6/12/2013

Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Plan
Name: Briana Lapetina
Lesson Title: Floating and Sinking
Date:
Grade Level: Pre-K
Circle one:
ECE
PKSN
Standard(s)/Guideline(s): Approaches Toward Learning: A.3 Ask questions to seek explanations, Cognition and General Knowledge: C.24 Collect data by
categories to answer simple questions. Physical Well-Being and Motor Development, Large Muscle: Balance and Coordination, Use non-locomotor skills with
control, balance and coordination during active play.
Pre-assessment of current knowledge: The Hook activity that will be implemented beforehand. (KWL chart about water and its properties/characteristics)
Instructional Objectives (1-2)
One/Two Assessed Instructional
Objective(s):
1. The student will be able to
identify which objects can
float and which can sink by
categorizing them into two
groups.
2. The student will be able to
identify a property of water
once completing this
activity.

Assessment of Student Learning

Identify Evidence: (What will you collect or record as data
to demonstrate students have met your objective(s) and
skill?)

Academic Language:

I will have a chart and there will be four columns in it.

There will be a column for the students name, columns for
each object, the students prediction if it will float or sink,
and the ending outcome of that object.

Procedural steps:

Program Monitoring: (How will you aggregate or compile

your evidence into a class or group view?)
One Assessed Developmental
Skill:
With modeling and support, follow
typical patterns when
communicating with others (e.g.,
listen to others, take turns talking
and speaking about the topic or
text being discussed)

Safety Considerations:
None of the objects (especially the

Learning Experience

This activity will be done in small groups of 3 or 4 and will

be done at one of classrooms centers for the day. Smaller
groups will allow this activity to be monitored to its fullest
potential and to be able to get enough evidence.

Water, floating, sinking.

Before implementing this activity there will be a hook activity

done for the students pre-assessment of their current
knowledge about water.
This activity will be a part of the classrooms centers/stations,
this way it can be implemented in small groups. Before the
activity begins the students will see on the table all the
materials. I will ask them which objects they think will sink or
float. This will be done for each item one by one. I will record
their predictions on a chart. We will place each object into
the bin that is full of water and go through each object to see
if they sink or float. After we go through each object, I will
record the outcome on the chart. Once this is done, we will
go over the properties/characteristics of water, so they know
that the ability to sink/float objects is a characteristic of water.
After the students witness what objects float and sink we will
talk about how boats can float in water. That will introduce
the second part of this activity. The next part will be a
music/movement activity and the students will learn (if they
are not familiar already) the song Row Row Row your Boat.
This will allow them to get up and move. (might have to do a
separate day if the first part takes too long)
Authentic Materials: (Describe authentic real life, hands-on
materials.)

6/12/2013

Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Plan
penny) are put in the childrens
mouth or swallowed.

1. Bin full of water (possibly 2 bins)

2. A penny (or any form of change)
3. Pencil or pen
4. Sponge
5. Paper
6. Toy Car
All the objects being used are objects that they would use
or see on a daily basis, and they know what they are.
Adult Roles:
One adult facilitating activity and recording data. Another
adult can be making overall observations while this activity is
being implemented.

Resources & References:

http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Early-Learning/Early-Learning-Content-Standards/Birth-Through-Pre_K-Learning-and-Development-Stand

Reflection: (What have you learned about your students? How will this inform future instruction?)
After implementing this activity, I was able to determine what the students know about how and what objects float and sink in water. This activity gave me
an insight about what type of instruction works best for these students for them to fully understand a topic being learned. Now I know for future lessons what to do
and what not to do. 16 children participated in this activity and it was done in groups of 2-3 at a time. This activity was set up at a separate table with all the
materials needed, and it was implemented as a station during their choices time. The materials included for this activity was a plastic bin full of water, sponges,
pens, toy cars, and quarters. Some of the children were fully engaged and enjoyed the activity; others viewed it as play time and only wanted to play with the
water and the objects. The music/movement part of this activity was successful and the students favorite part. They enjoyed being able to jump around and listen
to the song Row Your Boat. This part got a little out of hands just because I think they were very excited to be moving around and singing.
Unfortunately this activity did not go as planned, but as a teacher that happens and thats why we have to prepare ourselves for these types of situations. I
would definitely improve the set up and structure of the activity. This was a very simple activity for the reason that the students have a hard time keeping their
attention span for activities, so I wanted to make an easy and interactive activity for them to have fun with. Most of them viewed this activity as play time, and
things got out of hands. Instead of my set up where I had 2-3 students come up at a time and I asked them for their predictions beforehand and then I allowed
them to place the objects in the bin themselves to see whether or not the objects float or sank. Next time I would make sure I do small groups of 4 or 5 and I would
place the objects in the bin myself and have them watch the outcome. Allowing them to place the objects in themselves caused many distractions and chaos. The
point of implementing lessons is to learn from them and to improve how you implement them for future lessons. This was definitely a learning experience for me,
and it gave me ideas to make sure next time turns out to be more successful.
Here was the checklist used to record the students predictions:

Student

Will the

Will the

Will the

Will the

Correct

6/12/2013

Early Childhood Education

Learning Experience Plan

Name
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5
Student 6
Student 7
Student 8
Student 9
Student 10
Student 11
Student 12
Student 13

Quarter
Float or
Sink?
Sink
Sink
Sink
Sink
Sink
Sink
Sink
Float
Float
Sink
Sink
Sink
Float

Sponge
Float or
Sink?
Float
Float
Float
Float
Float
Sink
Float
Float
Float
Sink
Float
Float
Sink

Pen Float
or Sink?
Sink
Float
Float
Float
Float
Float
Float
Float
Float
Sink
Float
Float
Sink

Toy Car
Float or
Sink?
Float
Float
Sink
Float
Sink
Float
Sink
Float
Float
Float
Float
Float
Sink

amount of
guesses.
2/4
4/4
3/4
4/4
3/4
3/4
3/4
3/4
3/4
2/4
4/4
4/4
0/4