Subject: Social Studies

Grade: 4

Agricultural Topic: Genealogy/Careers

Concept: III

Michigan Content Standards:
Social Studies I.2.3; II.1.1; II.1.2; II.2.4; II.5.1; IV.2.3

Student Skill

The student will design and construct maps, charts, graphs, tables, and cartoons using data.

Learner Objective

The student will trace his or her family history to find family members with farming or ranching backgrounds.

Lesson

A.  Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Discuss the term "genealogy" with students, and explain how to develop a family tree. Lead a discussion in which you ask students "What would be the purpose of learning your family's history?"
   
2. Share background material. Brainstorm, and have students help you make a list on the chalk board of all the agriculture-related jobs they can think of.
   
3. Hand out student worksheets , and have students take them home and complete the family trees as completely as possible, with the help of a parent.
   
4. Have students draw stars next to the names of family members who live(d) and/or work(ed) on a farm or a ranch. Have students circle those family members who work in an agriculture-related business.
   
5. Have students share findings with the class.

B.  Background

Genealogy – history of the descent of a person or family from an ancestor

Our ancestors started farming about 10,000 years ago. For a million years before that people had been gathering wild fruits and seeds and killing small animals for their families to eat. One day someone noticed grass growing where grain had been spilled or stored the season before. The people got the idea to plant the seeds and see if they could grow the crops they needed and wanted. When they placed the seeds In the ground, they started to grow. Animal husbandry probably began the first time someone managed to tame a wild animal that had been injured or trapped.

People all over the world developed different ways of farming, depending on where they lived. The first colonists in the New World tried to farm the land they found the same way they had farmed in Europe. It didn't work, and they nearly starved. They had to learn to farm like the Indians and grow the crops that would grow well in the place where they had come to live.

Back then nearly everyone had to farm and hunt to provide enough food to keep their families alive. The first U.S. census, taken in 1790, listed 95 percent of the people as rural. That changed after the industrial revolution. Farmers had tools that helped them produce more and more food. When too many farmers started raising too much food, food prices fell, and many farmers could no longer earn enough money to support their families. They were forced to leave the farm and find work in the new industries. In the 1930s much of the farm land in our country started to wear out or erode away. Two million farmers were forced to leave their farms then.

Today only about 2 percent of the people in this country actually live on a farm or ranch. It is no longer necessary for every family to grow its own food. One American farmer today can feed about 100 people, both in this country and around the world. For every American farmer there are another seven people involved in American agribusiness. That includes thousands of businesses and millions of people who process, deliver and sell food to people all over the world. It includes people who teach agriculture in our state universities and scientists who research the insects and diseases that affect our food supply. It includes bankers who loan money to farmers and ranchers so they can buy the equipment they need, and it includes the people who build and sell that equipment. Agribusiness includes the truckers who haul the cattle to market, the florist who sells a dozen red roses and even the check-out clerk at the grocery store.

Source: Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, Agricultural Economics, Oklahoma State University

C.  Resources

Bryan, Ashley - Dancing Granny, Macmillan, 1987.

Freedman, Russell - Children of the Wild West, Houghton Mifflin, 1983.

Giff, Patricia - Laura Ingalls Wilder: Growing up in the Little House, Viking, 1987.

Gorsline, Marie and Douglas - Pioneers, Random House, 1982.

Sabin, Francene - Pioneers, Troll, 1985.

D.  Evaluation

Were the students able to complete the family tree and identify individuals who were in some type of agriculture production?

E.  Related Activities

1. Bring in a guest speaker who lives or has lived on a farm or ranch, and ask him or her to talk about daily rituals and chores.
   
2. Have students do written or tape-recorded interviews of family members who have lived on a farm/ranch operation or who work in agribusiness. Have students share the interviews with classmates or another class.
   
3. Have class members bring baby or pre-school pictures in which the student is the only one in the picture. Assign a number to each baby picture, then make a list of all the class members. Have students try to match as many names to the baby pictures as possible. Compare results.