Step-by-Step Lesson

What are the seasonal chores of the cranberry grower?

Lesson Plan:

Overview
Background
Materials
Preparation
Step-by-Step

Part I: Sort by Season

1. Show the Movie Presentation,  Away With the Wind
   
   Synopsis:  Emily and David’s dog, Bear, grabbed file folders from their cranberry grower parents’ office. Bear ran outside, scattering important notes about key chores that must be done throughout the year. Emily and David recover all the papers, but now they must reorganize them.
   Tell students that Emily and David require the students’ help in completing this task.
   
   
2. Show students the screen of Sort by Season, which shows an image of scattered sticky memos, with each one showing a different cranberry growing task. Tell students that they must return each task to the growers’ file folder corresponding to the season in which it is usually accomplished on the bog. To determine the season to which each task belongs, students should use their prior knowledge, pop-up information from the interactive, which provides clues, and their own reasoning. Consider completing one example with the whole class.
   
   
3. Provide 20-25 minutes for student groups to complete the assignment.
   
   
4. When the time period is over, instruct students to save their work to the Cranberry Bog Blog “Share It” folder. Conduct a class discussion comparing the groups’ responses and work together to resolve any discrepancies, if possible.
   
   
5. Afterwards, students can check their work by “helping Emily and David go online and consult the ‘growers’ manual’ (the teacher key) to find the answers. Click on the appropriate icon to pull up this file.
   
   
6. Discuss any differences between the correct seasons for tasks and student answers, helping to determine why the task belongs in its given season.

Part II: Tools for the Task

1. Return to the story of Emily, David, and Bear:
   
   Although the children were successful in reordering the files, they ultimately told their parents what happened. Mom and Dad were so impressed that they decided to hire Emily and David to help manage the bog. Their task was to help organize the technology required to run the bog. Because a new storage shed was recently built, much of the equipment has been in disarray. Emily and David need the students’ help to reorganize it.
   
   Tell students how they will help: Match each technology (tool) to its corresponding task, so that the tool can be stored in the appropriate season’s section of the shed (the teacher key).  Show students that they can click on video or images of the tools being used so that they can determine the task that it matches. Have students open their student resource, Tools for the Task.
   
   
2. Provide 20-25 minutes for students to complete this task.
   
   
3. Afterwards, choose a few discussion points from the list below to wrap up student learning. Consider assigning one or more of the others as a journal prompt. [Note: (a) is also the focus of the Bog Blog]
1. Cranberry growers often hear from people who don’t grow cranberries that they are lucky that they only have to work in the autumn. What examples would you give to someone to demonstrate that this is not true?
   
   
2. What do you think would happen if a grower did not do these tasks?
   
   
3. Cranberry growers must pay attention to and respond to natural cycles. What examples can you think of to illustrate this?
   
   
4. How does technology help growers accomplish their work? Cranberry growing has been going on since before much of this technology developed. How do you imagine the cranberry bog functioned before some of these technologies came about?
   
   
5. If you live near a farming area and students are familiar with the local agriculture, compare and contrast the seasonal work and technologies of your local area with cranberry growing. Be sure that if you live in a cranberry growing area, students familiar with it (through first-hand experience, perhaps) have a chance to share other tasks and insights.