Farm Unit

1. Farm Unit Literature Focus Unit EDU 315 By: Heidi Tidd

2. Literature Selection • Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? By Bill Martin Jr./Eric Carle • Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear? By Bill Martin Jr./Eric Carle • I Went Walking By Sue Williams • Click-Clack-Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin • In the Sheep Pasture by Patricia M. Stockland • Working On A Farm by Katie Marsico • In the Pig Pen by Patricia M. Stockland • On the Farm by AnnnabelleGarges • Senses on the Farm by Shelley Rotner • Farm Machines by Jim Pipe • Johnny Tractor and the Big Surprise by Judy Katschke • Farm Animals by Melvin and Gilda Berger

3. Theme Study • Students will be taking a part in a thematic unit on farm life/living. This unit will integrate reading and writing with social studies, science, mathematics, art, music and physical education. • Students will have an understanding about farm animals, farm jobs, and farm life.

4. Language Arts: Reading Activities • Teacher will read aloud the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear. • Students will read in groups the books by Patricia M. Stockland. • Teacher will read working on the Working On A Farm by Katie Marsico. • Students will read their poems, stories and book page. • Students will read Senses on the Farm by Shelley Rotner. • Teacher will read Johnny Tractor and the Big Surprise by Judy Katschke.

5. Language Arts: Writing Activities • Students will make an ongoing learning journal what they learned about farming. • Students will write their own page of Black Cow, Black Cow, What Do You Hear? • Students will write a “what is it poem?” About farming. • Students will write a story about a farm animal. • Students will create a what do you see on the farm booklet.

6. Language Arts: Speaking Activities • Student will share the Black Cow page from the book on a farm animal. • Students will use the author’s chair to read their what is it poem. • Students will talk about all the things they know about a farm and what they learned on the farm. • Students will share their animal stories in the author’s chair. • Students will talk in small groups what they want to learn about a farm.

7. Language Arts: Listening Activities • Students will listening to Farm animals noises and repeating them. • Students will listen respectfully to each others poems, animals page and farm story. • Student will listen to A Day At The Farm With Farmer Jason by Farmer Jason. • Students will listen to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You Hear?By Bill Martin Jr./Eric Carle. • Students will listen to the farmer on the farm field trip.

8. Language Arts: Viewing Activities • Students will create KWL – on chart paper, what do you know about farm animals. • Students will view different pictures of animals. • Students will view the Farm Word Wall. • Students will take a trip to a farm. • Student will see a toy farm and talk about what they see, what they think is missing.

9. Language Arts: Visually Representing Activities • Students will create an Animal wall of big and little animals. • Students will create a Farm Word Wall. • Students will showing mama animals vs. baby animals. • Students will display their poem with an animal painting. • Students will create a life cycle with animal picture and words.

10. Science Activities: • Student will be learning the life cycle of an animal. • Students will learn animal groups on the Farm or at the Zoo. • Students will learn the different animal names (cow vs. calf). • Students will talk about and make a table the different jobs of a farmer throughout the seasons. • Students will learn how to milk a cow. By watching a video on how to milk a cow.

11. Mathematics Activities • Students will take a surveyof how many farm animals you know before the unit and how many you can think of after the unit, put them in a graph. • Students will compare large and small farm animals. • Students will measure each other compared to a cow. • Students will talk about money and the price of the farm animals. Learn has it gone up or down, keep it in a journal. Listen to an auction sale of animals. • Students will measure how much their plant grew and recorder and later graph its change.

12. Social Studies Activities • Students will learn about farming – tools and machinery that we use now and a long time ago. • Teacher will read the book Farm Machines by Jim Pipe to learn about what is used now. • Student will use a web site to see technology. • Students will learn about farming in different countries. Teacher will draw up on a map different places different crops grow. • Students will learn about planting seeds and grow their own plants in class.

13. Music and Art Activities • Student will make a soap carving of an animal. • Students will paint a picture of the animal from the what is it poem. • Students will create muddy pigs with construction paper and brown paint. • Students will create fluffy sheep with paint and cotton balls. • Students will sing the song Old MacDonald Had a Farm and At The Farm by Twin Sisters. • Students will create animal masks.

14. Physical Education Activities • Students will do animal yoga – using kids yoga. • Students will make animal motions around the room while making noises. • Students will jump, skip, hop stop and spell their spelling words. • Students will spend a day walking around a farm. • Students will play musical animals. • Students will play rodeo round up. • Students will play Simon says being certain farm animals

15. Technology • For the life cycle: http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/explore/embryology/ • History of farm machinery: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9_qJwwLqsU&feature=related • Virtual Farm: www.sites.ext.vt.edu/virtualfarm • Babe the DVD • Charlotte's Web the DVD

16. Language Arts Strategies • Activating background knowledge: students will talk about what they already know about farming and farm life. • Connecting: Students will be relating to farming with their own world. • Playing with language: Students will use language to create poems, stories and a page for the book. • Visualizing: Students will create a farm life in their minds. • Monitoring: Students will be tracking the growth of their plants and tracking money.

17. Language Arts Skills • Print: Students will be able to recognize words on the Farm Word Wall. • Comprehension: Students will recognize different characteristics of animals. Students will have a basic understanding of poetry. • Language: Students will apply various skills in their writing activities: poem, journal and farm stories. • Reference: Students will make a t-table, Farm word wall, and a money chart.

18. Grouping Patterns • Large group: conversation about jobs of a farmer, charting number farm animals, visit a farm, KWL chart, life cycle of an animal, animal yoga, singing songs, word wall, announce animal price. • Small group: talk about KWL, animals on farm or zoo, ideas for book page, camouflage, life cycle of an animal, animal sizes, small group discussions, farming tools, measure plants, and make a graph from plant measuring. • Individual group: Poems, book page, journal entries, farm animal story, paintings, carvings, farm animal list, animal masks, record plant measuring, and create graph in learning notebook.

19. Assessments • Journal entries of animals and the KWL chart: check list for dates, tracking money and tracking plants. • Participation in group dissuasions. • Poems, stories and book page: checklist, 6+1 writing traits. • Observation when reading their poem, farm story, and book page. • Math: graphing and measuring: observation and checklist. • Spelling is right when using word from the word wall. • Portfolio of work: poem, painted animal, and farm story. • Active participation in music and physical education. • Social studies: being able to know new and old farming methods. (Reports)