Kindergarten Unit 2: PBL From Farm to Table

Think back to your most positive experience as a student—a time that was meaningful to you. Why did this leave a lasting impression? How did your teacher make this experience possible? What learning was embedded in this experience?

Talk with your colleagues about your experiences and memories. It’s likely you’ll find some consistent themes: working with peers, independence, choice, engagement, content-specific learning, and applying learning in a real-world context. Project-based learning offers all of this and more!

Watch this video from PBLWorks to see project-based learning in action. The teacher is knowledgeable and passionate about the topic. The children are making choices about what they do and how they do it, they’re asking questions, reflecting, and interacting with peers and adults by discussing their ideas and feedback.

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a critical aspect of Success Academy’s (SA) school design. Our scholars learn the thrill of becoming experts in a subject when they have extended time to immerse themselves in a fascinating topic from a cross-disciplinary perspective— including through field studies; art projects; and classes in science, reading, writing, and/or math. The culmination of PBL studies are museum presentations scholars can share with others; this allows scholars to demonstrate the learning and engagement they have achieved.

In this unit, you will fuel scholars’ curiosity about where food comes from. Scholars will discover that almost all the food we eat originates from a farm of some kind and that workers in all parts of the process help food along its path from the farm to our tables.

Before launching the unit with your scholars, read the following texts to ensure you have the necessary content knowledge to facilitate this study.

• Apples by Gail Gibbons
• How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? by Chris Buttersworth
• Journey of a Glass of Milk by John Malam
• The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons
• How Far Does Your Food Travel to Get to Your Plate? by CUESA

• Demonstrate reading/storytelling characteristics as described in stage 4 of the Emergent Storybook Stages
• With prompting and support, retell and ask and answer questions about key details in a text
• Draw/write to share facts related to one topic

• Why do we need farms?
  • Farms provide food and animal products that help keep us healthy.
• What is a farm?
  • There are different kinds of farms.
  • Farms grow plants and take care of animals.
• What grows on a farm?
  • Farms grow plants, fruits, and vegetables.
• What’s the process of getting food from farms to markets?
  • After farmers harvest their food, they send them to supermarkets, farmer’s markets, or smaller stores.
• How do we keep different foods safe?
  • Food has to be kept in clean and safe conditions during transportation and while in markets.
• What can I get at different markets?
  • Different types of food stores exist because people want different things.
• How are markets organized?
  • Supermarkets have aisles organized in a logical and safe way so customers can easily find items.
• Who works at a supermarket?
  • Supermarkets have many different workers who perform different tasks using different tools.

Writing happens daily and in various forms. Scholars draw and label to share ideas, experiment with language in phrases and sentences, write multiple paragraphs related to a topic, and publish fiction and nonfiction class and personal books — the writing possibilities are endless! The writing scholars do at SA is varied and constant, sometimes explicitly stated in a unit and other times by the teacher’s design or initiated by a scholar’s thinking or creativity. Writing at SA is not limited to a writing assessment — that is too narrow a view and not the key lever for developing writers and the habits of writing. Scholars engage in writing via writing assignments and show off their writing skills in three, on-demand, writing assessments.

• Writing Assignment
  • Writing is sometimes about going through the entire process — planning to publication (e.g. published pieces of writing) and in other instances writing is a tool for thinking, generating or processing ideas, or reflecting on and refining learning.
  • Scholars engage in various stages of the writing process in their day-to-day writing experiences, writing routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of tasks, purposes, and audiences. Examples of writing assignments include:
    • Taking notes
    • Writing down reactions or ideas after listening to/reading a text
    • Labeling or captioning an image
    • Making a list
    • Noticing something about how texts are written during genre study, and then trying it out. Scholars might write a word, a phrase, a sentence, a paragraph, or more. Depending on the study, they might try out:
    • Using repeating lines
    • Exaggerating to make a point or add humor
    • Writing a sentence to match the meaning it’s intended to convey (e.g. the dull, repetitive feel of assembly-line work in a factory, an energetic puppy who’s out of control, and a person with thoughts running through their mind)
    • Asking a question and then answering it
    • Using thought bubbles
    • Taking a common phrase and changing it a little — Lights, Animals, Action!
    • Using vocabulary specific to a topic and telling what it means
    • In addition to daily writing that includes writing a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph, scholars work through the writing process from start to finish various times across a year. They repeatedly experience the full writing process, because writers get better at writing by writing, by publishing, and by getting feedback. Likewise, scholars form a positive relationship with writing by celebrating writing and writing for a purpose.
• Writing Assessment
  • A writing assessment is a time bound task occurring on one day at three distinct times of the school year (one near the beginning, middle, and end of the school year).
  • The purpose of a writing assessment is to:
    • Show scholars’ acquisition and development of writing skills at a given point in time and across the year
    • Understand what learning objectives scholars have met and what they need additional support in developing
    • Provide evidence as to the effectiveness of writing instruction implementation and the literacy curriculum
  • Scholars independently apply the writing skills they’ve learned during the writing assessment. At a high level this includes the following writing skills:
    • Writing appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
    • Producing clear, logical, and organized writing
    • Including relevant details to support the idea
  • Writing assessments reflect types of writing scholars have engaged with repeatedly across the unit and/or year, including sequenced narratives and informative/explanatory writing.

