For our Kindergarten Practicum our theme was Spring and more specifically plants. We decided to have a main topic we were going to introduce on Day 1 and come back to daily. That project was the Seed Necklace. I have attached the link to the lesson plan because I know that no matter what grade I end up teaching I will be doing this in my classroom!
The kindergartner’s job was to wear the necklace under their shirts all day, give it some water when needed and keep track of their seeds growth. Their body heat the seeds got from being close to their bodies every day helped them to grow like crazy! In just 5 days almost every seed had roots or leaves starting to grow! The kids got SO EXCITED and they were able to learn a lot. We talked about making good observations, what seeds need to grow, why they might start growing around Spring time, and this could have even been stretched more had we had more time!
Each day they documented what they saw, what changed and what they think might happen tomorrow. When the week was up they thought they were going to take it home and show their friends/family, but our Cooperating Teacher decided she wanted to keep the activity going for another week! Also one of the other Kindergarten teachers saw how well this turned out and decided to do it with her kids too! It’s such an amazing lesson plan that I had to share it! Check it out!
http://maitcscience.wikispaces.com/file/view/plant%20pals.pdf/357064040/plant%20pals.pdf
I love this activity and will be using it in my classroom as well. One of the best things about this activity is it allows students to do scientific inquiry. Like we have all learned in Michele’s class, scientific inquiry is essential when teaching science. By doing this activity the students were able to see themselves as scientists and observe and record the inquiry they were participating in. The activity also allowed the students to see first hand that plants need heat, water and food to grow and it was a great way for us as instructors to introduce the concept of science and the inquiry process.