Rachel Dawes
Grades: 1-2
Geography

PURPOSE:

This project will allow children to explore where the food we eat is produced and some of the processes it goes through.

CONNECTION TO THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS:

No.  1  Knows and understands how to use maps, globes and other graphical tools to acquire, process and report information.  Students will use maps to chart where their food is produced.  They will also look at relationships between these various results.

No.  6  Knows and understands that culture and experience people's perceptions of places and experiences. Students will look at the regions and the cultures where food production is most concentrated.

No. 11  Knows and understands the networks of economic interdependence.  Students will look at how we depend on food from other places and other people depend on production from our region.

OBJECTIVES:

Students will demonstrate there ability:
1.  to recognize on various food product labels where production manufactured.
2.  to locate on a map where production occurs.
3.  to illustrate a transformation of a food of their choice from nature to table.
4.  to learn to use the Internet to find geography related information.

OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION:

This project will introduce food production to students.  They will begin by collecting containers, labels and packages of some of their favorite food products.  As a class they will become familiar with the geographical layout of the United States.  As food containers are collected the students will create a large chart showing where each product is manufactured. They will learn about a few types of food and how they are transformed from nature to our dining room tables.  They will look at relationships between regions where production is concentrated.  Students will also illustrate a class book describing the process food goes through to become edible.

PROCEDURES:

Day One

Opening:  Present students with a map of the United States in a poster form large enough to be seen across a classroom. Read over the names of each state with the students so they can become somewhat familiar with them.

Guided Practice:  Ask the students what they had for breakfast that morning.  Have some breakfast food packages or labels ready and look at the place of manufacturing.  Show on the map the place of manufacturing.  Explain to students that everyday for the next week we will place a few labels from food on the bulletin board with tacks.  Then we will connect the labels with the state in which it was manufactured.

Independent Practice:  Give each student their own map of the U.S.  Have them label each state by looking on the poster.

Evaluation/Assessment/Feedback: The students will demonstrate their ability to transfer information from one map to another by recognizing spatial similarities.

Closure:  Talk about how the food we eat goes many places before it ever reaches our table.  We looked at how some of the food we ate for breakfast traveled from long distances.

Day Two:

Opening: Spend a few minutes putting some labels on the map and talking about where they are manufactured.  Today choose a different type of food such as snacks or something you would eat at dinner.

Guided Practice:  Talk about how much of the food we eat comes from some sort of a farm.  Read through the boxes on the "What is a Farm?" worksheets.  Take a few minutes to share a little bit about each type of farm.  Explain that there are many different types of farms all over the world.  The food we eat in one meal may come from several different places.

Independent Practice:  Pass out "What is a Farm?" worksheets to students.  Have them color each picture and cut them out. Glue them to some colored paper and make a book. "What is a Farm?" worksheets are four worksheets with pictures of different types of farms.  Each boxed picture has a sentence describing what type of farm it is.  Ex. "Some farms are small." shows a picture of a small farm. Cut out each picture and color it.  Then glue it to a 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" colored paper.  The different types of farms are:  small, large, rice farm, banana farm, apple farm, corn farm, grain farm, fruit farm, vegetable farm, dairy farm, chicken farm, beef and pork farm, using tractors, using machines, and using hands.

Evaluation/Assessment/Feedback:  The students will turn in their books for evaluation.  I will evaluate on whether or not it is completed.

Closure:  Where are some of the places so far that our food has come from?  Is that a very long distance or a very short distance?  What are some foods you eat that come from a farm?

Day Three:

Opening:  Today we are going to visit a farm.

Guided Practice:  Having chosen a farm close by to visit, have the farmer tell about the process his crop goes through before it is sold in the stores.  Look at the soil and the vegetation.  If there are animals (i.e.. cows, chickens, pigs) talk about the process they go through.

Evaluation/Assessment/Feedback:  The students will draw a picture of one thing they saw on the farm and then draw a picture of what it looks like on our tables.  (e.g., a cow and an ice cream bar, wheat and a loaf of bread)

Closure:  Give students an opportunity to share their product with the class.  See if the class can come up with any more together.

Day Four:

Opening: (Before class collect dry goods from a grocery store or home.)  Put more labels on the class map and chart where it was manufactured.

