Escalante 1

Teresa Escalante

ECE 251- 2001

Lesson Plan

December 8, 2016

Lesson Plan

Activity Name: Whats inside my mystery box?

Approximate Length of Activity: 15-25 minutes

Age and Number of Children: 20 children at the age of 5-6 years old

Domain: Aesthetic

Contents:

Facts include: Fact: Which body part is the most sensitive to touch?
Vocabulary words include: Sensitive, touch, fingertips

Objectives:

Be aware of the texture through the sense of touch to figure out what is inside the box

without looking.
Describe what textures they feel in the box.
Think of an object that is found within their environment to guess.

Materials:

Tissue boxes
Cooked pasta
Feathers or cotton balls
A fruit ( consider allergy information when deciding)
Legos
Small spikey toy ball

Procedures:
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1. The activity will begin by asking the children If I put my hands in a bucket of cold

water, what sense am I using? (Convergent)The students will respond touch but if they do

not, the teacher can state I am using the sense of touch with my hands.
2. The teacher will invite the students onto the carpet and get into a circle on the floor. The

teacher will say Lets make a big circle on the carpet, so I can see all of our friends/

classmates faces.
3. After creating a big circle on the floor, the teacher will explain that she has five mystery

boxes but will do one at a time, so all friends/classmates can try. The boxes will go in a

clockwise motion, in which the teacher will tell the students For all our

friends/classmates to touch the mystery box, we have to pass the box around clockwise

like this as the teacher uses a circular hand motion to show what clockwise means.

She/he will pick a box and tell the students, you may shake the box and you can put

your hand inside to feel the texture to help you guess, she will demonstrate the actions

as she/he says it. The teacher will then say When you are done with the box, you can

pass it to the person next to you.

4. The activity will then begin, the teacher will get the first box and pass it to the student.

The student will explore with the box without looking. The teacher will ask What does it

feel like to you _______? (Divergent) or What do you think it is ________?

(Divergent)
5. After the box goes around the circle it will eventually come back to the teacher. When the

back returns to the teacher, she/he will say Do you know what is inside my mystery

box? (Divergent)The teacher may receive some answers from students who want to

share their exploration further. The teacher may decide to hear up to 3 responses before

saying Lets find out what is inside, as she/he opens the box. The teacher can be

dramatic to excite the students before showing the students. Inside my box is a
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_________. After saying what it is, the teacher can refer to some of the students

answers individually or in general as to what they felt.

6. This will continue until all five boxes have been passed around and shown to the

students.
7. To close the activity, the teacher will say You used one of your senses, do you remember

what sense you used with your hands? (Memory)

Extension: The activity can be expanded by allowing them to go back to their seat and have a

writing prompt. The writing prompt can be about drawing a picture of their favorite mystery box

they saw on the carpet, as they write descriptive words towards what they felt or write about

what they would put in their mystery box.

Simplification: The educator can move around furniture to create a big circle where everyone

can see each other. Another way is to change to vocabulary in which the instructions are stated

for students to have a better understanding of what they are supposed to do. For example some

may not understand what texture means.

Evaluation: The educator will look at all the students to see the children expressions and hear

their guesses that they mention as they put their hand in to see if they are correct. Direct

observation.

Whats next: The next step to the lesson is to focus on another one of the five senses such as

hearing, seeing, smelling, and or tasting. This lesson plan can also be adjusted and rather than

having the students touch and shake/ feel the weight, they may smell and hear the boxes with

different objects.

Evaluation of appropriateness of the category (type) of questions used: After doing my

activity I believe that I decided on a good category of questions because the questions were

simple and straight to the point. The activity focused on the students observations in which the
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questions allowed for students to explain what they believed was inside the box. In some

portions, I do believe that within this activity the questions could have been repetitive in which

the lesson plan could be adjusted in which each student touches the boxes as stated in the

procedures but rather than having the teacher asking each child a question on what they felt or

what they think it is, the teacher can let the child explore without interruptions. At the end, the

teacher can ask a couple of students what they think is inside; picking different students each

time during the activity so each student can have an opportunity to express what they have

explored with their sense of touch.