Scholars will engage in writing assessments that both evaluate their writing skills proficiency and serve as a tool for diagnosing future growth goals and implementation. The tasks will not live explicitly within the unit of study, but will reflect the learning objectives for the unit.

The culminating museum showcases scholars’ project work and content knowledge of Farm to Table. Communicate with parents throughout the unit about the study and museum.

Museums and project work should exhibit best effort and should be eye-catching and beautiful.

You will need lots of space! Plan for how to use your classroom to display scholar work. Include wall space both within and outside of your four walls.

Prepare scholars to present their museum to visitors, guide guests on a tour of their projects, and clearly demonstrate their excitement and expertise of the farm to table process.

Scholars will work with a variety of materials as they create their projects.

• Small mason jars
• Bottles
• Boxes
• Paper (white paper, construction paper in a variety of colors, colored tissue paper)
• Coloring supplies

Scholars will use PBL folders for their research and writing. Each folder should have a Farm to Table cover photo. Prepare these beforehand, making them special and exciting for scholars to use.

• Supermarket Scavenger Hunt and Observing at a Small Market
  • Scholars learn the defining characteristics of a supermarket by comparing it to a smaller market.
• Interviewing Supermarket Workers
  • Scholars revisit the supermarket to learn about the individual departments and the different roles supermarket workers play. Scholars conduct independent research and interview supermarket employees.
• Queens County Farm Museum (or a local farm)
  • Scholars explore a farm to learn about where the food they eat comes from and that workers help to produce and transport the food.
• Farmers’ Market
  • Scholars compare and contrast the farmer’s market to the supermarket and determine why people would choose to shop at the farmers’ market.

Give scholars a clear objective for each field study.

Projects are not the dessert; they are the main course of project based learning. Scholars will explore and learn about Farm to Table through these exciting projects.

• Milk to Butter
  • Scholars make butter from milk to understand that butter originates from cow’s milk. Each scholar plays an important role in turning the milk to butter by shaking the jar of ingredients to turn the liquid milk into solid butter. Scholars then enjoy their creation on bread or crackers. This project can be replicated the day of the museum for visitors.
• Supermarket Worker Interview Posters
  • Each scholar will interview a supermarket worker. Then scholars will use the information gleaned from the interview to create a poster of each interviewed worker. Scholars will create illustrations of the workers in their settings at the store, such as showing the butcher behind the deli meats or the stock clerk stocking the shelves. Each illustration will show the worker, the tools he or she uses, and the jobs he or she does. Scholars will label illustrations with letters or words. The illustrations will be placed around the classroom and displayed during the museum.
• Interactive Grocery Store
  • Scholars create their own interactive grocery store in the classroom — deciding what sections their store will include and how to best organize the food. Using art supplies and recycled materials, scholars create “food” items for shoppers to “purchase.” Provide visitors to the store with shopping lists and (make-believe) currency. Scholars help museum visitors navigate the store and find items in the aisles. See examples here.
    • Tip: At the beginning of the unit, send a letter to parents asking them to donate any supplies that would be useful to create your interactive store, such as bottles, boxes, paper, coloring supplies, or any other recyclables and art materials.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

• Why do we need farms?
  • Farms provide food and animal products that help keep us healthy.
• What grows on a farm?
  • Farms grow plants, fruits, and vegetables.

