LESSON PLAN OUTLINE

JMU Elementary Education Program

A.

TITLE/TYPE OF LESSON
Thinning and Transplanting

B. CONTEXT OF LESSON
This lesson plan is one that is included in the NSRC Plant Growth and Development book,
and is day four or five of a unit where students are planting and working with their own plant to
observe its growth. The lesson is, therefore, appropriate for students at this time because it fits
perfectly into their curriculum sequence and will help them progress in their knowledge of a plants
life cycle.

C. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand what are the broad
generalizations the students should
begin to develop? (These are
typically difficult to assess in one
lesson.)
Students should begin to develop
their understanding of how to
correctly thin and transplant their
plants in a way that benefits the
plants growth without hindering
its health.
Know what are the facts, rules,
specific data the students will gain
through this lesson? (These knows
must be assessed in your lesson.)
Students will learn not only how
to thin and transplant their plants,
but also why these are important
steps in caring for plants. They
will come to know multiple ways
of how to thin and transplant their
plants correctly and in the most
healthy way for the plant.
Do what are the specific thinking
behaviors students will be able to do
through this lesson? (These will also
be assessed in your lesson.)
Instead of only reading and
learning about thinning and
transplanting, students will have
the opportunity to actually
perform these tasks on plants they
planted at the beginning of the
unit and that have begun to grow.

D. ASSESSING LEARNING
Because students will be doing this together all at once with all of their plants, there will be
chances for the students to discuss with one another as they work about what they are doing, and
students will have the ability to help one another or ask each other questions throughout the entire
process. To evaluate students, I will simply observe students as they work to see which students are
contributing to discussions with peers and/or adults in the room, how well the students are able to
manipulate the tools necessary to perform these tasks on their plants, how well they handle the plants
as they work with them, and how accurately the students document and draw their experience in their
notebooks.

E. RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (and NATIONAL STANDARDS if required)

Life Processes
4.4 The student will investigate and understand basic plant anatomy and life processes. Key concepts include
a) the structures of typical plants (leaves, stems, roots, and flowers);
b) processes and structures involved with reproduction (pollination, stamen, pistil, sepal, embryo, spore, and seed);
c) photosynthesis (sunlight, chlorophyll, water, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and sugar)
F. MATERIALS NEEDED
For every student
1 student notebook
1 toothpick
1 pair of scissors
For every two students
1 hand lens
1 pair of forceps (optional)
For the class
Potting mix
Surplus planter quads, if any
1 large or several small containers for the class plot (egg cartons, milk cartons cut lengthwise, margarine tubs)
Wicks for the above containers

G. PROCEDURE
(scans of the lesson plan pages from the book are included at the end of this lesson plan)
Preparation of the learning environment (if required)
Distribute scissors and forceps (optional)
If not enough wicks are left over, use cotton twine instead
Set up class plots with potting mix, wicks, and fertilizer. Place them in an easily accessible location so students can
transplant their plants at their own rate.
Engage -Introduction of the lesson
Open the discussion by asking if anyone in the class has had experience thinning or transplanting.
o What is thinning:
removing seedlings from their original container and replanting in individual cells or pots to give them more growing
room
o What is transplanting:
the technique of moving a plant from one location to another
Follow up with a question asking why it is important to thin plants.
o Important because:
without enough room, the plants are fighting for space and resources like water and nutrients from the soil; if you split
them up and give them each their own space, they get enough resources to grow healthy and strong
Then discuss why sometimes it is necessary to transplant.
o Important because:
As plants grow bigger they need more room; moving plants to bigger pots as they grow help them continue to have
enough space and resources to keep growing
Dont start plants off in bigger pots than they need because bigger pots will hold in more water than the small plant
needs and may drown it before it has a chance to grow big enough
Just like snails or crabs keep going to bigger shells as they grow; they dont start off in a really big shell because it
would be too big for them and they wouldnt be able to move around as well; they start of small and keep getting
bigger shells as they outgrow their old ones
Help students see that the purpose of both techniques is to improve growing conditions for the plant.
Implementation of the lesson (specific procedures and directions for teacher and students)
After students have retrieved their plants, ask them to spend a few minutes observing the plants even at this very early
stage of development. Ask:
o Are all of your seedlings the same size?
o The same color?
o Where are the differences, exactly?
o In the shape or size of the leaf?
o In the length of the stem?
o Did every seed sprout, or germinate?
o Have some of your seeds grown bigger than others?
Have students decide which one plant from each cell they will keep and which one they will thin out. They will end up
with a total of four plants per planter, one per cell.
 Before thinning, students should gently loosen the soil with a toothpick. Tell them to plan to set aside one of the extra
seedlings so that they can draw it later.
Now students can thin their plants. They can either cut them off close to the soil and discard them or uproot them and
transplant them.
Students have the following choices of what to do with the uprooted seedlings:
o Transplant them into one of their own cells where no seeds germinate
o Donate them to a classmate for transplanting
o Transplant them into the prepared class pots
After students have completed thinning and transplanting, have them draw and label one of their uprooted seedlings
and write their observations in their notebooks. The drawing should include the seed leaves, the stem, and the roots.
This is the only opportunity students will have to observe the roots. Remind students to include todays date and the
age of the seedling with their observations.
Closure
A closing discussion could focus on any of the following:
o Observations of individual differences in seedlings that are exactly the same age. From there, point out that members
of the class, though lose in age, are different in important ways
o A review of the requirements for plant growth
o The optimum conditions for plant growth
o The differences between the bean seed embryo and the Brassica seedling
Clean-up (if required)
Have students throw away any plants you cant use and return equipment to their containers.

