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 The tallgrass prairie is a powerful tool to study language arts, math, science, social studies, and the arts. Here are five hands-on lesson ideas to get started.
1. Prairies Through the Eyes of Laura Ingalls Wilder (From Growing in the Garden)
2. Where We Live: History of the Land (Outline of prairie lessons)
3. Let’s Get to the Root of Things by Comparing Root Systems and Root Depth
4. What is a Native Plant?
5. Benefits of Native Plantings in Yards, Gardens and Vacant Lots
Be sure to go to the Book Review and Latest News links for more prairie resources.
Prairie Lesson #1
Prairies Through the Eyes of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Language Arts, Social Studies, Science for Grades 3-5
The newly revised Growing in the Garden: PreK-3rd Grade curriculum includes this lesson, “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Life on the Prairie.” Students will identify important ways history was recorded; compare pioneer life, housing, farming, and transportation to today; and create a timetable to study history. Reading and mapping activities will help your students learn more about life on the prairie. Please refer to the rest of this website and http://www.extension.iastate.edu/learningandliving or e-mail Janet Anderson at janeta@iastate.edu with questions to learn more about the Growing in the Garden classroom curriculum. You may want to go to the Book Review link to discover more children’s books about life on the prairie. A short review and lesson about Addie Across the Prairie by Laurie Lawlor is included there.
INTRODUCTION/ENGAGE
Who was Laura Ingalls Wilder? An author of many books about life on the prairie
What was the title of one of her most popular books? It was the inspiration for a popular television series that is still on reruns. Little House on the Prairie
What could we learn about prairies from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books? Have the students share ideas from what they know about the books and televison series. You may want to record their thoughts on the board.
DO/EXPLORE
Copy the following story, “The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder,” on a transparency.
We are going to read a biography about Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of several books about her family’s life. In the story, you will hear how Laura’s parents were brave pioneers who wanted to make a life for their family on the prairie. Please take out a paper and pencil to write notes about the different places Laura lived. Your notes should include where she lived, something about the land, and why her family moved. We will explore what life was like on the prairie.
Have the students take turns reading “The Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.” You may want to pause after each paragraph so the students can write notes.
REFLECT/EXPLAIN
Copy the following map on a transparency for students to track the places where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived and worked. This map comes from a timeline activity in the Growing in the Garden lesson, “Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Life on the Prairie.” Students chart the towns and states where Laura lived, how long she lived there, the type of house she lived in, what book she wrote about that particular place, and Laura’s age when she lived there. A guided discussion helps students understand what life was like during that time period and the challenges of working and living on the land.
Before revealing the map, have the students share what they learned from the biography with the following activity.
Timeline for the Life of Laura Ingalls Wilder
Where did Laura live when she was born? Have the student who knows the correct answer, Pepin, Wisconsin, stand at one end of the front of the room to start a timeline. Ask the students about the dates, what the land was like, what the family lived in, and what they did on the land near Pepin.
From Pepin, where did Laura’s family move to and why? Have the student who knows the correct answer, prairie land near Independence, Kansas, because her dad dreamed of homesteading on the vast prairie, stand next to the student representing Pepin. Ask the students how the family traveled and what homesteading meant.
Why did the Ingalls family move from the prairie in Kansas and where did they go? Have the student who knows the correct answer, the land belonged to the Osage tribe so they moved back toPepin, Wisconsin, stand near the last student on the timeline. Ask the students what Charles did in Kansas.
Where did Charles find another prairie site to move his family to again? Have the student who knows the correct answer, prairie land near Walnut Grove, Minnesota, stand near the last student on the timeline. Ask the students what types of houses the family lived in while in Minnesota and why they had to wait for the first wheat crop to build a real house.
What happened to Charles’ dream of wheat farming on the prairie that made him look for another way to make a living for his family? Grasshoppers destroyed the crops two years in a row.
