Garden in a glove

Preparation:

• You can buy clear, plastic gloves from most hardware stores.
• Soak your cotton wool balls before you start the activity.

What You Will Need:

• Large sized clear gloves.
• A range of different seeds (five minimum), e.g. pea, sunflower, bean, beetroot, carrot, onion. Larger seeds a best.
• Permanent marker pens.
• Cotton wool balls.
• Long-handled spoons for inserting seeds into glove fingers.
• Plastic pipettes.
• Water.

What to do

1. Choose five types of seeds and write their names on the glove fingers.
2. Soak your cotton wool balls in water, then allow to drain so they are just damp. Try not to squeeze them flat.
3. Push a cotton ball into each finger. The blunt end of a pencil is useful.
4. Use a long-handled spoon to place seeds onto each cotton ball. If the seeds are large, like bean, just add one to each cotton ball.
5. Blow the glove up with your mouth and seal it so it stays inflated.
6. Tape your glove, with the fingers hanging down, to a window pane in partial sun.
   
   The steps are shown below.

Observations

1. Look carefully at your seedlings each day. Do they sprout differently?
2. Keep a journal or take photos to record the changes.
3. If the cotton wool starts to dry, add drops of water with a pipette and re-seal the glove.
4. Open up the top of your glove as the seedlings get bigger.

Hints and tips

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