The necessary supplies for this project are one foam cup per student, a pinch of grass seed per student, a bag of planting dirt, a small shovel, crayons, googly eyes and glue. The students will decorate the cups before they are filled with dirt, so do not prepare the dirt cups ahead of time. The preschool concepts covered by this lesson are math, science and sensory integration.
Allow the preschoolers to use the glue, googly eyes and crayons to draw a face on the outside of the foam cup. After the glue is dry, help the students fill the cup with shovels full of planting dirt. Count the shovels of dirt out loud. Sprinkle a pinch of grass seed on top of the full cup of dirt and allow the child to press the seeds into the soil with his thumb.
The children will help water their plants every day. The plants will need to sit on a bright windowsill, but they do not need to be removed from the classroom over the weekend. The grass seeds will grow over the weekend without needing extra water. When watering the plants, make the dirt moist, not muddy or flooded. Use a hand-over-hand gesture, in which the adult places her hand over the child's hand, and both people grasp the watering can together.
When sending the foam person home after the hair has grown, help parents keep their child's hard work for many months or even years by including specific instructions. The cup will need to remain on a sunny windowsill, but will only need to be watered once or twice a week. When the hair grows too long, the parent will use a pair of scissors to simply snip along the top of the hair and even out the grass length. The plant will hold as long as the cup is not flooded or knocked over.