NYAITC Lesson Plans
These are the lesson plans, in PDF format, from the original award-winning NYAITC notebooks. Lessons address concepts in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies using the food and fiber system as a theme. Lessons include teacher instructions, student activities, worksheets, answer keys, puzzles, and games. Adobe Acrobat Reader required.
Kindergarten is Popping: NY Ag in the Classroom Kindergarten Lesson Plans
Introduction
Language Arts
The Senses: The students will explore the senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell in describing various items they come in contact with.
Animals: After completing these activities students will: learn names of animals; learn vowel and consonant sounds; learn singular and plural names; compare male, female, young, old, and plural names of animals to those same names for people; learn the fact that when an animal has horns, it is not necessarily a male.
Feed the Turkeys: Students will learn that turkeys eat grains such as corn, oats, and soybeans. They will learn which words begin with C, 0, and S, and to count the number of words.
Fireflies: The student will explore a curiosity which they may have already noticed; the firefly. Read the book Fireflies in the Night by Judy Hawes. Questions for discussion are provided.
Mathematics
Popcorn: Your students will learn how popcorn grows and pops, and several ways to eat it. Activities include cutting out pictures and assembling them in sequence; measuring popcorn in volume; and graphing.
A Turkey Grows Up: Your students will learn how a turkey grows through several activities and games. Have the students cut apart pictures and assemble them in order, from hatching to market. Play the Wild Turkey Trot Game.
Counting Animals: Students will learn to count to 10, sort into categories, determine more or less, and match. Conduct this lesson in conjunction with the Language Arts lesson of animal names. Have students count, match, sequence, and compare livestock pictures pinned on a bulletin board or wall.
Science
The Soil: The students will describe what is in soil and why soil is important, and explain the difference between "dirt" and "soil." Activities include making "Dirt Cake," making "Dirty Dirt" and "Super Soil" puppets, and reading the Dirty Dirt and Super Soil story.
Germination: Students will sequence a pictorial of the growth of a bean plant. Lesson comes with pictures for students to cut apart and paste, a worksheet to compare bean and corn plant growth, and more ideas for seed learning such as making musical instruments and singing, and planting bean and corn seeds.
Initials: At the end of this unit students will produce their initials by growing grass on a sponge, and understand that seeds need warmth and water to grow. Comes with complete instructions.
Making Raisins: Make raisins with your class! Also comes with two great raisin recipes.
Social Studies
Pig Party: At the end of this lesson, students will have an understanding of what products come from hogs. Fun activities include throwing a "Pig Party," making pig masks, and making mobiles of pork by-products.
Thanksgiving: Students will fill a bulletin board cornucopia with foods served at their
Thanksgiving dinner. Discuss that these foods came from farms across America. Lesson comes with activities and the history of Thanksgiving for teacher resources.
Beef: Learn how beef is produced as well as what products and food come from cattle. Graph the classes’ beef preferences by voting on favorite beef foods. Lesson comes with activities and a game.
Evergreen Tree: Instructions are given on how to build a paper evergreen tree using student’s hands as a pattern.
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Great Pumpkins: NY Ag in the Classroom Grade 1 Lesson Plans
Introduction
Student Booklet
Language Arts
Butterflies: Students will describe the life cycle of the butterfly/moth, correctly identify which insect is a moth and which is a butterfly, and learn new vocabulary as it relates to butterflies, moths, and caterpillars. Search outside for eggs, cocoons, butterflies, or moths. Acquire a butterfly and watch it grow from a caterpillar to an adult butterfly. Read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Cane.
Poultry: Complete a puzzle to discover a hen by either coloring the correct categories or words or coloring the correct pictures according to the color key. Complete this lesson in conjunction with the other poultry/egg lessons.
Pumpkin Patch: Your students will learn new words relating to pumpkins, compile simple sentences about pumpkins, and describe foods made from pumpkins. Assemble a bulletin board and have students put paper pumpkins on it. On each pumpkin put nouns, verbs, or adjectives that pertain to pumpkins. Assemble sentences with the pumpkins.
Rice: At the end of this lesson, students will be able to describe how rice grows. This lesson comes with a worksheet, rice information for the teacher to share with the students, and a story of how rice is harvested.
