Norah Karnazes

Becca Reisdorff
ED 310
November 18, 2013
Farm Life Unit
1. Background:
a. We are developing a multidisciplinary unit in order cover many subjects with our students
based on our central theme of farm life which kicks off with a field trip to a local farms.
Activities, books, projects, and lessons will all be based on the farm theme.
b. We chose to pick the theme of farm because it is something that all students are all somewhat
familiar with and we will be able to give them a concrete experience to think back to and it can
incorporate many subjects and first grade standards.
c. Our unit is going to be two weeks long near the beginning of the year (our unit of the year is
going to be friendship). This is a first grade lesson and will encompass all subjects. Each lesson
we teach during this two weeks, in all subjects, will be based on the farm theme.

2. Overview
a.
Science (GLCEs):
S.IA.01.14 Develop strategies for information gathering (ask an expert, use a book, make
observations, conduct simple investigations, and watch a video).
S.RS.01.11 Demonstrate scientic concepts through various illustrations, performances, models,
exhibits, and activities
L.OL.01.13 Identify the needs of animals.
L.OL.01.21 Describe the life cycle of animals including the following stages: egg, young, adult;
egg, larva, pupa, adult.
L.HE.01.11 Identify characteristics (for example: body coverings, beak shape, number of legs,
body parts) that are passed on from parents to young.
L.HE.01.12 Classify young animals based on characteristics that are passed on from parents (for
example: dogs/puppies, cats/kittens, cows/calves, chicken/chicks).
E.ES.01.11 Identify the sun as the most important source of heat which warms the land, air, and
water of the Earth.
ELA (Common Core):
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.1.5 Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when
appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.5a Sort words into categories (e.g., colors, clothing) to gain a sense of
the concepts the categories represent
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.5b Define words by category and by one or more key attributes (e.g., a
duck is a bird that swims; a tiger is a large cat with stripes).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.1.1i Use frequently occurring prepositions (e.g., during, beyond, toward).
Social Studies (GLCEs):
1-E1.0.1 Distinguish between producers and consumers of goods and services.
1-E1.0.2 Describe ways in which families consume goods and services.

b. We want our students to use their experience at the farm as a foundation for learning concepts
such as the life cycle (plants and animals), producers and consumers, writing, etc. We also hope
that our students will understand that a farm is more than just where animals livefor example,
there is work that goes in and out of the farm and there are things you must do to keep your
plants and animals alive. Hopefully by internalizing these concepts, the students will be able to
make connections with this outside of a farm such as how plants in a forest grow or how their pet
goes through a life cycle as well.

c. Concepts:
- The food we eat comes from a farm.
- Animals, like humans, have a lifespan and grow with similar characteristics to their
parents.
- Plants start as a seed and need water and sunlight in order to grow.
- Students will identify processes as a beginning, middle, and end.
- Students can communicate their thoughts through visual representations and writing.

d. What can we learn from farms?


3. Daily Plans

- Monday: Farm introduction, read non-fiction book about the farm called, Farm Animals
by DK Publishing. In a discussion, we will discuss what we might see, hear, smell, etc. on a
farm. As a part of the discussion we will make a list of what students have previously seen on a
farm and what they predict they will see. Students will then journal (draw a picture and write)
what they think they will see on the farm tomorrow. Our objective will be to think abstractly
about what they will see on the farm and recall what they heard from the story. Our essential
question for the day is, What do you see on a farm? Also, students will put together and
decorate the cover of their farm journal which they will use throughout the unit for their
writing and drawing about what they have learned about the farm.