Where did Charles find work running a hotel? Have the student who knows the correct answer, Burr Oak, Iowa, stand near the last student on the timeline. Ask the students why Charles wasn’t happy running the hotel and wanted to move again.
Where did the family move after two years in Iowa? Have the student who knows the correct answer, back to Walnut Grove, Minnesota, stand near the last student on the timeline. Ask the students where Laura’s dad worked after they moved back to Minnesota.
Where did the family move to be with Charles Ingalls and his work? Have the student who knows the correct answer, Silver Lake in Dakota Territory – eventually known as the town of DeSmet, stand near the last student on the timeline. Ask the students what it was like living in Dakota Territory.
Where did Laura live after she married Almonzo Wilder? Have the student who knows the correct answer, on a farm north of DeSmet, stand near the last student on the timeline. Ask the students what happened on their farm.
When farming was rough and Almonzo got seriously ill, where did Laura, baby Rose, and Almonzo move to recover? Have the student who knows the correct answer, Westville, Florida, stand near the last student on the timeline. Ask the students what Laura and Almonzo did to save money to move again, where they wanted to move, and why they wanted to move there.
Where did Laura’s family move to from Florida? Have the student who knows the correct answer, Mansfield, Missouri, stand next to the last student on the timeline. Ask the students what Laura did on her journey that would eventually lead her to becoming a famous author.
Did Laura move from her farm near Mansfield, Missouri? No.
How were Laura and Almonzo fulfilling their dreams of farming again? They had an apple orchard, chickens and other livestock, and grew vegetables. The land was too rocky to plant field crops. They called their place Rocky Ridge Farm.
What did Laura do to combine her love of farming and writing? She began writing a column, “As a Farm Woman Thinks,” for a newspaper. At age 60, she took all her notes and memories and started writing her books.
Show the transparency with the map of where Laura lived. Have the students in the timeline tell which place they represented and point to it on the map. Note the illustrations that tell you something about the place or the move. Use the following questions to wrap up the timeline activity.
How many places did Laura live? Have the students figure it out by using the timeline, their notes, and the story. Then check their answers by having the timeline students count off. The students should come up with 10 places. Point out that Laura’s family lived in Pepin and Walnut Grove at two different times.
What did the prairie have to do with their moves? Laura’s dad was always trying to make a living for his family and fulfill his dream of farming on the prairie at the same time. Life on the prairie with weather and insects destroying his crops made it hard for him to feed his family. However, it made Laura and Almonzo also have a love of farming on the prairie. They carried on Charles Ingalls’ dream and lived and worked as farmers and a writer about the farm and prairie life.
APPLY/EXPLAND
Were Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books about the prairie based on facts and real experiences? Yes. How do you know? She wrote her stories based on the journals she wrote and her personal experiences.
EVALUATE
What elements in Laura’s stories compare to your life? Think of the number of moves, packing, why people move, living on a farm or a near a prairie, writing journals, loving farm or country life, etc.
Would you like to live on the prairie during the late 1800s and early 1900s? Why or why not?
How has life changed on the prairie since Laura Ingalls Wilder’s time? Most of the prairie in Iowa has been plowed and turned into farmland…like the Ingalls and Wilder families started to do. Prairie plants and animals have decomposed after thousands of years, making rich soil to grow crops. That’s what people did and still do. We grow corn, soybeans, oats, wheat, vegetables, fruits, and other crops in rich prairie soil. The small amount of prairies now is beneficial for keeping the soil alive, preventing erosion, filtering water, and preserving and protecting habitats for several animals and plants. We can enjoy and appreciate the diverse and beautiful plant and animal life in prairies.
EVALUATE
Try writing a short story, “My Life on the Prairie,” about living on the prairie. Pretend that you are living during the same time period as Laura Ingalls Wilder, or pretend that you are enjoying or working with a prairie now. Your story must include you and the prairie. It must contain an introduction, a body, and a closing and be at least one page long. If you would like to add an illustration, you may.
