And So it Grows

Lesson 5

And So It Grows

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Objectives:

Time Required:

Vocabulary:

Materials:

Procedures:

In advance, ask children to bring in pictures of themselves as babies. Then invite them to share these photos with the class. Encourage children to discuss the ways in which they have changed since they were infants - for example they're taller; they've learned to walk and talk; they have more hair, etc.
Next, read Baby Animals by Margaret Wise Brown and discuss baby animals seen in the story.
Show children pictures of farm animals and their babies. Point that some baby animals, such as foals, calves and lambs, look a lot like their parents. Other baby animals, such as chicks and tadpoles, do not. Discuss how these animal babies will grow and change. Lead children to understand that growing and changing is an integral part of life on the farm. (If possible also share the book An Egg Is An Egg by Nicki Weiss with the class. Children will enjoy its reassuring descriptions of the natural life changes that are taking place all around them.)
Review with children the names of the mother animals and their babies (i.e., chick - hen, piglet - sow, calf - cow, gosling - goose, etc.). As the class brainstorms, start a two-column chart, creating one column for baby animal names and another for the mother (you can extend it if you wish by creating a third column with the father animal's name, i.e. lamb - ewe, ram, piglet - sow - boar, calf - cow - bull, etc.).

Evaluation:

Using Kid Pix or any other drawing program students will create a family portrait of their baby animal of their choice with the baby's mother. You can pair up the children and one child can draw the mother and the other child draws the baby. Children should draw the animal's environment as well (i.e., a duck and duckling in a pond). Print children's portraits and display on a bulletin board entitled Farm Animal Family Portraits. Create a frame-like border for each portrait to make them look like real portraits.

Extension Activities:

Go to www.alphabet-soup.net/farm/farmmatch.html. Have students print various pages of the baby animals and their mothers. Allow students to color and cut out the pictures and create math patterns using the pictures (i.e., abab or abcabc patterns).
Using the same picture cards play "Where's My Mommy?" Some students are the mother and some are the babies and children have to match the babies to their mothers.
Using the same picture cards students can play a memory game matching the mother to the baby.
Students can go to www.kidsfarm.com/crosswordparentsandyoung.html and complete an online crossword puzzle about baby animals and their mothers.

Home Learning:

Using any word processing program students will pretend to be any baby animal of their choice and write a letter to their mother telling them how much they love them and why.