Objectives: Through books, discussions, and hands-on activities, students will learn
and be able to retell information about the American farm and farmer,
Part One-Farming
Brainstorm with the students. Have them call out all the food they have ate for their last meal. Write everything on the board. After many have responded and there are many objects of food and drink on the board, ask, “Where did all that food come from?” Discuss how much of what they ate came straight from a farm somewhere! Have them look inside the labels of their clothing or on towels or sheets brought to class. What are these fabrics made from? Cotton? So many products that we use daily are products of farms. Explain there are different kinds of farms such as dairy, rice, chicken, grain, cotton, sheep, turkey and pig farms. Each farm is very important to the American family.
Ask the students “What is it like on a farm each day? What kind of chores do farmers and their family do?” Let them answer randomly as you write their answer on the board. Discuss how working a farm is very hard work. Discuss why the farmer is so important to every person in America.
Show excellent photos and paraphrase/discuss with students J630 Ancona, George and Anderson, Joan, The American family farm.
Discuss how many farms are passed from generation to generation and how most of the time the entire family works as a unit to run the farm.
Have the students pretend they are farmers. Write an imaginary journal depicting one day on the farm. What kind of farm do they have? What time do they begin their day? What are their chores? Who else lives and works on the farm? Encourage them to be creative, but to write about what a real farmer’s life would be like.
Learn about farmer’s markets. Teach the children that often farmers take their goods to a farmer’s market to sell. Consumers can get fresh vegetables and fruits at inexpensive prices. They can also find special products such as local honey or home baked bread.
Read J635 Rendon, Marcie, Farmer’s Market.
Have several different fruits and vegetables in varying quantities. Let students practice weighing fruits or vegetables on a real scale. Have the students do simple math calculations.
Example: “If tomatoes are $0.69 a pound, how much would 5 lbs. of tomatoes cost?” Make problems more difficult by requiring different operations to solve.
Pass out “Farmer’s Market” worksheet and let the children pretend they are shopping for fresh fruits, vegetables,
Take a field trip to a real farmer’s market in your area.
Discuss seasons on the farm. Explain a farmer’s daily job changes depending on what time of year it is. List the four seasons on the board and have the students call out the various jobs they can think of. Write them under the appropriate season heading.
Read: J630 Miller, Jane, Seasons on the Farm
Give students Farm Seasons worksheet to complete
Part Two-Farm Equipment
Read any of the following:
J631.3 Kilby, Don, In the Country
J633.1 Rogers, Hal, Combines
E Brown, Craig, Tractor
J631.37, Peterson, Cris, Fantastic Farm Machines
Read J631.3 Wykeha, Nicholas, Farm machines
J631.3 Marston, Hope, Machines on the Farm
Discuss the difference in farming today with farming 100 years ago. Discuss how plowing and harvesting used to be done by hand. Today’s tractors make farming far quicker and easier and even have air-conditioned cabs with radios. Farm equipment is very expensive, but is an important investment for a farmer. The tractor is the most basic and yet very important piece of equipment for farmers. It is used to do many tasks. Different farm implements can be connected to the front or the back of the tractor to do different jobs such as plowing, disking, harrowing, tilling, and planting.
Learn that John Deer Company is the largest agriculture equipment company in the world. Read E B Dee, John Deere, by M. C. Hall.
Ask students, Why is a “combine” called a combine? Explain the reason is because it “combines” the tasks of harvesting, threshing, and cleaning grain plants. Hiram Moore patented the combine invention in 1824. Mules drew the first combines. Today’s combines are essential to large farming industry.
Read one of the following books on cotton.
J687 L’Hommedieu, Arthur John, From Plant to Blue Jeans.
J677 Mitgutsch, Ali, From Cotton to Pants
J633.5 Selsam, Millicent, Cotton
A cotton picker or cotton harvester is a machine that does the work of many men. It can harvest cotton six rows at a time. To illustrate the usefulness of today’s farm machines, have children pick cotton the old fashioned way. Scatter hundreds of cotton balls across the lawn or on top of bushes. Give each student a “cotton bag” (can use a large plastic grocery bag) to sling over their shoulder. Have them pretend they are cotton pickers picking cotton and putting it into their bags. Afterward discuss how grueling this work can be in the hot sun for hours on end. Can they understand how useful the cotton harvester is to the modern farmer?
