UNIT X 112 | UNIT 3 Instructional Routine: Social Studies p. Txxxi Native American Agriculture • Build content vocabulary Assess students’ understanding of the term agriculture. Students can look up the word in the dictionary. Ask: What is Native American agriculture? Let students write down their guesses of the meaning. (Their answers should reflect an understanding of the fact that agriculture means to grow plants.) • Use prior knowledge Students can share what experience they have with agriculture. Ask: Have you ever had a window garden? What kind of plants are important for your family and culture? Essential Question: What are the agricultural roots of the United States? Read the Essential Question aloud and ask students to share what they know about agriculture in the United States. For example, I know when I buy peanuts, they always say “Grown in the U.S.A.” Write responses on the board and tell students that they will revisit the question after reading the text. A Three Sisters Farming • Use text structure to predict Preview the text with students. Point out the title and picture. Say: Look at the title. What do you think it means? Describe the picture. Infer what you think this text will be about. • Listen actively Play the audio of the text as students follow along. Tell students to track the words as they hear them. • Match words to text Refer to the Essential Question. Ask: What are the agricultural roots of the United States? Replay the audio, this time asking students to find specific information that explains the agricultural roots of the United States. EXPLORE AND LEARN DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION Scaffold Have students reread the text and focus on the “Three Sisters system of agriculture.” Then have them work with a partner to make a simple series of sketches and captions about how corn grew first; then, beans grew up around it and left nutrients for the corn, and then the farmers planted squash which kept water in and weeds away from the food. Amplify Have students research other Native American agricultural traditions. Suggest they create images and captions to present their findings to the class. What are the agricultural roots of the United States? ? ESSENTIAL QUESTION Native American Agriculture A Read the informational text. Three Sisters Farming Native Americans grew many crops before Europeans came to the land that is now the United States. Many tribes developed different farming techniques. The Wampanoag people used a system called interplanting. They planted corn, beans, and squash together in the same field. They called the plants the Three Sisters. Each plant helped the others grow well. The farmers planted corn seeds first. As the cornstalks grew, the farmers put dirt around each stalk to keep it stable. A few weeks later, they planted bean seeds around the cornstalks. The beans left nutrients in the soil that the corn needed. The vines of the bean plants climbed up the cornstalks. Then, the farmers planted squash plants. These plants grew close to the ground. They kept weeds out of the soil and water in. When Europeans came to the Americas in the 1500s, they had never seen many of the foods that grew in the area. The early settlers worried that they would not find food in their new land. The Wampanoag gave the settlers food to help them through the first winter. They later taught the settlers about farming and explained how to rotate crops, and they also showed the settlers the Three Sisters method of farming. Three Sisters farming, or interplanting, is not common today, but people do still use the technique. It’s mostly used on small family farms where the vegetables are grown for family and friends. 112 CONNECT TO Social Studies UNIT 3 UNIT 3 / CONNECT TO SOCIAL STUDIES
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