Diary from the Pandemic Day 19 - Kids' Activity: Cress Heads

I used to run the gardening club at the local primary school and one of the fun activities I would do every year with the children was "Cress Heads". These are fun little characters made out of empty eggshells, cotton wool and cress seeds.

It's been about 10 years since my daughters last made cress heads but we thought we would have a go today to set some up ready for the Easter weekend. It was good fun. Here are the instructions.

You will need:

Egg shells
Cotton wool
Toilet roll tubes
Craft bits - felt tips, Sharpies, coloured paper, glue, tape etc.
Seeds e.g. cress, mustard, grass.

Step 1 - Ideally, when you break the eggs to use them, try to crack them close to the top to give plenty of shell left to be the character's face. Also try to have a few spare because they can be broken when making them if handled a little roughly. Rinse them out ready for use.

Step 2 - Cut the toilet roll tubes into three rings. Check that the eggs rests nicely on the tube rings. If the rolls are a bit wide, cut them and use tape to tape them back together again a little smaller.

Step 3 - Use pens and craft materials to decorate the tubes to look like clothes for the egg characters.

Step 4 - If you want, cut hands and shoes out of coloured paper and tape/glue them onto the tubes.

Step 5 - Use permanent pens and googly eggs (if you have them) to make silly faces for the egg characters.

Step 6 - Very carefully put pieces of cotton wool inside the egg shells. You will need quite a lot because it shrinks down when you wet it. But don't ram it in or the shells will break!

Step 7 - Water the cotton wool and sprinkle seeds on it

Step 8 - Put the characters in a bright position and keep the cotton wool damp. In a few days the seeds should germinate and then grow into silly hair for your egg characters.