Summary
Students love learning about animals. In this lesson, students will use research and data to study farm animals. Students will explore farm animals at various learning stations and use the information they gathered to compose a class book about farm animals. Included is an optional STEAM activity where students will create their own farm animals, focusing on how animals use their external parts to help them survive and meet their needs.
Essential Question(s)
What do animals need to live and grow? How are farm animal habitats different from one another or the same? Why are farms important to us?
Snapshot
Engage
Students start by listening to sounds from a farm. Then, using a KWL chart, the class documents what students already know about farm animals and posts these findings in the “What Do We Know?” column of the chart. Students then go on a virtual field trip to a farm and complete the “What Do We Want to Know?” portion of the KWL chart.
Explore
This part of the lesson begins with the creation of a farm animal word chart. Students then explore farm animals at a number of learning stations. What they learn in their centers then helps them answer the questions the class recorded on the KWL chart.
Explain
Students revisit the KWL chart and think about the questions the class generated earlier. Students participate in a discussion and work with Elbow Partners to complete the “What Have We Learned?” column of the KWL chart. The class then takes a survey to discover which farm animals are favorites of the class. These results are graphed and analyzed.
Extend
Students use their knowledge of farm animals to create a book about farm animals. Using essential questions to guide them, each student creates a page for a class book.
Evaluate
Students use the Think-Pair-Share strategy to respond to one or more of the questions from the class KWL chart. This response may be a verbal explanation, a written explanation, or a drawing. Student conversations are observed and evaluated using the attached Anecdotal Observation Record.
Materials
Anecdotal Observation Record (attached)
Chart paper and markers, whiteboard space, or similar
Assorted books about farm animals
Pencils, crayons, markers, or other drawing materials
Scissors and glue sticks
Materials for learning stations
Facts About My Farm Animal (attached, optional; one per student)
Make a Farm (attached, optional; one per student)
What Is Your Favorite Farm Animal handout (attached, optional; one per student)
What Products Do These Farm Animals Give Us handout (attached, optional; one per student)
Where Do Animals Live and What Do They Eat handout (attached, optional; one per student)
Blank paper (optional; several at each station)
iPads with
an application such as Epic (optional)
QR codes with URLs about informational texts and videos (optional; prepared in advance or found online)
Several dice (optional)
Magnetic letters or letter tiles (optional)
Letter stamps (optional)
Art materials for optional STEAM project
Newspaper, magazines, printouts, or old books with animal pictures for students to cut out
Colored paper, feathers, foam,
tape, scissors, glue, small boxes, and other three-dimensional art project supplies
Paper, markers, colored pencils, and other drawing supplies student notebooks
Engage
Start the lesson out by listening to some sounds that come from a farm (“Real Farm Animal Sounds”). Have students only listen to the video’s audio without watching the video itself. Listen for about a minute.
Ask students where they think these sounds might have been recorded. Your students will probably respond with “a farm” or “a zoo.” Start a word wall or chart and add the word farm. Have the class read the word with you. Tell the class that they are going to be learning about farm animals. Using a modified version of the KWHL Graphic Organizer strategy, create a large “KWL” chart for the class in a projector or whiteboard space. This chart should have three columns: “What Do We Know?”, “What Do We Want to Know?,” and “What Have We Learned?”
Using this class chart, work together to discuss and document what students already know about farm animals. Post these findings in the “What Do We Know?” column of the chart. Possible responses might include the names of the more common animals that live on farms, particularly cows, pigs, and chickens. These responses depend on students’ prior knowledge.
Next, take a virtual field trip to a farm by watching the following video or a similar one of your choice: “Take a Field Trip to the Animal Farm.” Another option, if preferred, is to read aloud from a nonfiction book about farms. During the video or book, pause to discuss different animals and what makes them unique.
Move on to the “What Do We Want to Know?” portion of the KWL chart. Invite students to complete this column by having them generate questions about farm animals.
Explore
Begin the next activity by adding to your farm animal word chart. Ask students to help you generate farm animal words based on the book or the video from the previous activity. The class can continue adding more words to the chart later in the lesson.
Invite students to continue exploring farm animals at the prepared class stations. You can have students record their findings using paper provided at each center, or you can pass out to each student a copy of the attached Facts About My Farm Animal handout (and/or other handouts as mentioned above).
Rotating students through these stations may take 2-5 days depending on your choice of stations. Move to the Explain phase once your students have completed a full rotation through each station, as students will use the facts they have collected in their explorations for this next activity.
Explain
Begin by revisiting the KWL chart and looking at the questions the class generated earlier. Read the questions one at a time, and have students give you a thumbs-up if they learned something that would answer that question. When this happens, have students turn and talk with an Elbow Partner before calling on them to give you answers. Add students’ answers to the “What Have We Learned?” column of the chart. This class discussion can be split into multiple sessions depending on your class’s attention span. This can also be a wonderful time to sing some of the songs, read an additional book, and add to the farm animal word wall.
Now that your students know more about animals, invite them to take a class survey of their favorite class animal and graph the results. Choose whether you would rather have each student create their own graph, create a class graph, or both. For individual graphs, pass out a copy of the attached What Is Your Favorite Farm Animal? handout to each student and supply markers or similar art supplies. Otherwise, use a single copy of the handout or create a larger version on a whiteboard space or projector.
Survey the class for each student’s favorite animal. If applicable, have students color or use counters to mark each time an animal is mentioned as a classmate’s favorite, or mark these on the class chart. When the graph is finished, don’t forget to have the class analyze their data. The following questions can be used for this:
How many students like the chicken?
How many students liked the horse?
Which animal was the favorite farm animal?
Which animal was the least favorite?
Who was liked more, the chicken or the pig?
How many more students liked the sheep than the pig?
Additionally, you can ask students to generate questions that can be answered using the graph.
Extend
Now that students have had the opportunity to learn some facts about farm animals, have the class think about the essential questions as you read them aloud. Allow time for discussion and clarification of ideas and facts.
What do animals need to live and grow?
How are farm animal habitats different from one another or the same?
Why are farms important to us?
Invite students to use their new knowledge of farm animals to create a class book about farm animals. Using the essential questions as a guide, have each student create a page for the class book. This can also be done in groups, where groups are formed based on class data.
When your class book is complete, share it with another class either in person or digitally. To do so, record your class reading the book, with each student taking a turn to read their own page. Upload the full recording to your class Seesaw or another secure online account.
STEAM Option
For this optional activity, invite students to create their own farm animals. Students should be able to discuss the characteristics of their animal creation and explain the purpose of those characteristics. For example, a student might create a cow with feathers that help it stay warm in the field during winter. Students could also include their created animal’s habitat and diet.
Make sure to include time for students to present their farm animal creations to the class. Discuss ahead of time the guidelines and expectations for their presentation.
Evaluate
Use the Think-Pair-Share strategy to have students explain (verbally or by drawing and writing their responses) to one or more of the questions from the class KWL chart. Consider having students choose the questions to be answered, or select the questions yourself. Monitor and observe student conversations and record students’ understanding of the material with the attached Anecdotal Observation Record chart.
Resources
Höck, R. (April 2017). Real animal farm sounds without music, for children and parents - cow mooing for kids, Kuh muht [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/VskbwXTRL7U
K20 Center. (n.d.). Elbow partners. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/116
K20 Center. (n.d.). KWHL graphic organizer. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/127
K20 Center. (n.d.). Think-pair-share. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/139
South Florida PBS. (May 2016). Take a field trip to the animal farm | KidVision pre-k [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/VskbwXTRL7U