Fall 2017

Sem I-ECED372

INDIVIDUAL LESSON PLAN

JMU Elementary Education Program

Grace Lesniak
Ms. Truslow, Kindergarten, Clymore Elementary School
October 20th, 9:00 A.M.
October 9th

TITLE OF LESSON
Marshmallow and toothpick tower
STEAM lesson

CONTEXT OF LESSON
When we went and observed the classroom briefly I noticed that they had two building centers one
with play-dough and another with blocks. This is an appropriate activity because it works on fine motor
skills by putting the marshmallows and toothpicks together to build. It also works on problem solving skills
by using trial and error to build the tallest tower that they can without it falling over. After talking with our
cooperating teacher I also learned that the students have been learning about comparing two or more objects.
This activity will work on using the correct vocabulary to compare the different towers made.

OBJECTIVES AND ASSESSMENT

Developmental Objectives Assessment

1. The students fine motor skills by
properly putting the toothpicks and
marshmallows together to use as
building materials.
2. The students will describe and
compare the finished products
properly.
I will observe how the students put the toothpicks together using
the marshmallows to hold them in place. I will note if the student is
having difficulties using the materials together in order to build
their structure in the upward direction to meet the goal of making
the tallest building. I will record this information on the attached
data collection instrument.
I will listen for proper description words when asking the children
to describe their structures. I will also listen for their vocabulary
when comparing the different structures as taller, shorter, etc.. If
the students do not readily offer information then I will proceed by
asking them thought provoking questions to promote discussion. I
will record this information on the attached data collection
instrument.

COLLECTION OF ASSESSMENT DATA

SEE ATTACHED DOCUMENT.

RELATED VIRGINIA STANDARDS OF LEARNING (K & 1) OR FOUNDATION BLOCKS

(Preschool)

Visual Arts K.1: The student will create works of art that represent personal responses to art making
problems.

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Mathematics K.10: The student will compare two objects or events, using direct comparisons or
nonstandard units of measure, according to one or more of the following attributes: length (shorter, longer),
height (taller, shorter), weight (heavier, lighter), temperature (hotter, colder).

Visual Arts K.11: The student will use motor skills (e.g., pinching, pulling, squeezing, twisting,
pounding, rolling, folding, cutting, modeling, stamping) to create two-dimensional and three-dimensional
works of art.

MATERIALS NEEDED (all provided by myself)

Toothpicks
Marshmallows (mini)
Bowls (to put the marshmallows and toothpicks in)
Ruler
Placemats
Phone (take pictures)
Instruction Card

PROCEDURE

Preparation of learning environment (8:30-9:00)

First, I will set out four bowls on the table. Then, I will pour some of the mini marshmallows into two
of the bowls (one on each end of the table so all students can reach). After that I will pour some of the
toothpicks into the other two bowls (one on each end of the table so all students can reach). I will place the
guide card on the middle of the table to that everyone can see it and know what they are supposed to do.

Engagement and introduction of the lesson (Intro: 1 min- 1 min)

I will be at one of the tables used as student seating. When the students get to my station I will
instruct the students not touch the materials until I have explained the activity in full. I will start off by
asking the students if they like building towers/castles/buildings. I will review the instruction cards and then
demonstrate how they will stick the toothpicks into the marshmallows and use them as building blocks to
create their structures. I will advise them that they should be as creative as they want with their buildings, but
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also that we are competing to see how tall we can make them before they fall over. I will either be standing
or seated in the center of the table so that I can be a resource for all (3-4) students at my station. I will
instruct the students that this is intended to be a fun activity, but they will have to keep their voices down and
not get too loud, as we dont want to disrupt the other activities and students.

Implementation of the lesson (Build: 4 min) (Discussion: 1 min)

Once I have have gone over the instructions of the activity and have described that the goal is to create
the tallest tower that they can without it falling over I will have the students begin building their towers.
Because I will have already reviewed the instruction card as well as demonstrated how the students would
use the toothpicks and marshmallows to construct their towers they will know how to use the two given
materials and may have to use trial and error to get to their best final product. I will let them build either
individual or as a team for 7-8 minutes. If they choose to build separately, when the time is up, I will ask
them to compare the structures. I will ask them to describe the products and how they are different or similar.
I will also ask them which structure appears to be the tallest. If there are two or more that are close to the
same height, I will use the measuring tool (ruler) to determine which is actually the tallest.
Questions: (as stated above)
Compare the structures. How are they different? The same?
Which structure appears to be the tallest?
Who had a structure that initially fell over?
Why do they think it fell over?
How did they build it to keep it from falling over?
What might be some ideas of why they didnt fall over?

