LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Your Name: Lauren Lang Title of Lesson: Thank a Farmer Grade: 3

STANDARDS NOTE: Please list at least two complete standards your lesson plan covers. [Common Core State Standards (math and language arts), Next Generation Science Standards (science), Arizona State Social Studies Standards (social studies)]. Concept 3: Functional

Common Core: PO 2. Write communications, including: a. thank-you notes b. friendly letters c. formal letters d. messages e. invitations PO 3. Address an envelope for correspondence that includes: a. an appropriate return address b. an appropriate recipient address AZ State Social Studies Standards: Strand 4: Geography Concept 5: Environment and Society PO 1. Identify ways (e.g., farming, building structures and dams, creating transportation routes, overgrazing, mining, logging) in which humans depend upon, adapt to, and impact the earth.

This lesson plan is for the 5th day of a five day unit plan so it is closure to the many topics that were covered (industrial agriculture, sustainable agriculture, food distribution, and benefits of eating sustainably.) With that information behind them, I would like to dedicate the final day of the unit for observing a sustainable agriculture up close and personal by taking a field trip to a local farm or famers market. There the students will be able to reinforce everything theyve learned during hands on experiences and investigate further into topics of interest. After the experience I will have the students compose a thank you letter to the farmer.
OBJECTIVES

LESSON SUMMARY/OVERVIEW

Students will be able to correctly compose and address a thank you letter encompassing what theyve learned about how humans depend on farming and their impact on society and the earth by also making connections with previous knowledge from the previous days in the unit.
ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION

Grade the thank you letter based on rubric Students will need to attend field trip (if absent research the farms website) 1. Be well behaved/respectful 2. Be active learners Students will need to include in their letter: 1. Properly addressed

2. Express what theyve learned about how humans depend on farming and their impact on society and the earth by also making connections with previous knowledge from the previous days in the unit. (make at least 5 connections) 3. Proper grammar and spelling. 4. Meet length requirement 5. Contains proper salutation and closure with signed signature.
PREREQUISITE KNOWLEDGE

Students will have needed to understand the pervious concepts from earlier in the unit (industrial agriculture, sustainable agriculture, food distribution, and health benefits of eating sustainably.) Also, students will need to have previous practice writing a letters so the time reviewing how to set up the thank you letter is minimal and the focal point is the content in the letter itself. The evaluation is essentially a end result on what theyve learned about writing a letter to provide an example, with the content from what theyve learned about urban farming.
MATERIALS

Field trip Paper Envelopes Stamps Graphic organizer Any resources from field trip
VOCABULARY/KEY WORDS

Sustainable Agriculture: the production of food, fiber, or other plant or animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. This form of agriculture enables us to produce healthful food without compromising future generations' ability to do the same. Industrial Agriculture: production system characterized by a low fallow ratio and the high use of inputs such as capital, labor, or heavy use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers relative to land area
TEACHING PROCEDURES

1. Take students on field trip 2. Review what new information was learned from the experience and connect material to what was already learned in previous lessons (class discussion with the aid of a graphic organizer) 3. Give students the information on the specific farmer 4. Review properties of writing a friendly letter (student lead) 5. Allow time to compose letter (rough draft and final copy typed) 6. Collect, make a copy, mail original letter, grade copy and provide feedback for students. 7. Hopefully the farmer will respond to revisit this concept in a future lesson.
RESOURCES http://www.mayasfarm.com/ Farm website for field trip

http://growing-minds.org/documents/thanksgiving-for-farmers-lesson-plan.pdf Where I got my initial idea for this

lesson plan, which I adapted from this website.
WAYS OF THINKING CONNECTION

Values Thinking: being able to examine the effects our values have on our decisions and the interplay of others values all existing in one society.

When writing the letter to the farmer students will display their values based on what they have learned on urban farming within the week.