Ag Unit: Cotton Samples

Over the summer, our grade level went through GLAD training.  After the training I decided I wanted to test out the strategies I learned while teaching agriculutre.  I knew ag was my classroom theme and my goal was to make sure all of my students knew about agriculture.  So, an ag GLAD unit was the perfect fit! 

Another first grade teacher decided to do the unit with me and I am SO glad she did because she is AMAZING!  We talked about the different parts of agriculture and what we wanted to focus on.  I wanted it to be something they had around them and could relate to but something that didn't really think about.  We decided on a fiber.  And cotton was it!  Originally, we were going to do expert groups and one of the expert groups would be about the other areas of ag but we didn't get to that (that will be the plan for next year).

On twitter, I asked Janice if she could send me some samples of cotton (her twitter name is @JPlovesCOTTON) and instead of just sending me a sample of cotton, she sends me this:

Getting in the mail at school was like Christmas - I was expecting a piece of raw cotton but, I got this:

huge color pictures of the different stages,

a curriculum and activities guide,

a easy to read cotton's journey map, AND cotton samples (along with oil samples and seeds, and every stage in between)!!!  I was (am still) SO EXCITED!  Cotton's Journey really is a field trip in a box - there was also a video (which I didn't watch but had every intention to), a map, songs, and many other things. 

Then, a few days later I received this in the mail:

Cotton!!  Straight from the farm in the Central Valley (of California).  Cannon (isn't his name awesome?!) picked the samples just for my class and sent them up to us.  He also blogs here. 

A closer look - there are closed bolls and open bolls and leaves and parts of the stem.

In a later post, I will show you just how I used these samples and Cotton's Journey!