I loved the book One Bean after reading it to my Kindergarten class for the first time. 

We had fun deciding which type of bean to plant. 

But we really had more fun planting our beans! 

We set up our own bean planting investigation. 

Not much talking going on... too much to concentrate on. I think that might be referred to as, hmmmm engaged! 

We saved a bean in our Science Notebooks just so we could remember what our bean looked like from the very beginning. 

I have had a lot of emails and questions about HOW young children learn to investigate independently and what that exactly LOOKS like. I really think the key is finding the right investigation and modeling the appropriate procedures. Once you have an appropriate investigation it really is simple. The children here did not need my help. I was close by only because I wanted to take pictures. One thing I have learned is that young children have the tendency to over water something and I can remember doing that as a child too. We have learned that if we over water our plants they will not grow. Even though this investigation had soil and water it was not messy. So, this is what it LOOKS like and HOW to set it up was simple for this investigation. I used the steps and pictures from the book as visuals. All in all, this was one of the easiest investigations we have done.