- Tuesday: Field Trip! With the help of parent volunteers, we will take a school bus to visit a
local farm. Students will arrive at school at the regular time and we will board the bus 20
minutes afterwards (assuming everyone is there by then). We will have previously talked to the
local farm owner to plan what he/she will talk about and show the students. Throughout the field
trip students will experience petting and feeding animals, a hayride (with a tractor and discuss
different vehicles/machines you find on a farm), a tour of the barn, a walk through the
garden/fields, helping the farmer pick vegetables, see baby chicks (how they have to be in an
incubator). The students will have brought a bag lunch and we will all sit on the picnic benches
and eat as a class. After lunch the children will have one last chance to pet and feed the animals
and then we will load the buses and return to school. When we return to school we will discuss
what we saw on the trip and how it was similar or different to the story. We will go over our list
and see if there is anything to add. To conclude the day, the students will each write a thank you
note to the farmers. We will introduce a shelf of selected farm books that students will be able to
reference throughout the unit. We will also work with the students to identify important words
that we learned on the farm and will write them out and place them on the word wall. We will
reflect back on our objective and question from Monday about what we see on a farmthis time
the students will all have a concrete example from the field trip.

- Wednesday: To start the language arts lesson, we will read as a class How Plants Grow by
Dona Herweck Rice. After the story, students will return to their seats and the teacher will model
for the class how to draw a plant (talk about including leaves, stems, where in the ground the
plant is, etc.). Then students will work in their farm journal where they will draw a plant that
they saw on the field trip and work on using three descriptive words to describe the plant. Before
they return to their seats we will go through and write down descriptive words we found
throughout the story. For the science portion of the day we will be planting our very own bean
plants! We will reflect back on the story about how plants grow and begin to discuss what our
plans will need in order to survive (this includes where the best location for them in classroom
will be). We will also talk about climate and how some plants grow better in other areas and
what can happen if a plant gets too much water or too much sun. After we come to a conclusion
we will begin to planting procedure with the help of the teacher and three parent volunteers. This
will be an ongoing experiment for the remainder of the unit. At the end the students will take
them home to continue growing or replant and become their very own farmers!

- Thursday: To start the science lesson, we will read as a class From Seed to Pumpkin by
Wendy Pfeffer. We will talk about what the seed needed in order to grow into a pumpkin (water,
light, time, etc.) and they will connect that different plants need the same things to grow! After
the story the students will each water their plant and draw a picture of what they saw and any
other observations in their plant journal. After they have completed this, they will next draw a
plant of their choosing and also draw what the plant needs to grow (water, sun, etc.).

-Friday: Today we will introduce how baby animals are similar to parent animals. We will read a
book How Animals Grow by Claire Llewellyn. We will have a class discussion on what
characteristics some farm animals have (ex: fur, floppy ears, fuzzy, rough skin, etc.). Next, we
will match the appropriate characteristics to the baby and then see if they also apply to the
parent. Afterwards, we will have an activity where there are pictures of multiple baby and
mother animals and the students will color the pictures, cut them out, and then glue them down
in pairs (matching the baby animal to the parent). They will be pasted into their farm journal and
above each pair they will write the name of the animal. The science lesson will end with the
students checking their plants (watering them too) and recording their findings in their plant
journals.

-Monday: For science we will focus on the needs of animalswhat they need to eat, shelter,
environment, etc. We will have already studied wants and needs in social studies, so the
students will have an idea of what is essential for life and what just enhances it. The students will
write in their farm journal (draw a picture and write a description) about an animal we saw on the
farm. They will include the animals habitat and food source. The students will be able to pick
whichever animal theyd like. The students will practice labeling and label the different parts of
their drawing. The drawing will also require the students to include an adult animal and their
baby. We want to students to understand the similarities of animals and their offspring as well as
understanding that traits are passed down from mother to child. The students will again check
and water their plants and write down their findings in their plant journal.

-Tuesday: Our focus today is that food comes from somewhere. We will start by reading the
story, How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food by Christine Buterworth. We
will also play the song, Dirt Made My Lunch by The Banana Slug String Band. Following the
story, we will start the class discussion by talking about a grocery store and also provide pictures
of one. We will talk about what we see at the grocery store and if food starts there or somewhere
else. Students will reflect back on the trip to the farm and the story and remember seeing the
plants and how they were planted and then picked. Students will learn how our food is grown
whether it is plants or animals and look at how someone/something gets food from a human
perspective and an animal perspective. The students will do a writing activity in the farm journal
where they take on the role of either a human or an animal and explain where their food comes
from and how they get it. Students will check and water their plants and write down their
findings in their plant journals.

