Growing Cress Heads

Growing cress heads in egg shells (using cotton wool) is such a fun Spring activity for kids. This simple science activity is perfect for toddlers, preschooler and older kids. Whatever their age kids will love designing and making their own characters and watching the cress hair grow. The cress grows within a few days and then kids can enjoy giving their characters a hair cut. 


How to grow cress using cotton wool.  Simple science for toddlers and preschoolers.  Kids will love making cress heads using egg shells.

This is the first time Harry has made these but i'm sure in the years to come we will be making many more! It's a great preschool Science activity as it teaches children about what plants need in order to grow.  Harry was really excited to be growing something he could eat! 

MORE science experiments for kids

Growing Cress Heads


Cress head supplies:


  • Washed egg shells (break them as near to the top as possible so you have a large egg shell to work with)
  • Cress seeds
  • Cotton wool
  • Googly eyes and glue (optional) 
  • Egg box (or something to stand the cress heads in)

growing cress in egg shells using cotton wool


How to make cress heads


  1. Draw a character onto your egg shell.  You can be as creative as you like!!! Harry wanted to use googly eyes and draw the mouth on with a pen. He was really pleased that one of his heads looked happy and one looked cross! I love the wonky eye look he created! 
  2. Put 2 or 3 damp cotton wool balls into the egg shell.
  3. Sprinkle cress seeds on top of the cotton wool (we added quite a lot as I let Harry sprinkle it in)
  4. Leave them in a sunny spot and wait for them to grow. 
  5. If the cotton wool dries out add a little extra water (we had to do this a couple of times)
Our cress heads grew really quickly. After 2 days they already had a head of hair....

preschool growing activity cress heads using egg shells and cotton wool

.....and after 4 days they were ready for a hair cut. 

Preschooler growing activity/ simple science. How to grow cress using an egg shell and cotton wool.  Kids will love designing their own characters.

We hope you have fun groiwing cress heads, this is such a fun and easy science experiment for kids.

No comments

Back to Top