Introduction

Students will visit several different agriculturally based web sites and read many different books about the process of growing wheat and making bread. While visiting the web sites and reading the materials the children will learn what steps are needed to grow and make wheat into bread.  The children will design questions about this whole process from their research to ask other children. They will create graphs based on their questions and give an oral presentation explaining their graphs to the whole class.
 

Content Area and Grade Level

This unit was developed for first graders.  It focuses primarily on language arts and social studies skills.  It addressees math and performance skills to a smaller extent.  The children will also be working cooperatively and using technology. This unit could easily be expanded to additional grade levels and subject areas.

Curriculum Standards

English/Language Arts
1.C.1a   Use information to form questions and verify predictions.
1.C.1c   Make comparisons across reading selections.
3.B.1a   Use pre-writing strategies to generate and organize ideas.
4.B.1a   Present brief oral reports, using language and vocabulary appropriate to the message and audience.
5.A.1a   Identify questions and gather information.

Math
6.D.1    Compare the numbers of objects in groups.
10.A.1a Organize and display data using pictures, tables, charts or bar graphs.
10.A.1b Answer questions and make predictions based on given data.
10.B.1b  Collect, organize and describe data using pictures, tallies, charts or bar graphs.

Social Science
15.C.1a Describe how human, natural and capital resources are used to produce goods and services.

Overview
This multidisciplinary unit is organized into seven tasks. Some tasks will be done whole group and others tasks will be completed with a partner.  Some tasks will be completed in one lesson and others may take several days to complete. Some children will need assistance reading the tasks and a middle school reading buddy may be necessary.  The children will be asked to go outside of their own classroom to interview other students so scheduling times needs to be taken into consideration.  The unit will take approximately two weeks to complete.
 
 

Tasks	Type of student learning	Approximate time frame
Task #1 Read Little Red Hen	Individual/Whole group	One class session of 20 minutes
Task #2 Get in groups and choose roles	Whole group	One class session of 30 to 45 minutes
Task #3 Learn all about your role	Pairs	Five or six 15 minutes sessions
Task #4 Present your information to your group	Pairs	Five or six 15 minute sessions
Task #5 Pick a Question and gather data	Pairs	One 15 to 30 minute session
Task #6 Making the graph	Pairs	One or two 30 minute sessions
Task #7 Presentations of graphs	Whole group	Two 20 to 25 minute sessions

Resources Needed
The following resources are necessary to teach this unit:

• Class sets of Little Red Hen books.
• Fiction and non-fiction books about wheat farming and bread.
• Computers with internet access.
• Graph Club software
• Specific internet links are listed in the tasks.
• Volunteers and middle school helpers
• Video or audio materials

The children will need to have some general knowledge of the computer and the specific commands for "back" and "forward".  All searches are guided so the children will not get lost on fruitless sites.  The teacher needs to be enthusiastic and able to handle projects in many different stages of development. The students and the teacher will need to have some prior experience with Graph Club.
 
 

Evaluation

The children will be evaluated on their effort and their cooperation.  They will also evaluate themselves on their graphs. The children will be given a copy of the evaluation rubrics at the beginning of the project to make the criteria clear.
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Conclusion

The main purpose of teaching this unit is to have the children recognize the amount of steps and processes it takes to produce the goods we use in our daily lives.