Topic: In the orchard and in the field

Target group

4th‑grade students of elementary school

Core Curriculum

General aim of education

Students observe and give the names of typical organisms present in the field and in the orchard.

Key competences

• communication in foreign languages;

• digital competence;

• learning to learn.

Criteria for success
The student will learn:

• assess the living conditions of plants and animals in fields and orchards;

• give examples of plants grown by man;

• distinguish grains grown in Poland;

• indicate the importance of fields and orchards for wild animals.

Methods/techniques

• expository

  • talk.

• activating

  • discussion.

• programmed

  • with computer;

  • with e‑textbook.

• practical

  • exercices concerned.

Forms of work

• individual activity;

• activity in pairs;

• activity in groups;

• collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook;

• notebook and crayons/felt‑tip pens;

• interactive whiteboard, tablets/computers;

• multimedia atlases of plants and animals.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

• Students get acquainted with the content of the abstract. They prepare to work on the lesson in such a way to be able to summarize the material read in their own words and solve the tasks themselves.

Introduction

• The teacher gives the topic, the goals of the lesson in a language understandable for the student, and the criteria of success.

• The teacher, referring to the previous lesson, asks selected students to describe the differences between the field and the meadow and to name three meadow and plant names each.

Realization

• The teacher asks pupils to read the abstract and then in writing to answer the question: „What are the similarities and differences between the forest and the orchard, and between the meadow and the cultivated field?”. Volunteers read their answers, and the rest of the students with the teacher choose the best one.

• The teacher displays an interactive illustration and discusses examples of food dependencies occurring in the orchard.

• Students, working in pairs, make drawings in their notebooks depicting other food dependencies typical of orchards and fields. In case of doubt, they use abstract or search for necessary information in multimedia atlases.

• The teacher asks pupils to look at photographs presenting Polish cereals and pay attention to their characteristic features. Students analyze them and then independently perform interactive exercise No. 1.

• Students draw in the notebooks the fruits of trees and shrubs grown in Polish orchards and describe them.

Summary

• The teacher asks students to carry out the recommended interactive exercise themselves.

Homework

• Make at home a note from the lesson using the sketchnoting method.

• Listen to the abstract recording at home. Pay attention to pronunciation, accent and intonation. Learn to pronounce the words learned during the lesson.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

In the orchard and in the field

Fields and orchards are artificially created environments. A field is an area which is designated for the cultivation of plants. Certain plants are grown to be used as food for people, or as fodder for farm animals. Some of the plants cultivated in fields will be turned into food products, clothes and even fuel for cars in industrial plants.

In any given field, only one type of plant is cultivated at a given time.

In winter, work is not carried out in the fields, but certain plants, for example, winter cereals, can be sown in autumn, since they require a period of low temperatures to enter their entire development cycle. In winter, for example, rapeseed and certain cereals are sown. In winter, the remains of unharvested plants remain in the fields, and are eaten by various animals.

An orchard is a place where fruit trees and bushes are cultivated. They grow in the same place for a dozen, and sometimes even several dozen years. The fruit is collected by hand, or with the help of specialised machines. The orchard is also a place where many animals live. Besies pollinators, another large group is insects which are „pests”, for example, the codling moth and the predators which feed on it, such as the ladybird, the carabus and the lacewing. Birds e.g.tits and starlings feed on the numerous insects, as do mammals e.g. moles, shrews and hedgehogs. Snails are eaten by frogs and toads. These animals are allies of the orchard.

Cereals are cultivated in the majority of fields in Poland. These are: wheat, rye, triticale, barley, oats, millet, and corn. Flours (ground grains), groats (hulled grains) and flakes (crushed grains) are produced from the grains. Cereals are also used as fodder for animals.

Oilseeds are also cultivated in fields, for example, rapeseed. Vegetables are grown on a large scale, such as potatoes, cabbages, carrots, onions, beetroots, tomatoes and many others. Certain plants have uses in industries other than the food industry, for example, rapeseed is used in the prodution of fuel, and linseed – in the production of fibres. The most popular among fruit trees are apple trees, cherry trees, plum trees and pear trees. Fruit bushes provide currants (black and red), raspberries, gooseberries and chokeberries. Many other plants are also grown, such as hops, sunflowers and herbs (for example, camomile or mint).

Certain cultivated plants have many different uses. Among them are potatoes, whose tubers can be eaten by people after being boiled, baked or fried. They can be fodder for animals, or a raw material in the production of potato flour. They can also be used in the production of alcohol, which is used in industry or added to petrol.

• A field is a place where plants are cultivated.

• An orchard is a place where fruit trees and bushes are cultivated.

• Many species of animals live in fields and orchards, since there they have a guaranteed abundance of food.

• Fields and orchards are artificial ecosystems, maintained by man.