If you’re looking to start teaching your kids about planting (or are just looking for a fun spring activity do together!) this DIY cheap greenhouse is perfect!
Since you’ll only need an egg carton, seeds, and something clear, this project is easy enough to plant alot of seeds at once.
To help with the planting activity, I also created the Kids Planting Journal so that they can help keep track of things such as watering and growth (with more options for older kids.)
Let’s check it out!
Download your printable planting packet before we get started to make it even more fun!
Making a greenhouse together is no doubt awesome, but adding a fun gardening scavenger hunt and some cool ways to track their new plant are fun too!
DIY Kids Greenhouse Activity Using an Egg Carton
Get the kids excited about spring with this fun (and VERY cheap!) activity where they get to create their very own greenhouse!
Materials
- Egg Carton
- Seed Packet of Choice (we found some fun ones at the Dollar tree for .25 cents each!)
- Soil (we got ours from the Dollar Tree!)
- Something clear such as clear tape, a gallon size bag etc
- Optional - decorative things such as paint or stickers
Tools
- scissors
- tape of some sort for the clear section on top (or tape to hold down the clear item you're using)
Instructions
- Cut out the top of the egg carton and decorate the remaining portion. Do NOT put on your clear section yet because paint and other decor might get on it (speaking from experience with three kiddos!)
- Attach the clear top - we used clear tape for one version, and a section of gallon plastic bag for the other.
- Put soil in each of the pockets and plant the seeds.
- Label what's in each area (we just put 4 of the same seeds to a section and labeled the whole section to keep things easier - see the picture). If you will be using the printable kids plant journal, have your kiddos fill in all the plant information so they can prepare to track it!
- Now set it by a window or outside if it's not too cold!
- Dont forget to start tracking the plants growth once its sprouted using the growth tracker page! Its also fun to paste on the picture from the package so the kids can remember what they are growing!
Notes
There are alot of fun ways to modify this to make it more cold resistant, but for now we are happy with it just near the window seal. Normally we have to move all the plants each night because it gets so cold in Wyoming that they sometimes get damaged overnight!
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What did you plant – did you do anything different to optimize this greenhouse?
I think next time (because I really want to have my own for my succulents!) I will use something thicker for the top, but still clear. I think I’ll make sure NOT to paint the bottoms like my kids did because now I need to store it on something or the paint gets wet easy after watering and leaves stains of paint.
If you’re interested in getting the full color version of this kids plant tracker, check it out here
I personally love color, so here is that version if you’d like! It also includes the black and white so you can have everything you need in one spot!
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