Christmas Tree Farm

First Grade had a blast today learning about Christmas Tree Farms.  We began our lesson by brainstorming as a class on a circle map what we know about farms.  Below is the circle map we created. 

As you can see, we do have Christmas trees on our brainstorm circle.  That is because one child had just been to a Christmas tree Farm.  It was amusing to listen to the other students try to convince him that Christmas trees do not grow on a farm.  One child said they come from Walmart or Food Lion.  LOL!

Following the brainstorm, I acknowledged the child who mentioned Christmas trees and we saw a YouTube video entitled The Miller's Christmas Tree Farm.  This video gives a good picture of what a day is like during the Christmas Season at this farm.  Then we read a book called Christmas Tree Farm by Sandra Jordan.  Students were excited to see some of the same activities pictured in the book as they saw in the movie.  We ended the lesson by going to a site where they can decorate their own Christmas Trees.  The nice thing about this site is that it not only lets the students decorate their tree but gives them an opportunity to choose their tree as well.  One comment that was made in the book was that everybody has their own perfect tree. Below are snapshots of our Christmas Trees.

I would love to have had time to do a double bubble map showing the difference between the activities on the movie with the book. However, I ditched the double bubble map in order to give the students time to use the website to create their own trees.