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Tuesday
Today children will learn about the Farmer's Market. In order to present today's lesson in its fullest capacity, have these items ready for your class:
- Colored picture of gardens (your local library will have picture books of gardens and various produce)
- Cans of vegetables, a bag of frozen vegetables and a small amount of fresh vegetables
- Jar of popcorn kernels
- Reproducible picture of an ear of corn
- Yellow construction paper (one for each child)
- Packets of a variety of seeds
- Small food scale
- Assortment of construction paper
- Toy cash register
- Plastic food
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Circle Time Discussion
Review farm facts discussed in the previous lesson.
Display colored pictures of farms, gardens, and vegetables.
Teach:
Vegetables are grown in gardens. Some farmers only grow one crop, others grow many.
The farmers that only grow one crop usually have fields and rows of the same vegetable or grains. Types of farms the harvest one crop are cotton farms, soybean farms, corn and wheat farms. Some farms even grow just pumpkins, called a pumpkin patch.
Farmers that grow specialty crops usually sell to large companies that, in turn, sell the product to us.
Show children the vegetable examples (the canned, frozen and fresh veggies). Explain terminology, food processing, for canned and frozen vegetables.
Explain to the children that local farmers sell us fresh produce at "Farmer's Market". Sometimes, local grocery stores allow farmers to sell their produce.
Take a survey of children who go to the Farmer's Market with their parents or grandparents.
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Activity
Farmer's Market
You will need:
Toy cash register
Plastic food (mainly produce)
On a small table, arrange the food into groups. Allow children to "shop" in the market. Children should "pay" for the produce and allow them to take turns running the cash register.
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Art
Ear of Corn
You will need:
Reproducible picture of an ear of corn
Yellow construction paper
Enlarge the ear of corn to fit the entire page of construction paper. Copy one for each child.
Provide each child with a small amount of popcorn kernels and liquid glue.
Instruct the children to place dots of glue onto the ear of corn, then cover the dots with the popcorn kernel.
**Remind the children of the liquid glue rule: "A little dot does a lot" **
The end result will be a 3-D ear of corn.
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Math Skills
Seed Sort
You will need:
A variety of seeds (including nuts)
Food scale
Encourage children to examine each seed. Children should become aware of the size, shape and weight of each seed.
Instruct the children to sort the seeds by size and weight and compare results on a scale.
Instruct children to group seeds into groups of 10. Count by 10's.
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Language Skills
Farm Vocabulary
You will need:
An assortment of colored paper
Discuss farm vocabulary:
*Farmer's Market- a place for farmers to sell their fruits and vegetables
*Crop- the result of planting seeds that are grown and harvested
*Produce- fruits and vegetables
*Dairy- products made from milk such as butter, cheese, yogurt, cream cheese, cottage cheese
Instruct children to draw a picture on construction paper of each of the vocabulary words that have been discussed.
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Suggested Reading
Farmer Brown Goes Round and Round by Teri Sloat
Cock-a-doodle-doo!: A Barnyard Hallabaloo by Giles Andreae
Growing Vegetables: Kindergarten Lesson on Farms
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.