H. DIFFERENTIATION
Because students in the class are at such a range of levels, students that finish early with their
thinning and transplanting will be allowed to go around the room and assist the classmates who may
be struggling with their plants, thereby aiding students who may be falling behind.
For students who finish early with their notebook entries, they can review the questions listed
in their Student Activity Books under Ideas to Explore; if there are students that have reviewed some
of these questions before it is time for the closing class discussion, the questions they reviewed can be
included in the class discussion, and students can share their thoughts and ideas pertaining to those
questions (open to the whole class, not just the students who reviewed them ahead of time).

I. WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?
Some students plants may not have grown as well as others; if this happens, the students who
have many successfully growing plants will be able to do some of their own and will then be asked to
allow students without successful plants to thin and transplant one or two of theirs into their own pots.
 Lesson Implementation Reflection
As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, think about the experience. Use the questions/prompts below to
guide your thinking. Be thorough in your reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

I. How did your actual teaching of the lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes and explain why you made
them.
The time was a big difference; the lesson did not take up nearly as much time as the plan said it would, which
meant the discussion at the end had to be extended and I had to come up with ways on the spot to continue the
lesson in order to kill the remainder of time. I added to the discussion by having a quick game of trivia where
students would answer review questions for Cardinal Cash (the school currency).
II. Based on the assessment you created, what can you conclude about your impact on student learning? Did they learn?
Who learned? What did they learn? What evidence can you offer that your conclusions are valid?
My assessment was based off of my observations while walking around and watching students as they worked on
their plants. At first students were having trouble thinning the plants because they were not being careful enough
to dig out the roots without breaking the stem of the plant; after addressing this with the class as a whole, however, I
began walking around again and the students improved tremendously; in fact no students made another mistake with
their plants for the remainder of the lesson. In the discussion/review at the end, students seemed to really understand
the material and were able to answer my questions correctly about what they had just learned.
III. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or more thorough
way if you were to teach this lesson again.
It almost seemed as if the lesson/concepts were too easy for the students. I would keep the beginning lesson and
keep the hands on activity with their plants, but at the end of the lesson I would probably add more material or a
different short activity to challenge the students a little more and to also take up more time. I feel like if students
had more content near the end, they would be more at their level because the terms and concepts (thinning and
transplanting) discussed in this lesson was almost too easy for them to learn.
IV. Based on the assessment data you collected, what would you do/teach next if you were the classroom teacher?
Well the lesson I had was Day 4 of a plant unit the entire grade was doing which dealt with doing new things to
their plants each day to learn about plant growth/plant life and to see it happen as they worked with their own
 plants. Because of this, I would just move on to day five. I was not there to witness the Day 5 lesson plan, but I
was able to see another of their unit lessons the following week and they were working on dissecting flowers to see
the different parts that make them up, which was very interesting to observe.
V. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about young children as
learners?
The fact that students should never be underestimated was certainly reinforced for me in this lesson. When looking
over the lesson plan and working out what exactly I would say and do, I fully believed that everything that we did
would take up the entire class time, maybe even longer. It was the complete opposite, however, because all of the
students learned the material so quickly that they were able to end 10-15 minutes early and I had to come up with
something on the spot to do for the rest of the class.
VI. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about teaching?
My reinforcement was that you should always plan for way more than you may have time for because even if you
do not get to all of it, you can do what you were not able to do on a different day; if, however, you do not plan
enough, then you are left empty handed and students lose precious time that they could be engaged with new
material. Over planning is much more beneficial than under planning or only planning for what you think will take
the exact amount of time for the lesson, because usually things do not go as planned.
VII. As a result of planning and teaching this lesson, what have you learned or had reinforced about yourself?
I learned, as I have been learning throughout all of my practicum placements, that there are many things I agree
and disagree with in classrooms that are not my own; I see parts of lessons or classroom management strategies
that I know I would modify or completely get rid of if I were in charge, but I also learn a lot of new ideas and
many different perspectives that I can incorporate into my future classroom. Practicum is an amazing opportunity
to test out your skills but also to learn from teachers that have much more experience so that even if you do not
always see eye to eye, you can work on yourself as a future educator and be prepared when you are put in charge
of your own classroom of students. I learned that sometimes you are not in charge of the material students are
required to learn and that sometimes using the lesson plans of others can be both beneficial and challenging;
beneficial because they bring a whole new perspective into the class, but challenging because you did not write the
lesson yourself so you need to modify as you go in order to fit your specific class of students.