Understanding By Design
Lesson Plan Format
Title: “Down On The Farm”
Subject Matter Emphasis and Level: Preschool Language Arts
Author: Deanna Kroeger
School District: Parkston Elementary
Email: kroeger@santel.net
Brief Description of the Lesson/Unit:
The children will identify farm animals (mother & baby), body coverings, products from
several farm animals, and their farm animal homes.
Graph children’s toy farm animals brought the first week.
Graph body coverings of farm animals. (Fur, feathers, wool, scales,
Graph number of legs of animals.
*Ex. Children name products from cows - beef, milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, yogurt,
cottage cheese, etc.
*Ex. Swine/Pigs/Hogs - pork
*Ex. Sheep - lamb, wool
*Ex. Chickens - poultry, eggs
SD Content Standards Being Addressed:
Similarities and differences of the farm animals.
Stage 1: Identify Desired Results
What enduring understandings are desired?
*Children will become familiar with farm animals.
(The children will name farm animals, describe the animal by its sound, tell about its
body covering, number of legs, and what each animal gives us.)
What essential questions will guide this unit and focus
teaching/learning?
What animals would we find on a farm?
What sounds do farm animals make?
How do farm animals feel to the touch?
What does each farm animal give us?
Why are farm animals important to us?
Poem: “The Giving Farm” - What things do we get from the farm? Explain the
extreme importance of the farm animals, the farm, and the farmer.
The Giving Farm
by Vicki Witcher
(http://kinderkorner.com/farm.html)
Hens give eggs.
Pigs give ham.
Cows give milk.
Strawberries give jam.
Bees give honey.
Goats give cheese.
Farms give food,
I’d like some, please.
What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of
this unit?
The children will name farm animals, describe the animal by its sound, tell about its
body covering, number of legs, and what each animal gives us.
Children will recall facts about farm animals.
Children will retell the nursery rhyme: “Mary Had A Little Lamb” & “Baa, Baa,
Black Sheep,”& “Five Little Ducks”
Graphing farm animals by body coverings.
What prior learning, interests, misconceptions, and conceptual
difficulties might be brought to this unit?
Misconception: Chocolate cows give us chocolate milk.
Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence
1.
What evidence will show that students understand?
Performance Tasks:
Sort like farm animals.
Sort animals by body coverings.
Sort products you receive from each animal.
Other Evidence:
Quizzes, Tests, Prompts, Work Samples (summarized):
Given a set of farm animals the child will tell me the sound each one make
Unprompted Evidence: (observations, dialogues, etc.)
Children building their own farms. Putting like farm animals in pens/corrals.
Student Self-Assessment
When children sort products you receive from each animal - turn the card over and
you will find the same matching farm sticker.
Stage 3: Plan Learning Experiences and Instruction
2.
What sequence of teaching and learning experiences will equip
students to develop and demonstrate the desired understandings?
Major Learning Activities:
*Milk from a cow can make butter.
*Milk from a cow can make ice cream.
*Milk a cow.
*Farm Animal Sound Bingo
Materials & Resources (technology & print):
*Making Butter: large clear jar, heavy whipping cream, yellow food coloring, salt
(Children sit in a circle and pass jar around shaking it up and down three times while
singing, “Old MacDonald”.
*Making Ice-Cream: Two coffee cans (one large and one small), bag of ice chips,
rock salt, heavy whipping cream, sugar, vanilla
*Use a latex glove filled with water, and poke holes in the fingers (representing the
udder). The children squeeze and pull the fingers of the gloves as if they were
milking the cow. The water comes out and we pretend it is milk.
*Farm Animal Bingo: Given a bingo card with farm animals the child will listen to
animal sounds; if it is a farm animal on their card they put a piece of corn on their
bingo card. First child to get three in a row yells farm bingo.
Management:
Two weeks or use all year long. Ex. When you talk about the letter C, tell the
children I am thinking of a farm animal that begins with C /c/ and it is a large animal
that can be black and white. It has four legs and four hooves. It has an udder and we
get milk from this farm animal. And finally it says, “Mooo”. During the different
seasons you can talk about the changes of the farm animals. Ex. In spring the cows
will be having calves. And in the summer the farmer shears the sheep.
Support Services and Special Teacher Notes:
Use the internet to get tons of “farmtastic” fun!
Extensions and Adaptation:
Books:
Little Rabbits’ First Farm Book by Alan Baker
Ice-Cream Cows and Mitten Sheep by Jane Belk Moncure
Let’s Go to the Farm by Troll
What if? By A.H. Benjamin & Jane Chapman
Over on the Farm by Christopher Gunson
Fiddle-I-Fee by Melissa Sweet
Every Friday Night by Joelene Griffith
Have You Got My Purr? By Judy West