatly.

Carefully wash out the egg shells, making sure they are completely clean before air drying or gently using a piece of paper towel to blot out any water. You could dye these shells using the tips from our natural dye blog for extra effect (or to stretch the activity out longer if you need!).

Using googly eyes, permanent pens and whatever other decorations your Little Explorers take a shine to, decorate the egg shells to look like eggy people!

As your helpers to take a cotton wool ball or wodge of cotton wool, dip it in a bowl of water and squeeze out the excess, before pushing it into the base of the egg shell. Then sprinkle a teaspoon of seeds on top and leave in a warm place for the sprouting to begin!

This is a deeply satisfying project for children, largely because it doesn’t take long for the seeds to spring into life. The Little Explorers will be able to see daily progress unfolding.

And once you have a serious mop of green hair, they can chop it all off – eat the peppery goodness if they dare – and start again.

Expert Explorers: Did you know cress can be planted outdoors from very early in the seasonal growing cycle? You can sow cress in the garden between four and six weeks before the last frost. It’s a speedy grower and will be ready to harvest about two weeks after sowing. You can keep on harvesting the crop until the middle of summer, then sow new seeds again in early autumn to keep you going through the winter.

Garden cress is an excellent source of folic acid, vitamin C, dietary fibre, iron, calcium, protein, vitamin A, folate and vitamin E! And it’s thought to be a great memory enhancer … so get munching before exam season!