Bean Sprout Science

How do flowers bloom? When springtime arrives, your third grader might wonder why there are so many new flowers and plants. This awesome hands-on science activity addresses your young learner's questions! He'll get to observe the life of a bean sprout seed and see what happens when it is properly fed and sheltered. 

What You Need:

• Water
• Paper and pencil
• Paper towels
• Baking sheet
• 3 types of bean seeds (mung, green, lima)

What You Do:

1. Give one of each bean to your children to observe, explaining that each bean has a little opening for water to go inside.
2. Have your little scientist lay a few stacked damp paper towels onto the baking sheet, and put the beans on top. Put a few more stacked damp paper towels on top of the beans. Set the baking sheet aside in a sunny place. Make sure this spot isn't too sunny, so the beans might get scorched.
3. Ask your children to write down some thoughts on a piece of paper. Have him predict the life cycle of a bean. How long will it take for it to fully sprout?
4. Each day, have your children re-wet the paper towels. Has anything changed in the beans?
5. At the end of a week, your scientist's beans will have likely sprouted! Otherwise, wait and keep observing.
6. When the beans have sprouted, ask your children about the little plants. Ask him what the purpose of a hard exterior is, what the seed needed to grow, and how plants outside grow.
7. You can take this fun project a little further and plant the seeds outside!