Closure
I will conclude the lesson by asking the students their thought processes while they were building. I
will ask them what subjects that they have learned do they think were incorporated into this lesson (math:
shapes, science: building/trial and error, art: creativity). If they have trouble connecting the activity I will
begin to ask questions about what they have been learning in certain subjects.

Clean-up ( min)
Based on the preference of the teacher I will have the students throw their products away, or let them
eat the marshmallows they have used and throw the toothpicks away. I will not ask them to put the
marshmallows back to be reused because it is flu season and I do not want any germs passed around.

DIFFERENTIATION

There is a student in the class who has an aide with her. Her aide will be with her during each station
and we have placed her in the group with the lowest number of students so that she will be able to have more
one-on-one attention. I have made this a fun and interactive activity to capture every students attention and
keep it. I am also allowing the students to decide whether or not they want to work alone or as pairs or as
small groups. This activity is very hands on which will, hopefully, keep the attention of any student with a
behavioral disability. It is also a very simplistic and creative activity and doesnt have many rules which will
help with any student who has a learning disability or has trouble keeping their focus.

WHAT COULD GO WRONG WITH THIS LESSON AND WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?

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Honestly, a lot could probably go wrong with this lesson because it does not have many step by step
instructions. It has more of an end objective and doesnt really focus on how the students got there. A big
thing that could go wrong is that I run out of supplies by underestimating how much of the materials the
student would use. If I start to notice that I am getting low on materials, I could always decide that all of the
groups have to work together on one structure and then we just compare them all at the end. Another thing
that could go wrong is if I am stretched for time. I absolutely need to make sure that I have time for the
discussion at the end because that is how I am evaluating one of my objectives. If need be I can just cut the
students off from building to move on to the discussion part of the lesson.

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Lesson Plan Reflection

As soon as possible after teaching your lesson, reflect on the experience. Use the questions/prompts below to
guide your thinking. Be thorough in your reflection and use specific examples to support your insights.

A. How did your actual lesson differ from your plans? Describe the changes you made & explain why
you made them. Be thorough & specific in your description. (3 pts)

o In my lesson plan I had originally set aside four and a half minutes for the students to build, a
minute and a half for discussion, and only thirty seconds for clean up. However, when I had
my first group of students build for four minutes and discuss for a minute and a half, having
only thirty seconds was not enough time to fully clean up, especially when the students
wanted to eat their marshmallows. After the first group I decided to shorten the build time and
add the time to clean up, this way we would still have a decent amount of time to have a
discussion so that my observer could dictate how the students described and compared the
different structures they had made.

B. Evaluate the impact of the lesson based on your plan for assessing learning and the individual data
you collected on each objective. Cite multiple examples of student behavior & language that document
your conclusions. (8 pts)

o One of the objectives of my lesson were to observe the students fine motor skills while they
were putting the toothpick into the marshmallows to create building blocks. All of the
students, except the one who needs an aide, fine motor skills ranged from fair to good
throughout the entire time they were building. This meant that they did not have trouble
putting the toothpicks into the marshmallows. For some students, including Matthew and
Annabelle, they focused on building the tallest tower, but not necessarily the sturdiest tower. I
had to further instructions by specifying that the towers had to be able to stand up on their
own.

o The second objective of my lesson that I observed was the students vocabulary when we
discussed the different structures that were made amongst their group. The language I was
hoping to observed consisted of taller/bigger, shorter/smaller, same, and different. Most of the
students did not offer up the desired vocabulary without being prompted to first. The students
added into the discussion the shape of the base of their structure along with whose structure
was the longest, because quite a few students built long towers instead of tall towers. In the
group with Landyn, Jacob, and Mary they did really well with creating a base before building
upwards. Jacob immediately began to build a base first, and Mary did soon after. Landyn
didnt build a base until he saw that everyone else in his group was and then proceeded to.
This group did a great job during discussion because they initiated it and, even though they
didnt really use the expected vocabulary, they talked about what shapes their bases were and
whose was the longest and whose was the shortest.

