Farm–Animals, Plants, and Machines

     Farms

Objective:  Children will learn about animals, plants and machinery on farms.  Also learn to listen and follow directions.  (You may want to divide Farms into 3 lessons. Also it is good to teach the “AR” sound with farms.)

Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures of farm animals, plants and machines from books, internet, magazines or old calendars. 

• Print the attached worksheet.  Farm following directions worksheet
• Possibly plan a trip to a farm.
• Suggested books:

  • Farm Flu by Teresa Bateman  

  • Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown

Lesson:  Discuss farms while showing pictures.

• Farm Animals: Discuss with pictures the types of animals found on the farm and each animals purpose.

• Farm Plants:  Discuss with pictures the types of crops grown on the farm. Include fruit trees, garden fruits and vegetables, hay, wheat, corn, etc.

• Farm Machines:  Discuss with pictures the types of machines found on the farm and their uses.

Activity:  Following Directions Worksheet

Give each child a worksheet and a set of crayons.

Give them directions to follow. Here are some examples:

1. Choose a color then write your name on the top of your paper.

2. With your blue crayon, circle all the animals.

3. With your yellow crayon, color the animal that comes from an egg. 

4. With your brown crayon, write the word, “Farm” on the bottom of your paper.

5. With your red crayon, draw a square around the farm plants or crops.

6. With your purple crayon make a triangle around the barn.

7. With your orange crayon, color the tail and ears of the animal we get wool from.

8. With your gray crayon, color the face of the animal we get milk from.

9. With your green crayon, color the plant or crop used to make flour for bread. 

10. On the back, use many colors to draw yourself on a farm with a tractor. 

Wrap Up:  Read a fun Farm book while they draw on the back of their worksheet.

Weather: Rain and Snow

    

Weather: Rain and Snow      

Objective: Help children learn about the water cycle and how water is a part of our weather.

Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures of rain, snow and other storms from books, magazines or old calendars.
• Collect a pan, water, a cookie sheet, and a stove or something to heat the water.
• Make word cards; evaporation, water cycle, water vapor, and condensation. 
• Have crayons, pencils or markers.
• Scraps of construction paper in white, dark blue, green and yellow.
• Print the water cycle on light blue or white paper. water-cycle-picture   If you do this activity with older children, they can write all the words.  
• Create a sample water cycle.

Suggested books:

• Cloudy with a Chance Of Meatballs by Judi Barrett
• Franklin and the Thunderstorm by Paulette Bourgeois
• What Makes it Rain? by Keith Brandt

Lesson:

Read a book then discuss water weather:

Discussion questions:

1. How do you feel when it rains?
2. Are you afraid of storms, if so why do they scare you?
3. What activities do you like to do in the rain?
4. Where do you think rain comes from?
5. What other weather has water in it?  (snow, hail)

Demonstrate “condensation” and “evaporation” by heating a small pot of water on the stove. Heat the water until you see steam.  Show the “water vapor” and “evaporation” cards.  Say, “The steam is water vapor or evaporation.”  Hold the cookie sheet above the water.  Show how the water condensate on the cookie sheet. Show the word card “condensation. Say, “If we hold this cookie sheet for a long time above the water it will start dropping rain. 

Activity: Help children learn about the water cycle by making a water cycle collage picture.  (Tearing paper is a skill that most children have to be taught.)

• Give each child a sheet of light blue or white water cycle picture paper.
• Tear dark blue paper big enough to fill half of the bottom part of the paper to look like the ocean. Have the children glue it on their paper by the word “ocean”.
• Tear a sun shape of yellow. Have the children glue it by the word “sun” above the ocean. Talk about how the sun heats the water and causes it to evaporate. Help them write “sun” on the sun.
• Tear a piece of white paper and have the children shade it with gray with the side of a crayon to look like a rain cloud. Have the children glue it on their paper opposite the sun by the words, “rain cloud”. (Explain how the droplets of water vapor come together and cool to make a cloud and when they get too heavy they condensate on bits of dust and begin to fall to the earth as snow or rain depending on how cold they are.)
• Have the children draw the rain coming from the cloud by the word, “rain” below the cloud. Discuss the ways the rain helps all living things and all the benefits of rain and storms.
• Tear a piece of green or brown paper to look like a slope of land coming down to meet the ocean. Have the children glue it next to the ocean piece of paper by the word “land”.
• Tear a strip of blue paper to look like a river. Have the children glue it on the slope of land by the word, “river”. Talk about the collection of rain into rivers, lakes and oceans
• Read all the words on the picture together.

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Weather – Wind

 Wind

Objective: To learn about and experience wind and air.

Preparation:

• Find drawings, books, magazines or old calendars of wind.
• Have crayons, pencils or markers for the children.
• Square paper or print out pin wheel template. pinwheel template
• New pencil, straw or make your own stick by rolling up paper.
• Straight pins.
• Masking tape.

