EDUC 2220- Educational Technology Lesson Plan

Letters and Words on the Farm

Jordan Showalter
Preschool/Language Arts

Common Core Standards:

Ohio Early Learning Content and Development Standards
Domain: Language and Literacy Development
Strand: Listening and Speaking
Topic: Expressive Language
Standard Statement : With modeling and support, use the conventions of standard English (Grammar):
Use familiar nouns and
verbs to describe persons, animals, places, events, actions etc.
Standard Statement: With modeling and support, determine the meanings of unknown words/concepts
using
Within the context of conversations, pictures that accompany text or concrete objects. (Vocabulary)
Lesson Summary:
This lesson will focus on using technology to teach a prekindergarten class about letters and vocabulary that
can be learned by studying farm animals. They will learn the various animals that are on the farm,
characteristics of them and what letters each animal begins with. This will lead to new vocabulary words as
well that are associated with animals. This lesson will help the children learn to navigate the internet to find
out information about animals they may have never seen before and learn facts to write down later. We will be
using the ABCmouse.com application to read online stories about farm animals that begin with specific letters,
youtube.com to watch videos of the chosen animals in action, and Google images to search out and print
images of animals chosen. The children will print create their own vocabulary sheet about a chosen animal that
will include printed images, a qr code of a video about their farm animal, and the childs writing samples.
Estimated Duration:
This lesson will be 120 minutes long, broken up over the course of the entire week into 20 to 30 minute
increments per day.
Commentary: I will hook the children by letting them know about our upcoming field trip to a farm. We
will talk about what animals live on a farm that we already know about, and we will look at pictures of the
animals to see which ones they are not as familiar with. The problems we may encounter are too many
different animals will be chosen by the children and it will take too long to finish the sheets, and we will need
plenty of time for all of them to use the computer. I will fix this issue by selecting only five farm animals that
they can choose to research, and break the children into groups based upon which animal they chose. Then
they can work in groups researching, watching videos and printing pictures.

Instructional Procedures:
Day 1: Total lesson time 20 minutes. During group or circle time I will ask the children if they have ever
been to a farm and what kinds of animals do they think live on a farm? I will let them know that next week, we
will be going on a field trip to a real farm, and that this week we will be learning all about the animals we will
see there. I will then bring out the farm animal flash cards and question the children about them. What animal
is this? Do you know what letter this animal begins with? This will help me assess the childrens previous
knowledge of farm animals. I will ask them to think about which farm animal they would like to study this
week. This will take about fifteen minutes total. We will spend the remaining five minutes of lesson time
watching the video ABCs on the Farm from ABCmouse.com
https://www.abcmouse.com/html5/book?cid=3632 The children will be able to re access this story and other
stories about the farm on this site during free time.
Day 2: Total lesson time 20 minutes. Today I will remind the children of what we talked about yesterday and
give them their choices of which animals we can study this week. I will choose five animals based upon the
childrens previous knowledge which I would have documented yesterday. If the children have very little
knowledge of farm animals I will have them choose from pigs, cows, horses, and chickens If the children have
a lot of previous knowledge of those common animals I will choose chickens, horses, sheep, and geese. I will
ask the children which animal they would like to study. This will take about five minutes. Then for the
remaining fifteen minutes of lesson time, the children will break up into groups based upon their animal and
begin their vocabulary sheet. At the top of their piece of paper they will write their name and then either write
or trace the first letter of their chosen animal and then write or trace the name of their animal at the top of the
paper. For example a child might write Pp. Pig. The children will then describe their animal to me and I will
assist them in writing some descriptive words about their chosen animal. For example, a child that has chosen
pig may say words like pink dirty muddy I will either write those words on their vocabulary sheet for
them, or if they are advanced in their writing, they can write or trace them by themselves.
Day 3: Total lesson time 25 minutes. During todays lesson the children will be using google images to look up
photographs or other images of their chosen animal. Each group of children will be given about seven minutes
to look up pictures they would like to use on their sheets. I will be able to do two groups at once because one
group will use the iPad and one will use the desktop computer. They will select some images as a group and
use the wireless printer to print out one or two images each and spend the rest of their lesson time cutting out
the images and gluing them onto their vocabulary sheets.
Day 4: Total lesson time 30 minutes. Today the children will use the website
http://www.kidinfo.com/science/barnyard_animals.html to look up facts on their chosen animal. This website
is a compilation of links that are appropriate for young children to use to research animals that live on a farm. I
will give each group ten minutes to click through the links about their animals and will help them read some of
the simple facts. When each group is done, we will write the new facts they have learned on their vocabulary
sheets. For example, one fact about pigs is that female pigs are called sows. I will write this down and then
the children who are in that group will copy it onto their sheets. During this time the other groups will be
researching their animals on the iPad or the desktop computer using the above link. The children will write in
between 1 and 3 new facts on their pages based upon their individual writing levels and attention spans.
Day 5: Total lesson time 30 minutes. Today the children will research their animal on youtube.com by finding