Readings

• On the Farm, at the Market by G. Brian Karas
  • This fiction book introduces scholars to the fact that food from the farm can go directly to the market and on our own tables! The beautiful illustrations show fruits and vegetables being transported and sold.
• Up We Grow! A Year in the Life of a Small, Local Farm by Deborah Hodge
  • This book introduces scholars to the four seasons of farming, showing photographs of all the hardworking people who do farming jobs across the year.
• Before We Eat: From Farm to Table by Pat Brisson
  • This beautifully illustrated book gives scholars an idea of what it’s like to eat food directly from a farm and reminds them to thank the workers who’ve made their meals possible!
• The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons
  • This book will show how the vegetables we eat at home originate on the farm. There are many beautiful illustrations and text features to highlight!

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Farm/Not a Farm Sort
  • Print and cut out the following images. Create a T-Chart labeled “Farm” and “Not a farm.” Think aloud about the first few, modeling how to tell which image would be considered a farm and which would not. Explain that farms grow things we eat and use or have animals we use products from. Places such as parks and gardens are just green spaces for us to enjoy. Scholars turn and talk about the next few images, discussing which column they fit into and why. Call on individual scholars to sort the remaining pictures.
  • As a class, discuss what they have learned about farms from studying these pictures. This will help scholars process that not every green space is a farm; farms have specific purposes!
  • Optional Extension Activity: Scholars sit in a large circle and sort the pictures in a different way. For example, farms with animals, farms with plants, parks, gardens.
• What is a farm?
  • Scholars draw a picture of a farm and label at least three parts they can identify (e.g., a barn, plants, fruits, vegetables, stables for animals).
• Found on a farm?
  • Print and cut out the following images. Make a T-Chart with your class, labeled “Comes from a farm” and “Does not come from a farm.” As a class, sort images into their correct column. Discuss which things they think can be found on a farm and which cannot.
  • As a class, discuss what they learned about food from studying these pictures. This will help scholars understand that some food comes straight from the farm, whereas others are processed or created in a factory.
• What grows on a farm?
  • Scholars respond to the question, What grows on a farm?
  • Scholars use their understanding of what farms have and what they don’t to draw and label at least four things that grow on a farm. These could be plants, vegetables, fruits, or even animal products such as milk or eggs.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

• Why do we need farms?
  • Farms provide food and animal products that help keep us healthy.
• What grows on a farm?
  • Farms grow plants, fruits, and vegetables.

Readings

• Apples by Gail Gibbons
  • This book introduces scholars to one of the focuses of their study: apples! Scholars learn all about how apples are grown, parts of an apple, different varieties of apples, and how apples get from the farm to our tables.
• “Where Do Apples Come From in the Winter?”
  • This article explains that some foods don’t go directly from the farm to our tables; they can be stored to maximize freshness all year long!
• Seed Soil Sun: Earth’s Recipe for Food by Cris Peterson
  • This book expands scholars’ knowledge of growing things on farms by describing how to successfully turn a seed into a plant.
• What Happens at a Dairy Farm? by Kathleen Pohl
  • This book introduces scholars to what animals live on a farm and how milk is produced. Next week, scholars further explore the production process.

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Apple Study
  • Bring in a few varieties of apples to dissect. Put the halved apple under the document camera and study the parts of an apple. Reference Apples by Gail Gibbons to point out the skin, stem, blossom bottom, seeds, leaf, core, and flesh.
  • Scholars draw a whole apple and the intersection of the apple. Scholars draw lines to connect the words to the corresponding part of their apple drawing.
  • Scholars taste test to experience and describe what the apples taste like!
• Apple Jobs
  • As a class, discuss the many jobs that help to get apples from the farm to the table. Scholars pick one job they would like to do. Discuss with a partner and then as a class why they chose a specific job. Then, record their responses.
    • Picking apples
    • Loading apples in a truck
    • Driving the apples to the market
    • Unloading apples
    • Displaying apples
  • Farm Preparations
    • Pre-field study, discuss what you expect to see on the farm. Tell scholars they will be listing three things they saw and learned about at the farm.
    • Post-field study, have scholars draw and write about three things they saw and learned about at the farm. This could be how plants are grown, animals they saw, or specific produce they observed growing.
  • Farm Animals
    • Scholars create a class T-Chart of which animals live on a farm and what those animals provide. Include any animals you saw on the farm! (e.g., cows provide milk and beef, chickens provide eggs, and pigs provide bacon and pork chops.)

