TITLE: “Old MacDonald Had a Farm-ers’ Market” AGE GROUP: This activity is geared toward preschool-aged kids, most appropriately four- and five-year-olds. NUMBER OF CHILDREN: The activity can be done with a large group of children, depending on how large the market is. An appropriate ratio would be 2 to 3 “customers” for every 1 “vendor” (the older the kids, and the larger the market, the more customers can be roaming around). TIME OF DAY: Any time of day that there is free play going on would be appropriate. Morning or afternoon, this activity can be picked up any time a general circulation is going on in the classroom. The set-up of the activity, however, should be done in the morning as a group effort. DOMAIN: This activity fosters growth in the areas of language arts (expressive and receptive), social skills, and math/reasoning skills. OBJECTIVE: Through the farmers’ market dramatic play environment, the children will increase their receptive and expressive language skills by using specific buying and selling phrases, they will learn about and understand the reasoning behind a farmers’ market, and they will become more comfortable with the social and math skills needed in a market setting. In addition, children will learn the names of various fruits and vegetables and be able to sort them into baskets. MATERIALS: - Plastic foods: bread, baked goods, etc. - Plastic or real flowers - Plastic fruits and vegetables - Play money - Baskets - Boxes/crates - Signs, if wanted - Small tables or shelving units DIRECTIONS OR PROCEDURE: During circle time: - Discuss what a farmers’ market is: a place where farmers come together to sell their fruits, vegetables, baked goods, flowers, etc. Ask the children what they think farmers grow and sell. - Ask who has been to a farmers’ market. What did they see there? What did they buy? - Ask the children what they would want to sell or buy at their own farmers’ market. - Go over the names of the fruits and vegetables that are available. Have the children help set up the market. Each can have a job: They can gather materials around the classroom, put them in boxes and crates, and create little vendor stations. Someone can hand out the play money and baskets to the customers. Others can set up the sorting baskets by drawing pictures of the fruits and vegetables (or they can be printed out already) and attaching them to the baskets. Each child can have a turn being a vendor and being a customer. Encourage the children to ask questions to the farmers and encourage the farmers to use their imaginations: - What are you selling? - How much are these flowers? Eggs? Apples? - How do you grow this? - What is the name of this fruit? If this is done during free play, the teachers can gauge who would like to switch roles. If this is a group activity, the teachers can decide on a certain amount of time and then switch everyone. Children will also have the opportunity to sort fruits and vegetables by seeing the pictures attached to the baskets. Note: The use of money is not to be anything specific at this time; it’s simply a way for the children to buy products. Children will decide whatever amount they want, and other children will pay based on what they think this is. It’s not meant to be an activity to learn about money at this time. EVALUATION MEASURES: As the activity progresses throughout the day and weeks, observe each child’s use of language and take notes. Are they able to ask the vendor what they want? Are the vendors able to describe what they have? Become a vendor or a shopper and ask the children the questions you have been encouraging them to ask. Ask each child if they know the names of the various fruits and vegetables. Can they sort them into the proper basket? Children should be able to name the items purchase an item and sell to customers with the appropriate language. LESSON EXTENSION: This can be an ongoing part of the classroom, and the items can change seasonally. The children that are interested in continuing the farmers’ market can discuss what they might sell at different times of the year and create or collect those items. This can lead to a discussion of what kinds of food grow at different types of the year. The children may want to start their own little farm in an outside area (if available). In addition, a trip can be arranged to a farm to see where their food comes from. Various fruits and vegetables can also be brought in to taste and see. This could be part of a larger unit on “Where does food come from?” or “What do farmers do?” Downloaded from http://www.wikihow.com