So, I am a preschool educator (more on that soon) and am always on the look out for a viable project to do with the kiddos. Spring almost always brings on the reduce reuse recycle unit and as much as I love talking about the environment, most kids grasp the concept immediately and dont need to hear about it for weeks on end. How do I keep them entertained? I did a green onion project the year before the pandemic where the kids used toilet paper rolls and milk cartons to plant green onion regrowths. Watering and caring for them teaches them about plant growth and responsibility. If you put them in a pot or the ground you can have perpetual green onions. This year as we went back to class? Cereal boxes became race cars, houses, laptops, and photoframes. Fun, right?
two years and still going...
So whats next? Welp, ive been experimenting with producing my own seeds for both personal and educational purposes. So I've been hearing for years you can take the tops of carrots and produce seeds with them to cheat the system and provide yourself with carrots by growing them. In return, I get to teach more about the plant life cycles I love. Can I do this with kids? This is what I'm embarking on finding out. Meet the carrot top project.
six amigos....
and their home.
These are my contestants. Your average everyday supermarket carrots. Now, there are a few factors going into this. They could not grow at all because sometimes farmers/manufacturers will put growth retardant on produce to keep you from doing this exact thing and regrowing their product. Now, another factor could be that these may be hybrid carrots. If they are, well we're going to have fun figuring out what type of carrot happens when theyre planted. I think these guys came from my organic bag at least. So lets put them in water..
two days later...you see the little nubs coming out.
two weeks later...the amigos have some tops.
A week later two of the amigos have rotted out and not made the cut, but we have four amigos with leafy tops to put in the dirt and continue on into the journey...lets see where they take us.
until next time!
Love and experiments,
KC aka Lane.