6/12/2013
Early Childhood Education
Name: Destiney McIntosh and Marta Kuzma
Date: April 8, 2018 Grade Level: Preschool
Standard(s)/Guideline(s): make careful observations, use simple tools to extend investigation, make predictions
Pre-assessment of current knowledge: Discussion about how they build their towers. What could they use to hold it together?
Instructional Objectives (1-2)
One/Two Assessed Instructional
Objective(s): The student will be
able to...
Build a tower using Styrofoam, nails
and hammer
Hammer nails into Styrofoam
Discuss how adding nails to their tower
effects its sturdiness
One Assessed Developmental
Skill:
Coordinate the use of hands, fingers,
and wrists to manipulate objects and
perform tasks requiring precise
movements
Safety Considerations:
Fingers and hammering
Eye safety with nails and hammerings
Safe space between people and
hammer
Resources & References:
Learning Experience Plan
Lesson Title: Olympus Has Fallen
Circle one:
Assessment of Student Learning
Identify Evidence: (What will you collect or record as data
to demonstrate students have met your objective(s) and
skill?)
In order to collect data we will take picture of the children’s towers,
and record records of their predictions, checking ones who make
close predictions on a check sheet
Program Monitoring: (How will you aggregate or compile
your evidence into a class or group view?)
This evidence will compile into a check sheet, which will then be
grouped based on age, to compare the responses of the students
to the questions they were asked in the investigation and how that
might differ from age/development.
ECE PKSN
Learning Experience
Academic Language: Tools, structure, compare and
contrast, stable/sturdy
Procedural steps:
1. After completing the hook lesson, students will be asked
what they like to use in the classroom to build with
2. Teacher will ask, “What are some of the tools we talked
about that we can use to build?” And allow for discussion
3. Teacher will bring out Styrofoam, nail materials/hammers
4. Teacher will ask, “We’re going to build towers with this
Styrofoam”
5. While students are working, teacher will ask, “What do you
think will happen if you knock it down?”
6. Teacher will allow for the students to knock down their
towers and ask what happened to the tower when they did
so?
7. The teacher will allow for students to hammer nails into
their towers and ask what they think will happen if they
knock their towers over now that they have added nails.
8. Then teacher will allow for a discussion on what happened
when they knocked down the tower without nails vs. with
nails? How did adding the nails help?
Authentic Materials: (Describe authentic real life, hands-on
materials.)
Styrofoam, nails, hammers, goggles, hard hat
Adult Roles:
Introducing safety rules
Monitoring students as they use tools
 6/12/2013
Early Childhood Education
Learning Experience Plan

Reflection: (What have you learned about your students? How will this inform future instruction?)

My lesson kind of went nothing like I had planned. First, I planned to teach my lesson right after the Hook Lesson, but we ended up doing Large Group in the big
room. So I did not really get to transition like I wanted to, which meant I had to be creative in linking what we had just learned about tools in our Hook Lesson, to
why we were using tools in this lesson. I ended up doing my lesson during small group and work time. So while I was doing my lesson, the students also got to
interact with our stump, hammering nails into and drilling holes into it.

During the lesson I really had to improvise. There wasn’t really much comparing of towers with nails to towers without nails. It became more about the children
getting hands on experience with the material. I still asked them what they thought would happen if they knocked down their tower now that it had nails in it. Only a
few realized how the nails helped keep the tower together. Others didn’t really bridge that connection. However, having that constant practice working with the
tools on the stump and with the Styrofoam, they worked really well with the hammers and nails, and liked exploring it on different materials. So I think, in the future,
I would have different experiences with the hammer and nails on different materials, so they could see it used in multiple ways before trying to get them to
understand the importance of nails and how it holds things together. Also, going even deeper, and spending more time building objects without nails and actually
getting to knock it down, and then knocking down a structure that was nailed together so they could see the difference. I feel like because that piece was missing it
was hard for them to conceptualize. It was only until one of the students nailed together towers was knocked over that she could connect that the nails were what
helped keep it together. Because there was so much going on in the room, it was hard to make the connection with every student though. So the lesson became
less about the purpose of nails, and more what can I do with them. I watched one student really explore how many nails she could nail into her structure. They
really loved just hammering nails into the Styrofoam.

My next step after this, I would have had a discussion about what they did. Why did they like to use the nails? How did it help their structure? Then transitioning
into other tools, we can use to build. I feel the students need a lot of time to investigate, more than just thirty minutes to an hour, but a real day long or even week
long investigation to make the connection to transition to the next part of the investigation. Overall, I learned that they really love doing hands on investigation.