 Prairie Lesson #2
Where We Live: History of the Land
Curriculum for Grades 4-8
Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development’s Where We Live: History of the Land curriculum includes several fun, hands-on lessons and activities related to prairies. Here are two examples of the curriculum’s lessons and activities. For another example, please go to the Book Review link on this website. To learn more about Where We Live and how to schedule training in your school or district and obtain the teaching materials, go to http://www.extension.iastate.edu/learningandliving or contact Janet Anderson at janeta@iastate.edu.
Land of the Tallgrass (Where We Live: History of the Land, Lesson 6)
Questions: Why are prairies important to Iowans? What happened to Iowa’s prairies?
Content Objectives: Discover and understand the connections between people and the land and why Iowa is called the “prairie” or the “corn” state. (Students must complete most of the activities in this lesson to meet the stated objectives.)
Life Skills Objectives: Critical thinking, Communication, Problem solving
Standards and Benchmarks: More than a dozen listed for the lesson for Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Music, Art
Activity 1: Getting into Prairies – Look at characteristics of prairie plants, make a prairie for your classroom, play a historic parlor game, and pretend to be pioneers finding their way through the vast prairie.
Activity 2: Voices from the Prairie – Read excerpts of diaries written by pioneer women about the prairies they traveled through and illustrate one of the stories.
Activity 3: Living in Harmony – Use Iowa: Portrait of the Land from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and a classroom-sized illustrated musical timeline to explore Iowa prairies starting 13,000 years ago. (The book and timeline are provided with the curriculum.)
Activity 4: The Curious Traveler, Part II – Transform the big bluestem tallgrass and colorful flowering forbs prairie in your classroom to modern corn (another tallgrass) and soybean fields (similar to forbs) and play an updated version of the parlor game.
Activity 5: Iowa Map – Use an Iowa Transportation Map and the vinyl Iowa map that goes with the Where We Live: History of the Land kit to locate native prairies and what grows around Iowa and order Ag Times student magazines to explore agriculture.
Activity 6: Where You Live – This activity reminds you to invite a farmer, naturalist, or other local person to talk about preservation and conservation of the land where you live.
Activity 7: Prairie Plants Up Close – Compare prairie plants with grass grown in yards and flowers from gardens and identify characteristics that make plants adapt well to prairie environments.
Optional Activity Ideas – Take a look at a historical farm on the Iowa prairie through Bob Artley’s wonderfully illustrated and captioned book, Once Upon a Farm. Also discover uses of prairie plants by native Americans and settlers.
Planting Prairies, Corn and Native Trees (Where We Live: History of the Land, Outdoor Classroom)
Questions: How can I plant grasses and trees that are common to Iowa? Why do people grow grasses and trees?
Content Objectives: Understand how to plant a small prairie, corn crop, and a native tree. Recognize that people and animals depend on grasses and trees for many reasons.
Life Skill Objectives: Respect, Responsibility, Problem solving
Activity 1: The Importance of Grasses – Identify products made from grasses, look at MyPyramid and the food group that includes grasses, and talk about what it would be like living without grasses.
Activity 2: Grass Plant Parts – Learn the parts of a grass and a corn plant.
Activity 3: Regrow or Not? – Discover why some grasses grow when you mow them off, while other grasses such as corn do not.
Activity 4: Planting a Prairie Garden – Instructions about planning, starting, and maintaining a prairie garden; includes a children’s book
Activity 5: Planting a Corn Garden – Instructions about planning, starting, and maintaining a corn garden with Indian corn or black or blue corn seeds; includes a children’s book and a longest list game
Activity 6: Corn by the Bushel – A game about what can be made out of a bushel of corn
Activity 7: Planting a Native Tree – Instructions about identifying, securing, planting, and growing a native tree; identifying advantages and uses of trees
Prairie Lesson #3
Let’s Get to the Root of Things by Comparing Root Systems and Root Depth
Science and Math for Grades 4–6
INTRODUCTION/ENGAGE
Ask the students to stand up and raise their arms high above their heads.
