Literature Focus Unit: Farming

1. Literature Focus Unit:Farming EDU 315 Suzanne Ternes

2. Literature Selection • Non-Fiction: • Cows on the Family Farm by Chana Stiefel • A Visit to a Farm by D. M. Rice • Tractors and Farm Vehicles by Jean Coppnedale • A Day in the Life of a Farmer by Heather Adamson • Jobs on a Farm by Nancy Dickmann • Farm Machines by Nancy Dickmann • Busy Tractors, Busy Days by Lori Houran • Seed, Soil, Sun: Earth’s Recipe for Food by Cris Peterson and Daivid R Lundquist • Emma and Sara Learn About Harvest Time by Leora Janson Sipp • On the Farm by Alastair Smith • Farm Community by Peggy Pancella

3. Literature Selection • Fiction • Cows Can’t Jump by Dave Reisman • Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown • Pete the Cat Old MacDonald Had a Farm by James Dean • Funny Farm by Mark Teague • Preston, The Not-So-Perfect Pig by Janie Robinson • Buiscuit’s Day at the Farm by Alyssa Satin Capucilli • Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell and Helen Oxenbury

4. Theme Study • Students will take part in a thematic unit centered around farming. This unit will include activities from the content areas of Math, Science, Social Studies, Music, Art, and P.E. • Students will develop an understanding of what life is like on the farm, what jobs people do on farms, what animals are on a farm, and what machines people operate on farms.

5. Math • Count the spots: Students will be provided with numerous different pictures of cows. The students will have to accurately count the spots and write how many spots the cow has on the line provided. • Which cow had the most spots? Which had the least? How did you know that? • Teacher will show 3 different pictures of corn, soybeans, wheat, and sunflowers. Students will have to determine which is the biggest and smallest based on length. • Bring in actual corn cobs, wheat/sunflower stalks, and soybeans and have the students use rulers to measure them. Students will determine which is the longest and shortest. • Students will take a vote on which farm animal they like the best (cow, horse, dog, cat, pig, sheep). Graph the results. • Fractions: How full is the grain bin?

6. Science • Discuss how the water cycle plays a key role in the planting process of a farm. • Review what the stages of the water cycle are • What do crops need to grow? • Bring in different seeds, soil, and water. Have the students be mini farmers and have to take care of their “crops” • Chicken life cycle • Discuss all the stages of how a chicken hatches from an egg • Habitats: • Pigs like the mud, cows do not. Animals cannot survive in extreme conditions.

7. Social studies • Students will look at time line of how plants grow – Seed, sprouting seed, plant, young plant, adult plant. • Students will construct a time line that indicates and shows how farming has evolved from the past. (e.g. horses and plows to auto steer) • Students will research how different families have different jobs because of their backgrounds. • Consumer and producer: How did individuals influence other individuals around the world.

8. Music/Art • Students sing “The Farmer and the Dell, Old McDonald, Bah Bah Black Sheep” • Corn painting (Apply paint to a corn cob and have the students roll the corn cob on their piece of construction paper and see what it makes. • Create a sunflower using paint and actual sunflower seeds • Create their own barn using popsicle sticks • Chicken life cycle paper plates • Poster of the life cycle • Create a sheep out of cotton balls.

9. Physical Education • Charades: Guess the animal; students can act out certain animals and are able to make some noises for hints. • Students can gallop like a horse while playing tag, jump like a rabbit, strut like a chicken. • Farm themed yoga. • Hay bale transfer/grain pale transfer • Speed planting/combining • Students pretend they are driving their tractors across the entire gym to plant or combine the crops

10. Standards • Math: • K.CC.1 Count to 100 by ones and by tens. • K.CC.3 Write numbers from 0 to 20. • K.CC.5 Count to answer “how many?” questions about as many as 20 things arranged in a line, a rectangular array, or a circle, or as many as 10 things in a scattered configuration; given a number from 1–20, count out that many objects. • 1.MD.1 Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object. • 2.MD.1 Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes. • 2.MD.10 Draw a picture graph and a bar graph (with single-unit scale) to represent a data set with up to four categories. Solve simple put-together, take-apart, and compare problems using information presented in a bar graph. • 3.NF.2 Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions on a number line diagram.

