OBJECTIVE

Students will be able to describe the seasonal changes on a farm, from fall to winter. Students will be able to identify different chores that are done on a farm in winter.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What happens on a farm in winter? What are the jobs on a farm in winter? What are the animals doing in winter? How do animals eat in winter? How do people eat in winter?

MATERIALS NEEDED

• Apples
• Dehydrator
• Cutting boards
• Apple slicers
• Bowl
• Dried fruit (optional)
• The Year at Maple Hill Farm, or other book that describes winter on a farm

PROCEDURE

Introduction:
Review what season we are in, and some of the things we notice that are different during this season.
Read from the book, and ask students to identify chores on the farm, what the animals are doing on the farm, and other observations of a farm in winter.
Ask students if food is not growing during the winter, how can we eat? Discuss the different ways that food is stored away. Compare to animals storing away food for winter.

Activity:
Have students wash their hands before going to their desks. Each student is given an apple. Ask students to figure out how to make that apple last all the way until spring. Bring out the apple slicers and let each students slice their apple and place in the bowl.
Introduce the dehydrator, and discuss what it means to preserve food.

Let each student place a few apple slices on a tray.
Ask students to imagine what the apple slices might look like when they are done being preserved in the dehydrator.
Are they bigger? Smaller? What will they taste like?

Wrap up/ Assessment:
In their journals, students write down any new words they would like to add to their vocabulary list. Ask students for words and write them on the board for others to write down.

FOLLOW UP & EXTENSIONS

Tasting dried apples
Making applesauce (applesauce sequencing) Drying herbs