A Hundred Bales of Hay

Transcription

1 A Hundred Bales of Hay Objective Students explore hundreds, using a variety of methods and content, while learning about hay and its connection to humans and animals. Background Before there were cars, trucks and farm equipment, it was workhorses that provided transportation and helped with work on the farm and in other industries. Hay was the fuel that made the horses go. Farmers needed huge quantities of hay for their cattle and their sheep. Horses used in the mining, lumbering, and road building industries and those used for hauling and personal transportation in urban areas needed fodder, too. Farmers put up hay for their own use, and sold the extra in local markets or baled it and shipped it to markets farther away. Haymaking involved cutting, gathering, drying and storing grasses or legumes, like alfalfa or clover. Hay was best made during late June, July and August. First the hay was cut with a scythe or a mower. Then sun and wind dried the hay as it lay in the field. When the moisture content was low enough, the hay was raked up and stored in stacks in the field or loaded on a hay rack or elevator (conveyor) and hauled to the yard. Here it could be stored in stacks or in the mow (loft) of a barn. The loose hay would continue to dry in the mow and was fed out by pitching it down to the animals below. Most haymaking was done by family members, male and female, working with neighbors and casual help. Hired men usually got the heavy work, such as pitching hay or building stacks. Women and older children often did the raking and drove the teams of horses. Smaller children brought lunches and cold drinks to the hayfield. Farmers today still need hay to feed their animals, but now machinery does much of the work. Most hay is now baled in huge round bales, usually by just one person. Most round balers produce bales weighing pounds. The bales are either left in the field until they are used or moved to a covered storage area. Oklahoma has excellent conditions for growing hay, which requires plenty of rain, and then hot dry weather for harvest. In 2014, hay ranked number four of all the state s agricultural commodities. Some of the premium alfalfa hay goes to feed the state s large equine (horse) population. Common plants used for making hay in Oklahoma are Oklahoma Academic Standards KINDERGARTEN Science LS1.1; ESS3.1,2 Visual Art 2.1,3 Math Content CC.4; MD.3 English Language Arts W.2 GRADE 1 Science ESS3.1 Visual Art 2.1,3 Math Content MD.4; NBT.2,4 English Language Arts RI.1; W.1; L.5; RF.4 GRADE 2 Science PS1.1,2 Visual Art 2.1,3 Math Content OA.1; MD.5; NBT.1a,5 English Language Arts RI.1; W.1; L.4,5 GRADE 3 Science LS1.1 Visual Art 2.1,3 Math Content OA.7; NBT.1 English Language Arts RI.1; W.3; L.4,5 GRADE 4 Science LS1.1; ESS3.1 Visual Art 2.1,2 Math Content OA.5; MD.1,2 English Language Arts RI.1; W.1; L.4,5 GRADE 5 Science PS3.1; LS2.1 Visual Art 2.1,2 Math Content MD.1; 5.NBT.7 English Language Arts RI.1; W.1; L.4,5; RI.1

