Recycled Terrarium for Kids

​The last few weeks I have taken the time to do a few fun things with the boys.  One of them that I wanted to share was how we made our own terrarium.    I try to look at everything before I throw it away to see if it has a new life.  This cookie container from the grocery store looked like a perfect container for the kids to make a terrarium.

​I went outside with some potting soil and asked them to bring me a cup of sand from their sandbox.  We layered the sand and then the dirt and I asked them to find a few little plants in the garden (weeds) that we could plant.  They found a random bean sprout a begonia and a weed.  : )

We added water, a few rocks and tiny Indian and closed the lid.  We noted how clear the "sky" was inside the container and then took it to our front porch to let it  sit in the sun.

We checked it and it was getting cloudy.  We talked about what might be happening and of course my oldest knew all the answers but he was still intrigued.

Even the littlest loved watching the water gather into droplets to form bigger droplets.  Then Evan started talking about clouds and how he'd seen steam coming up out of the trees across the road from our house after the last rain we had in the summer heat.  I think he got it!

​This is an easy project and lesson that kids love to do.  They love to watch their plants thrive, they love to check for "rain" clouds and they love to thump the top of the container to make it rain.  I think it's been a week now and they have checked it every day.