Look out the window this week if you live anywhere near Charleston or Huntington. The hillsides are putting on their last big show of the year. According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail (Oct. 30, 2026), fall color is projected to peak around November 4 in Charleston and November 6 in Huntington, with Southern West Virginia hitting its best color in the first week of November.
That makes this the perfect moment to ask your kids a question that sounds simple but opens up a whole unit of plant science: where does the green go?
And once the leaves drop and the days get short, there's a fun follow-up: can you keep plants growing bright green indoors all winter, even when the sun sets before supper? (Spoiler: yes, with the right light.)
Why leaves change color (the short version for kids)
- Green comes from chlorophyll. It's the pigment leaves use to capture sunlight and make food through photosynthesis.
- Yellow and orange were there all along. Pigments called carotenoids hide underneath the green all summer.
- Shorter days and cooler nights are the signal. Trees stop making new chlorophyll, the green fades, and the yellows and oranges show through.
- Reds are made fresh in fall. Some trees, like many maples, produce red pigments called anthocyanins as the season changes.
The big idea: plants need light to stay green. Your kids can prove that at home this week.
What your kids will learn
Grades K–5
- What plants need to grow: light, water and air
- How a seed sprouts and what the first leaves look like
- How to measure seedlings with a ruler and keep a daily growth journal
- What happens to seedlings that get more light or less light
Grades 6–12
- Photosynthesis and the role of chlorophyll
- Etiolation: why seedlings grown in the dark turn pale, tall and leggy
- Designing a controlled experiment with one variable (light) and a control group
- Graphing growth data and drawing a conclusion from evidence
This week's activity: the Light vs. Dark Sprout Test
This works with almost any quick-sprouting seed you have on hand, such as dried peas, lentils or a packet of radish or lettuce seeds.
- Ask a question. "Will sprouts grown in the dark be green?" Have each child write down a prediction (a hypothesis) before you start.
- Set up two identical cups. Fill two small cups or pots with the same potting soil. Poke a drainage hole in the bottom of each (an adult can do this part).
- Plant the same way. Sow the same number of seeds, at the same depth, in each cup, and water them with the same amount.
- Change only one thing. Put Cup A in your brightest spot. Put Cup B in a dark closet or under an upside-down box. Everything else stays the same.
- Observe every day. Record the date, the number of sprouts, their height in millimeters, and their color. A quick sketch counts as data, too.
- Compare. After about a week, line the cups up side by side. Which sprouts are taller? Which are greener? Which look stronger?
- Bonus twist. Move the pale "dark" sprouts into the light and check them over the next few days. Do they start to turn green? Talk about how this connects to the trees outside.
Here's the catch in a West Virginia winter: a windowsill doesn't get much light once the days get short, so even your "bright" cup may stretch and lean. That's where a real grow light changes the experiment.
Our LED Grow Light Plant Stand Science Kit gives you a two-shelf stand (26½" tall × 28" long × 12" wide) with two 2 ft full-spectrum LED light bars mounted 10" above each shelf. Each shelf holds one standard 10×20 microgreens tray (trays are sold separately, and the stand needs some assembly). It comes with grade-level curriculum and worksheets emailed after purchase, so kids can:
- Measure and compare seedlings on the top and bottom shelves
- Test what happens with more or fewer hours of light per day
- Watch phototropism (plants bending toward light) and etiolation side by side
- Keep a growth journal all winter long, no matter how gray it gets outside
Need seeds to get started? The Surprise Herb or Vegetable Seed Germination Science Kit includes one surprise packet chosen from 50 popular herbs and vegetables, plus K–5 curriculum and worksheets. Part of the fun is guessing the variety from the seed's shape, size and color.
Join the growing community
Every kit includes an invitation to our Facebook group, "Aardvark's Seed Planting For Little Hands," where kids and parents get support with anything they need. Share a photo of your light-vs-dark cups, post your growth chart, and see what young growers here in West Virginia, and over in Arkansas and Arizona, are sprouting this season. Kids love seeing that other young scientists are running the same experiment at their own kitchen tables.
Keep the green going all winter
The leaves outside are almost done for the year, but your homeschool garden doesn't have to be. Enjoy the peak color this week, then bring the science indoors.
- LED Grow Light Plant Stand Science Kit – $200.00 (Grades K–5 or 6–12)
- Surprise Herb or Vegetable Seed Germination Science Kit – $15.00
