How to Grow Your Own Rodney Robot Cress Head Story Character

This is a maximum fun and minimal mess activity for you and the kids that’s ideal for getting hands on and inspiring young minds to create their own stories.  You don’t need a Magical Story Jar to do it and it requires minimal supervision.  In fact, when I was doing this activity with our youngest; Max, many of our funny light-hearted stories about Rodney robot happened whilst I was loading the dishwasher and making dinner!  Take a look at the video below to see what we got up to. 

Firstly, download your free paper cup cress head template.  Start by drawing and colouring in your own story setting around Rodney the very shy robot from the adventure themed Magical Story Jar.  Let your little one take the lead on deciding where your robot adventure story will be set.  It could be anywhere at all, from the land of robots to the moon!  Our six-year-old decided that his robot was going to live on the bottom of the seabed.  Remember that the more unusual the setting the better the story!  Once you have finished drawing the story setting, set the template to one side.             

Next, put the cotton wool balls into the paper cup and sprinkle lightly with water to make it damp and create the ideal growing conditions for the cress.  We used our water spray bottle for this part as our son loves squirting water and it’s great for building muscle strength in the fingers which can help with handwriting development.  Once the cotton wool is damp, sprinkle over lots of cress seeds.  Gently press the seeds into the cotton wool.  Next, cut out your robot template (ours is for a standard 8oz cup so it fits most regular cups) and use sticky tape to attach it to the paper cup.

Finally, find a light and warm spot to display your cress head robot.  The kitchen windowsill is ideal.  Spray your seeds with the tiniest amount of water every other day so that they stay moist.  You can expect your robot’s hair to have grown within five to ten days.       

You could add pipe cleaners into Rodney’s cress hair to make him look even more robot like.  Make the robot your own by changing its name and gender and adding in any features you like.  These could even be features that help your robot to overcome or accept their shyness. 

As you create your shy robot cress head, think about the following questions:

  •       How do they feel?

  •       What does they want more than anything else in the world?

  •       What was your robot’s past like and how does that make them the person they are today? 

  •       Once it has grown, will your robot’s cress hair have superpowers?

Now you know more about your character it’s time to make up a story about them.  Your newly created robot will be the main character in your story along with your little one!  Think about your answers to the questions above to help you decide how your robot might behave in your story.  Be sure to include if and how they overcome their shyness.  Was your robots head programmed to be shy?  Maybe it had a rusty cog desperately in need of some oil?  Perhaps your robot likes being shy and that’s ok.  You decide!           

Get the kids to water the cress heads then they can learn that taking care of another living thing can be rewarding.  Every time they do this, they can think about what their robot has been up to.  Has he or she been clunking around the kitchen at night?  Have they finally managed to find the courage to make friends with someone or something else in the kitchen or in the story setting they have drawn behind their robot?     

If you have more time, you can extend this activity even further using the ideas below: 

  • Forget cleaning the kitchen and join in with the fun!  Create one cress head each so that your shy robot has a friend to talk to.  Be sure to add in different features to the second robot.

  • Research together and talk about plant growing facts.  Make predictions and record what happens to the seeds every day. 

  • Once your robot’s hair has grown, use your newly created character(s) to feature in a play showing what happens to them and if and how they overcome their shyness.    

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Love Beth and Max at Magical Story Jars x