The New MacDonald’s Farm: This lesson will teach students that agriculture is no longer what it was in the song. Teach students the traditional version of Old MacDonald, and then teach the new version provided. Use the lesson ‘Yesterday or Today’ in conjunction.
Mathematics
Animals and Young: At the end of this lesson, the students will understand that animals produce different numbers of offspring. They will also develop correct vocabulary of animals and their offspring. Complete a worksheet, discuss why animals have different numbers of offspring, and do the animal dot-to-dot activity provided.
Apples: This lesson teaches students that young apple trees produce fewer apples than mature trees. Three worksheets are provided.
Egg Math: This lesson includes information on hens and chicks as well as four worksheets for students. Also comes with a counting activity.
Evergreen Tree: This lesson is a method of utilizing measurement and art to explore the structure and symmetry of a coniferous tree. Students will use a ruler to make measurements, draw lines, and create triangles, and a rectangle. These shapes can then be assembled into a tree.
Time: An apple tree will be five years old before it produces any quantity of apples. This lesson compares the timing of these types of agricultural facts with the timing of various student facts and figures. Students will compare time, as they know it, with growing plants and seasons. They will also be able to read a number line! timeline of plant growth.
Science
Egg People: This lesson is a fun way to teach students how grass sprouts while considering an alternative use for something commonly thought of as a waste product. This is done by growing grass (for hair) in an egg shell to make an ‘egg person.’ The same activity can be done with potatoes instead of eggs.
Insect Anatomy: Explore insect anatomy by making insects out of pipe cleaners, construction paper, Styrofoam peanuts, and toothpicks. This lesson assists students in learning that insects differ from spiders and that caterpillars may or may not have many legs.
Life Cycle: As the school year begins, students will often see moths and butterflies, caterpillars, and or chrysalis. The life cycle of Eggs to caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly to eggs is easily seen through the school year. At the end, students will understand that there is a science which studies insects, will be able to describe the life cycle of butterflies/moths, and will be able to answer the question - where do butterflies/moths come from?
Poultry and Eggs: Many of us have wondered - How do people make eggs bounce? Or drop them into the thin neck of a bottle? How can you tell if an egg is cooked or raw? These eggs-periments will clue you in.
Pumpkins: A great Halloween time lesson! Bring in real pumpkins to the class or make some papier-mâché pumpkins. Have the students make ‘pumpkin pencils,’ ‘pumpkin puppets,’ jack-o-lanterns, and pumpkin seeds for the class to eat. Share with them some Halloween history and the life cycles of pumpkins.
Social Studies
Animal Products: This lesson begins a process to introduce students to some information about animal agriculture, which will be reinforced in future Agriculture in the Classroom materials. Students will list animals and a product they produce and correctly use vocabulary words in relation to animals.
Eggs: This lesson will teach students where eggs come from by tracing the path from hen to table. Match eggs to the birds which produce them, complete the ‘egg maze,’ and discuss what other animals lay eggs with or without shells.
Potatoes and Potato Stamps: Potatoes are one of the most popular foods in the world. These activities will only begin to cover the wide variety of information about potatoes, such as: where potatoes come from, how potatoes are grown, and foods made from potatoes.
Tomatoes and Potatoes: This lesson will make students aware of how pumpkins, tomatoes, and potatoes grow and how they are used. At the end of the lesson, students will be able to describe where some foods made of tomatoes and pumpkins come from, as well as identify that potatoes grow underground. They will learn new words relating to tomatoes and potatoes, and compile simple sentences about tomatoes, potatoes, and foods made from them.
Yesterday or Today: One of the common misconceptions of agriculture is that it is an industry without technology. In truth it is one of the most technologically advanced industries in the world. At the end of this lesson the students will describe that tools and ways change over time by following how agriculture has evolved over the years. Use in conjunction with “New MacDonald ‘s Farm” Lesson.
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The Source: NY Ag in the Classroom Grade 2 Lesson Plans
Introduction
Student Booklet
Language Arts
The Source: Read the student booklet aloud to the class. After listening, discuss the sources of many different items. Also discuss the many steps that object went through in the process of manufacturing.
Chocolate: Read this story on chocolate, which will provide a background on cacao production in the tropics and continues through the making of chocolate and cocoa. At the end, students will be able to: arrange completed sentences in a sequence to show a logical story progression, generate complete punctuated sentences summarizing a story they have read, use sensory terms to describe a common object, and understand where chocolate comes from and how it is produced.
