Grade Level: 4-6

Michigan Content Standards: (Language Arts) 1.1; 1.4; 2.4; 3.1; 3.6; 6.2; 8.2; 8.3

Approximate Length of Activity: One or two class periods

Objectives:

Teacher:

1. Help students improve their vocabulary.

2. Teach students about Michigan agricultural commodities.

Students:

1. Define "commodity."

2. Learn that corn, soybeans, and many more
    commodities are grown in Michigan.

3. Practice poetry skills using Michigan commodities.

Introduction:

Michigan is a major agricultural producer of a wide range of commodities. Commodities are goods that are produced. Michigan produces almost 244.3 million bushels of corn, 850 million pounds of apples, 5.7 billion pounds of milk, and 2.1 million acres of soybeans each year. Other Michigan products include hogs, wheat, oats, pumpkins, vegetables, Christmas trees, sheep, and much more! Over 27 percent of the land in Michigan is farmland -- that's 10.4 million acres!

Crops are produced is different areas of the state because of varying temperatures, precipitation, and physical features of different areas. For some of these same reasons livestock are also raised in certain parts of the state. Fruit trees and berries are grown on the west cost of the state, because the temperatures and frost dates are more appropriate for the crops, with Lake Michigan right there. 

Corn in a major feed grain grown by farmers in Michigan. It is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall. A corn seed weighs about one-hundredth of an ounce. Yet this tiny seed can produce a corn plant that will grow seven to ten feet tall and produce between 600 and 1,000 seeds, like the one from which the plant started. The seeds of a corn plant are the kernels that you find on an ear of corn. The kernels are arranged in rows along the ear. An ear of corn may have as few as eight or as many as thirty-six rows, but the number of rows is always even. Corn is a major component in many foods like cereals, peanut butter, soda pop, flour, and snack foods. Corn also has many industrial uses such as ethanol, degradable plastics, and starch for recycled paper.

In Michigan 54,000 acres of farmland are used for apple production. Some apple producers grow apples commercially and some grow them non-commercially. Apple producers who grow apples commercially own or manage their orchards and then sell the fruit to the consumers. Apple producers prune the trees, apply fertilizers and herbicides, control rodents, mow the orchard, use machinery for harvesting and hauling the fruit, and advertise and sell the crop. Those who grow apples non-commercially may have a few trees in their yard and grow the apples for personal use.

Typically dairy cows are milked two to three times a day by farmers using milking machines. The machines milk the cows using a suction system. When farmers milked cows by hand, they would spend two and one-half hours milking 20 cows. Nowadays, with milking machines, a farmer spends only 15 minutes milking 20 cows. When the cows are milked, the milking machines transport the milk to a bulk milk cooler. A dairy plant sends a refrigerated truck to the dairy farm every few days to transport the milk to a dairy plant where it is pasteurized to kill bacteria. Then some of the milk is packaged into jugs or cartons and sent to stores to be sold. The rest of the milk is used to make butter, cheese, yogurt, whipped cream, ice cream, and other dairy products.

Soybeans are produced for human food, consumer and industrial products, and livestock feed. One bushel of soybeans, which weighs 60 pounds, produces 11 pounds of soybean oil. About 90 percent of this oil is used in the preparation of food products. Soy inks, plastics, biodiesel fuels, and biodegradable building materials are a few of the industrial uses that have been developed using soybean oil instead of petroleum. Soybeans are used in foods such as salad dressings, baking mixes, candy and more.

Today's producers raise pigs that gain weight more efficiently and yield more lean meat than ever before. Sows, which are female pigs, give birth to litters of piglets twice a year. Each litter usually has seven to ten piglets. Giving birth to piglets is called farrowing. Some pork producers have "farrow to finish" farms, which means the pigs are bred, born, and fed on the farm until they are taken to market. Pigs are weaned from their mother when they are two to four weeks old. Farmers feed their pigs a well-balanced diet of ground-up corn, soybeans, wheat, and grain sorghum twice a day. They are usually taken to market when they weigh 220-260 pounds. By this time, the pigs are about five to six months old. Bacon, pork sausage, pork chops, and ham all come from pigs, as well as 500 different by-products. Some examples of by-products are fertilizers, glass, china, floor wax, chalk, crayons, and medicine.

Many more commodities than just these are produced in Michigan. Also produced are fruits such as pears, cherries, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, and melons, plus vegetables such as sweet corn, pumpkins, peppers, asparagus, onions, cucumbers, and potatoes. Other animals raised in Michigan include fish, turkey, chickens, beef cattle, sheep, horses, swine, ducks, pheasants, and honeybees. Specialty crops of Michigan include herbs, mint, sunflowers, barley, mushrooms, maple sugar, popcorn, and trees. Traditional crops such as wheat and oats are also grown.

Materials Needed:

Heartland by Diane Siebert, ISBN 0-06-443287-4 or Harvest Year by Cris Peterson, ISBN 1-56397-571-8 (optional)

Books and reference materials

Activity Outline

1. Begin a discussion about Michigan commodities with the class. Explain what a commodity is and talk about what commodities are grown in Michigan. You may want to read Heartland by Diane Siebert of Harvest Year by Cris Peterson.
2. Explain to the students that they will choose a commodity grown in Michigan and write a poem about it. Take the students to the library to look up books or encyclopedia articles about their chosen commodity.
3. After the students have done a little research on their commodity, have them choose what type of poem they want to write. Students can choose from a cinquain, a haiku, or a rhyming poem. The teacher should write these three types of poems on the board and list the format of each:

Cinquain (5 lines)

Noun

Two adjectives 

Three "ing" verbs

Short phrase

Noun (synonym for title)

 

Haiku (3 lines)

3 syllables

7 syllables

5 syllables

 

Rhyming (as many lines as desired)

Words in different lines must rhyme with each other

     4.  After the students have written their poems, have them share the poems with the class.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is a commodity?

2. What are some fruits produced in Michigan?

3. What types of vegetables are produced in Michigan?

4. What is the format of a cinquain?

5. What is the format of a haiku?

Related Activities:

1. Assign one commodity to each student for further research. Have them give either an oral or written report.
2. Put the students' poetry in a book to share with other classes.
3. Make a commodity map of Michigan with pictures showing where various commodities are grown and raised.