Plants and animals: Introduction to the unknown

This is an introductory lesson to assist students in understanding where their food comes from and what is available in this area. It is also a wonderful way to continue with inventive spelling.

A lesson plan for grade K English Language Arts and Science

By Sheila Moody

Learn more

• Agriculture in the Classroom North Carolina Farm Bureau website concerning educational programs

Related pages

• Birds by inquiry: Students will make observations of bird pictures to note the similarities and differences in one animal group. They will note especially the beaks, feet, wings and feathers of different types of birds. The life cycle of birds will be explored.
• Penguin paradise: Students will demonstrate their understanding of how to communicate statements of information through the composition of a one paragraph summary about a penguin.
• North Carolina A&T University Farm : Discover Agriculture provides an interactive experience for students to learn about agricultural science including farming with the environment in mind.

Related topics

• Learn more about animals, biology, farming, language arts, read-alouds, science, and spelling strategies.

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Learning outcomes

Students will:

• become interested and excited about learning where the food they eat everyday comes from.
• use inventive spelling as a way of describing the different items.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

2 hours

Materials/resources

• Students will need scissors and a variety of magazines (those that include lots of food and animal pictures)
• teacher will need construction paper, glue, and washable markers
• teacher will need an already made bingo game to assess student understanding of uses of plants and animals
• two books—Inside a Barn in the Country by Alyssa Satin Capucilli and Picking Apples & Pumpkins by Amy Hutchings

Technology resources

A laminating machine.

Pre-activities

• The students will need to have been introduced to the concept of inventive spelling and be familiar with letter sounds. If this is a lesson early in the year the teacher could use the pictures as a way of introducing inventive spelling. If the teacher prefers he/she could have some or all of the pictures of different foods and/or plants cut out, glued and laminated. This could be done by a parent volunteer.
• In order to assess the students on what they have learned the teacher needs to have a ready made Bingo game. This would be a simple board on construction/hard stock paper with pictures of a cow, pig, sheep, chicken, cotton plant, apple tree, pumpkin vine, corn stalk, and tomato plant. You will also need to have small pictures of items like bacon, steak, hamburger, eggs, milk, shirt, socks, cheese, ham, pumpkin, tomato, corn on the cob, wool jacket, apple, apple pie, and ham. Different pictures could be used for the board and items depending on what the teacher wants to use.

Activities

1. The teacher begins the lesson by reading a couple of books. The books I have chosen are Picking Apples and Pumpkins by Amy and Richard Hutchings and Inside a Barn in the Country by Alyssa Satin Capucilli.
2. First activity: the teacher will have scissors and the variety of magazines ready for the students to begin. The teacher will instruct the students to cut out pictures from the magazines that are of any type of food or animal. I give the students about thirty minutes to do this activity (it could take less).
3. Preparation for the Second Activity: The teacher or volunteer glues the pictures on different colored construction paper. Leave enough room to put a black line across the bottom for spelling the word. These can be laminated for future use.
4. Second Activity: the teacher tells the class to go though the different pictures as a group. Ask the students specifically what the item you are showing them in the picture is called. Then you will want to discuss further and tell them where this item comes from in the environment. As the teacher you would lead the students in as much detail so as to make them aware of the uses of plants and animals. For example, if I were showing a picture of a cow I would have the students answer “cow”. Then I would ask them where they might see a cow. I would then ask them if they knew any items that we use that come from a cow. After they have named the object the teacher will lead the students as a group in sounding out the word. As you do this you will write the name of the object on the laminated line. You may go through as many as you think is appropriate. Just be sure that you have used a variety of foods and animals.

Assessment

• To assess the students on inventive spelling, the teacher tells the students to draw a picture of his/her favorite animal/food. The students then use inventive spelling to write a word or a sentence depending on where the students are at in the learning process.
• The teacher will pass out the bingo game and call out the different food/clothing items and the students have to place these on the object where they may be found. This assessment may be done as whole group or as individual assessment.

Supplemental information

Some books you may want to use:

• Farmer Duck by Martin Waddell
• Over on the Farm by Christopher Gunson
• Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming
• It’s Pumpkin Time by Zoe Hall

Comments

• After taking the Agriculture in the Classroom workshop I realized how important it is to make my students aware and responsible consumers. They need to know that milk does not “come” from the grocery store. This lesson is meant to be a springboard to using several great activities that are available in the “Agriculture in the Classroom” material.
• A great follow-up activity would be to visit a farm and have the students see first-hand the production of an animal or crop.
• The laminated pictures and the bingo game can be put into individual or group centers for remediation or enrichment.
• As a follow-up or pre-activity you might want to do a K-W-L graph with your class. This just simply consists of making a three column chart—What do you Know—What do you Want to Know—What have you Learned.