Pass out “Farm Equipment” worksheet. Discuss each piece of equipment and what work it does on the farm.
What other farm invention would be helpful to farmers today? Have the students make their own invention and sketch it. Share with the class the name of their invention and what it would do on the farm.
Part Three-Crops
How many farm crops can the students name in 1 minute? Have them brainstorm for one minute writing down all the crops they can think. Next, tell them to circle their favorite crop. Discuss how farmers plant most crops in the spring and summer and harvest in the fall.
What things are necessary to have a good crop? Good soil, water, seeds, fertilizer.
What does irrigation mean?
What are pesticides and how are they beneficial or harmful. Understand the difference between organic and treated crops.
Read: J641.3 Patent, Dorothy, Where Food Comes From
Pass out a variety of vegetable seeds. Have students compare them. What are the different shapes? What are the different sizes? What are the different colors? Have them glue one seed of each variety to a sheet of paper. Next to the seed, have the student illustrate and color the grown vegetable it will produce.
Pass out “Fruit and Vegetables” worksheet. Have students identify various fruits and vegetables by name.
Crop Art
Make vegetable paint prints. Cut various fruits and vegetables in half such as bell pepper, onion, potato, eggplant, radish, carrot (lengthwise), apple, orange, large romaine leaf, etc. Allow the fruit to dry out upside down on paper towels for a few hours. Set up the table with student standing around with the fruits and paints in the middle and their art paper in front of them. Give each student a large piece of art paper or manila paper. Mix several colors of tempera and place in containers large enough to dip the fruits and vegetables. Students can dip the fruit into paint and make prints on their paper. Creative students can actually make a picture of something (like a funny face) or scenery using the vegetable prints. Have damp paper towels so that students can clean the vegetable before re-dipping into another color.
Read J635 Watts, Barrie, Tomato
Ask the students “Who likes tomatoes?” Have your students’ think of all the different ways they might eat tomatoes such as in salad, on a hamburger, on a pizza or spaghetti as sauce, ketchup, salsa, etc. Talk about how many people call tomatoes a vegetable, but they are actually a fruit. Why? Show students a variety of tomatoes. Teach them to identify various kinds including cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, grape tomatoes, hot house tomatoes, etc.
Have a variety of tomatoes for the students to look at. Show green, yellow, orange, and red tomatoes of all the sizes and shapes you can find.
Plant tomatoes: Give each student a large Styrofoam cup. Allow them to decorate their cups with illustrations of tomatoes and tomato plants. Have them write their names on the cups. Poke three small holes in the bottom of the cup. Fill each cup ¾ full with potting soil. Plant tomato seeds according to package directions and add fertilizer; water gently with watering can. Place cups in the window to watch the seedlings sprout. Transfer small plants at the appropriate time according to directions on the seed package.
Read J635, Farmer, Jacqueline, Pumpkins
Pumpkins grow on vines: They are rich in vitamins especially vitamin A and potassium. They can be tasty in a variety of foods such as pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin pie. Pumpkins come in many shapes and sizes and even colors such as orange, white and yellow.
The flower of the pumpkin plant is edible. Pumpkins are even used to feed farm animals.
Have several pumpkins of different sizes. Make columns on the chalkboard to list the predicted weight, actual weight predicted circumference, and actual circumference of each pumpkin. Let the students predict the weight and circumference of the smallest pumpkin. Write the predictions on the board. Then weigh and measure the pumpkin. Write the actual weight and measure on the board in respective columns. Continue this project to the last and heaviest of pumpkins. Make comparisons to the circumference increase and weight increase. Teach the largest pumpkin ever recorded weighed well over 1,000 pounds!