Field Studies

• Queens County Farm Museum (or a local farm)
  • Scholars explore the Queen’s County Farm Museum to learn that the food they eat comes from a farm and that farmers work to produce the food.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

• What’s the process of getting food from farms to markets?
• • After farmers harvest their food, they send them to supermarkets, farmer’s markets, or smaller stores.
• How do we keep different foods safe?
  • Food has to be kept in clean and safe conditions during transportation and while in markets.

Readings

• The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons
  • This book will give an in-depth explanation of how cows give us milk and how that milk is then transferred safely to stores.
• Clarabelle: Making Milk and So Much More by Cris Peterson
  • This book uses photographs and follows one cow, Clarabelle, on her milk-making journey. Scholars will love and relate to the kids that work on the farm!
• Journey of a Glass of Milk by John Malam and From Grass to Milk by Stacy Taus-Bolstad
  • These two shorter texts will reinforce scholars’ understanding of how milk gets from a cow’s udder to our tables. The photographs, text features, and interesting facts will support scholars’ understanding of pasteurization.

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Keeping Milk Safe
  • Chart ideas as you discuss the following questions with scholars:
    • Where do we see milk in the supermarket?
      • Compare this to where we see crackers. (Milk is refrigerated at the store.)
    • Does milk get to the supermarket in the same way as canned or dried foods? Why or why not?
    • How do we keep milk safe?
  • Scholars will independently draw in response to the question, How do we keep milk safe?
• Dairy Products
  • Discuss what other products we get from milk. Have scholars brainstorm and chart their responses. Then, show them this image. Have them describe what they see and then draw and label three of their favorite dairy products.
• Milk to Butter
  • Scholars make their own dairy product today, butter! Scholars watch this video to prepare.
  • Scholars sit in a circle and help you fill four to five small jars half way with cream (with or without salt). Twist the lids on tightly, and mix it up!
    • Multiple jars means scholars get multiple chances to try. Each scholar plays an important role in turning the milk into butter by taking a turn vigorously shaking! Take pictures to display at your museum.
    • Dump the excess buttermilk in a bowl and then scrape the butter from the jar. You can add in items such as cinnamon sugar for sweeter butter or garlic or herbs for savory butter.
  • Scholars enjoy their creation on bread or crackers.
    • This project can also be replicated the day of the museum for visitors!
• Milk to Butter Big Book
  • Record the steps you took to make butter to create a how to class book! Discuss the steps of the process using turn and talks. Record scholars’ ideas on chart paper or sentence strips. When applicable, have scholars help you write sight words, unit words from books, or beginning/ending sounds.
  • Give each scholar a step to illustrate. Split the steps evenly so about five scholars are illustrating each step individually. Tape these together on poster paper. Add the steps you wrote out to form a “big book” to display at the museum!
    • You’ll likely have about five steps: pour the cream in a jar, screw the lid on, shake it up, pour out the buttermilk, and mix in any other ingredients; enjoy on crackers/bread.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

• What’s the process of getting food from farms to markets?
  • After farmers harvest their food, they send them to supermarkets, farmer’s markets, or smaller stores.
• How do we keep different foods safe?
  • Food has to be kept in clean and safe conditions during transportation and while in markets.

Readings

• How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? by Chris Buttersworth
  • This book explains that some foods have a stop between the farm and the market when they are turned into something new! Each page has a colorful diagram and explains the journey of commonly packed lunch box foods.
• Tomatoes to Ketchup by Lisa M. Herrington
  • This book explains how a farm product, a tomato, is turned into a beloved childhood food, ketchup!
• From Peanut to Peanut Butter by Robin Nelson
  • Because many scholars love peanut butter, this book shows the process of turning a peanut into a jar of tasty peanut butter!
• Additional books for scholars to use:
  • Oranges to Orange Juice by Inez Synder
  • Milk to Ice Cream by Lisa M. Herrington
  • From Milk to Ice Cream by Stacy Taus-Bolstad
  • From Maple Tree to Syrup by Melanie Mitchell
  • From Flower to Honey by Robin Nelson
  • From Grapes to Jelly by Bridget Heos

