How to Make Seed Bombs from Recycled Paper

Kids love hands-on experiments and activities. When spring time rolled around I wanted to try an activity with my kindergarten class where they could create something, by hand, and then watch it change and grow. I have made seed bombs in the past, but this activity mixed lots of learning and sensory play. Keep reading to find out how to make seed bombs from recycled paper.

This is a great activity for spring, Earth Day or any time of year. The activity not only gives children an idea of how paper is made, but also how we can reuse paper to create something new – and watch it grow.

As you prepare for this activity, start hanging onto any paper headed for the garbage, or recycling. I mainly collected used computer paper, but any color will work.

Make Seed Bombs from Recycled Paper Materials

One of the other reasons that I love doing this activity is that it is inexpensive. The only cost is the seeds. You will need:

• Large Bowl
• Hand Mixer or Blender
• Paper
• Seeds (Grass or Flowers)
• Water
• Food Coloring (Optional)
• Cookie Cutters

Avoid using a hand mixer, or blender that you use for food because of chemicals that may be in the paper.

You can use any small seeds that you find. Grass seeds tend to work well because they grow well and fast. Wildflowers work well too. One thing to look for with your seeds are seeds that sprout quickly.

I used shape cookie cutters because we were working on 2D shapes in math, so it was easy to tie into this activity. However, you can use any cookie cutter shapes. If you don’t have cookie cutters, you can also just make the pulp into balls, or any shape you want.

Once you have all of your materials gathered, you’re ready to get started!

Preparing Your Seed Balls

After making seed balls many times, I have found one of the easiest ways to make them is to use paper from a paper shredder, and soak it in a bin of warm water. If you don’t have a shredder, you can rip paper up and add it to the water.

If you are making the seed bombs in a classroom, having the children help you rip up the paper is a great activity and way to keep them involved in the whole process.

Once the paper is in the water, it will begin to break down. The longer you leave it in, the more it will break down.

Don’t worry if you add too much water. You will drain the paper before making the balls. If you don’t add enough water, it will be hard to mix.

Use a hand mixer, or blender to turn the paper into pulp.

Let kids get their hands into the pulp. It is a really interesting sensory experience to feel the pulp. It is also a great opportunity to talk to the kids about how paper is made and that it is paper pulp, like this, during the process.

Remove some of the water from the pulp using a strainer. The pulp should remain wet, but not dripping. Add your choice of seeds and mix into the pulp.

I created these seed bombs for Mother’s Day one year and added a few drops of food coloring to the mix at this point. It created pink seed bombs and we used flower shaped cookie cutters. You can choose to add any color you like to the pulp for some fun creations!

Make Seed Bombs From Recycled Paper Shapes

Next, give children a cookie cutter, and have them fill it with pulp by holding it on their hand. Once filled, squeeze excess water out of the pulp in the cookie cutter, and set aside.

Have children fill as many cookie cutters as you have available.

If your pulp is able to be pushed out of the cookie cutter without losing its shape, you can remove it from the cutter in order to create more seed bombs.

They can also be left in the cookie cutters to dry.

Planting Your Seed Bombs

You can let your seed bombs dry before planting them, or you can plant them right away. If you plant them right away, it’s nice because they are already wet. If you let them dry, make sure to water them well.

Growing Your Seed Balls

Once you are ready to use your seed ball, set it in a garden, or any soil and water regularly as you would with any seeds you plant.

Depending on the seeds you used, you may start to see some sprouts within a few days. Over a few weeks, the paper will breakdown and you will be left with some beautiful flowers, or grass.

If you make seed bombs from recycled paper in the classroom, make sure to plant a few in your classroom for children to watch grow. They are a beautiful addition to any room near a window.

The wonderful thing with this project is that as children watch the seed bombs grow, they know every step that went into making them. They know what the paper pulp felt like and how the seed bomb changed each day.

Enjoy the process of creating these seed balls with children. It’s often a memory they’ll remember for years.

Keep an eye on the seed balls and watch as they break down and simply turn into grass, or flowers. Within a few days we started to see more of the seeds, beyond grass, start to sprout.