Grow your very own
cress head

You need:

  • A packet of cress seeds
  • Empty yoghurt pots (small)
  • Kitchen roll
  • Cotton wool
  • Acrylic Paints
Click pictures to make bigger

Cress grows really quickly and it doesn't even need any soil!

Safety tips:

  • Ask an adult before you make your cress-head, so that they can make sure everything you are using is safe.

How to

  1. Make sure your yoghurt pots are clean before you start.
  2. Paint the outside of your yoghurt pots in funky colours.
  3. When the coloured paint has dried, you can paint eyes, a nose and a mouth on your pots.
  4. Wet some kitchen roll and put it in the bottom of the pot.
  5. Wet some cotton wall and put this on top of the kitchen paper. You will need to leave a gap of about 2 - 3 centimetres between the cotton wool and the top of the pot.
  6. Put some cress seeds on to the cotton wool. Try to make sure that there is about the same amount of seeds all over the cotton wool. Press them down a little bit in to the cotton wool.
  7. Put your pot somewhere that gets daylight and is warm. A windowsill is a good place to put it. Check your pot every day to see if your cress is growing. This should happen after about seven days.
  8. Your cress is grown when it has got green leaves at the top of its stalks. When your cress has grown, you can either keep your cress head, or you can cut the tops of the cress off and eat them in a sandwich!

Age range: 5 – 9

This activity encourages children’s interest in both craft based and ‘grow your own’ style activities. Cress heads are a good longer-term ‘make’ which children can monitor over the course of a week or two.

Safety considerations

Ensure any paints or pens used are non-toxic.

Mustard allergies are rare in the UK but they do affect some people, and cress-seed can also a trigger a reaction in sufferers.