Guided Practice:  Talk about some of the things you saw on the farm yesterday.  Remind them of the process everything goes through to get to our dinner table.  Make butter with your class so they can see this process simply.  Then allow students to eat the butter on bread or crackers.

Evaluation/Assessment/Feedback:  The students will participate in the butter making process.

Closure:  What process did the butter have to go through to become ready to eat?

Day Five:

Opening: (Before class collect dry goods from a grocery store or home.)  Put more labels on the class map and chart where it was manufactured.

Guided Practice:  Look through some of the food products.  Talk about what kind of farm it came from.  Look at where it was manufactured.

Independent Practice:  Pass out "Grocery Store Geography" worksheet.  Have each student choose some of your food products and fill in the chart.  (Transportation is optional) Each student will glue their labeled map from day one on to a poster board or some other large paper.  They will draw a picture of each food item in their chart and draw a line to the state where it was grown.  Then they will label their community with a star and draw a different colored line from where it was grown to their community.

"Grocery Store Worksheet" is a three column chart for food, where it is grown, and kind of transportation used to ship the product.

Evaluation/Assessment/Feedback:  The students will turn these projects in and be evaluated on correct completion.

Closure:  Compare maps and see who has a food that traveled the greatest distance.

Day Six

Opening:  Look at projects from day four again.  Compare distances such as longest and shortest distance to your community.  Put more labels on class map.

Guided Practice:  Take students to the computer in the room and connect them to the map web site (http://www.indo.com/distance/).  Go to the section where you can type in two places and find a distance.  Show the students how to do this on a couple of examples.

Independent Practice:  Students will go to the lab and complete this for the places on their project.  Ex.  If an apple comes from Washington, the student would write the name of the town in Washington and Abilene, Texas (or whatever town they are living in) in the two blanks and the computer would calculate the distance from Washington to Abilene, Texas.

Evaluation/Assessment/Feedback: The students will turn this in for evaluation of having completed it.

Closure: Look back at your class map and guess which place might be furthest from your community. We all depend on each other to survive with food. We depend on Washington for apples, Idaho for potatoes and Florida for orange juice.

MATERIALS:

--Students should be collecting food containers, labels, and packages from some of their favorite foods. When collected, these should be separated into a breakfast group, dinner group and a snack group.
--"Grocery Store Geography" worksheet
--United States Map, poster size
--United States Map, individual size
--"What is a Farm?" worksheet
--pencils
--crayons
--Colored paper for farm books
--glue
--Manila paper
--food items from home or grocery store
--large paper or poster board for individual projects
--"Butter Me Up" worksheet

APPENDIX: (not included because of copyright)

--Poem, "Down on the Farm"
--Poem, "Going Bananas"

EXTENSIONS:

--You can carry this over to math with the distances and comparing shorter and longer.
--You can incorporate science in growing food and farming.
--You can incorporate a health unit on the food pyramid or healthy foods.
--Read Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
--"How Seeds Grow"
--"Make Me a Peanut Butter Sandwich and a Glass of Milk" by Ken Robbins
--Milk carton math
--Newspaper Numbers
--Popcorn Problems
--The Story of Corn
--Crazy Corn
--Fantasy Fruit

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

From Farm to Table.  Evan-Moor Educational Publishers:  Monterey, CA.  1996, 48 pg.

Hands on Geography.  Instructional Fair, Inc.:  Grand Rapids, MI.  1994, 80 pg.

How Far is It?  http://www.indo.com/distance/ (4-10-97)

Stevens, Janet.  Tops and Bottoms.  Harcourt Brace and Company, 1995.

Other Literature for Children:

Fowler, Allan.  If It Weren't for Farmers.  Children's Press, 1993.

Gibbons, Gail.  Farming.  Holiday House, 1988.

Gibbons, Gail.  The Milk Makers.  Aladdin Books, 1987.

Patent, Dorothy Henshaw.  Where Food Comes From.  Holiday, 1991.

Provenson, Alice and Martin.  Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm.  Random House, 1974.

Robbins, Ken.  Make Me a Peanut Butter Sandwich and a Glass of Milk.  Scholastic, Inc., 1992.

Tryon, Leslie.  Albert's Field Trip. Atheneum, 1993.

Created 5-24-97

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