Let’s imagine that your body is a prairie plant. Where would the soil line be that divides your roots from the aboveground portion of the plant? Would it be at your knees or hips? It would actually be about your waist. Everything below your waist would be roots in the soil because approximately 65 percent of a prairie plant is actually found underground as an extensive root system. The students can sit back down.
Prairie plants consist of two groups of plants, grasses and forbs. Grasses have long, narrow leaves that originate from the ground or thick stems that are jointed, hollow or tubular, and have non-showy flowers. Forbs typically have colorful flowers, visible stems, and broad leaves.
The above diagram is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root.
DO/EXPLORE
The students can use their computer skills to find the diagram of prairie plants shown above by going to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root.
Have the students calculate the total size of several prairie plants by adding the depth of the roots to the height of each plant. Then calculate the percentage of the root system area. Calculate this for both grasses and forbs.
REFLECT/EXPLAIN
Were there differences in the root systems of grasses and forbs? Yes, however, both types of prairie plants are relatively deeply rooted.
Write the following table on the board:
Cultivated Plant |
Total Size |
Root Depth |
Tomatoes |
5 feet |
Most upper 1 foot of soil |
Soybeans |
4 to 8 feet |
Most upper 6 to 12 inches of soil |
Corn |
8 to 10 feet |
Most upper 3 to 4 feet |
Oats |
4 feet |
Most upper 3 to 4 feet |
EVALUATE
What are some similarities and differences between the total size and root depth of prairie plants and cultivated plants?
What types of grasses did you find on the prairie plant chart and what were their total sizes and their root depths?
What cultivated plant grows in fields all over the Midwest and is also a type of grass? Corn Compare the total size and root depth of the prairie grass and the cultivated grass crop.
Do you think that the roots of most cultivated plants extend as deep into the soil as the roots of prairie plants? No.
Would these cultivated plants survive a drought as well as a prairie plant? No. Why? Deep root systems enable plants to find more moisture.
Why is it important for prairie plants to have deep root systems? So they can survive long periods of dry weather and reach deep into the soil for additional moisture
APPLY/EXPAND
You may want to dig out a small clump of grass to use in the following discussion.
Compare the root depth of Kentucky bluegrass – the grass that we grow in many of our lawns – to that of big bluestem.
EVALUATE
What happens to bluegrass when it gets really hot and dry outside? You can see it turn brown and almost crunches when you step on it. That is because it goes dormant or dies back.
What do you think happens to big bluestem under the same conditions? It stays green. Why? The deep root system of this prairie grass helps the plant find more moisture.
What do many people do to keep their grass green all summer long? Because most bluegrass roots grow in the top several inches of soil, they depend on moisture at the surface. That is why people water their yards to keep the grass green in a drought.
Prairie Lesson #4
What is a Native Plant?
Science for Grades 3–6
INTRODUCTION/ENGAGE
What does the word “native” mean? Have the students guess, then look it up in a dictionary. Webster’s New World Student’s Dictionary defines native as: “2. born in or belonging naturally in a certain place or country [a plant native to Japan; a native New Yorker].”
What does it mean when a plant, animal or rock belongs naturally to a certain place? It means that people didn’t bring it or plant it there; it already existed in that place.
Can you think of things that are native to Iowa? Some people, prairie plants, trees, animals, and insects were born in or belong naturally to Iowa.
What is a good definition of a “native plant” for Iowa? It is a plant that lived or grew naturally in Iowa or a particular region in Iowa before Europeans settled the area.
DO/EXPLORE
Have the students work in pairs or small groups and go on the school ground or to a nearby area and make a list of the plants, insects and animals that they see. Have them concentrate mainly on plants. Students may have to draw or describe the plants if they don’t know their names.
Conduct research to identify the plants and determine if they are native to Iowa. There are many websites that give that information. Your school library is another resource. Ask the students to report how many of the plants on their lists were native.