Books:

• Wind by Ron Bacon
• Wind by Marion Dane Bauer

Lesson:

• Explain to the children that wind is moving air. 
• Wind is invisible.
• Discuss some of the signs that tell us it is windy. (Use pictures or books)  Give them clues such as clouds moving in the sky, wind chimes ringing, feeling the winds on our skin, and leaves or paper blowing across the yard.  
• People use wind for many different things such as; flying a kite, sailing a sailboat, or blowing windmills to create electricity.

Activity:   Pinwheel  pinwheel template

• Give the children the square or template.
• Have the children color and decorate both sides of the pinwheel.
• Have them cut on the diagonal lines. Making sure to have them stop cutting where the line stops.
• Take every other point and bring it to the center of the pinwheel.
• Push a pin through four of the points and the center of the pinwheel.  Then push the pin through the eraser of the pencil or about ½ inch from the top of a straw or rolled paper.
• Bend the end of the pin down against the pencil, straw or rolled paper. Leave a little space between the pin and stick so the pinwheel spins freely. 
• Wrap several times with masking tape to keep in place and to cover the sharp end of the pin.

Optional activities:

Kite:     http://www.ehow.com/how_4742941_make-paperbag-kite.html

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Weather – Air

         Air/Weather

Objective:  Help children understand how air affects the world around us.

Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures books, magazines or old calendars of wind, plants, and animals.
• Have a large balloon.
• Have crayons, pencils or markers for drawing.
• Drawing paper.
• Decide on a book to read. Suggested books:
• Air Is All Around You by Franklyn M. Branley  
• If We Could See Air by David T. Suzuki    
  

Lesson:
Read a book then discuss:

• Did you know that air is all around you?
• Without air there wouldn’t be any life on Earth? (Have everyone breathe in and exhale out.)  
• Air is the gas that floats all around you and makes up our atmosphere. We can’t see it, since it is made up of colorless gases.  
• Some of the gases that make up the air around us are oxygen, and carbon dioxide. We like to shorten carbon dioxide and just call it “CO₂”.
• All life on Earth depends on air to stay alive. When we breathe, we inhale air. Our bodies use the oxygen. 
• Humans and animals make CO₂ and exhale it into the air. 
• Plants use CO₂ and put oxygen back into the air. 
• Plants clean the air. Let’s give the plants some CO₂.  (Breathe in and exhale out again.)  
• Although we usually can’t feel it, air is always touching us.  (Blow up a balloon.)
• One of the few times that you can actually feel air is when it is windy.  (Make wind by letting the air go in the balloon.) 
• Air is used for many different things, such as flying planes, sailing on a sail boat, or blows windmills to create electricity.

Activity: Make an air cycle picture.   

• Give each child a sheet of drawing paper.
•  Have the child draw a picture of self on one side of the paper and a tree on the other side.
•  Draw an arrow from the tree to the child. and write “oxygen” by this arrow.
•  Draw an arrow going from the child to the tree and write “ CO₂” by that arrow.
•  Have them lightly color some air with the side of a blue or gray crayon.

Optional activities are to make airplanes or kites.

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Symbols of The USA–The Statue of Liberty

 

The Statue of Liberty

Objective: To introduce children to The Statue of Liberty as a symbol of USA promise of freedom. 

Preparation:

• Find drawings or pictures of The Statue of Liberty from books, magazines or old calendars.
• Have green crayons, pencils or markers and paper for the children.  (Print,”The Statue of Liberty” on the paper.)
• Suggested book:   The Statue of Liberty by Lucille Recht Penner

Lesson:

• Read the book then discuss while showing pictures:
• The Statue of Liberty is one of the most recognizable symbols of the United States in the world. For many visitors traveling by sea in days gone by, the statue located on Liberty Island, in New York harbor, was their first glimpse of America.
• The statue symbolizes liberty and democracy.
• The Statue of Liberty is a huge sculpture that is located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. This monument was a gift to the USA from the people of France.
• Liberty was designed by the French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The hollow copper statue was built in France – it was finished in July, 1884.  It was brought to the USA in 350 pieces on a French ship.  The statue was reassembled in the USA and was completed on October 28, 1886.
• Liberty’s right hand holds a torch that is a symbol of liberty. There are 354 steps inside the statue and its pedestal. There are 25 viewing windows in the crown. The seven rays of Liberty’s crown symbolize the seven seas and seven continents of the world. Liberty holds a tablet in her left hand that reads “July 4, 1776” (in Roman numerals).
• This is the poem that is mounted on the base of the statue.  Emma Lazarus wrote it.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame,
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Discussion questions:

• What is liberty?  — the power of choice.
• What is a symbol? —  something visible that by association or convention represents something else that is invisible.
• What are some other symbols of our country? — The Flag, Eagle, etc.

Activities:

• Draw the statue. Give each child a paper and a green pencil or crayon. Help the children draw the statue one step at a time. Wait to start each step until all children have completed the previous step.
• Pictures of the kids: Take each child one at a time. Wrap a green sheet around the child and attach at shoulder. Have them wear a Statue of Liberty headband (you can get them from Liberty Tax or have them make one). Give them a flashlight to hold in their left hand. In their right hand give them a small poster board with “July 4th 1776” written on it. Have them pose like the Statue of Liberty and take a picture.