11. Standards • Science: • PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter • 5-LS1-1. Support an argument that plants get the materials they need for growth chiefly from air and water. • 3-LS1-1. Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death. • 3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. • K-ESS3-1. Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants or animals (including humans) and the places they live • LS1.B: Growth and Development of Organisms

12. Standards • Social Studies: • 2.1.4 Identify events on a simple time line • 3.1.5 Construct time lines • 1.6.1 Identify the similarities and differences (e.g., family members, clothes, food, style of homes, jobs, celebrations) among families around the world • 4.6.1 Explain how background and history influence people’s actions (e.g., farming methods, hunting methods, economic decisions) • 2.3.1 Differentiate between goods and services, consumers and producers • Explain the significance of agriculture in North Dakota history

13. Standards • Music/Art • 4.1.1 Know differences between visual art media*. • 4.1.2 Know the different techniques* used to create* visual art. • 4.1.5 Know how different visual art media*, techniques*, and processes* are used to communicate ideas, experience, and stories. • 4.1.6 Use visual art materials and tools* in a safe and responsible manner. • 4.1.4 Sing in parts. • 4.1.5 Sing in groups. • 4.1.2 Sing expressively

14. Standards • Physical Education • S1.E1.K - Performs locomotor skills (walking, hopping, galloping, running, sliding, skipping) while maintaining balance. • S4.E3.K - Follows instruction/ directions when prompted. • S4.E4.K -Shares equipment and space with others. • S3.E2.K - Actively participates in physical education class

15. Standards • Language Arts: • RL.1 With prompting and support, ask and answer questions about key details in a text. • RL.10 Actively engage in group reading activities with purpose and understanding. • RF.3 Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words. • RI.9 Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

16. Language Arts Strategies • Activate Background Knowledge: Students will think about what life on the farm might look like from different books they have read, different movies they have watched, or personal experiences. • Connect: Students will make a connection between the book A Day in the Life of a Farmer by Heather Adamson. • Draw inferences: Students will use clues in the text and background knowledge to deepen their understanding of the text • Elaborate: Students will add details and examples to projects they are creating • Generate: Students brainstorm topics, ideas, or vocabulary words associated with farming • Observe: Students will look closely at the virtual friend trips, pictures, and videos provided. • Play with Language: Students will create their own playful rhymes and riddles using alliteration or onomatopoeia associated with farms. • Visualize: Students will form pictures in their minds about farms to make texts easier to understand.

17. Technology Resources • Speakaboos : https://www.speakaboos.com/stories/search?query=farm • Virtual Tours: • https://www.agclassroom.org/kids/tours_modern.htm • http://www.virtualfarmtours.ca/http://www.virtualfarmtours.ca/ • Interactive online farm games: • http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/farm/animalfarmgame.htm

18. Language Arts Modes: Reading • Students will read several different non-fiction and fiction books, poetry, and riddles. • During large group activities, the student will follow along to what the teacher is reading • Students will read their poems and stories to their classmates

19. Language Arts Modes: Writing • Students will write about what their favorite farm animal is and why • Students will write their own poems about life on the farm • Students will write about why farmers are important to the rest of the world • Students will complete a journal about the information they learned throughout the week.

20. Language Arts Modes: Listening • Students will listen to the videos about farms • Students will listen to the teacher read books about farms • Students will listen to their classmates talk about what their favorite farm animals is and why • Students will use technology to listen to a real life farmer and what his day consists of

21. Language Arts Mode: Viewing • Students will view different online stories that are read aloud by the computer • Students will view virtual tours of farms • Students will view different pictures of farm crops and animals • Students will be able to view and hold actual crops such as wheat, corn, soybeans, sunflowers • Students will view charts of the water cycle • Students will view the different life cycles of a chicken

22. Language Arts Mode: Talking • Students will tell the class why they chose their favorite farm animal • Students will work collaboratively in groups • Talk about all the different kinds of crops that are grown, all the different animals. • What would happen if there was a drought and the farm did not get any rain? Talk to your partner and discuss what you think would happen. • During charades the students will make the correct noise of the animal • During music the students will demonstrate their ability to sing

23. Language Arts Modes: Visually Representing • The students will create models of barns using popsicle sticks • The students will create sheep with cotton balls • The students will create a KWL chart • The students will create art using a corn cob and paint • The students will create art using sunflower seeds

24. Grouping • Whole Group: Discussion on what animals is our favorite, word walls, listen and sing songs about farms, watching videos about farms, art and physical education activities, why is agriculture important to ND? • Small Group: Peer reading the literature selections, measure the 3 different objects (corn, wheat, soybeans), compare jobs of the students’ family to those of families who live on farms. • Independent Activities: Individual writing in journals, counting cow spots, creating poems about farms.

25. Schedule

26. Assessment • Active Participation throughout all the large, small, and individual group activities. • Responsible actions in P.E., Music, and Art • Assignment checklist • Informal Observations • Journal about what they have been learning/interested in throughout the week • KWL chart about crops and farm animals • 6 + 1 Writing Trait • Portfolio of all completed projects