References:
Iowa State University Extension, Introduction to Iowa Native Prairie Plants (SUL 0018), 2007. Free. Available in a downloadable PDF file from Extension Distribution
The Native Plant Database on The Living Roadway Trust website is an excellent way to determine whether a plant is native to our area. You simply enter the name of the plant. If it is a native plant, the website will link you to a picture and description of the plant.
REFLECT/EXPLAIN
Have the students share what they discovered. Use the following questions to guide the discussion.
EVALUATE
What are the names of some common plants that you found growing near here?
Which of those plants are native?
How do you know that they are native?
Are there more native or non-native plants on your lists? Why do you think that happened?
Did you come up with any native plants that you think should be planted in the area where you looked? What are the names of those plants?
What are the advantages of using native plants in a landscape?
They survive our environmental conditions. They are more tolerant or resistant to insects and diseases. They require less maintenance.
APPLY/EXPAND
EVALUATE
Have the same pairs or groups make a map or landscape plan of the same area that they observed using at least three native plants. Post the plans in your room or hallway.
Prairie Lesson #5
Benefits of Native Plantings in Yards, Gardens and Vacant Lots
Grades 6+
INTRODUCTION/ENGAGE
What is the difference between the landscape out our windows now compared to what it was 100 years ago in the same place?
How and why did it change?
People plant non-native trees and flowers and grow large expanses of turfgrass. Some environmental specialists encourage us to plant more native species. There are many reasons prairies and native plants benefit our communities.
DO/EXPLORE
Divide the class into teams of three or four and assign each team a topic or issue from the list below to research and report on. The reports should include the benefits or problems of native plants related to the identified issue. Each team should determine whether its issue has an economic or environmental impact on the community.
The students can get information on these issues at the EPA website, “Green Landscaping with Native Plants,” http://www.epa.gov/greenacres/toolkit/chap2.html).
ECONOMIC
1. Cost of landscape installation and maintenance
2. Expense of storm water management facilities
ENVIRONMENTAL
1. Soil erosion
2. Water quality
3. Air pollution
4. Noise pollution
5. Greenhouse effect
REFLECT/EXPLAIN
EVALUATE Have the students share their reports with the class.
After researching native prairie plants and prairies, would you encourage people to plant more native plants and prairies? Why? Native plants and prairies have economic and environmental benefits.
APPLY/EXPAND
EVALUATE
The students can learn about the process required to make changes in a community. Have them work together as a class to write a proposal for a new prairie to be planted in a city park area or at their school. They should work in teams to develop the following sections to their proposal:
Reasons and benefits of a prairie at the park or school (How will it be used)
Who the key players are – administrators, volunteers, parents, students, school or park maintenance staff
Who will pay for the project and how the money will be raised
Where to locate the prairie and how large to make it
When and how it will it be planted
Who will maintain it
After the sections are written, assemble them into a single proposal. You may want to pursue the proposal and plant a small prairie as a community service project.
New Publications on Native Prairie Plants:
 Iowa State University Extension, Introduction to Iowa Native Prairie Plants (SUL 0018). Free. Available in a downloadable PDF file through Extension Distribution.
Iowa State University Extension, Prairies and Native Plantings as Outdoor Classrooms (SUL 0019).Free. Available after January 1, 2008, through Extension Distribution.
Support for these publications came from the Iowa Department of Transportation Iowa Living Roadway Trust.
Other Resources in Iowa:
Iowa Living Roadway Trust has several lessons and activities for children, including beautiful prairie posters.
Camp Silos (website for Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area) has several lesson ideas.
Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge website has numerous prairie-related activities for children and classroom use.
Iowa Department of Natural Resources. 2000. Iowa- A Portrait of the Land. ISBN: 0-9678786-0-8.
Iowa Environmental Education Council has information and grant resources.
IPTV’s K-12 Connections has several ICN sessions about prairies and Iowa agriculture. |
