Farm Theme Center for First Grade

Susan Bauer

LP 9

May 13,2014

Farm Theme Books

Good Morning, Farm! By Catherine Nichols

The Berenstain Bears Down on the Farm by Jan and Stan

Berenstain

A day in the Life of a Farmer by Heather Adamson

Jobs on a Farm by Nancy Dickman

Down on the Farm by Greg Scelsa

Our Farm: by the Animals of Farm Sanctuary by Maya Gottfried,

illustrated by Robert Rahway Zakanitch

Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm by Alice Provensen and

Martin Provensen

Tractors and Farm Vehicles by Jean Coppendal

Country Kid, City Kid by Julie Cummins

Old McDonald had Her Farm by Joan Lawson, illustrated by

Tina Holdcroft

Junie B Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket by Barbara Park

Farm Theme Reading Activities

Students choose a farm theme book, to be read independently or with a

buddy. Students benefit from reading with a buddy because they work

together and help each other figure out unfamiliar words. This is also a

pleasant social activity; teachers monitor to ensure that both students

are getting reading practice.

Students take turns reading from pages of Animals on the Farm by

Gladys Rosa Mendoza in a whole group setting. This is a bilingual book

written in both English and Spanish. This activity not only helps young

readers become comfortable reading aloud, but invites ESL students to

read in their home language.

Students play Farm Animal/Word Match game. This is a learning center

game activity and may be played alone or with a friend. The game has

picture cards of farm animals and corresponding word cards. The

students play this game as a concentration game matching the picture

to the correct word. Students may use the farm animal poster to help

check their answers or to guide them through the game. The farm

animal poster has animal names written in both English and Spanish.

This game helps emerging readers become familiar with animal sight

words, when played with a friend, students may help each other with

word recognition.

Farm Theme Writing Activities

After a field trip to a farm, students participate in a whole class activity,

creating a story about their trip to the farm. Each child has a turn to

dictate, while the teacher writes. This is an interactive writing

experience, and allows children to participate in creating a big book.

Students create individual books about their trip to the farm, each

creates and illustrates a story about his favorite part of the field trip.

This activity focuses on the child’s writing experience and not on correct

spelling or punctuation, beginning writers may spell by sound

Students create a sheep and write words that rhyme with sheep

on its body.This activity gives children writing experience as well

as experience with word families.

Farm Theme Visual Representation Activities

Students create farm collages. By looking through farm catalogs, students re-create their farm experience by choosing pictures that have meaning to

them. They cut out pictures and glue them onto poster board to create an individual collage. They

may also add written words to their poster, adding to their writing experiences.

Each student creates a chart by counting the farm animals displayed in the classroom. Pictures of the animals are cut out and pasted onto individual

charts. Children are creating a visual representation which will display their counting skills.

Students use poster paint, paper and various vegetables and fruits to create farm produce prints.

Apples, cucumbers, and other vegetables are cut in half and dipped in the poster paint to be

used to create prints. Children create an abstract visual representation of the farm theme experience.

Farm Theme Listening Activities

Students use the classroom headsets to listen to a farm book of their choice, while reading along in the book. This activity gives students additional reading

practice as well as increasing listening skills.

Students listen to the teacher read a farm story aloud, either in a whole class or group setting. This activity helps increase the child’s listening skills as well as

having reading modeled. Listening is assessed in the discussion following the reading.

Children play soundscape interactive listening activity for farm animal descriptions.

http://www.medel.com/data/soundscape/OldMcDonald/index.html?iframe=true&width=934&height=620 This helps children work on their listening skills, and

requires them to follow a verbal direction.

Farm Theme Viewing Activities

Children listen and watch Mechanimals while it is being read on the Speakaboo website on classroom tablets or computers.

http://www.speakaboos.com/kids/stories/mechanimals?cat=animal-stories the children follow along with the story as it is being read, they may also read

with the words on the screen which helps increase their reading abilities.

Children watch a YouTube video “F” is for Farm. http://youtu.be/mSX-Oi9OSqw http://youtu.be/-K_5uevJ_ss They may choose between the video

on farm animals or farm machines. The viewing activities on YouTube give the children experience finding and viewing information on the Internet.

On the field trip to the farm the children have observation booklets to take a long to write down what animals, produce or equipment they learn about on

the field trip. The books may be preprinted with pictures of animals and equipment they will see on the trip for them to identify. This activity helps the

children recognize new things they see on the farm and encourages them to ask questions while on the field trip.

Farm Theme Speaking ActivitiesChildren discuss new things they have learned about farms while on the field trip. This is done in a small group setting with the teacher or instructional

teacher aide. The teacher facilitates the discussion and keeps the conversation moving by asking open-ended questions and including all members of the

group.

The class plays I spy while on the field trip, each child is given a turn to describe an animal, farm building or equipment. The simple game helps children

use descriptive and verbal skills, and helps them to be comfortable speaking in front of their classmates.

The children and teacher develop a Farm Word Wall, each child makes a verbal contribution of a

“farm” word that they would like to see posted on the word wall. ESL students may suggest words of

home language to post on the word wall. This activity includes all students, allowing quieter students

to articulate and contribute to class ideas and discussion.

Farm Theme Summary

• By incorporating language arts across the curriculum, learning throughout the students’ day is not divided, school subjects are interrelated as opposed to

divided. Instead of students reading from basal readers that are not connected with any other area of learning, they read books that are connected with

multi-curricular learning. Language arts readily used in all subjects of learning is the key to connect a student’s many facets of interests and abilities.

• I chose the farm theme because children of elementary age are very interested in animals, yet many have not experienced farm life. Many young children

of 6 to 7 years do not know where our food comes from. Many first-graders have never seen farm animals or farm machinery firsthand, because of this I

thought including a field trip to the farm was an important part of this theme unit. The key concept in planning this unit was for children to learn firsthand

where our food comes from, and about the animals and equipment that enable a farm to produce our food.

• This unit allows first-graders to utilize their field trip experience in all six of the language arts modes. A rich supply of farm themed books, provides children

with reading materials that support their field trip experience. Student writing allows them to re-create the visit to the farm in their own words and the

creation of visual representations gives students the experience of creating a visual to also help share what they are learning. The viewing, listening, and

speaking activities in this unit supported the key concept of farm life, while increasing the students abilities in the language arts.

• I Incorporated activities that ESL students would be able to use both English and their home language. The farm unit itself is one that many ESL students

would be more familiar with them their English-speaking classmates.

Bibliography

1. "Alphabet Road - "F" Is For Farm - "Farm Animals"" YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.

2. "Animal Stories." Mechanimals. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.

3. "Goodreads." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.

4. "Pinterest." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.

5. Tompkins, Gail E. Language Arts: Patterns of Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.

6. "WELCOME TO OLD MACDONALD." WELCOME TO OLD MACDONALD. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2014.