I found several references to help you. The first one is a site that list plants (flowers and veggies) that can be grown indoors and eventually moved outdoors.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/07409.html

The second one is a cool site with lots of excellent links called “An Introduction to: Plants in the Classroom.”

http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/mcvittiej/resources/livingthings/plants.htm

3. http://coe.west.asu.edu/students/eturner/growplants.html Lots of different ideas for plant growing (and not just from seed) very “child-friendly”

4. Here you can see how Mrs. Heatherly’s class grew and reported on her lima beans. http://www.lakelandschools.org/EDTECH/GrowWithUs/2005/Heatherly/heatherly.htm

5. Awesome resource about growing both indoor and outdoor plants with classes: http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/resources/pdf/peep-guide-plants.pdf

Have fun and Have an AWESOME day!!

CosmicKelly 🙂

Flowers like marigolds are another old standard.

An interesting one, that would take more than a paper cup of dirt, would be to buy an amaryllis bulb in October. They are often available with a container and growing medium already in a kit. You could record watering and growth, doing charting for math. These babies grow FAST so by Christmas, you’ll have a plant with lovely large flowers.

To show how nutrients are carried up the plant, you can use celery sticks and colored water. Blue or red works best. Cut the end off a stalk of celery and put the sticks in the water. Celery is so translucent that you can see the colored water seep up through it.

Tip: The kids can decorate the cups with faces, then watch the ‘hair’ grow, then eventually give their character a haircut 🙂 Otherwise putting birdseed on cottonwool and wrapping them up into chux wipes, then tying into sections works well for ‘hairy caterpillars’.