I am so excited about how these recycled crafts for kids turned out! Recycled paper seed bombs are simple, and inexpensive to create, but a perfect hand made gift. I teach kindergarten so I wanted to find a craft that children could take home and give as a gift for Father’s day. However, these seed bombs are a perfect gift or activity – especially in the spring.
We started by using a huge bag of shredded recycled paper from our school office, but any paper ready to be recycled will work.
Next, we added warm water and let the paper soak. Once the paper had sat for a bit, I used a hand mixer and blended the paper down to a pulp. We then used a strainer to get a lot of the water out.
I gave each group of children a bowl with the paper pulp. Everyone then made a ball just smaller than a tennis ball.
For some groups I added a mixture of flower seeds to the pulp and they then mixed it in. Other groups wanted to add their seeds while they made their seed ball. I used wildflower seeds, but any seed will work.
Once they had formed the ball, children then squeezed out some of the water. On top of their seed ball they then added some tissue paper to add some colour. As long as the ball is still quite wet, the tissue paper will stick to the paper pulp without having to add anything else.
To dry, I laid them out on trays. I would suggest allowing about a week for the seed balls to fully dry. Depending on the size of the ball and how much water is left in it they can take quite some time to fully dry.
We wrapped up our seed balls and attached a note to complete our Father’s day craft.
For a printable copy of the note that we attached click below.
To use the seed bomb, simply dig a small hole in the ground, and plant the ball. Make sure to water generously and soon you will see your plant begin to sprout.
I love the fact that these seed balls are made of recycled paper and made by kids. It makes for a special and meaningful craft or gift. Within a few days our seed balls began to sprout. The ball shape is easy and looks great, but we also used a cookie cutter to create some new shapes.
For more recycled paper crafts for kids click here:
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