What Is Living on the Farm? Lesson Plan
Academic Standards
Reading Objective:
Children will read an emergent text to distinguish between living things and nonliving things.
Science Focus:
living and nonliving
Literacy Focus:
emergent texts
Page 8 Skill:
critical thinking
Vocabulary:
air, babies, breathes, food, grows, living, nonliving, water
CCSS:
RI.K.1, RI.K.3, RI.K.7, SL.K.2
- Watch our video Is It a Living Thing? Then have children turn and talk with a partner. Have one child name an item and the other tell whether it is living or nonliving. Then have them switch roles.
- Return to the large group and have them share.
- Read the mini book together.
- As you read the book, have kids describe why each thing is living or nonliving.
- Then do the Show What You Know skill sheet as a follow-up activity.
- With our Is It Living? Is It Nonliving? game, kids decide which things in a scene are living, and which are nonliving.
- Our Farm Map skill sheet helps build early map-reading skills.
Materials: None!
- Play this simple game during classroom transitions, on a walk around the school, or outdoors. Just challenge kids to point to and name living and nonliving things! Here are a few challenges you might pose:
- Can you name three living things in the playground?
- Name three nonliving things in the hall.
- Without moving from your spot, point to one living and one nonliving thing.
- If kids get mixed up, talk them through the problem. For instance, if a child names a car as a living thing, ask questions like: “Does the car need food? Does it need to breathe air? Does it have baby cars?”
- Sprinkle challenges throughout the day, and your kids will more deeply understand this tough concept!