C. Describe at least one way you could incorporate developmentally appropriate practice in a better or
more thorough way if you were to present this lesson again. (2 pts)

o If I had to present this lesson again I would not use marshmallows at a building tool. I would
switch to something non-edible such as balls of play-dough or small styrofoam balls/blocks

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because I believe that they students were distracted by the fact that they were handling
marshmallows and all they could focus on was wanting to eat them. By taking this distraction
out of the equation I believe that they students would spend more time building their
structures and that they would focus more during the discussion time as well.

D. If you were the teacher in this classroom, what follow-up experiences would you plan? (Develop
your answer based on the data that was collected and your observations during the lesson.) (2 pts)

o As a follow up activity I would gather similar objects that are different in one major way and
present them to the class one object at a time. I would ask the class to describe the individual
objects together. After, I would put the objects side by side and ask them to describe the
objects in comparison to each other (how are they the same v. how are they different). This
activity, in addition to the marshmallow tower lesson, will reiterate the vocabulary that they
should start using.

E1. Share something you learned about young children as a result of planning and conducting the
activity. Relate this new knowledge to principles of child development or appropriate curriculum from
your ELED 308 and ECED 372 courses. (2 pts)

o I learned that the kindergarten level students have very short attention spans and are pretty
slow when it comes to building structures. I didnt take into account how much time some of
the students would take to build their structures. So when it was time to stop building many of
the students were not quite done creating the structures they were planning on making. This
related to ELED 308 because one of the sub domains of physical development that I observed
my case study on was fine motor skills. Kindergarten students are still developing their fine
motor skills which would explain the time needed for them to build.

E2. Share something you learned about teaching as a result of planning and conducting this activity.
Describe how you will apply this new knowledge to upcoming opportunities for developing learning
experiences for children. (6 pts)

o I discovered that as a teacher you have to be able to think on your feet when it comes to
teaching new lessons. You never know how a new lesson will plan out so you have to be
prepared to morph it to fit your classroom. Even a lesson that you have used for years might
not be a perfect fit for every class of students so you might still need to change some things
for it to work properly. I will take this information into my future career as a teacher to
remind myself that if a lesson does not work out exactly as planned that there is no reason get
stressed out or upset and to just take a moment and try to figure out a new way to present the
information.

E3. Share something you learned about yourself as a result of planning & conducting this activity? (2
pts)

o Through conducting this activity, I learned that I am a very patient and flexible person. By
having to adapt the lesson to fit each individual group I learned very quickly that getting
stressed does not help any situation and you just have to take breathe and move forward.
Being patient and having the ability to adapt are key components of being a successful
teacher.
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Collection of Assessment Data

Student: Observation 1: Observation 2: Extra Comments:

Fine Motor Skills? Use of vocabulary to
(ability to put the describe and compare?
toothpicks and (different words they
marshmallows together) used. Were they used
correctly?)
Skylar - Poor - Taller/Bigger
- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Madison - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Matthew - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Student: Observation 1: Observation 2: Extra Comments:

Fine Motor Skills? Use of vocabulary to
(ability to put the describe and compare?
toothpicks and (different words they
marshmallows together) used. Were they used
correctly?)
Landyn - Poor - Taller/Bigger
- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Jacob - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Mary - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

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Student: Observation 1: Observation 2: Extra Comments:

Fine Motor Skills? Use of vocabulary to
(ability to put the describe and compare?
toothpicks and (different words they
marshmallows together) used. Were they used
correctly?)
Aiden - Poor - Taller/Bigger
- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Gavin - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Chloe - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Student: Observation 1: Observation 2: Extra Comments:

Fine Motor Skills? Use of vocabulary to
(ability to put the describe and compare?
toothpicks and (different words they
marshmallows together) used. Were they used
correctly?)
Kashmere - Poor - Taller/Bigger
- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Annabelle - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Leslie - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

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Student: Observation 1: Observation 2: Extra Comments:

Fine Motor Skills? Use of vocabulary to
(ability to put the describe and compare?
toothpicks and (different words they
marshmallows together) used. Were they used
correctly?)
Ryan - Poor - Taller/Bigger
- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Victoria - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Hank - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Lexie - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Student: Observation 1: Observation 2: Extra Comments:

Fine Motor Skills? Use of vocabulary to
(ability to put the describe and compare?
toothpicks and (different words they
marshmallows together) used. Were they used
correctly?)
Bella - Poor - Taller/Bigger
- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Dominic - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

Josiah - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller

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- Good - Same
- Different

Loundon - Poor - Taller/Bigger

- Fair - Shorter/Smaller
- Good - Same
- Different

*The students will have name tags on and should be listed in order of their groups*

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