"Okay. I am thinking about an animal that can give us milk. Does anyone know where we can get milk?"
"The farmer can give us milk."
"You're right! We learned that a farmer can get milk on the farm. But where does he get it from?"
Silence. I look around at the table of English Language Learners that sit in front of me. Five students with limited English proficiency and my mind remembers all of the exposures to farm animals and vocabulary that my niece and nephew have had-- concepts that we assume all children know, and I realize that these children don't know where milk comes from. Do they even know what a cow is? I hold up a photograph.
"The farmer can give us milk."
"You're right! We learned that a farmer can get milk on the farm. But where does he get it from?"
Silence. I look around at the table of English Language Learners that sit in front of me. Five students with limited English proficiency and my mind remembers all of the exposures to farm animals and vocabulary that my niece and nephew have had-- concepts that we assume all children know, and I realize that these children don't know where milk comes from. Do they even know what a cow is? I hold up a photograph.
Nowhere in the common core does it say that kindergarteners must accurately name farm animals and their purpose. Successful farm-skill mastery is not required to be admitted to first grade. But what is needed is for students to read and understand a text, and it just so happens that many kindergarten texts have farm animals as main characters. And while the common core doesn't state that we need to know what every farm animal is called, it does say that we need to identify the first sounds of words. It can be difficult to identify a first sound of something that we've never even learned the name of.
Our farm study began with some basic information about farmers. They take care of animals. We also discussed in great detail, the names and purpose of well-known farm animals.
Our farm study began with some basic information about farmers. They take care of animals. We also discussed in great detail, the names and purpose of well-known farm animals.
Our first read aloud was titled "Cows in the Kitchen". The text was very simple with repeated phrases like "Cows in the kitchen. Moo, Moo, Moo." "Ducks in the dishes. Quack, quack, quack." Such simple text could seem boring at first, but the simplicity opens the door for some students to finally understand the concept of a spoken word being translated to a page. |
After reading Cows in the Kitchen over and over, we moved onto more involved read alouds-- a series of books starring Farmer Brown and his mischievous farm animals (Click Clack Moo was our personal favorite). These books opened up class discussions about how to talk about books. "Wasn't it so funny when the duck tricked the farmer into giving him the typewriter?" Students laughed with one another and spoke about their favorite parts of the stories, wanting to read them again and again. This excitement trickled into the children's play. While in the dramatic play center, students used the book to help retell the story-- deciding who would be Farmer Brown, who would be the cows (using puppets and cow hats), the duck (using duck hats), etc. |
Our farm knowledge trickled into math as well. When students were in the Learning with Blocks center, they were encouraged to build their own farm and count how many animals were allowed in. Students performed this task with excitement. Even tasks as mundane as counting can be fun when you're doing it with animals that you've discussed in such great detail!
The most exciting part of learning about the farm was the field trip that we took at the end of it to Ken's Korny Corn Maze. There, students were able to be in a real farm environment, complete with hay stacks (and a hayride), live animals, pumpkins (and they got to take some home), and loads of other fun! |
Obviously not everything we learn about this year is going to have an awesome field trip to tie in all that we know, but I'm so glad that we had this one at the beginning of the year. All students gained an experience and some sort of knowledge that they didn't have before, and now our brains are stronger and ready to tackle the next thing ahead of us. If anything, this served as a reminder to me that it's never enough to just assume someone knows something. And if we want a child to learn about something, it's not enough to talk about it. It has to come alive!