Farms

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Farms
A unit for 2nd grade
by Amita Plantz
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Table of Contents
______________________________________________
American Heritage Slides 3-6 People in
Societies Slides 7-9 World Interactions Slid
es 10-12 Citizenship Rights and
Responsibilities Slides 13-16 Democratic
Processes Slides 17-19 Decision Making and
Resources Slides 20-22 Science, Technology, and
Society Slides 23-25 Closing Slide 26
3
American Heritage

• ACTIVITIES
• Read Pioneer Farm Living on a Farm in the
  1880s by Megan OHara, and create a time line of
  chores/tasks accomplished in one day.
• Read about a typical day on a modern farm and
  compare the work done to the work done on a
  pioneer farm. The class can make lists of tasks
  and compare these lists to determine what has
  changed and what has stayed the same.
• Visit Carriage Hill Farm in Huber Heights or
  Johnston Farm in Piqua, and participate in
  activities such as hayrides, soapmaking, and
  candle making.

4
American Heritage

• ACTIVITIES (continued)
• Examine historical photographs of area farms
  (Fulton Farms, Troy and Johnston Farm, Piqua),
  and compare with recent photographs.
• Read Harvest Year by Cris Peterson. Create a
  poster with all the months of the year, and place
  stickers or drawings of the foods that are
  harvested in the U.S. each month.
• Read Century Farm by Cris Peterson, and then have
  a class discussion on how one farm has changed in
  100 years and how it has stayed the same.

5
American Heritage
WEBSITES Knotts Berry Farm http//www.knotts.co
m/AdvinEdu/advinedu.htm Ohio Dept. of Agriculture
list of Century Farms www.state.oh.us/agr/newsre
l3-9.htm Seeds of Change Garden
www.mnh.si.edu/garden/history/welcome.html CyberLi
brary www.cyberspaceag.com/cyberlibrary.html Ag
History U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
www.usda.gov/history2/back.htm
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American Heritage
WEBSITES (continued) Kids World
www.agr.state.nc.us/cyber/kidswrld/general/index.h
tm Story of Farms (teacher site)
www.historylink101.com/lessons/farm-city/story-of-
farming.htm U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
www.usda.gov/news/usdakids/index.html
7
People in Societies

• ACTIVITIES
• Read Farmers by William Russell, and make a chart
  of similarities and differences among different
  kinds of farmers.
• Look at the cultural heritage of students in the
  class. Bring in foods produced on farms of those
  students cultures.
• Talk about different groups organized by farmers
  such as granges, 4-H clubs, Future Farmers of
  America clubs, Farm Bureaus, etc. Write to these
  local groups for more information on how they are
  organized.

8
People in Societies

• ACTIVITIES (continued)
• Label a map of the U.S. according to what kinds
  of farmers live in a region. For example, place
  a sticker or drawing of cranberries in Maine
  where farmers produce cranberries. A variety of
  sources can be used for this activity including
  Harvest Year by Cris Peterson.
• After reading about farms, have students list
  items in their house that come from a farm, such
  as milk, popcorn, apples, and meat. Then discuss
  how a community is dependent upon local farms.

9
People in Societies
WEBSITES Farmers, Farmers Everywhere (student
simulation, they choose what kind of farmer to
be) http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/hawthorne/far
m/ Seeds of Change Garden www.mnh.si.edu/garden/
diversity/welcome.html Farms Around the World
www.disknet.com/indiana-biolab/farms.htm FAW
Project www.benicia.k12.ca.us/henderson/fawproje
ct.htm Wheat Mania Kansas Wheathearts
www.wheatmania.com/kwfintro.html
10
World Interactions

• ACTIVITIES
• Read about problems farms face in the U.S. and
  other parts of the world and make lists to
  compare these problems. A variety of sources,
  including Farming Around the World by Louise and
  Richard Floethe may be used in this activity.
• Read a description of a farm layout to students
  and, in groups, have them arrange cardboard
  buildings on a green poster board demonstrating
  the relative location of buildings on the farm.
  For example, the big red barn is next to the
  chicken coop. Then discuss each groups
  representation of the farm.
• Tour a local farm and have students create a map
  of the farm from their visit.

