6/12/2013

Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Plan

Name: Katie Geary

Lesson Title: Sprouting Beans
Date: March 15th, 2016
Grade Level: Pre-K
Circle one:
ECE
Standard(s)/Guideline(s):
1) Cognition and General Knowledge: Mathematics: Number Sense: Number Sense and Counting: Demonstrate one-to-one correspondence when counting objects up to 10
2) Cognition and General Knowledge: Science: Science Inquiry and Application: Inquiry: make predictions
3) Physical Well Being and Motor Development: Motor Development: Small Muscle: Touch, Grasp, Reach, Manipulate: Coordinate the use of hands,
fingers and wrists to manipulate objects and perform tasks requiring precise movements
Pre-assessment of current knowledge:
Previous activities; before activity we will ask students what they think a seed needs to become a seedling
Instructional Objectives (1-2)
One/Two Assessed Instructional
Objective(s): The student will be able
to...
-explain what a seed needs to sprout
One Assessed Developmental Skill:
-counting/ one-to-one correspondence
recognition

Assessment of Student Learning

Identify Evidence: (What will you collect or record as data to
demonstrate students have met your objective(s) and skill?)
-take photographs of the students going through the steps of
planting their bean in the bag
-record students observations of the dried beans, and the
differences between the dried beans and soaked beans
-record students predictions about what will happen to the beans
in the windows

Safety Considerations:
-eating of beans
-sharpies are toxic (need to be watched
carefully with use)

Program Monitoring: (How will you aggregate or compile your

evidence into a class or group view?)
-record it on the data sheet
-create an aggregated data chart

Learning Experience
Academic Language:
-seed casing
-sprout
-seedling
Procedural steps:
1) Break students into two groups (their small groups)
2) Bring out dried beans, and put them on the table in their
containers. Let children feel beans, and play around with them for a
few minutes to explore them.
3) Count out the beans with the children, making sure that for each
group member, there is one bean. Let them examine their bean. Ask
what part of the plant cycle this is. Have students make
observations of the beans, both theirs and the container of dried
beans as a whole.
4) Ask what students think beans will need to germinate. Expalin
the word germinate. Explain that in order to sprout, the beans will
need water and sunlight. Bring out beans that have been soaking
overnight, and examine them. Have students make observations of
the differences between the soaked and unsoaked beans.
5) Hand out plastic ziplock bags. One by one, have students come
up, write their name on their bag with a sharpie, get a paper towel,
wring it out, and wrap a soaked seed in it. Have student zip their
bag closed, and tape it up on the window.
6) Ask the students, in their small groups, what they believe will
happen to the beans over the next couple of days as they hang in the

6/12/2013

Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Plan
window.
Authentic Materials:
- Lima beans (both soaked and unsoaked)
-paper towels
-ziplock bags
-water
Adult Roles:
-helping write names on bags
-demonstrating how to transfer seeds into bags
-asking and answering questions
-safety considerations

Resources & References:

http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Early-Learning/Early-Learning-Content-Standards/Birth-Through-Pre_K-Learning-and-Development-Stand/ELDS-Physical-Wellbeing-and-Motor-Development.pdf.aspx
http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Early-Learning/Early-Learning-Content-Standards/Birth-Through-Pre_K-Learning-and-Development-Stand/ELSD-CognitionStandards.pdf.aspx
http://www.teachpreschool.org/2011/09/planting-and-growing-beans-in-our-preschool-window/
Reflection: (What have you learned about your students? How will this inform future instruction?)
This lesson went pretty well! I was able to do it on the day I had planned, and we had enough time that it was not at all rushed. The students enjoyed feeling the hard
beans, and came up with some descriptive words for them (hard, smooth, white, rockish, cold, etc). They did well counting out the beans, understanding that each
student needed one bean, so since we had 10 students at our table, we would have to count out ten beans. The students actually did better than I expected with sitting still and
paying attention during this lesson. I was hoping that them having their own bean to hold would give them something to do with their hands that wasnt distracting, but I was
worried that they might throw them at each other or use them to further distract each other. Other than one student losing his bean under the table and having to search for it, which
disrupted about 3 other students, and 2 students who had their beans fight each other, the individual beans seemed to go over very well. The students were excited to count out one
for each of them, and to hold them throughout the teaching part of the lesson, where we talked about the plant cycle, what the word germinate means, and what plants need to

6/12/2013

Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Plan
sprout and grow. I think that for future lessons, I would keep this in mind: that it helped to have something the students could fidget with during the lesson, which was not too
distracting to themselves or others.
By the end of the activity, none of the students could remember the big word for sprout that was germinate. I think in order for them to learn this vocabulary word fully,
I would have had to centered more of the activity around it, maybe reading a book about germination or making up as song on it. As it was, just mentioning it a few times, my
students were not able to commit it to memory. This is also something I would keep in mind for future lessons.