Growing Things

What you need

• carrot (with some signs of a shoot on the top)
• lid of a jar or saucer

What to do

Slice about 2 cm off the top of the carrot and place this in a jar lid or on a saucer with a small amount of water in it. Then just leave in a light place like a windowsill making sure to continually top up the water. In a few days leaves should start to appear from the top of the carrot.

What they learn

Young children are still forming their opinion on what is alive and what isn’t. To them a carrot is normally served on a plate and doesn’t grow. If you allow them to watch the carrot top grow they see that if you give it water and sun, the carrot grows and is alive.

Encouragement questions

• Did the carrot grow bigger?
• Is the carrot alive?
• What other things are alive?