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World Interactions

• ACTIVITIES (continued)
• Create a large poster of the world. Give each
  student two continents. They have to find one
  food item or animal found on a farm for each of
  their continents, other than Antarctica. They
  will draw their item or animal on a sticky label
  and place it on the world map. Books that may be
  used include Farming Around the World by Louise
  and Richard Floethe and Uncommon Farm Animals by
  Ann Larkin Hansen.
• Pass out Bingo cards with pictures of locations
  on a farm, such as stables, barn, well, chicken
  coop, pigsty, farm house, etc. Ask questions
  such as Where is a good place to find horses?
  Each student selects the appropriate location on
  their card and marks it with a chip. When
  someone yells Bingo! discuss the locations and
  why they were appropriate.

12
World Interactions
WEBSITES Barnyard Buddies www.execpc.com/7Ebyb/
indexa.html Kidz Korner www.mda.state.mi.us/kids
/index.html Seeds of Change Garden
www.mnh.si.edu/garden/recipes/welcome.html Story
of Farms (teacher site) www.historylink101.com/l
essons/farm-city/story-of-farming.htm Food
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(teacher) www.fao.org/
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Decision Making and Resources

• ACTIVITIES
• Give each student two items that they produce on
  their farm (e.g. corn and peas) and a list of two
  items they need. They must find the person in
  the room that has each item and barter for that
  item using the goods they produced on their farm.
• Have students go through a truck that has just
  brought goods from a local farm. They must sort
  the goods and, using dye cuts, create a picture
  graph for each category of goods brought by the
  truck.
• Cut out local grocery store adds to create a
  store display of farm goods. Have students
  create a list of items they want to purchase and
  pass out different amounts of money to each.
  Then let them see how many items on their list
  they can purchase.

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Decision Making and Resources

• ACTIVITIES (continued)
• Read From Grain to Bread by Ali Mitgutsch,
  Potatoes by Dorothy Turner, and Corn is Maize by
  Aliki. Then brainstorm all the possible
  byproducts of farm crops, and create collages of
  corn products, grain products, potato products,
  and any others the class can think of.
• Read Chapter 4 of Corn What It Is, What It Does
  by Cynthia Kellogg. Then discuss services a
  farmer needs from other people in the community
  in order to get his
  food to market. Have students assume each
  of the roles and walk
  corn kernels through
  the process of going to market.

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Decision Making and Resources
WEBSITES NC State University Cooperative
Extension 4-H Farm Animal Awareness Workbook
http//lenoir.ces.state.nc.us/staff/jnix/pubs/an.w
orkbook National Agricultural Statistics Service
www.usda.gov/nass/sso-rpts.htm CyberLibrary
www.cyberspaceag.com/cyberlibrary.html IL Dept.
of Agriculture Kids Page www.agr.state.il.us/kid
spage/index.html U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
www.usda.gov/news/usdakids/index.html
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Decision Making and Resources
WEBSITES (continued) Kidz Korner
www.mda.state.mi.us/kids/index.html Ags Cool
www.agr.state.nc.us/agscool
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Democratic Processes

• ACTIVITIES
• In many of the farm books, students may read
  about 4-H club. Discuss how the leader of a 4-H
  club is like the town mayor or the state governor
  or even the President of the U.S. Ask students
  what roles other 4-H members represent. Have a
  local 4-H leader come in to explain about 4-H.
• Read excerpts from books including The American
  Family Farm by Joan Anderson and George Ancona.
  Then put students into groups and give them a
  list of chores to do. Have students divide the
  list of chores among them fairly. Talk about
  why it is better to divide the work than to do it
  oneself.
• Having visited and read about farms, have
  students create a list of rules that would be
  good for the farm. Then generate a class list of
  farm rules and discuss why each rule should be
  included.

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Democratic Processes

• ACTIVITIES (continued)
• Have a farmer come in and talk about what kinds
  of jobs he does on the farm and what kinds of
  jobs he delegates. Ask him to talk about the
  importance of authority on a farm.
• Go over farm safety with students and talk about
  necessary rules to maintain safety.

