Lesson Plan : Sorting Seeds
Teacher Name: | Nancy Bishop |
Grade: | Grade 2 |
Subject: | Science |
Topic: | seed variety |
Content: | Both Mathematics and Science are addressed in this lesson. |
Goals: | Students will recognize that seeds come in a large variety of shapes, colors and sizes. They will record observations. |
Objectives: | Students will estimate amounts,sort,count,observe seed qualities(color/shape/size) and graph information. |
Materials: | a cup of mixed seeds, numbered containers to sort seeds into, forms/ worksheets to record information on including a blank bar graphs, pencils,magnifying glasses(one per pair) |
Introduction: | Open discussion on seeds, reviewing what we have learned so far. Seeds are unique to the plant they come from. Plants have been on earth longer than people. Seeds contain all the information needed to produce a plant. Discuss the 3 basic parts of seeds;seed coat, food, tiny new plant. Reference Magic school bus story. How seeds travel to new locations. All seeds have a single purpose, to continue that plant species. |
Development: | Tell students that they are going to have an opportunity to work with a variety of seeds. They will be working with their seatmates to sort/count/draw/compare each type. They will be recording their findings on special forms and creating a graph to show some of their findings. |
Practice: | Tell students that each pair will receive a cup of mixed seeds. Once they have their cup of seeds they each need to estimate how many seeds they think is in the cup and record that number on their paper. Once that is done, they are to work together to sort the seeds into individual numbered cups. Pause here and allow children to accomplish this task. Once all seeds are sorted the students are to count, record,inspect with a magnifying glass and draw each seed type individually. Demonstrate this prior to having students work. Pause, allowing students to complete this task. When students are ready guide them through the next activity. Students lay seeds end to end on the line provided. Once the line is covered the students count and record this information on the form provided. Collect all seeds. Graphing: provide each student with two graphs. Graph 1: How many of each seed? Explain graph. Demonstrate how to record information. Graph 2: compare size. Using information gained from the line activity student graph the number of seeds that cover a given distance. |
Accommodations: | Students who process this type of information more slowly can be given fewer seed types to sort. Pre-teaching is helpful. I will meet with a small group of student prior to this exercise. I will show them the materials, expose them to the vocabulary and demonstrate the activity. I will monitor this group closely during the whole group lesson and assist when needed. If needed and available I will use peer support. |
Checking For Understanding: | Assessment will be formative. The scientific portion of this lesson is a new skill. I will be looking to see if students are able to gather and record information on the forms provided. Graphing is an essential skill so I will be paying close attention to each students ability to complete this portion of the activity. |
Closure: | Once most students have completed all activities we will have an open discussion about what we learned. How many types of seeds did each pair find? What were some of the physical characteristics of the seeds? What does this tell us about seeds? Does it help to do an observation in a planned way? |
Evaluation: | |
Teacher Reflections: |
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