Last updated: July 2, 2019
Lesson Plan
Farm to Factory Production: Making a Grilled Cheese Sandwich
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- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 3.L.3, 4.L.3
- State Standards:
- Massachusetts
Grade 3 – Social Studies
Topic 5.3.
Using visual primary sources such as paintings, artifacts, historic buildings, or text sources, analyze details of daily life, housing, education, and work of the Puritan men, women, and children - Additional Standards:
- New Hampshire Frameworks
Economic Systems & Technology
SS:HI:4:4.1: Explore major developments and changes in economic productivity, e.g., adoption of Native American crops or use of mass production.
SS:HI:4:4.3: Investigate the evolution of the United - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
How was life different when people had to make everything by hand?
Objective
Students will be able to:
Explain how farm families produced necessary food items 200 years ago.
Describe two differences between their lives today and life before the Industrial Revolution.
Background
See attached: “Life on a Farm.”
Preparation
Make copies of Making a Sandwich "Life on a Farm" reading and Making a Sadwich worksheet for students.
Materials
"Making a Sandwich" Worksheet
Download Making a Grilled Cheese Sandwich Worksheet
"Life on a Farm" reading
Download Life on a Farm reading
Lesson Hook/Preview
Students will compare making a sandwich on a farm before the Industrial Revolution and today to understand the changes that have occurred over the last 200 years. Students should understand that 200 years ago on New England farms people had to make what they needed by hand. Many products readily available to us today were not available back then.
Procedure
- Distribute “Life on a Farm” to students and read aloud. While reading aloud, students should underline words and phrases that explain how the family would get the items that they needed to survive (food, clothing, etc.). As a class, create a list of what the family had to do to get what they needed.
What would you need? How do you get it/where does it come from?
(Bread-from a store, butter-from a store, cheese-from a store, frying pan-from a store, stove-from a store, spatula-from a store. Need money from a job to purchase items etc.)
How do you do it?
(Turn on the stove, heat the pan, butter the bread, add cheese in between two slices of bread, put buttered bread into pan, cook on one side, flip with spatula, cook on the other side. Eat and enjoy!)
- Students, working in pairs or small groups, will use the following questions to describe how to make a grilled cheese sandwich today and fill out the “Today” section of the “Making a Grilled Cheese Sandwich” worksheet
- Ask students: What if you lived 200 years ago before the Industrial Revolution – before items were made in factories and available in stores or before people had money to purchase items?
- Working in the same or different groups, students fill out the “200 Years Ago” side of the “Making a Grilled Cheese Sandwich” worksheet. Encourage them to refer back to the reading for hints.
(Bread: Farmer would need to plant rye or corn. The rye or corn would have to be harvested and ground into flour at the grist mill--you will need to trade something to the miller to get your flour)
Butter: Milk the cow, take the cream and churn it into butter
Cheese: Milk the cow and turn milk into cheese
Pan: Trade items to the blacksmith (extra wool, extra flour, a day’s work in his field)
Stove: Would be a fireplace in your house. You will need to chop wood so that you can cook.)
Ask a few students to share their thoughts on life on a farm. Is life on a farm 200 years ago a life they would have wanted to live? Why or why not? Encourage students to refer to reading and class list from beginning of lesson for specific examples.
Vocabulary
Barter: trading goods or services for other goods or services
Gristmill: a small building where rye and corn were ground into flour using two large, circular stones grinding together
Miller: the person who ran the grist mill
Rye: a grass, similar to wheat, that is used for flour
Assessment Materials
How would your life be differentHomework: Choose one item in your house. Write one paragraph explaining how your life would be different without that item and what you would do/use instead.
For example: refrigerator (can’t store food), microwave (have to heat up food in the oven, can’t defrost easily) etc.
Rubric/Answer Key
How would your life be differentMaking a Sandwich Worksheet Rubric
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
| Completion | All items attempted | ¾ of items attempted | At least ½ of the items attempted | Less than ½ of all items attempted |
| Demonstrated Knowledge of difference between life on farm 200 years go and modern life |
Shows complete understanding of the questions and idea. Integrates new vocabulary. | Shows substantial understanding of the questions and ideas | Response shows some understanding of the questions and ideas | Response shows a complete lack of understanding of the questions and ideas |
| Describe differences between their lives today and life before the Industrial Revolution |
In discussion, can list more than two differences | In discussion, can list two differences | In discussion, can list one difference | In discussion, cannot list any differences |
Making a Sandwich Worksheet Rubric
Supports for Struggling Learners
After reading “Life on a Farm” aloud to students, students can draw a picture of what farm life might have been like.
Enrichment Activities
For grades 6 and up: After completing the above activity students will write a diary entry about a day on the farm. They should be as specific as possible about what chores they did that day. Students should think about the time of year and use appropriate chores.
Additional Resources
For more resources, visit www.uml.edu/tsongas