FARM WATCH

FARM WATCH

MASTER TEACHER Jill Scott

GRADES Pre-K, K

OVERVIEW
The students will be able, through the use of video, to experience life on the farm. They will see farm animals and examine horses and cows. They also will participate in simulated cow milking. As a final treat they can enjoy ice cream made from cow's milk.

ETV SERIES
A First Look At: Farm Animals #104

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The learner will be able to:
* identify farm animals by name
* classify whether an animal lives on the farm or does not live on a farm
* name features unique to a horse
* name features unique to a cow
* compare and contrast a horse and a cow
* name food items that we get from a cow
* demonstrate the technique for milking a cow
* experience making one or more food items from milk

MATERIALS
cow toy that makes a mooing sound (1)
paper bag(1)
play farm with a selection of farm animals
other toy animals that do not live on a farm
2 sets of animal cut outs of the following farm animals that are listed in the video
(horse, cow, goat, pigs, ducks, chicks, cats, dogs)
poster of a farm
pictures showing habitats of ocean, forest, home, zoo, jungle, all on one poster
cow poster with glove for milking (directions for making listed in extension after session 2)
milk - 1 quart

For Ice cream making activity:
one large 3 lb. empty coffee can
1 small empty coffee can
mixture for ice cream (see recipe for ingredients or use pre-made mix)
1 bag of ice
1 box ice cream salt

For butter making activity:
1 pint carton heavy whipping cream
1 plastic jar that will hold the cream and have room for shaking
salt shaker
crackers - 2 per student

PRE-VIEWING ACTIVITY
Inside of a paper bag have a cow toy that makes a mooing sound when it is shaken or turned over. Turn the bag over and ask the students what they hear. (Accept all answers.) Choose one student to open the bag and tell you what he sees. Encourage other students to help identify the sound as mooing from a cow. Ask the students where a cow lives. When the students have decided that the cow might live on the farm, show the toy farm and ask if this is where the cow might live.

FOCUS FOR VIEWING
Tell the students that they are going to watch a video about the farm. To give the students a specific responsibility while viewing, tell them to try to remember all of the animals that they will see on the video. After viewing the video they will help to put the proper animals in the play farm.

VIEWING ACTIVITIES
Start the video, First Look At: Farm Animals #104, when you see a picture of a barn and the narrator says "When you think of a farm you probably think of a barn..." Pause the video after you see the little puppies and kittens and the narrator says "Most farms have cats and dogs as pets." Ask the students to name all of the different animals that were mentioned as living on the farm. Make a chart of the animals using animal shape pictures or note pad sheets, and tape them on a slick board. Rewind the tape to the picture of the barn Pause To provide the students with a specific responsibility while viewing, pass out a matching set of the animal cut outs to several different students. Tell the students that when their animal is named they are to come and stick their cut-out on the television screen. Resume the same segment of the video as before. Stop the video where the narrator says, "Most farms have cats and dogs," and you see the cats and dogs on the screen. Compare the pictures on the screen with the ones on the chart.

POST-VIEWING ACTIVITIES
Brainstorm other animals that might live on the farm. List these on a piece of paper on the chart previously made. Introduce a large bag of animals both farm animals and non-farm animals. Have the students take turns pulling an animal from the bag and deciding if it is a farm animal or a non- farm animal. Provide a picture of a farm, and one of an ocean, a forest, and a zoo all on one poster. Place a symbol of a farm with a slash on it to stand for not the farm. The students will then catagorize the animals. They can use the chart made from the video and brainstorming for clues.

EXTENSIONS
Farm Center:
Place the play farm and animals in a farm center. Allow the students to choose this center during center time.

Library Center:
Provide several books about farm animals in the library for the students viewing. (See bibliography)

Dramatic Play Center:
Provide overalls, buckets for feeding the animals, stick horses, and stuffed animals for the farm. Also use plastic Easter eggs and nesting materials for the students to practice gathering the eggs.

Art Center:
To make a stick horse use an empty dish washing detergent bottle such as Joy or Dawn, yarn, and an old mop stick. Turn the empty bottle on the side using the spout of the bottle as the nose of the horse. Add felt eyes and a yarn mane. Poke a hole in the bottom side of the bottle and insert the mop stick. Add leather strips about the bottle to act as the reigns.

