Last Tuesday I taught my science lesson and it turned out to be a very valuable learning experience for me! The lesson I was supposed to teach was on roots, stems, and leaves. The objective was for the kindergarten students to be able to identify and observe roots, stems and leaves. To begin the lesson, I lead a whole group discussion with the students on the carpet. They looked at big book pictures of roots, stems and leaves, and we discussed the function of these three main parts. Students came up and pointed to the roots, stems, and leaves on the different pictures. The goal of this was for them to see that although different kinds of green plants may look different, they all have these three main parts. We also talked about how trees are plants. Many students had the misconception that a tree was not a plant because it is so big. They associated plants with smaller plants such as flowers that one would see in their yard or at a park. When I asked the question “are trees plants,” many of the students said no. So we discussed how trees are plants, because they too have roots, stems and leaves. After the whole-group discussion, the students went to their tables which had plants, pictures and seeds on them. I had three different kinds of plants, pictures and seeds for the students to observe. They used hand lenses to observe the plants, and I walked around and talked to the students about what they were looking at. Due to the cost factor, only three of the five tables had plants, all had lima bean seeds, and two of the tables had pictures. I rotated the plants and pictures so that all of the students would be able to look at them. The pictures were taken on my cousins farm and clearly showed the roots, stems, and leaves of a cucumber plant. I wanted to give the students a variety of visuals to look at. I had one clover leaf plant, one African violet plant and one hyacinth plant. While the students were observing and discussing the plants, pictures and seeds, they were also drawing a picture of a plant and circling the roots, stems and leaves one the plant as an assessment. I had the students circle the three parts in different colors in order to see if they knew what the three different parts are. One misconception that I found a lot of students had was that they drew a picture of a flower and circled the petals as leaves. This was a good learning experience for me, because next time I will know to address this misconception. My CT watched my lesson and then had to leave; the substitute was also in the room watching my lesson. She suggested that next time since the kids are only in kindergarten, draw the pictures on the board with the students while they are drawing the same picture at their seats and circle the parts together etc. Overall, I thought my lesson went fairly well, I would do things different in the future such as have enough plants for each table (although expensive) and address more misconceptions.
1 comment:
I think that the idea that the children had the misconception that a tree is not a plant was really interesting. I had never really thought about that before. I think that most of the time plants do get associated with smaller things because we call a tree a tree but classify most “plants” as simply plants. I can see how for a kindergartener this might be confusing when they have not yet learned the categories and subcategories and the classification systems. I think your lesson sounds like it was very interesting and an interactive experience for the children. Since they were able to see real plants and have that type of first hand experience with the actual roots, leaves, and stems of plants. I think the way that you gave the students a variety of visuals will really help in their comprehension of the lesson because if they are unable to see the parts in one sense they have another view and another way to look at them. Another thing that I found interesting is that the students’ circles the petals as leaves. This is a misconception that I could see them having because they are in the same general shape and appear to have the same function as a plant. I think its easy to differentiate leaves and petals when you have the knowledge of photosynthesis, but when thinking about this misconception I really thought of how hard it would be to explain the plant parts to a kindergartener without being able to really explain the full function. Although, this is a concept that could be introduced to the students in kindergarten and then built upon in other grades to come. Overall, it seems like the students were able to grasp the lesson you taught and that you were able to work with them to address any misconceptions that they may have had.
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