Carve a pumpkin: With a long, thin bladed knife, cut out the top of the pumpkin around the stem of the pumpkin. Cut at an angle so the round top doesn’t fall down into the pumpkin. The hole should be large enough to allow you to scoop out the inside pulp. Use a large spoon or your hands for this messy job. The inside of the pumpkin should be scraped clean. Use a crayon or marker to draw the face of your pumpkin. Use the knife blade tracing over the drawing you made. Push out the pieces to see your pumpkins face.
Paint a pumpkin: Use brightly colored markers to draw funny faces on your pumpkin. Use black to outline. Tell students to name their pumpkin and introduce them to the class.
Roast the seeds: After cleaning the pumpkin, remove the seeds. Wash them and pat dry. Scatter the seeds in a single layer on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt. Other seasonings can be added for flavor. Roast in the oven for about 30 minutes. Cool and enjoy.
Read from the following books on corn.
J633.1 Kellogg, Cynthia, Corn: What it is and what it does
J 641.3 Burckhardt, Ann L., Corn
J633.1 Landau, Elaine, Corn
Learn that corn is considered the most important crop in America. Why? Have the students brainstorm, listing all the things they can think of that come from corn. Some answers will be obvious such as corn on the cob, corn bread, pop corn. When they have named everything they can think of, write other examples they didn’t think of such as corn starch, corn syrup, cereals, candy, peanut butter, toothpaste, crayons, glue, soaps, paint, explosives, etc. There are now more than 3,500 different ways Americans use corn.
Learn the states that produce most of America’s corn. Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota produce 50% of all the corn grown in America. Other major corn growing states are South Dakota, Kansas, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Kentucky. These states are called the Corn Belt. Have the student locate these states on a United States map and push a yellow tack into it to represent the corn grown there.
Have several grocery products for the students to examine. Have them read the ingredients labels and identify the items that have some kind corn products in them.
Explain that even though humans use so much corn in so many different ways that most of the corn grown in America is not even used for humans. Can they guess what most of the corn is produced for? Eighty percent of the corn grown in America is used to feed livestock.
Dissect an ear of corn. Distribute an ear of corn to each student. Teach them how to shuck the corn of the husks. Next, identify the silk surrounding the cob. Identify the rows of corn kernels. Count how many rows are on their corn cob. Count to see whose cob has the most kernels. Have them remove some of the kernels to observe the cob. Did anyone find a worm?
Have students collect their favorite corn recipe. Bring them to class and make sure the student has put their name on their recipe. Photocopy each recipe and distribute one recipe to each student. Have the students create a class Corn Recipe book. Have them make a clever, colorful cover page. Bind with staples or hole punch and secure with yellow and green yarn.
Have a harvest party day. Farms often celebrate their harvests with an annual harvest feast or party. Let the students plan their own harvest party. Students will volunteer to be in charge of various games or snacks. Ideas for the party might include:
Bobbing for apples
Potato Sack races
Corn shucking contest
Making scarecrows
Caramel apples
Hay rides (Can use red wagons with hay and have the students take turns pulling each other around.)
Enjoy a farm video called Farm Country Ahead, Fred Levine Productions
Part Four-Farm Animals
Cows!
Read J637 Gibbons, Gail, The Milk Makers
J637 McFarland, Cows in the Parlor
How many different products can the students name that come from cows? Examples are hamburgers, steak, milk, ice cream, butter, cheese, etc. Help them think of products that may not come to mind right away such as yogurt, cottage cheese, powdered milk, etc.
Learn about the many different breeds of dairy cattle. This adult dairy cow weighs over 1,500 pounds and can eat over 100 pounds of feed a day. She will produce over 12 gallons of milk a day.
Ayrshire
Brown Swiss
Guernsey
Holstein
Jersey
Shorthorn
Cows are ruminant animals. A cow moves its jaw around up to 60,000 times a day chewing cud or grass. The cow has four compartments in its digestive system. Learn about the path of a cow’s digestive tract.
Have a milking contest. Fill latex gloves with water (or milk for authenticity). Put a very small hole in the end of four fingers of the glove. Tie the glove closed at the top and tie it upright to something such as a chair, a door knob, or other construction. Give each team a pail and a small stool to sit on. On the word “Go!” students will begin milking.