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Diagraming Food’s Journey
  • Scholars illustrate the process of how food travels from the farm to the factory and then to the markets.
  • First, model selecting a food item and using this diagram to sketch and label each step in the process.Think aloud as you use texts from the unit to help support the accuracy of your work.
  • After you’ve modeled, use shared writing/drawing to complete another example with scholars. This will give scholars guided support before they independently create diagrams over the next few days.
  • Scholars repeat this process two to three times over the course of the week using different foods from the texts you’re reading.
  • Use books in the text list (listed above) that show the journey of different kinds of food. Display these in bins on scholars’ tables for them to use.
  • Scholars pick one diagram to finalize by adding color and using labels where applicable. Display this final piece as part of your museum.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

• What can I get at different markets?
  • Different types of food stores exist because people want different things.
• How do we keep different foods safe?
  • Food has to be kept in clean and safe conditions during transportation and while in markets.

Readings

• Our Corner Grocery Store by Joanne Schwartz
  • This beautifully illustrated book gives scholars a look into what it’s like to run a family grocery store from a young girl’s perspective.
• What Happens at a Supermarket? by Amy Hutchings
  • This book shows scholars behind the scenes in a store, including who works at a store and different tasks they have.
• How Food Gets from Farms to Store Shelves by Erika L Shores
  • This book helps scholars make connections between the farms they’ve studied and the stores those farms sell their food to. It describes store workers and their jobs.

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Field Study Store Preparations
  • Pre field study, discuss what you expect to see at the grocery store versus the bodega.
    • How might they be similar?
    • How might they be different?
  • Show scholars the trip sheets under the ELMO. Explain how to list things they find in different aisles. Scholars don’t have to fill out or find everything!
  • Post-trip, ask scholars:
    • What did you notice about the small store we visited?
    • What did you notice about the supermarket?
  • Make a T-Chart with the supermarket on one side and the smaller stores on the other. Record scholar responses (e.g., the supermarket had lots of produce, but the smaller store only had a frozen section, or the smaller store did not have any raw meat, whereas the supermarket had a whole fish/meat section.)
• Drawing the Aisles
  • Scholars discuss what they noticed about how the markets were organized.
    • What was grouped together?
    • What temperature were different items kept in?
  • Scholars independently draw the supermarket aisles, labeling at least four aisles/sections they noticed.
• Market Workers
  • Make a new T-Chart titled “Market Workers.” On one side, list the workers title, on the other side write a question the class has for the worker. Record workers such as a cashier, bagger, stock clerk, butcher/fishmonger, baker, etc.
  • Explain that the class will return to the supermarket to ask a worker questions about his or her job. Scholars pick one worker and brainstorm a question they have. Scholars turn and talk and then share out. Record questions on chart paper for next week’s trip.

Field Studies

• Supermarket Scavenger Hunt and Observing at a Small Market
  • Scholars learn the defining characteristics of a supermarket, noticing how items are organized, stored, and displayed.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

Who works at a supermarket?

• Supermarkets have many different workers who perform different tasks using tools.

Readings

• Let’s Eat: What Children Eat Around the World by Beatrice Hollyer
  • This book uses photographs to give scholars a glimpse into the lives of children from around the world. The photographs and captions illuminate what they eat, their grocery stores, and the food they like and dislike.
• Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
  • This nonfiction book tells the story of Will Allen, a former basketball star who started an urban farm that made his community better by providing fresh food.

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Back to the Market
  • Pre-trip, review your T-Chart on supermarket workers from last week.
  • As a class, discuss the trip sheets. Ensure scholars know to draw where their selected worker works in the store, what he or she does, and any tools he or she uses.
  • Model for scholars how to politely ask questions and record answers using drawings and labels. Trip sheets should be simple sketches, not detailed drawings.
• Supermarket Worker Posters
  • Post-trip, scholars begin their supermarket worker portraits. Remind scholars that they have a full sheet of paper for their illustration. They should use multiple days to sketch, color, and label important parts of their drawing. Model/think aloud about how to include a background, any tools the worker uses, his or her uniform, and what he or she would be doing with his or her hands and feet.
  • Scholars use markers, paints, pastels, or colored pencils. Place illustrations around the classroom for display during the museum!
    • Scholars should label their drawings with letters or words.
    • If scholars are able to compose sentences, they can use lined paper to add a caption to their drawing, explaining who their worker is, a tool he or she uses, and what job he or she does.

Field Studies

• Interviewing Supermarket Workers
  • Scholars revisit the supermarket to learn about the individual departments and the different roles supermarket workers play. Scholars conduct independent research and interview supermarket employees.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

• What can I get at different markets?
  • Different types of food stores exist because people want different things.

