Instructions
Here's a great idea for recycling plastic: Create a mini plant habitat with your kids and learn what it takes to make an ecosystem work. Explain to your children that they'll be providing the water and sun for the little world they're making—its survival is in their hands! Don't be surprised if feelings of eco-responsibility start sprouting right before your eyes.
What You Need:
- Plastic container with air opening
- Scissors
- Soil
- Small plant that likes humidity
- Pebbles
- Small plastic animals
- Bits of bark
- Masking tape
- If necessary, cut off the top of the plastic container so that your child can easily reach into it. Be sure to save the top! Put tape around the edge of the area you just cut to cover the sharp edge.
- Now have you child sprinkle some pebbles into the bottom of the terrarium for drainage.
- Fill the terrarium ¾ full with soil and make a hole in the soil for the plant.
- Carefully place the plant into the hole and surround it with soil.
- Arrange some pebbles, plastic animals, and bits of bark to make it look like a nature scene.
- Lastly, water your plant and put the "lid" back on the container, leaving the airhole open. You now have a terrarium! Make sure to put it somewhere there is light from the sun.
For a little added learning, try a simple experiment by building two other terrariums with different types of plants. Give them the same amount of water and sunlight (explain that the things that stay the same in an experiment are called "controls"). Then track which types of plants grow best in the terrarium. Be sure to make guesses with your child before you start the experiment, and then evaluate those guesses at the end.