More Than One Name: The English language, unlike many others, has many words for the same item. Peanuts, for example, are called goobers, guinea seed, pinda, ground nut, monkey nut, earth nut, and manilla nut. At the end of this lesson students will be able to utilize the synonyms of the vocabulary words of this lesson accurately.
Chocolate Puzzles #1: This first part of the puzzle series makes a game out of identifying vowel sounds. Students color in sections according to the directions. The rest of the word, ‘chocolate’ will be completed in the math part of the puzzle series.
Mathematics
Chocolate Puzzles #2: The students will solve the mathematical calculations and follow a coloring key to color the answers correctly. They can then piece together the puzzles in sequence to form the word ‘chocolate.’
Measurement Cow: Students will be able to understand the measurement of a gallon, quart, pint, and cup and how they relate to each other by assembling a liquid measurement cow on paper. Patterns are provided.
Peanut Math: These activities teach a few fun facts about peanuts, reinforce mathematical skills and add to the knowledge in the Science lessons. The students will complete addition and subtraction problems, key out the letters in the puzzle, and fill in the peanut fun facts.
Science
Celery: Students will learn: how celery is grown; how to utilize the vocabulary words of the lesson accurately; some of the uses of celery; and how a plant’s stem supports the plant and provides a pathway for water to move up the plant and for food traveling down to the plant’s roots.
George Washington Carver: George Washington Carver single-handedly revolutionized the peanut industry in the south. Share with your students information about Mr. Carver, then read the “Peanut Wizard” story. Then complete the worksheet, discuss the scientific method and perform the peanut experiment.
Ink: Make two types of ink from two common food items: beets and onions. The onion actually makes invisible ink!
Peanuts and Peanut Butter: At the conclusion of this lesson, students will have made peanut butter, peanut butter and celery, and peanut butter fudge. They will learn the parts of the peanut plant, and that a peanut is not actually a nut, but the fruit of the plant which has developed underground.
Plant Power: This activity shows very clearly that plants store energy in their seeds in a very simple way. Watch the lid pop off of a container as the swelling seeds absorb water.
Root Structures: This lesson will show how plants need energy and nutrients in order to grow, and that a plant can store food in root structures and tubers. Do several hands on activities to understand that gravity and sunlight have an effect on plants.
Temperature: These exercises address the adaptations of living things to weather changes, particularly heat and cold, and also help students become more aware of the protective functions of bodily coverings. Students will express their knowledge of seasonal differences in a drawing exercise.
The Plant: Begin to understand the process of photosynthesis by the introduction of the parts of a plant and their function. Label the plant worksheet.
Social Studies
Blueberries: By completing the blueberry maze activities, students will begin to understand the many factors that affect the production of small fruits. They will be able to describe what affects a blueberry crop, and will be able to understand some of the life cycle of the blueberry and our control of it to produce blueberries. This lesson also teaches about the close link of the American Indian to both the natural world and their spiritual life. Students can also make moccasins and pemmican.
Butter: Allow students to make butter, taste it, and gain an appreciation for the amount of manual labor spent in the past to produce this food. Share with them how pioneers separated cream from their milk and churned it into butter.
Pizza: Where does pizza come from and what goes into it? Learn the path of food from the farm to your table, and then make your own pizza.
Sheep/Wool: Your students will be able to describe where wool comes from, “spin” fiber into yarn, and be able to recognize natural fiber versus synthetic. Other activities include making sheep puppets, a bulletin board of vocabulary words and phrases, and a discussion on weaving versus knitting.
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Bud's World : NY Ag in the Classroom Grade 2 Lesson Plans
Student Booklet
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Listening to the Prairie
Agriculture in the Classroom, a national K-12 agriculture awareness program, is pleased to provide a series of lessons and activities to complement the Smithsonian Institution’s traveling exhibition. These activities were created and compiled by New York Agriculture in the Classroom at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. The contents are designed for PreK-12 teachers, educators, home-schoolers, and parents who spend time with their families at libraries and learning centers. With the exception of the on-site scavenger hunts, most of the enclosed materials can be utilized before or after your visit to the exhibition.
Download Lesson Plan Set (5 MB)
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