• Link to Student Page

Introduction

This lesson was developed as part of the San Diego Unified School District's Pattern's Project, a federally funded Technology Literacy Challenge Grant.

The following lesson is to allow students in Kindergarten/First Grade to experience the life of a cow. The lesson will have the students integrate language arts, social studies, science and art skills. Students will use the internet to visit a dairy farm and watch the ins and outs of the every day life of a dairy cow. Students will also learn about products that are consumed that come from a cow. The students will be introduced to the map of the United States in order to determine in what states cows would most likely be found. The students will be aware of color patterns of cows and how they vary by creating their own cow color pattern from the cow outline. This lesson can be used in conjunction with a farm theme to extend the learning to a particular animal found on a farm.

Content Area and Grade Level

This lesson is geared for Kindergarten/First Grade level, but could be extended to the upper grades due to it's use of maps and outlines. The lesson integrates language arts, social studies, science and art, but with a little creativity could incorporate math or other content areas.

Curriculum Standards

The students will apply standards in this lesson from the California, San Diego, and other frameworks. For example:

Applied Learning Performance Standards Addressed

• The student uses information technology to assist in gathering, organizing, and presenting information on cows.
• The student manages and directs his/her own learning.
• The student works with others to complete a task.
• The student shows or explains something clearly.

Social Studies Standards Addressed

• Identifying and locating key places and regions of the world.
• The student compares and contrasts the absolute and relative locations of people, places, and environments and describes the physical and human characteristics of places.
• The student describes the specialized work that people do to manufacture, transport, and market goods and services and the contribution of those who work in the home.
• The student describes inventions and discoveries that make his or her life different.

Science Content and Performance Standards Addressed

• The student develops an understanding of the characteristics of living things.
• The student develops an understanding of the life cycles of organisms.
• The student develops an understanding of organisms and their environments.

Learning Standards can be found in the National New Standards Project.

Implementation Overview

The lesson is organized to allow you, as a teacher, to decide how you would like to implement it. You can start the lesson by having your students choose a cow from the cow bank or select one task per week to accomplish. The lesson could also be used as a reference after reading a story about cows in your Farm Unit. You may even want to let the students choose the order in which they will use this web project.

Resources Needed

• Field trip to a dairy farm (if available in your area) can be planned. If not possible there is a virtual tour on line to a dairy farm.
• Internet connection of some kind (classroom, computer lab, etc..)
• Kid Pix, Kid Pix Deluxe or other painting tool (Claris Works could be used also)
• Printer, CD-ROM
• Books about cows borrowed from the public library or your own classroom library (see student page for list or reading a story link above).
• Video or audio materials
• Real Player for cow picture sound link
• Links to a cow bank of pictures in order to choose a cow friend, a map in order to study the states where cows can be found, a map to print out and evaluate the students on the states where cows can be found, an outline of a cow to identify the various color patterns of a particular cow, a dot-to-dot print out or picture to work on of a cow for number and fine motor practice and a Venn Diagram comparing two particular cows by physical appearance or a cow to another animal altogether.

 Entry Level Skills and Knowledge

The students should have some experience with computers, in particular how to use the mouse in order to click on links that are highlighted. The teacher will need to have some knowledge on how to download a file (Venn Diagram).

Evaluation

Your students will be evaluated through the evaluation test provided for the parts of a dairy cow. The U.S. map can also be used as an evaluation tool to test knowledge of what states would be more likely to be hosts to the dairy cow industry.

Conclusion

This lesson will help to open and expand the knowledge base for your students on cows and why they are so important to us. The students will have a new appreciation for the cow and the products that they provide for us.