Madeline Thoreson

Professor Pollack
EDEC 437
04/01/14
Lesson Plan #4: Field Trip
Subject(s): Social Science, Life Science
Grade: TK
Description: Students are expanding their knowledge about local agriculture by
exploring the Ag Days Fair at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

Planning Rationale: Students have been doing project work on local agriculture and
have completed the first phase with a KWL chart, books and reading a local
agricultural magazine. This field trip will be the second phase (field work) of their
project: experiencing local agriculture first hand.
Objectives:
1. Students will develop an understanding of the role of the local agricultural
community with particular emphasis on the role of a farmer as an occupation.
2. Students will express their understanding of future and past events as related
to their experience at the Ag Days field trip.
3. Students will identify the characteristics and needs of farm animals as well as
what the animals provide for our community.
4. Students will practice responsibility for themselves by staying with their
chaperone and partner at all times.
Standards addressed (From Preschool Learning Foundations History-Social
Science and Science):
1. Self and Society 3.1: Adult roles and occupations
2. Community Member 2.1: Exhibit responsible conduct
3. Sense of Time 1.1, 2.1: Past and future events
4. Sense of Place 1.1: Comprehend larger locations and characteristics of the
community
5. Living Things 1.1, 1.3: Characteristics of plants and animals; habitats and needs
of living things
Materials:
6. Permission slips
1. At least 7 parent volunteers
2. 14 bright blue T-shirts with school name on front (1 per child for easy
identification)
3. 14 disposable cameras (donated)
4. Subscription to Farm News for Kids
5. Butcher paper
6. Art supplies
Procedure:
Into: This is the first phase of the project. First I will define agriculture and
then the students will create a KWL chart about our local agriculture. This
will most likely include names and purposes of farm animals and their
offspring (pig/piglet, cow/calf, horse/foal, goat/kid, chicken/chick,
sheep/lamb, bull, sheep dog, worms, etc), plants and foods (vegetables,
flowers, bees, etc) and the role of a farmer. We will create a project corner in
the room that will contain all of their charts, observations, artwork and
pictures from this project. I will have subscribed to the magazine Farm News
for Kids, published by the Sonoma-Marin County Farm Bureau. This
magazine has articles in English and Spanish about local farms, animals,
games, puzzles and activities. We will read a couple of articles each day and
there will be copies on the shelf in the project corner of the room for students
to look at on their own time. If students become interested in one particular
aspect that they learned about in the magazine we will explore that further as a
class. I will introduce the field trip to the Ag Days fair two weeks before we
go. We will create another KWL chart about what we think will be at the fair
and we will post it in the project corner.

Through: We will go to the Ag Days fair by bus and we will stay from 9am to
12pm. In class that morning, I will make sure to allot at least 10 minutes to
passing out the disposable cameras with the students names written in
sharpie. I will have gone over how to use them and when during the previous
class meeting, but as I pass them out I will remind the students about what the
cameras are for and when they can use them. Most likely, some students will
want to take pictures on the bus, and this is fine because it is a part of their
field trip experience. When we arrive we will meet at the front booth that has
a bag full of information to distribute to each student. The students can put all
of the prizes, stickers and pamphlets that they get at each booth into their bag
for safekeeping. Each parent will be responsible for at least one, but no more
tan two students and the students are responsible for staying with their grown
up. For the majority of the day the students and parents can go wherever they
would like to, but at 11:30 we will meet at the arena to eat lunch and watch
the sheep dog agility show as a class. I have planned this so that we have a
meeting place before we go back to the bus, but also because I feel that it is
important for the class to experience a part of the fair as a whole group.

Beyond: When we arrive back at the classroom I will collect all of the
disposable cameras to have them developed. Immediately following the field
trip we will fill in the What we learned portion of our Ag Days Fair KWL
chart. I will ask each student to share a favorite experience or interesting fact
that they learned and I will write those sentences on a separate sheet of
butcher paper. I will hang these in the project corner. I will explain to the
students that they can put objects or information they collected from the
booths on the table in the corner as another way to share their experience. In
the days (or possibly weeks depending on student interest) following, I will
ask the students to write about their experience during language arts time and
draw something they observed during art. Of course, any time the students
want to share their experience at the fair they can and they can display their
work in the project corner. When the pictures are developed I will dedicate
most of that day to letting the students look at their pictures and share with
one another what they chose to document. We will then post one photo from
each student on the project wall with a caption about the photo. The students
can take the other photos home or we can make photo albums. As a class we
will continue to read Farm News for Kids.

Differentiation:
1. For students who are unfamiliar with the local agriculture community I will
provide pictures and maps of Sonoma County agriculture. The KWL and
magazine chart will also help these students to understand the concept of local
agriculture.
2. For students who are unfamiliar with the English words for the farm animals and
their offspring I will post photographs on the whiteboard and in the project corner
with both English and Spanish words written underneath. We will continually go
over this vocabulary as a class.
3. For students who are having trouble differentiating between past and future tense
I will practice with them by restating what they say using the correct tense. This
will most likely happen more frequently after the field trip when students
articulate what they saw (i.e. I see the cow instead of I saw a cow.)
4. For students who are very familiar with local agriculture (i.e. a student who lives
near a farm or has a garden), I will ask them to share what they know with the
class or bring in an artifact related to what they already know (a picture of the
sheep next to their house, a jar of honey from their neighbors bees).
5. For students who are familiar with the agriculture vocabulary in English I will ask
them to find those words in Spanish (and vice versa).
6. For students who are able to clearly articulate past and future events in simple
sentences I will ask them to develop a more complex sentence (i.e. I saw a horse
at the fair to I saw a horse eating hay at the fair.)
Assessment:
1. I will listen to what the students observed at the fair about farmers, animals and
their local agriculture to determine if they know the vocabulary and adult roles
associated with agriculture.
2. I will look at the students artwork and writing to determine if they have a better
understanding of the characteristics of the animals and plants they saw at the fair.
3. I will listen to student observations and look at student writing to determine if
they know past and future tense.
4. I will ask the parent volunteers about their students ability to stay with their
chaperone and partner and follow directions.