Clinical Science Lesson Implementation

I implemented my clinical science lesson to my first grade classroom about the life cycle of pumpkins. The lesson included some gross motor movement and they applied what they learned in a partner game on the carpet. The students remained engaged throughout the lesson, which I considered the biggest strength of the implementation. I could tell that they were engaged because throughout the song they consistently had their eyes on me as they were learning the new motions and words. When it came time for the students to apply the knowledge through the card game, they were competitively showing interest and engagement by keeping score with their partners in a very animated way. They were actively participating, and I didn’t have to remind any groups to play the correct way or stay on task. 

If I could choose one area to focus on for improvement, I would choose the introduction. I had planned to introduce the lesson by asking the students to activate their prior knowledge by sharing what their families used pumpkins for. I wanted to go along with this concept and discuss with them that some families used pumpkins for holiday recipes, and others for decorations on the front porch. However, when I implemented the lesson, the introduction ended up being more of a concrete review about facts of pumpkins. While this is still a way of activating their prior knowledge, I should have stuck to the original plan that I had mapped out since it had more of a relational aspect to it. Students can relate to what pumpkins are used for around their houses at home or in their community, but facts are not as engaging and exciting to serve as an introductory piece to the lesson for them. Next time I plan and implement a lesson, I want to make sure I have a solid introductory piece and stick with that during the implementation phase. When students are off task, it’s my job to scaffold them to come back into the conversation that I had originally planned for.

During the lesson planning period, I found myself doing a lot more research on the life cycle of pumpkins than I thought would have been necessary. There are many different facts about pumpkins in general that I hadn’t been aware of, let alone all of the stages of the pumpkin growing process. I was under the impression that pumpkins begin as seeds and grow into a robust, round orange ball. However, once I used some resources to learn more about the process I learned that there are multiple steps that I had to master before I would teach it to the students. I wanted to make sure I taught the process to the students in a way that was motivating and interesting to them, and in a way that is outside of their everyday routine. I chose to introduce the life cycle by teaching them a song with gross motor movements. They were smiling and laughing as they learned the new song which gave me an indication that the students were enjoying themselves as they were learning the new content. Some of the students that don’t normally participate in class discussions were standing up and moving with the rest of the students, which made me confident that I had created a lesson plan that included differentiation for every type of learner in the class. 

As the lesson unfolded during my implementation, I found that it was very important to be as organized as I was. I had precut and laminated all of the cards for the “Pumpkin War Game,” and made sure that there were enough for each set of partners to have a set of cards. I also planned ahead and had a few of the decks picture only so the students that were struggling with reading had a fair chance to play the game without worrying about pronunciation and correct reading of the different words. This part of the lesson isn’t something that I could have saved for last minute, so it was very important that I had all of this preparation done beforehand. Coming up with accommodations for the learners that are struggling with certain aspects was important so that every learner could play the game and apply what they had previously learned during the implementation. 

The last part of my lesson was the individual hand outs at the very end for the students to practice all of the knowledge they had learned from the week about pumpkins and the life cycle. Each student received a mini-book about the life cycle of the pumpkin, with each stage that we had previously talked about on the pages. These mini books served as a unit wrap-up since they had been learning about pumpkins and studying them for the entire week prior. The students were responsible for coloring each of these pages with stages 1-7 as they read. By having an extra piece for the students to take away with them it helped to solidify what we had learned through gross motor and active application. 

Overall, I gathered at the end of the lesson that most of the students were on track and understood the content. Before they went to their seats at the end of the game, a student came up to me and said to me “that was really fun Miss Laine!” Hearing those words from the student helped me to feel confident that not only did they learn new content about the life cycle of pumpkins, but they had fun and took all of the material they learned to heart. I took a risk by using the gross motor song since the students aren’t normally exposed to that type of learning and I was not used to teaching in that way. I am glad that I took that risk because I got great results and confirmation that the students had fun. When the students learn and have fun after a lesson that I took the time to create and implement–I can’t ask for anything better! 

From Seed to Pie
Tune: 'The Farmer in the Dell'
(by Diane Donovan as found in  The Mailbox –Preschool,
The Education Center October/November 2003)

The seed is in the ground.
The seed is in the ground.
Hi-ho, the pumpkin patch!
The seed is in the ground.

Additional verses….
The seed grows a sprout.
The sprout grows a vine.
The vine grows a bloom.
The bloom grows a pumpkin.
We make a pumpkin pie!

Exceeds: Included the song that I sang in the implemented lesson
Lesson exceeds: Laminated the game pieces and gave to my CT to use for future reference as well as the lesson template