Please Label Your Parts... A Lima Bean Pictorial and Cut and Paste Freebie!

As you move along during your Plant Unit your beans will begin to grow and once they start sprouting leaves I like to create a pictorial (GLAD strategy ) in front of my students so we can talk about the parts of the plant and what it needs to grow.Use large chart paper for this. Remember to just outline your picture in light pencil so you can draw it with marker or crayons while the students are watching and you are talking and confirming their knowledge of  each part. Add the details of the picture by asking questions such as, "What does our bean need so it will grow?" and you can even invite students up to add rain, sun, soil, etc. This will keep them more engaged as you are working on the pictorial. Some teachers allow students to color the pictorial later but often I just fill in the color with scrapbooking chalk which fills it with color quickly and effectively. I love the soft look of this. Be sure to label the parts to build academic vocabulary and review this daily, adding on as you see fit.
At this time I often hand out white boards and markers and do a guided drawing of this with the children. Sometimes I will do it the following day as a review.
The follow up to this is a cut and paste that the children do independently after we have gone over the parts of the lima bean plant numerous times. They have to follow the key on the right to color it properly and this is  ideal for reviewing color words. Have you "bean" growing lima beans in your room? I hope so! Would you like this little cut and paste? Click here but please remember to leave a comment and share your planting ideas. Thanks so much.

Are You Full of Beans In Kindergarten? Grab this freebie!

Now that California teachers are implementing the Common Core our perspective has shifted and we are making certain strategies a part of our daily teaching. Many kindergarten teachers love to grow lima beans in baggies or in soil but now we want our students to record their observations (through drawings, labels, and writing) and to document this on a daily basis. This is a flip book that is generic since the students write in the day on the front. In my classroom I might start them off with guided drawing and label the parts as a group but this would be easy to differentiate depending on the skills of your children. Some teachers choose to plant their bean in soil (just one) and the entire class observes the same plant. You have lots of choices with this but I thought this little log would be useful for you. It is 2 pages and you run it back to back so students know where to put their drawing each day.

I worked with a team of wonderful,primary teachers on a unit of study for our district that reflects the CCSS and created this log for our district teachers to use. I hope they find it useful. Click on the picture to grab this item for your classroom. Be sure to check out the Greenhouse freebie posted too! I love comments if you can spare the time. Have a great Sunday friends.

Fran

"Bean There, Done That" Freebie You Will Love

Be sure to tape your baggie to the back of the greenhouse. It fits perfectly in the window opening that you have cut out. 

This was so much fun to do with our kindergarten students and they are having a blast watching these grow in their personal greenhouse. They look precious hanging up in the windows at our school. Be sure to soak your beans overnight to get fast germination and great results. Remember that 5 year olds have no patience to wait. We even looked at the baby inside of a bean after soaking it overnight and the children were fascinated with this science activity. I promise that you cannot kill these if you follow these directions and they get plenty of sun. Everyone has a green thumb in kindergarten! Now go try this. You can grab my little house here but please leave a comment and become a follower. What do you think of this?