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Symbols of The USA—The Flag

USA Symbols—The Flag

Objective: Help children understand the importance of the United States flag as a symbol of the USA and teach the Pledge of Allegiance.

Preparation:

• Cut rectangles from blue construction paper:  4 ½ ” x 6” (one for each student)
• Cut strips of red construction paper:  6” x ¾” (four for each student), and 12 x ¾ (three for each student)
• White 12 x 9 construction paper (one for each student)
• White crayons or pencils
• Stickers; preferably with flags
• USA flag
• Suggested books:
• The Pledge of Allegiance by Lloyd G Douglas
• The Flag We Love by Pam Munoz Ryan

Lesson:

• Read a flag book and discuss.
• What is a flag? A flag is a piece of cloth, in the shape of a rectangle with colors, and designs.
• Display a flag.
• Discuss that red, white and blue are the colors of our country, The United States of America.
• Have children count the thirteen stripes. Show that six are white and seven are red.
• The blue rectangle has 50 white stars which represent each state.
• Every country has a national flag. A national flag represents a country’s citizens. When you are the citizen of a country it is like being part of a team and you work together to take care of the country.
• Read and discuss The Pledge of Allegiance book.
• Citizens of the United States make an important promise called The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. When we make this pledge, we promise to be good citizens.   Explain the language of the pledge to help the children understand. “I pledge (promise) allegiance (to follow and protect) to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic (USA) for which it stands, one Nation (country), under God, indivisible (which cannot be divided and all the states remain together), with liberty (freedom) and justice (fairness) for all.”
• Discuss and demonstrate how we place our RIGHT hand over our heart when we say the pledge to show respect.
• Place a sticker on the children’s right wrist to help them remember which hand is their right hand.
• Help them recite the Pledge.

Activity: Make your own flag.

• Place the blue rectangle at the top left.
• Have the children glue the red strips onto the white construction paper. Show them how to put the 4 short strips at the top right side and the 3 long strips at the bottom leaving spaces in between for the white stripes.
• Have the children add the stars using white pencils or crayon.  Show some simple ways to make stars, such as draw a “t” then draw and “x” on top.
  

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Teaching Time and Clock Parts

           Teaching Time and Clock Parts

Objective: Help children learn the words relating to time and clock parts.

Preparation:

• Make word cards for the words “time”, “hands”, “face”, “numbers” and “clock”.
• Have a teaching clock with movable hands.
• Prepare to read the book, Me Counting Time by Joan Sweeney.
• Have a worksheet with analog clock parts to do as a direction following activity.  Clock parts worksheet

Lesson:

Read the book, Me Counting Time.  Discuss and compare to the children.

Put up the word cards.  Talk about some of the sounds in the word.  (T, K, short o, etc.)  Use the word cards to label a clock in the room.

Show the teaching clock.  Talk about the parts of the clock.  (face, hands, numbers)

Learning Activity:

Give each child an analog clock worksheet and crayons.  Read each part of the instructions and do the worksheet together.    Clock parts worksheet

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Math lesson ideas for the Number 3 (three)

Number 3

Objective:   Help children recognize the number 3 and the word “three”, use numbers for counting, count 3 objects, learn to write “3” and “three”.

Preparations:

• Find an art print or picture from a calendar or magazine with good examples of “three”.
• Optional:  Have small animals or objects for counting.
• Have some stickers.
• Write the number “3” and the word “three” on a word card.  Use the “1 one” and the “2 two” word cards from previous lessons.
• Decide on a simple book, poem or song that has good examples of three.  Possibly use, “Three Little Monkeys”.  (Included at the end.)
• Have paper and pencil for each child.  (It is fun to use a colored paper or colored pencils.)

Lesson Ideas:

• Display the word card with “3 three”.  Discuss the difference between the number “3” and the word “three”.  Compare to the number “1 one” and number “2 two” cards.
• Read a simple book or poem. (Three Little Monkeys)  Discuss the examples of three.
• Show the picture and have each child pick out three things in the picture.
• Give each child three objects.  Have them line them up, then touch each object as they count them as a group.
• Show how to make the number 3.  Have them make them in the air with their finger.  Have them close their eyes and write the number 3 in the air.
• Give each child a paper and pencil.  Have them write their names, help them if needed.  Show the word card again for “3 three”.  Have them write a number “3” several times, and the word “three”.  (If a child has a hard time writing their letters, write the word “three” with a yellow pencil and have them trace it.)  Put out stickers and have them select 3 for their paper.  (They could also draw three things.)

Extension ideas:  Possibly include some counting, comparing or patterning activities with small animals.  (more and less, same and different, ABC pattern, etc.)

Three Little Monkeys

• Three little monkeys swinging in the trees
• Teasing Mister Alligator,
• “You can’t catch me! You can’t catch me!”
• Along comes Mister Alligator quiet as can be.
• Snap! (Clap)

(Repeat with one less monkey until there are none left.)

• No little monkeys!

 

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