Make your own butter. Have students bring small, clean baby food jars with labels removed.
Pour jars ¾ full of cream. Shake vigorously. Watch as the cream turns to sweet butter. Enjoy and eat with homemade bread.
Show a carton of milk. Discuss the words homogenized, pasteurized, and enriched. Discuss whole milk, 2%, 1% and fat free. Have a taste test.
Milk has to be refrigerated or it will spoil. To illustrate this, pour a glass of milk and set it out at room temperature. Observe for several days. What does it look like now? Pour a fresh glass of milk. Which would they rather drink?
Have everyone drink milk and make a milk mustache. Take a photo of each student. Print the photos on the computer and mount on colored cardstock with the phrase “Got Milk?”
Drink chocolate milk.
Chickens!
Read from the following books:
J636.5 Powell, Jillian, From Chick to Chicken
J636.5, Schuh, Mari, Chickens on the farm
J598/617 Olesen, Chicken and Egg
J636.5, Limberg, Peter, Chickens, Chickens, Chickens
J598.2, Cole, Joanna, A Chicken Hatches
There are more breeds of chicken than any other bird. Some chickens are raised to be eaten. These are called broilers or fryers. Others are raised to lay eggs. California, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, and Pennsylvania produce the most eggs in the Untied States. Alabama, Arkansas and Georgia produce the most chickens. Male chickens are called roosters. Females are called hens.
Eggs can be many colors besides white, such as brown, tan, even green and blue. A chick will hatch from a fertile egg if the egg is incubated at 100.5 degrees F for 21 days. You can tell if an egg is fertile by candling and identifying a mass or small spot in the egg. The egg will appear incandescent, and the mass will be dark.
Do egg candling. Demonstrate to the students how an egg is candled. Darken the room. Grasp a white egg by the small end. Hold at a slant in front of a candle. You should be able to see “inside’ the egg. Explain this is how an egg can be evaluated for quality. Also, incubated eggs can be evaluated to see the chick development.
Pass out “Eggology” worksheet. Give each student an egg and a bowl to crack it in. Have students dissect the egg learning and labeling the parts. Students will observe the pores on the outer shell allowing the chick inside to breathe. Students will identify the outer shell, blastoderm, yolk, albumen, inner shell membrane, outer shell membrane, and air sac. Students need to be sure and wash hands and work area thoroughly.
Explain to students that eggs that are fertilized by a rooster will grow into baby chickens. It takes just the right temperature and 21 days for a chicken to hatch. Baby chicks have an egg tooth that enables them to peck themselves out of their shell.
Let the students have fun pretending to be a chicken inside an egg. Tell them to roll up into a ball shape. Wrap a large white sheet around and around them. Tell them to “peck” their way out.
Learn about the different stages of chicken embryo development. Go to the following website and observe a chick in its 21 days of development. Sketch each day and label your sketches to explain what is happening each day.
Hatch your own chicken eggs in an incubator.
Eggs that are to be eaten are a good source of protein, iron and phosphorous yolk-rich source of Vitamin A, D and B. Eggs can be eaten in many different ways. Have students brainstorm to see how many ways they can think of to cook an egg such as fried, scrambled, poached, hard-boiled, etc. Discuss how we cook with eggs to make cookies and pies, breads and other baked goods.
Observe different egg sizes. Have an example of jumbo, large, medium, and small eggs.
Make scrambled eggs in class. Assign each student a task.
Cheesy Scrambled Eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 red onion, finely diced
2 dozen large eggs, beaten
salt and pepper
8 oz. grated cheddar cheese
Melt the butter in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add onion. Cook until soft. Stir in the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Cook until scrambled. Remove from heat. Sprinkle cheddar cheese overall. Serve each student a small helping.
Have a local 4H student speak on how to raise and care for chickens.
Have a chicken scramble.
Other animal farm books to enjoy:
J636.4 Moon, Cliff, Pigs on the Farm
J677.313 Shreckhise, Roseva, What was it before it was a Sweater?
J636.3 Schuh, Mari, Sheep on the Farm
J636.07, Windsor, Merrill, Baby Farm Animals