How You Bean?

Activity Overview

Growing plants is an apt metaphor for the growth our students are experiencing every day. Just as plants need soil, water, and sunshine to grow, our children need love, food, water, and encouragement (among other things) to thrive. Here, students will use a growing bean plant to explore its needs and in turn draw connections to their own needs. Identifying the items that a plant needs to survive and thrive is an opportunity to relate this same concept to ourselves and our family members.

What You Need

• Lentils, lima beans, pinto beans, mung beans, or pole beans

• One clear plastic cup or mason jar

• Water

• Spray bottle

• Paper towels

Steps

1. Gather your materials. Place enough paper towels in the cup so it is filled up halfway. Place a few beans on the outside of the paper towels in the cup so you can observe them growing over the course of the next few days. Spray the paper towels with water to moisten them. Place the cup in the sun.

2. Over the course of a week, have the student regularly mist the seeds with water. Observe it grow and pose open-ended questions about the process.

3. The plant should have grown due to the water and sunlight. Relate the plant’s growth and its needs (sun, soil, light, water) to student’s own areas of their life and their needs to survive and thrive. A plant is happy when it gets plenty of water and sunshine. What does the student need to be happy and thrive?

Guiding Questions

• What do you notice?

• How have you helped the plant this week? How have your grown-ups helped you this week?

• What did the plant need to grow? What do you need to grow and thrive like the plant?

• We haven’t given the plant soil yet. Do you think it can keep growing without it? If soil is the food for a plant, could you keep growing without food? What can we do to make sure it keeps growing?

Extensions

• Growing the bean plant will take about 8-10 days for noticeable growth. Older students can create a chart to track the plants’ growth over the course of a few weeks, incorporating mathematics, measurement, writing, and the scientific method into the activity.

• Transplant the growing seeds to a small pot filled with soil and continue nurturing the plant. Where will you plant it when it’s time for it to go into the ground?