Living Shamrocks For St. Patrick's Day

 My Sprouts group did a really neat craft last week. My leader likes us learn how to grow things. This time she showed us how to grow seeds on sponges. We built living shamrocks for St. Patrick’s Day!

First of all, she showed us how to make a good shamrock pattern. All you need to do is take 3 pieces of paper, one on top of the other. Then draw a nice heart on the top sheet.  After you have drawn the heart, cut out the shape through all three pieces of paper. You should get 3 heart shapes that are all the same.

Then you tape the heart shapes together with the pointy parts of the heart facing each other. You put one on the top and the other two on each side. After you have taped the hearts together, you will still need a stem. Cut out a stem shape and tape it on to your pattern.

Now you’re ready to trace your shamrock on to a sponge. My leader had some sponges that some electronics came in, so we were reusing them! We traced the pattern of the shamrock on to the sponge and then cut the sponge with scissors. I got 2 shamrock shapes out of my sponge.

Then we had to make our sponges wet and we put them in a tray. We got two different choices for seeds. One was grass seed and one was alfalfa sprout seeds. I put grass seed on one of my shamrock sponge and alpha seeds on my other shamrock sponge.

We took our trays home because my leader said we had to fill them up with water and make sure that our sponges didn’t dry out with the seeds on them. My Mom also gave me a squirt bottle to spray the top of the sponges. That way I could make sure the seeds stay moist. I’ve been spraying them every morning before I go to school.

After 3 days, the alfalfa sees started to sprout. After 5 days the grass seeds started to come up too. I know by the time St. Patrick’s day comes, my shamrocks will be completely green. Mom says that later we can even use the alfalfa sprouts in a salad! That gave me an idea. Maybe after this I’ll use a whole sponge and grow a lot of alfalfa sprouts!