Bean Plant Investigations!

Hi friends, Sarah here from Mrs B's First Grade. I am SO excited to be blogging for you today about a fun science project I have done for years in my classroom! I don't know about you, but I have trouble finding a lot of time for science and social studies. I have to be creative with what I do and involve as much reading and writing as I can into quick, short and simple activities. I hope you find my bean plant investigations useful for your own classroom!

To begin our learning in science, I always begin with an ICE chart. ICE stands for: Ideas - My beginning ideas. What I think might happen. Claims - What I found out! Evidence - Data or observations that support my claim. This year I was surprised to find out that my friends did not have very much faith that our bean plants would grow and thrive. At the bottom we took a vote as to how many people thought they would grow...only 3!

When we finish thinking about how our investigation will go, I like to teach my friends a little bit more about the bean plant. They are always surprised to find out that the embryo is already inside the bean. I soak a few beans and then give them to students to open up and check out the inside for themselves.

After looking more closely at the bean plant, I teach my students about the life cycle. This always leads to a great discussion about various other life cycles. We then complete the bean plant life cycle page that my students have in their bean plant journals. To grab my bean plant life cycle to use in your classroom, click the picture below!

Next comes the fun part, it is time to plan the beans! I find the best way to plant beans with a class of first graders is to be prepared ahead of time. I put their names on a ziplock bag and lay out all of the supplies. You can either have the students come up and plant with you one at a time, or display what you are doing through a document camera and have everyone plant at once. When you are done, hang the plants in an area where they will get sunlight. I always hang mine on our windows.

After planting my students document what they did and then observe their bean plants over the next days. I have my students practice some procedural writing by writing about how they planted their beans. My students also keep a journal about how their bean plant is progressing. 

Watching the bean plant grow is the best part for my students. They love coming in each morning and checking out their plant. Once we have a few plants take off, I introduce the idea of gravitropism. We turn a few of the ziplock bags upside down and discover about how roots respond to gravity. This is always a great way to enrich the mini unit with my kids that are ready for some higher thinking. You can learn more about gravitropism here!

After we are done watching the bean plants grow, I usually throw them away in the classroom. I am always worried that a friend will decide to open their bag up and there is usually mold in it...

Thank you for reading about our bean plant investigations! If you would like to grab the journal pack that I use with my students, you can find it in my Teachers pay Teachers store by clicking the picture below!