2 The best fodder The best hay is made from alfalfa. Its name in Arabic means the best fodder. Alfalfa originated in southwest Asia and is believed to have been first cultivated in Iran. It was introduced into Greece as early as 490 BC as food for chariot horses. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew alfalfa. Alfalfa can grow in many different climates and can tolerate a variety of soil conditions. Alfalfa is usually planted in April or May. It is a perennial crop, which means it will grow in the same field four or five years in a row without replanting. Farmers like alfalfa because it is a legume plant which captures nitrogen to enrich the soil. Nitrogen is food for the soil and helps feed other plants which may be grown later in the same field. The alfalfa plant is harvested at least three times each summer in June, July and August. The alfalfa plant grows two to three feet tall and is cut before it produces flowers. Much of the alfalfa hay grown in Oklahoma is produced for feeding horses. alfalfa, wild and prairie grasses, sorghum/sudan crosses, sudan, bermuda, lespedeza, soybean, peanut, and small grains like wheat, rye and oats. Many people confuse hay with straw. The square bales often sold in the fall for Halloween decorations are actually bales of straw. Straw is the stubble that is left after the grains from plants like wheat, oats and rye are threshed from the plant. It is most commonly used in animal bedding, as mulch for gardens and, in some cases, even in the walls of houses. English Language Arts 1. Read and discuss background and vocabulary. Hand out copies of the Reading Page included with this lesson. Students will read individually or as a class. Students will answer the discussion question in complete sentences. 2. In light of what they have learned about hay, students will explain the meanings of these three old sayings: You ve got to make hay while the sun shines. It s like trying to find a needle in a haystack. It s time to hit the hay. These statements are examples of figurative language. Students will identify each as: simile (a comparison that uses like or as). metaphor (an implied comparison). hyperbole (an exaggeration for effect). or personification (a description that represents a thing as a person) Can students think of other sayings that refer to hay? 3. Students will write a fictional journal or draw pictures depicting a day baling hay. Students may take the perspective of the hired hand, the older children, the parents or the younger children. (See background material and reading page.) Students will share their stories with the class. Math 1. Hand out copies of the hundreds chart included with this lesson and an assortment of small objects for covering the squares on the hundreds chart square wheat cereal (to represent hay bales), animal crackers (to represent animals that eat hay), small crackers, pennies, raisins, etc. Students will follow directions as you read them from the Hundreds Activities Page. Adjust instructions as necessary for the objects you have provided. Students may work in pairs or individually As an alternative, students may cut the pictures on the picture page and use them on the hundreds chart to follow your directions. 2. Provide each student with a copy of the picture page included with this lesson.

3 Discuss the pictures. Students will examine the picture page and look for patterns. 3. Students will cut the pictures on the dotted lines. Students will sort the pictures into stacks according to the pictures (one stack of round hay bales, one stack of cows, etc.) Ask how many pictures are in each stack. Students will make their own patterns, using the pictures. Laminate the hundreds chart and pictures, and place magnets on the backs to make a guided center activity. 4. Bring a straw bale to class. (In the fall, bales of straw are available in many places as Halloween decorations.) Discuss with your students the difference between hay and straw. (Straw is the stubble left over after the harvest of wheat or other grain crops. Straw is commonly used for animal bedding and sometimes even for construction of homes. Straw also provides a good mulch for home gardens. Hay has nutritional value and is used for animal feed.) Students will describe and draw the shape of the straw bale. Is the bale two-dimensional or three dimensional? Students will measure the dimensions and find the area. Ask them how they would find the volume. Students will estimate the weight of the bale and then develop a strategy for weighing it. 5. Students will solve this brain teaser. (Round decimals off to the nearest 10th.) Alfalfa hay usually yields around 3.5 tons per acre while other hays average around 1.5 tons per acre. A round bale weighs about 1,000 pounds. How many acres of alfalfa would you have to have to get 100 bales of alfalfa hay? (3.5 tons X 2,000 pounds in a ton = 7,000 pounds / 1,000 pounds = 7 bales per acre. 100 bales / 7 bales per acre = 14.3 acres) How many to get 100 bales of other hay? (33.3) Materials square wheat cereal to represent hay bales animal crackers other small manipulatives to use on hundreds chart freshly cut grass or other live vegetation covered plastic container bale of straw Science 1. Students will conduct the following investigation to determine why hay has to be dried before it can be stored. (Make sure you take appropriate precautions for students who are sensitive to mold and grass.) Take some freshly cut grass or other live vegetation and divide it into two parts. Place one part in a covered plastic container and spread the other half out to dry. Students will hypothesize what will happen to each section. In two or three days, check to see what has happened with both? Students will write their observations.

4 Visual Art 1. Go to the Ag in Art page on the Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom website (Click on Additional Resources, then Art. ) to show students some examples of paintings of hayfields. Students will discuss why hay fields would be a popular subject for artists. If possible, get prints of Claude Monet s series of paintings of haystacks to show students and discuss why Monet painted the same scene over and over again. How are the paintings different? How are they the same? Vocabulary bale a large package of raw or finished material tightly bound with twine or wire and often wrapped feed food for livestock fodder feed for livestock, often consisting of coarsely chopped stalks and leaves of corn mixed with hay hay grass or other plants, such as clover or alfalfa, cut and dried for animals to eat legume a family of plants which, convert nitrogen from the air to build up nitrogen in the soil scythe an implement consisting of a long, curved, single-edged blade, with a long, bent handle, used for mowing and or reaping straw stalks of grain after threshing often used for bedding Extra Reading Geisert, Bonnie, Haystack, Houghton Mifflin, Peterson, Cris, Harvest Year, Boyd s Mills Press,