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Democratic Processes
WEBSITES The National 4-H Council
www.fourhcouncil.edu Future Farmers of America
www.ffa.org Farmers, Farmers Everywhere
http//projects.edtech.sandi.net/hawthorne/farm/ F
arm Safety 4 Just Kids www.fs4jk.org/ The
Adventures of Ready Rooster deere.com/deerecom/_
Kids/ReadyRooster/ Kidz Korner
www.mda.state.mi.us/kids/index.html
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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• ACTIVITIES
• Set up a sawhorse with a picture of a cow on it.
  Poke tiny holes in a surgical glove and fill the
  glove with milk. Attach it to the sawhorse and
  let the kids take turns milking a cow.
• Have students design their own miniature farm
  somewhere on the school grounds. Then decide what
  crops will be planted. Choose a location in
  the community to which the crops will be donated
  when harvested.
• Divide students into groups of four or five.
  Give each group a scenario and materials. For
  example, the barn was destroyed in a tornado a
  new one must be built immediately. In their
  group, students have to use craft sticks, glue,
  paper, cardboard, etc. to build a new barn.

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities

• ACTIVITIES (continued)
• Place students in groups of four or five. Give
  them a task to be done in a certain amount of
  time. For example, they must shuck and shell 15
  ears of corn in half an hour. Let each group
  decide how they will accomplish the task (i.e.
  each takes a stage in the process or each goes
  through the whole process on their own).
• Have each student create a list of questions that
  they would like to find out during their visit to
  a local farm. Upon returning from the farm, have
  students determine if they had their questions
  answered and share answers with the class.

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Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities
WEBSITES U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
www.usda.gov/news/usdakids/index.html NC State
University Cooperative Extension 4-H Farm Animal
Awareness Workbook http//lenoir.ces.state.nc.us
/staff/jnix/pubs/an.workbook Farm Safety 4 Just
Kids www.fs4jk.org/ Kidz Korner
www.mda.state.mi.us/kids/index.html Welcome to Ag
Day www.agday.org
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Science, Technology, and Society

• ACTIVITIES
• After visiting farms and reading about farms,
  have students brainstorm ways that farmers
  respond to the environment. For example, ask
  them to recall or think of ways farmers deal with
  floods, droughts, and pests.
• Look at farm machinery books such as Farm by Ned
  Halley. Then have students create their own farm
  machinery from tissue boxes, cardboard, etc. and
  explain what their machine is used for.
• Read books comparing old and new ways of farming,
  such as Century Farm by Cris Peterson. Then
  discuss how new ways have improved farming.

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Science, Technology, and Society

• ACTIVITIES (continued)
• Brainstorm ways that computers can be used on
  farms. Then have a farmer talk to students about
  how he or she uses computers.
• Discuss foods that we eat that may grow far away
  such as pineapples, bananas, coffee. Have the
  kids think of ways that it gets to them. Talk
  about how there are refrigerated trucks, vacuum
  packed products, etc. Then have the kids think
  of a new way to get food from one place to
  another. They should draw a picture showing their
  process.

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Science, Technology, and Society
WEBSITES Kids Field Day Kansas State University
www.oznet.ksu.edu/fieldday/kids Kids Farm
www.kidsfarm.com Kiddyhouse.com
www.kiddyhouse.com/Farm CyberLibrary
www.cyberspaceag.com/cyberlibrary.html Sci4Kids
www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/index.html Wheat Mania
Kansas Wheathearts www.wheatmania.com/awesomeact
ivities.html
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A Word About
Farms
The farm is a great topic for a thematic unit
because it can be integrated across many content
areas. It can easily incorporate health and
science with the many plants and animals found on
a farm. In addition, math can be weaved in with
measurements, sorting, geometry, and story
problems. The arts can be integrated with farm
songs, art projects, and square dancing.
Finally, language arts can be explored through
the use of literature. There is an abundance of
childrens books, videos, and songs about farms.
Kids seem to naturally love this topic as well.