Kindergarten Lesson: Learning About Life on a Ranch
Thursday
In today’s lesson of the farm unit, you will be discussing a ranch. These are the things that you will need in order to present this lesson appropriately:
- Books of colored pictures of ranches, horses, cattle
- Brown construction paper (one for each child)
- Liquid glue
- Straw or hay (can be found in craft aisle)
- 100 pennies
- 20 nickels
- 10 dimes
- 1 piece of construction paper-draw a grid of 100 squares, number the squares 1-100
- Pancakes for Breakfast by, Tomie de Paola
Circle Time Discussion
Discuss a ranch.
Show colored pictures of cattle and horse ranches. (You will be able to find picture books in your local library.)
Teach:
On a ranch, prize winning cattle or thoroughbred horses are raised.
A person that owns a ranch is called a “rancher”.
Ranchers do not typically grow gardens to sell produce.
Ranchers make money from the sale of their cattle or horses, not produce.
Art
Haystacks
You will need:
- brown construction paper (one for each child)
- straw or hay
- liquid glue
Provide each child with a handful of straw or hay.
Instruct the children to glue small amounts of hay into piles on the construction paper.
The children should mash the hay down in effort to make the “bales of hay” stick together.
**This art project would make a cute bulletin board or window display. When creating a display with this project, use bulletin board lettering to create a play on words for the display headline. “Hay! Hay! Hay! We talked about farms today!”**
Math Skills
Money
You will need:
- 100 pennies
- 20 nickels
- 10 dimes
- 1 sheet of construction paper
Introduce the value of money.
Explain to the children that 100 pennies equals one dollar.
Prior to doing this activity, make a grid on the piece of construction paper and number the grid squares 1-100 (or these can be store boughten).
During the counting pennies activity, place a penny on each grid square until the entire grid is covered with 100 pennies.
Re-use the grid while counting nickels and dimes.
Ask the children: Which coin is worth more? Which coin is worth less?
Explain the answers.
Language Skills
Pancakes For Breakfast
Show the book by, Tomie de Paola to the children. Retell the story of Pancakes for Breakfast.
List the places the lady visited in order to gather food items needed to make the pancakes.
Discuss the importance of telling a story in sequence.
Make a concept map, beginning, middle and end of a story.
Suggested Reading
We Love Dirt by, Tony Johnston
Patrick Pig by, Richard Scarry
This post is part of the series: Kindergarten Farm Unit
This is a five part series lesson plan designed for the kindergarten classroom. It this unit, children will learn fun facts about farms through discussion, pictures, art, hands on activities, math skills and language skills.
