Official Kids Mag

Instructions: 1 Find a good container for your terrarium. Glass jars, fish bowls and tanks, clear plastic bottles and food containers can all make good terrariums. Just make sure there is enough room to reach your hand into your container for planting and maintaining your terrarium. Clear plastic soda bottles are a good thing to use. Just have your adult help you cut off the top of a large, clear plastic soda bottle, leaving a container that is approximately 8 inches tall. After planting in the soda bottle, you can either tape the top back onto the soda bottle or just cover it tightly with plastic. 2 Clean the container using soapy water and rinse well. Dry completely. 3 Cover the bottom of the container with ½ inch (for small containers) to 1-1/2 inch (for large containers) of pea gravel for drainage. This is like the bedrock that's found under our soils and allows the water to drain from the soil. You can also add a few granules of filtering charcoal (not the type used for barbecuing) to the top of the gravel to help remove odors. The charcoal is optional and is not needed if your terrarium maintains proper moisture levels. 4 Next, fill the container to approximately one- third to one-half full with moist potting mix. The amount of soil you put in will depend on the size of the container (you need to have enough room for plant roots). You should use a sterilized potting soil mix to avoid problems with molds and fungi (small bags of potting soil are available at most garden centers). The moisture level of the soil when you put it into your terrarium is very important. Pour the soil into a bowl or tub and mix with water until the soil is moist enough to cling together in a ball when pressed into the hand. If water drips from the soil when pressed into a ball, then it is too wet and you should add more dry potting soil to your mixture. Once you find the perfect balance, place the soil in your container. Try to avoid getting soil particles stuck on the sides of the container above the soil level. Many potting mixes contain slow release fertilizers. If the soil you have does not contain any fertilizer you may want to add a small number of slow release fertilizer pellets or some organic fertilizer like worm castings to your soil before planting. You want your plants to stay small and grow slowly, so you do not need much. terrarium! By Karen Rice Official Kids Mag A terrarium is like a miniature greenhouse. Inside is an ideal environment for growing plants. Its clear walls let sunlight in, and then trap the heated air inside. In fact, the Earth is a comfortable place to live because our planet is like a giant greenhouse. The Earth's atmosphere absorbs and holds heat from the Sun. Of course, the "walls" of the earth's atmosphere are not solid like the walls of a terrarium. But both help to contain the warm air inside. The gases in the earth's atmosphere (like carbon dioxide) act as "walls" that trap some of the heat of the sun, warming our earth. That's what's known as "the greenhouse effect." To see a how this works, you can make your own miniature greenhouse or "terrarium" out of a clear container. Plus, you can enjoy growing plants, even in the middle of winter! In the daytime, sunlight shines into the terrarium and warms the plants and air inside. At nighttime, even without the sun, the terrarium stays pretty warm inside. That's because the transparent walls of the terrarium trap the sun's heat. An enclosed container Charcoal (optional) Pea gravel or small rock Potting soil Small indoor or tropical plants Make a A terrarium is a great way to learn about evaporation, condensation and precipitation.The light and heat also causes water to evaporate from the plants and soil. Evaporation happens when liquid water changes into a gas when the water molecules inside your terrarium get extra energy from the heat of the Sun. In the enclosed space, when the water vapor hits the side of the container, it condenses (you'll see water droplets or condensation on the side of your terrarium.) Once enough water accumulates or the temperature decreases, the condensation will then precipitate down the sides of the container back into the soil. source: www.kidsgardening.org, www.climatekids.nasa.gov 46 • FeBruary 2021 • officialKidsMag.com

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