5 Hundreds Activities Page Students will follow these instructions, using the hundred chart and pictures on the following pages or square wheat cereal pieces, animal crackers and other manipulatives. (Adjust directions to fit the manipulatives you choose to use.) 1. Use your round hay bales to cover all the numbers with a 5 in them. How many round hay bales did you use? Remove the round hay bales covering these numbers 5, 25, 57, 65, 75, etc. Now clear your chart, and use your square hay bales to cover all the numbers with a 5 in the ones place. How many square hay bales did you use? Leave the square hay bales on the chart and use your cows to cover all the numbers that have 5 in the tens place. How many cows did you use? What do you have on 55? Why? Repeat this activity, focusing on another number between 0 and Use your horses to cover the following numbers as I say them: 1, 12, 23, 34, 45, 56, 67, 78, 89, 100. What kind of pattern do you see? (diagonal) What is the smallest number you have covered? The largest? Do you have 23 covered on your board? How do you know? Which number is one more than 33? How do you know? Which number is 10 more than 34? How do you know? Put your finger on the horse covering 67. How did you find it? What number is one more than 67? Ten more than 67? One less than 67? 10 less than 67? 3. Use your sheep to cover the following numbers: Cover the number that means one ten and four ones. Cover the number that means no tens and seven ones. Cover the number that means five tens and no ones. Cover the number that has the same digit in both the tens and the ones place. 4. Use any object or picture to cover all the numbers that end with the digit 6. How many squares did you cover? What is the smallest number you covered? The largest number? Say each number and then check it by looking under the picture. Discuss with each other any patterns you see in the column that starts with a 6 and ends with Choose any object or picture to cover the numbers that answer these number riddles: I am thinking of a number with a 6 in the tens place and a 1 in the ones place. I am thinking of a number with a 1 in the tens place and a 6 in the ones place. Are the numbers the same? How do you know? Cover the smallest two-digit number on your hundred board. Cover the largest two-digit number on your board. Cover a three-digit number. What number is larger than 2 tens and 3 ones, but smaller than 2 tens and 5 ones? Cover the largest two-digit number with a 3 in the ones place. Cover the smallest two-digit number with a 5 in the tens place. Cover the two-digit number that has a 7 in the tens place and in the ones place. Cover evens, odds, primes, composites, multiples of 2,5,10... FOR YOUNGER STUDENTS What number comes before 10? After 7? What number is between 7 and 9? Put a round hay bale on the number 4.

6 Hundreds Chart Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

7 Hundreds Chart Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.

8 Name A Hundred Bales of Hay Before there were cars, trucks, and farm equipment, it was work horses that provided transportation and helped with work on the farm. Hay was the fuel that made the horses go. Farmers needed huge amounts of hay for their cattle and their sheep. Work horses needed hay, too. Farmers put up hay to feed their own animals and sold the extra to people in town who needed it for their horses. Haymaking involved cutting, gathering, drying and storing grasses or legumes, like alfalfa or clover. Hay was usually made during late June, July and August. First the hay was cut with a scythe or a mower. Then sun and wind dried the hay in the field. When the hay was dry enough, workers raked it up and made hay stacks in the field or hauled it to the barn. The farmer could feed the animals by pitching the hay to the animals below. Everyone in the family helped with haymaking, male and female. The hired men usually got the heavy work, such as pitching hay or building stacks. Women and older children did the raking and drove the teams of horses. Smaller children brought lunches and cold drinks to the hayfield. Farmers today still need hay to feed their animals, but machinery does more of the work now. Think about it Explain this statement: Hay was the fuel that made the horses go. This statement is an example of figurative language. Which is it? (Check one.) simile? (a comparison that uses like or as) metaphor? (an implied comparison) hyperbole? (an exaggeration for effect) personification? (a description that represents a thing as a person) Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.