Listening Center:
Provide book and tape of Inside a Barn in The Country by Alyssa Satin Capucilli, for the listening station. After the students have heard the story several times, provide paper and markers for them to write their own story of the barn in the country.

SESSION 2 or CONTINUATION

PREVIEWING ACTIVITY
Show the students pictures of a horse. Have the students describe everything they see in the picture of the horse and any interesting facts they know about a horse. Show the student pictures of a cow. Again, have the students describe the cow and tell all the facts they know about a cow.

FOCUS FOR VIEWING
To provide the students with a specific responsibility for viewing, tell the students to find one new fact about a cow or a horse from the video.

VIEWING ACTIVITIES
Start the video where the narrator says, "A mother horse is called a mare"and on the screen you see a mother horse and a newborn foal. Pause the video when the narrator says "many children who live on a farm learn to ride before they start school." On the screen you will see several people riding horses. Discuss all the facts about horses that the students have learned from the video. Ask the students to name one new fact or idea they learned about a horse. Fast forward the video until you see a group of cattle and the narrator says "People all over the world raise cattle." Resume video. Stop the video where you see cattle in a pasture and the narrator says, "Most cattle live their full lives on one farm." Discuss all the facts about cows that the students have learned from the video. Rewind the video to the starting point of this activity where the narrator says, "A mother horse is called a marel" and on the screen is a mother horse and new born foal. Play the video again for reinforcement, this time, with the sound off. Provide an additional responsibility for viewing for the students by asking them if they can remember what the narrator was talking about as the pictures come on the screen. Allow the students to call out ideas in an orderly fashion. Stop the video at the end of the description about cows where you see the cattle in the pasture.

POST-VIEWING ACTIVITIES
Divide the students into pairs. Have one student describe an animal as either a horse or a cow using only describing words and simple facts. The other student needs to decide if a cow or a horse is being described. The students change places and repeat the activity.

EXTENSIONS
Milking Activity
For an experience in milking a cow, provide a large poster size cut-out of a cow. Place a plastic glove where the udder is located.. Fill the glove with milk. At the end of two of the fingers put small pin holes. Attach the cut-out of the cow to a bulletin board or wall. When the children squeeze on the fingers of the glove, as if milking a cow, milk will come out. This is a very good simulation of milking a cow.

Cooking Activity
Mix up your favorite recipe for homemade ice cream. Place the mixture inside a clean, small coffee can. Replace the top and wrap the can in foil. Place the small can inside the large coffee can. Put the salt and ice in the space between the inner and outer cans. Replace the top on the large can. Have the students sit in two lines facing each other. Have them roll the can back and forth to each other. Notice the changes on the outsides of the cans. Soon you will have delicious ice cream inside. What happened to the liquid milk?

One recipe for ice cream:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups light cream
3 eggs slightly beaten
1/2 cup sugar
20 ox. red soda
1 pkg. frozen strawberries
1 tsp. vanilla

To turn cream into butter. - Place heavy whipping cream in a see-through jar. Have a student shake the jar to music. Soon the liquid will separate and butter will appear. Salt the butter and enjoy on crackers.

ACTION PLAN
Plan a field trip to a neighboring farm. As a language experience activity, write the farmer asking for permission to visit. Include in the letter all of the things that you expect to see at the farm. Enclose a stamped envelope for the farmer to reply.

Find a pen pal who lives on a farm with whom your class can correspond by e-mail Correspond with this student on a weekly basis.

Have someone bring a cow or a horse to school for a live demonstration.

Visit the local milk processing plant.

Take a trip to the neighborhood store and discover all of the foods we get from the farm.

Internet
The students can surf the web for information about cows and horses using the
search method Yahooligans-Animals.
www.yahooligans.com/science_and_oddities/living-things/animals/farm_animals.

They may also visit Davis's Farmland site at www.davisfarmland.com/menu/index0.htm

Barnyard Buddies www.execpc.com/öbyb/.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Brown, Margaret. Big Red Barn.
Capucilli, Alyssa Satin. Inside a Barn in the Country.
Harris, Richard. I Can Read About Horses.
Hobson, Sally. Chicken Little.
Miller, Jane. Farm Alphabet Book.
Speed, Toby. Two Cool Cows.
Waddell, Martin. Farmer Duck.

Updated: April 01, 2008