Activity: Growing Potatoes and Carrot Tops

Capture the interest and imagination of students by growing carrot tops and potatoes.


Materials

• Toothpicks
• Glass or plastic cup or saucer
• Water
• Sweet Potato or Carrot
• Knife
• Scissors
• Pebbles or pea gravel

Carrots

• Select a fresh carrot that still has the leaves on the top.
• Cut the carrot so that about two inches remain below the top. 
• Trim the leafy greens from the top of the carrot.
• Fill a container with about one inch of pebbles or pea gravel.
• Place the carrot tops, cut side down, in the gravel.  If necessary, add more gravel to hold the carrot tops in place.
• Add water to the container.
• Place the container in a sunny location.
• Ask students to predict what will happen. 
• Will a new carrot form? 
• Will it grow? 
• If so, how big will it get?
• Observe the changes in your carrot.
• Add water as necessary.
• Although the carrot will not form a new root, after a few days leafy greens will start to appear.

Potato

• Place four toothpicks around the middle of a potato.
• Fill a cup with water.
• Taking the potato with the toothpicks, rest the toothpicks on the edge of the cup.  The bottom of the potato should be sitting in the water.
• Place the cup in a sunny location.
• Ask students to predict what will happen. 
• Will a new potato form? 
• Will it grow?
• If so, how big will it get?
• Observe the changes in the potato.
• Add water as necessary so that the bottom of the potato is in the water.
• After a couple of days, roots will start to form in the water and stems and leaves will start to form.

Activity: Carrot Necklaces

Materials:

• Carrots
• Heavey thread
• Darning needle
• Knife

Activity:

1. Wash the carrots and cut them into slices about 1/4 inch thick
2. Thread your needle. The thread should be long enough to go around someone's head, plus a little extra.
3. Push the carrot slices onto the thread by pushing the needle into the center of each slice.
4. Once completed, lay your necklace on a piece of paper in a dark place to dry, making sure none of the carrots touch each other. As the carrots harden and dry, they turn into wrinkled beads. The dryin process takes about a week.

Work Cited:
Ocone, L with Pranis, E. (1983). The National Gardening Association Guide to Kids' Gardening: A complete guide for teachers, parents, and youth leaders. Wiley Science Editions: New York.