Parsley Planting: A Tu B’Shevat Tradition

Planting parsley is a wonderful way to celebrate Tu B’Shevat. Tu B’Shevat is the birthday, or new year of the trees. This holiday is all about celebrating trees and the environment. Even though it’s a minor Jewish holiday, it’s usually one of the favorites for children (and adults!).

You can plant parsley seeds with your children just for fun, read a book (Thank You, Trees and Sadie’s Snowy Tu B’shevat are our favorites!) before or after this activity, or incorporate this parsley planting activity into a larger lesson on Tu B’Shevat in the classroom.

Why parsley? Parsley may not be an actual tree, but it does look like a mini one, which kids love to see. More importantly, it’s often used at Passover seders, which take place about two months after Tu B’Shevat. Those two months give the parsley seeds the perfect amount of time to grow and be ready for Passover!

This parsley planting activity is simple, easy, and lots of fun. It can be personalized or kept purely simple. It’s 100% hands-on and an activity kids can completely actively participate in. Young kids, like my two-year old can also engage with this activity! It’s a lovely way to practice one of the traditions of Tu B’Shevat, planting, and it even helps prepare for a future big holiday, Passover!

What You’ll Need

• Parsley seeds
• Potting soil
• Spoons
• Dixie cups, other small paper cups, egg carton cups, or seed pots
• Markers and/or crayons (optional)
• Stickers (optional)
• Jewels (optional)
• Glue (optional)
• Tu B’Shevat Parsley in a Pot Poem

Putting It Together

1.Bring out the cups you are using for pots. You can always buy special seed starter pots. This is what we did in my classroom this year. But in past years I’ve used Dixie cups, other small paper cups I had laying around, or even egg cartons cut into little cups.

2. If you wish, decorate your cups with markers, crayons, stickers, and/or jewels or other decorations. If this is a classroom activity, make sure you put the child’s name on the cup/pot.

3. Fill your cups about 3/4 full with the potting soil. Kids love scooping the dirt themselves with spoons! I’ve found that it works better to transfer some of the potting soil to different containers, or bowls. If you leave the soil in its bag, all the children will crowd around it. That makes scooping out the soil difficult.

*If you used glue, be careful in handling the cups!

4. Gently press in the seeds. Usually the packets say to use 3-4 seeds.

5. Add a little bit of water.

6. Send each child home from class with their individual parsley pot, as well as this sweet little Tu B’Shevat Parsley in a Pot poem. It briefly explains the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, as well as the significance of planting parsley and its use at Passover. I always like making my instructions as fun and cute as possible!

If you are doing this activity at home, place the pot in a window with decent sunlight, water regularly and let your kids check the growing progress! My own children enjoyed reading the poem as well 🙂

Finished and Loving It!

Planting parsley seeds in little pots for Tu B’Shevat is a tradition we’ve been doing with our family for years. My kids love decorating their cups, planting the seeds, and then watching them grow. They also love knowing that they are actively participating in a Tu B’Shevat tradition. And it’s so special to be able to point to the parsley on the Passover Seder plate and say “I grew that!”

I also do this activity in my kindergarten/first grade classroom and they love it as well. It’s quick and simple and can so easily be paired with a book or another Tu B’Shevat craft or activity. Check out my 15 Minute Tu B’Shevat Lesson Plan to see how I used this Parsley Planting Activity in the classroom this year!

If you’d like a copy of the Tu B’Shevat Parsley in a Pot Poem, click here!

We’ve had so much fun preparing for Tu B’Shevat this year. See what other activities we’ve enjoyed:

Tu B’Shevat Scavenger Hunt

15 Minute Tu B’Shevat Lesson Plan

Tu B’Shevat Sensory Bin

Tu B’Shevat Thank You to the Trees Challenge

Do you plant parsley every Tu B’Shevat? Or is there another special plant that is your family’s tradition?

*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link!*

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