-Wednesday: The students will learn about producers and consumers. We will talk about what it
means to be a producer or consumer and then relate that to our trip to the farm and how what we
saw was a producer, consumer, or both. The students will do an activity in their farm journals
where they separate pictures into the three categories. They will be given a venn diagram
(labeled producer, consumer, both) and pictures of various crops we saw on the farm (beans,
corn, etc.) and animals we saw on the farm (chickens, cows, pigs, etc.). We will also include
pictures of a human. The students will be asked to cut out the pictures and place them in the venn
diagram based on which category they fall into. The students will understand the concept that
some animals are both producers and consumers. Students will also check in on their plants and
record a picture in their plant journals.

-Thursday: We really want to focus on the students plants this day. We suspect that many of
their beans will have begun to sprout and the students will have quite a few drawings on this day.
The students are going to do a cross curricular activity which includes language arts and science.
In their plant journals, the students are going to practice making lists of the characteristics of
their bean plant. We will model what a good list looks like during the large group activity (title,
separate lines, no periods, etc.). They will also draw a picture that visually represents what they
wrote in their list. We will then have a gallery walk where the students will have their plant
journals on their desks and walk around to see what others students have seen and been
recording!

-Friday: For science and social studies, the students will wrap up their plant experiment. They
will record their final observations and draw their final pictures. We will review what plants need
to survive by reflecting on what we did to our plants that helped them grow. We will expand on
what we previously learned about producers and consumers by learning about food chains. We
will create one as a class and then the students will create a food chain starting with their bean
plant on the final page of their plant journal. The students are going to include at least 3 items
into their food chain and practice labeling each part. We will ask the students to use things we
saw at the farm in their food chain. For example BEAN COWHUMAN. We will model a
food chain for the large group. We will read a final story about the farmFunny Farm by
Mark Teague. We will discuss with the students the similarities and differences of our
experiences at the farm with that described in the book. For their final journal entry, the students
will be able to do a free write/draw about any part of our farm experience or education.

4. Materials
a) Plant journal, farm journal, animal matching activity
b) Standard writing materials, books for whole group, plastic cups, soil, seeds (for plants and
manipulatives), name labels
c) Farm Animals by DK Publishing, How Plants Grow by Dona Herweck Rice, From Seed to
Pumpkin by Wendy Pfeffer, How Animals Grow by Claire Llewellyn, How Did That Get in
My Lunchbox?: The Story of Food by Christine Buterworth, Dirt Made My Lunch by The
Banana Slug String Band (youtube), Funny Farm by Mark Teague,
www.sitesforteachers.com, animal images for matching activity taken from Google.

5. Technology
a) Camera and a projector and computer (for youtube access)
b) When we go on our field trip to the farm we will take a lot of pictures of everything we see.
These pictures will be posted around the room so students can have concrete visuals when
recalling what we did on the farm. We will also have a list of farm sight words posted and we
will have pictures of that word next to it to help them make connections. The projector and
computer will help us youtube our song Dirt Made My Lunch so students can hear and see the
video and better understand where our food comes from!

6. Community Resources
We will have the class field trip to the farm where we will work with the farmer to talk with
them more about what is there on the farm. This is a concrete example students can refer to
throughout the unit. We realize that some students will have been to a farm before and some
have not, but now they will all have the same experience to talk about.

7. Modifications/Accommodations
a) Accommodations: For our plant drawing, we can have students draw at least three steps (seed,
sprout, plant), but for students who need to be challenged, they can draw more steps (ex: 6
detailed steps). For the producer and consumer lesson we will have examples of things that are
producers and consumers that they will color and cut out and put under the right category and for
students who need a challenge, they will be encouraged to come up with their own examples of
producers and consumers.
b) Modifications: Our information will be presented to students visually and audibly. This will
help to accommodate the many types of learners we will have. Students will also have a chance
to move during the lessons, for example, reading a story on the reading rug, moving to their
desks, and checking their plants. Apart from the group discussion, a lot of our activities are
individual so students can work at their own pace and are open ended so students can be creative
and take it in whatever direction is the most developmentally appropriate for them.