Anyone who follows me on twitter or reads my own blog will know that I am a big fan of being outside, whether it is playing with animals or pottering around in the garden. I also believe that it’s important for kids to understand how nature works and that if you care for it, it will repay you in so many ways like beautiful flowers of all shapes and sizes, lettuce leaves plucked straight from the window box or simple pleasures such as grass heads! Who remembers doing these as a kid? And I can confirm they are still great fun!
Tabitha is only 16 months old so a little small for this just yet although she was incredibly interested so I asked my beautiful niece Hannah (6) to assist me.
This is all you will need for your grass head
What will you need?
- Old tights/pop socks/stockings
- Large Mug
- Grass or cress seed
- Soil from your garden or compost
- Scissors
- Elastic bands or garden wire works just as well
- Googly eyes or buttons
- Glue
- Pipe cleaners
- Fabric paint (if you’re really organised!)
- Yoghurt carton
- Paper/colouring pencils/markers/glitter etc. to decorate yoghurt carton
First I covered my table with newspaper so if there any soil spillages it could be wrapped up and stuck straight in the compost.
STEP 1,2,3: I placed the end of the stocking around the mug and Hannah poured in some cress seeds and then added the soil. I think the head needs to be about the size of a tennis ball to get the full effect so it is worth taking the stocking off and checking the amount of soil going in.
Steps 1,2 and 3
STEP 4,5,6: Once we were happy with the shape of the soil head, I tied a knot close to the head and cut off the excess stocking. Hannah pinched and twisted a nose and I secured with garden wire (or elastic bands) and we repeated this each side for the ears.
Next Hannah glued on the googly eyes (or you could sew on buttons if you had extra time and no googly eyes!)
Steps 4,5 and 6
STEP 7,8: Hannah decided she wanted to give her Cress Head a tongue so I broke off the end of a red lollypop stick and stuck it on (although I’m not too sure how long this will last!), I think this is where some red fabric paint would come in handy.
Hannah’s cress head was looking good so we added a pair of spectacles using a gold pipe cleaner and twisting them about a bit.
For the yoghurt carton, we cut a strip of coloured paper and glued this on and Hannah designed some jewellery for her Cress Head which we also glued on to the carton and the Cress Head’s ears.
Grass head with spectacles, jewellery and all
We did exactly the same for my cress head, although I will advise not to use a stocking with any kind of ladder in the toe, I learned the hard way, cress seed everywhere!
Tips
- Leave a short length of stocking when cutting it as you can fill the yoghurt carton with water and this will act as a ‘wick’ to keep the Cress Head watered!
- Leave all gluey bits to dry overnight before watering
- Make sure you water your cress head everyday and it’s in a sunny spot, it should start to germinate within a few days.
Grass versus Cress: Grass seed might be more fun in the long run as it will keep growing and the ‘hair’ can be restyled over and over. What I like about the cress seed (or mustard seeds) is that you can eat it and get your kids involved in eating something they’ve grown. It’s got to be good for them!
Verdict: this was fun, and creative and a little bit messy. It was brilliant to see Hannah’s face when her Cress Head formed a face; there was lots of giggling. One of the best things about this craft is that you can characterise the head anyway you like. Even the yoghurt carton is a blank canvas and the possibilities are endless; necklaces, ties, arms, t-shirts.
You will have to check back next week to see the finished result!
