Activities, Lessons & Links

The educational activities on our website complement the environmental education courses taught at Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center (HBF), while incorporating science, reading and math. Please use them to help prepare your students for their trip to HBF. We have organized the lessons by topics that are universal and of value to teachers and students everywhere. We’ve also provided Learning Standards and Alignments for local school systems.
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These lessons are arranged by subject because even though they were each written for specific grade levels and standards, they can be modified for other grade levels.
Science
- Life Cycle Introduction: Grade 1 Students will collect seeds and create a diagram of a plant’s life cycle using their seed.
- Natural Resources: Grade 3 Students will observe natural resources in their schoolyard and explain how Earth’s natural resources are used to meet their needs.
- Die and Decay: Grade 3 Students will collect once-living organisms in order to create and perform a skit that demonstrates how a living organism dies and decays.
- Rocks: Grade 4 Students will classify and categorize rocks, both sets provided by the teacher and rocks that students collect from the schoolyard.
- Energy in Ecosystems: Grade 5 Students will use the scientific method to determine how energy moves in ecosystems and go outside to make observations about the movement of energy.
- Winter Adaptations: Grade 5 Students will create a comic strip to demonstrate how one or more organisms adapt to survive Maryland’s winter climate.
- Compasses and Magnets: Grade 6 Students will use a compass to complete a scavenger hunt, create a compass outdoors, and determine the connection between compasses and magnetism.
- Ecosystem Food Web Mural Students will research and present information on organisms found in a specific aquatic habitat and them combine their information to create a food web mural.
Reading/Language Arts
- Traditions: Grade 3 Students will read directions for a traditional Chinese children’s game, go outside and play the game, then write their own directions for a traditional game they enjoy.
- Wiggling Worms: Grade 3 Students will keep a record of questions about earthworms, observations of their adaptations, and results of an experiment. They will use this knowledge as they set up a class vermicompost bin.
- Tall Tales: Grade 4 Students will learn about hyperboles, hike part of the Dogwood Trail making observations as they go, and then write “chain” tall tales in the classroom.
- Informational Paragraph: Grade 4 Students will write an informational paragraph about why winter is or is not their favorite season including three supporting details. They will go outside for part of class to experience what winter feels like and get some ideas for their supporting details.
- Winter Poems: Grade 5 Students will write a winter poem after going outside and experiencing winter weather.
- Descriptive Writing: Grade 5 Students will use descriptive words and phrases to describe something outside using as much descriptive language as possible.
Math
- Adding and Subtracting Decimals: Grade 4 Students will take measurements outside and then practice adding and subtracting decimals using their data.
Social Studies
- Wheres the Corn Students will recognize the importance of corn by discovering that corn products are in unexpected foods.
Resources in Your Community
Organizations & Agencies
Training
Ideas, Curricula & Resources: General
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Ideas, Curricula & Resources: Watershed
Ideas, Curricula & Resources: Recycling & Waste Management
Ideas, Curricula & Resources: Erosion & Runoff
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