Preparation

Print and cut out the Farm Web Graphics. The 30, four-inch color images can be laminated for this activity. You may also purchase the My Farm Web Kit.

This activity may be conducted inside or outside; either way, you’ll need about 10 square feet of floor space. The students will place a picture and then the connecting yarn.

Activity 1: Concept Picture Web

1. Ask the students, "Where does agriculture begin?" (On a farm.)
2. Guide the students to understand that agriculture begins on a farm and there all kinds of farms. Cattle ranches for beef and leather; dairy farms for milk and all the products made from milk; orchards that grow apples to make juice and apple pies; pig farms for pepperoni, bacon, and ham; grain farms that grow corn for fuel or corn syrup for soda, and wheat for bread; cotton farms for blue jeans; and tree farms for paper and landscaping. In fact, there is a different kind of farm for nearly every type of product. Farms specialize in what they grow based upon their location (climate and soil), and farmers choose only a few crops because the type of equipment used to plant and harvest each crop is very specific and expensive.
3. Inform students they are now going to create a “farm web” to help them understand agriculture and where the items they use every day come from.
4. Have students move to the area where they will build the farm web.
5. Place the farm picture in the center of the floor. Mix up the remaining pictures and either put them in a pile or pass a picture to each student.
6. Ask the students, “Which pictures will go closest to the farm picture?” (The pictures of plants or animals that are grown or raised on a farm go closest.)
7. Students with products made from ingredients produced on a farm should place their pictures onto the web after the farm-raised item is placed.
8. As each picture is placed, ask the students to use a linking phrase such as dairy cows make milk (the word make is the linking word) to describe how their items connect to the web. Discuss each new connection as the pictures are placed.
9. When all the pictures have been correctly placed, review the linking phrases and ask students if they think other pictures could be added to the web.
10. As a conclusion to the activity, read aloud one or more of the recommended books and ask students where the products mentioned in the books would fit into their farm web.

Activity 2: Concept Word Web

1. Extend the first activity by further defining agriculture using the 5-Fs of agriculture (see Vocabulary).
2. To make sure students understand concept maps and the content, ask students to create a concept web with words on paper or on a whiteboard.
3. Divide the students into five groups. Give each group a sheet of chart paper or disperse them along the whiteboard (draw a large rectangle, the size of the chart paper, on the whiteboard for each group); write one of the 5-F words (farm, food, fabric, forestry, flowers) in the center of each paper or rectangle. For a large class, make two more groups and add the words “fuel” and “fish.”
4. Ask students to create a concept map around their group’s word by thinking about products they can associate with the word. Give them about 5 minutes. Next, ask them to create linking phrases.
5. Ask each group to share and explain their concept web with the class. (Paper maps should be posted on the wall.)
6. Conclude the instruction by announcing that the students have visually created a definition of agriculture.