an informational video about their chosen animal. Each group, with teacher assistance, will browse a video or
two from a specific group of videos that I have pre watched, and will decide as a group which video they like
the best. When each group has chosen their video, I will let them watch me use the website
http://www.qrstuff.com/ to turn their video into a qr code. I will then print out each groups qr code and have
the children glue in onto their vocabulary sheet. I will use my prep time later in the day to laminate the sheets
for the children to take home or show their parents. They can then use the iPad during free time to scan their
codes and re watch their videos. This can also be done at home.

Pre-Assessment:
During the first lesson of the first day. I will show the children laminated picture cards of farm animals that
have vocabulary words attached to them. For example, a photo of a cow, with the word cow beneath it. I will
ask them what is this? Where does this animal live? What does this animal eat? This will help me to
gage how much my students already know about farm animals and whether or not I should stick to basic
animals such as cows, horses and pigs, or move on to different animals such as goats, sheep, geese and other
animals that they may have never seen.
Scoring Guidelines:
I will score this assessment by asking the children at the beginning of the week what they know about the
specific animal they have chosen, and we will write it down together. At the end of the week they should be
able to not only describe some characteristics of the animal, but they should know at least one new vocabulary
word associated with that particular animal. For example, at the beginning of the week the child may know that
a chicken is a bird, but at the end of the week they should also be able to state that chickens are vegetarians,
and they also lay eggs. The child should be able to recite these facts and write (with support) 1-3 newly
acquired facts or words about their chosen animal.
Post-Assessment:
Due to the fact that the children are in preschool, they will not actually be graded on their work, but will be
required to work on and complete an information/vocabulary sheet on their chosen animal. I will ask them to
look at these sheets again before our class field trip and will quiz them on their knowledge of their chosen
animal before, during and after our trip to the farm, to see if the information can be recalled.
Scoring Guidelines:
I will not have a score or grade for this assignment as the children are in preschool but I will praise
and encourage their hard work and based upon what they chose, I will hang their posters in the
classroom or put them into a special book that can be looked at and read by the entire class as a
reminder of our group discover of farm animals and our trip.

Differentiated Instructional Support

If a child is too challenged by this assignment, I will pair the child with either myself to work one on one with

them, or with a child that is gifted. This will help the gifted child receive more of a challenge if they are
helping the other child navigate through the assignment. I will also be able to choose how many/few words a
child is required to learn and or write based upon their ability level.
Extension:
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/preschool/animals/farm/animalfarmgame.htm This link takes the child to a
game about farm animals. It reinforces the names of the animals and other vocabulary terms such as the
Sheep is looking for its flock. The purpose of this lesson is for the students to learn new vocabulary works
like flock, to link into existing vocabulary words like sheep. This game will help reinforce the words and
possibly teach new ones.

Homework Options and Home Connections

The homework for this lesson will be for the child to take their poster home to show their parent, and view the
video the child has chosen via the QR code we will have posted on their vocabulary sheet. I will then
recommend a few books that the parent could check out from the library on the animals we have learned about
and I will also direct the parent to some printable worksheets that reinforce the letters we have learned that are
associated with the animals we have talked about.

Interdisciplinary Connections
After a thorough discussion of animals on the farm, we could use gear our science lessons towards what the
animals eat on the farm and plants that are grown on the farm. We could talk about wheat, corn and beans and
do a science experiment where we grow our own beans in the classroom and become farmers. We can chart
the growth over time and make observations. We can also tie these ideas into art by creating a farm mural.
Each of the children will paint or draw their chosen animal that they learned about and write the corresponding
vocabulary word associated with it. We will then place all of their drawings onto a large mural and then
continue to decorate it with drawings of corn, beans, wheat, the barn, fences and other farm scenery. We will
hang it in the hallway for all of the teachers and parents to see and ask questions about that we will be able to
answer.

Materials and Resources:

For teachers

Desktop computer, color printer, classroom iPad, ABCmouse.com log in information,

paper, laminator, qr code generator application.

For students

Classroom desktop computer, classroom iPad, scissors, paper, glue, pencils, printer.

Key Vocabulary
Vocabulary sheet: A piece of paper made into a poster or information sheet by the student with images and
writing samples chosen by and written by the student.
Additional Notes
It is always helpful to do some research ahead of time on YouTube videos by looking up each animal on
YouTube and pre-watching a few videos on each one to make sure they are free of scary or disturbing images,
and are also age appropriate in their information.