Life Cycle of a Bean

Today we planted our beans from the BBC 'Dig In' campaign as well as some snap peas that we had left over from last year.  Gardening with children is such a great way to spend a sunny afternoon!  Often the children that you are childminding will not have the opportunity to grow vegetables at home making it an invaluable experience for you to offer them.  Planting seeds covers all of the areas of learning and development within the EYFS and should be part of your continuous provision contained within your planning. 

I wanted to provide you with a nice set of resource links to support the life cycle of a bean but came up rather short!!  The best that I found was this set of sequencing cards, although it would be nice to have a card that shows the bean pod open with the beans inside ready to be sown and start the cycle over again! 

My solution to this, and far better than using printed resources in my opinion is to make your own cards!  I am going to cut out some bean shaped pieces of beige sugar paper and then take photogrpahs of the bean developing.  Print a photograph for each stage and then stick to a bean shape with appropriate words.  A great way to include children in the planning!

To enable you to take photogrpahs and the children to see the bean developing, trap beans between damp kitchen paper and the side of a clear glass jar.  Keep the paper moist and the bean will germinate and produce leaves within a week! 

This idea is clearly explained, amongst other simple and fantastic nature activities in the 'First Nature Activity Book' which I thoroughly recommend! There is also a book dedicated to 'the life cycle of a bean'!