Readings

• Fresh-Picked Poetry: A Day at the Farmers’ Market by Michelle Schaub
  • Read this engaging book of poetry over many days. The text rhythmically describes a day in an urban farmer’s market.
• Corn by Gail Gibbons
  • This book describes all the varieties of corn and how they have grown, sold to markets and farmer’s markets, and eaten in many different ways across time and cultures.

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Farmer’s Market Introduction
  • Through a class discussion, compare a farmer’s market to a regular supermarket. Display the Venn diagram paper. Using shared writing, fill out the similarities and differences. When applicable, have scholars help you write sight words, unit words from books, or beginning/ending sounds.
• Venn Diagrams
  • Pre-trip, scholars review yesterday’s Venn diagram. Scholars turn and talk to discuss why people go to a farmer’s market instead of a supermarket.
  • Scholars record the top five reasons people would visit a farmers’ market on their trip sheets before they leave. Scholars tally answers on their trip sheets in the moment.
  • Scholars practice asking a partner the questions from the trip sheet to prepare for interviewing customers at the farmers’ market (e.g., “Hello, my name is ______. I am a Grade K student at ______. Our class is studying farmers’ markets. May I please ask you why you like to shop at the farmer’s market?”).
• Reviewing Our Trip
  • Post-trip, scholars turn and talk to discuss why most people visited the market or any surprising responses. Scholars use the second page of the Venn diagram paper to draw why people would go to the farmer’s market, supermarket, and both.

Field Studies

• Farmers’ Market
  • Scholars compare and contrast the farmers’ market to the supermarket and determine why people would choose to shop at the farmers’ market.

Guiding Questions and Essential Understandings

• What can I get at different markets?
  • Different types of food stores exist because people want different things.
• How are markets organized?
  • Supermarkets have aisles organized in a logical and safe way so customers can easily find items.
• Who works at a supermarket?
  • Supermarkets have many different workers who perform different tasks using tools.

Readings

• Spend this week rereading texts scholars loved.
• Use the text list as an opportunity to dive into further study of anything that particularly interested you or your scholars.

Writing Assignments and Project Work

• Museum Preparations
  • Now that scholars know about many different types of stores, how they’re organized, and why people shop there, they get to create their own grocery store! Scholars create all the items, organize the shelves, work in different departments, and show off their store to museum visitors. See examples of items/aisles here.
    • Create a name for your grocery store!
    • Brainstorm the different sections it will include.
  • Scholars orally plan the items they’ll create and draw the supplies they’ll need.
  • Scholars use bottles, boxes, paper, coloring supplies, and other recyclables and art materials to create objects, drawings, and murals of items for shoppers to “purchase” in their class grocery store. Each scholar must create at least one item.
  • The class store is run by scholars! Scholars act out the job they illustrated for their supermarket worker portrait or choose a different one.
    • Tip: Have scholars role-play to practice their role and create any tools they’ll need to do their job.
  • Over the week, make sure all PBL work is displayed along the walls, the grocery store is organized using the aisles scholars have identified, and scholars’ PBL folders are complete with all their independent work.

Note: You’ll read aloud key, content-specific texts during the 20 min. Read Aloud time. The 30 min. Literacy Block can also be used for reading aloud texts, but will primarily be focused on other Project-Based learning experiences.

• On the Farm, at the Market by G. Brian Karas
• Up We Grow! A Year in the Life of a Small, Local Farm by Deborah Hodge
• Before We Eat: From Farm to Table by Pat Brisson
• The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons
• Apples by Gail Gibbons
• Seed Soil Sun: Earth’s Recipe for Food by Cris Peterson
• What Happens at a Dairy Farm? by Kathleen Pohl
• The Milk Makers by Gail Gibbons
• Clarabelle: Making Milk and So Much More by Cris Peterson
• Journey of a Glass of Milk by John Malam
• From Grass to Milk by Stacy Taus-bolstad
• How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? by Chris Buttersworth
• Tomatoes to Ketchup by Lisa M. Herrington
• From Peanut to Peanut Butter by Robin Nelson

More Outstanding, Non-PBL Specific Read Alouds:

• Amos and Boris by William Steig
• Biggest House in the World by Leo Loinni
• Cloud Spinner by Michael Catchpool