Ideas for Social Studies Lessons

George Washington Carver in his laboratory.

There are so many opportunities to link Social Studies with the garden
-- studying and making maps, learning the history of food and farm inventions, exploring what people in other countries eat and how they farm. We offer a list of lessons for all grade levels that connect agriculture and Social Studies.
Grades: PreK-5
​Download the complete list.

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The Three Sisters

In this lesson, students will plant corn, beans, and squash the way the Native Americans who lived in New Jersey planted these three major food crops to reduce the amount of work they had to do to grow them.
Grades: K-5
Download the complete lesson.

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Source Search

Do your students know where the things they eat and use everyday come from?  Many of them come from the farm!  Play this fast Source Search game to help your students realize that agriculture provides nearly all of the products we rely on every day.
Grades: 3-5
​Download the complete lesson.
Download Source Search game pictures.

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First Peas To The Table
​Grades 3-5

Students replicate the contest described in Susan Grigsby's book
First Peas to the Table. In the book, students participate in a contest similar the one Thomas Jefferson had with his neighbors every spring to see who could grow the first peas. Students research Thomas Jefferson and his experiments in gardening. They also research how to grow peas, plant their own pea seeds, and keep a scientific journal of notes and drawings of their plants' progress.
Grades: 3-5
​Download the complete lesson.

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Soy, The Super Bean

Students make soybean ink and soybean lip balm in this lesson that shows them the myriad ways soybeans are used in our daily lives. It introduces legumes and their ability to enrich soil with nitrogen, and details soybeans abundant protein. And there's also a quick trip through the history of soybeans – including Henry Ford's soybean car!
Grades: 1-5
Download the complete lesson.

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Century Farm

A century farm is a farm that has been continuously worked for 100 years. In her book Century Farm, Cris Peterson shares the story of her husband's family farm as it grew from a barn, house, and granary in the 1890s to a thriving dairy farm today. Over the past hundred years, many things on the farm have changed, but many things have also stayed the same. Corn now grows on the same land where timber was cut to build the family house and barn. Cows are milked in the same barn, vegetables grow in the same garden, and one family is still working together to make the farm a viable business. The book is filled with beautiful old photos selected from a century's worth of family albums as well as family pictures taken in recent years.
Grades: 2-5
Download the complete lesson.

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Apple Investigation
Grades 3-5

Fall is the time to investigate apples! In this lesson, students learn that all apples (as well as all types of fruits and vegetables) are not the same. One variety of apple can be very different from another. In this apple investigation, students test different varieties of apples for nine characteristics – including weight, shape, color texture, and taste – and rank them. They graph results of their taste tests, read about the history of apples and how they are grown, and learn the parts of an apple. Math, language arts, science, and social studies – it’s all here in one fall lesson!
​Download the complete lesson.

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Jobs That Help Feed The World

If you ask your students “where does your food come from?” what will they answer? Will they say it comes from the grocery store? In this lesson, students will discuss not only where their food comes from, but who the people are who make sure there is food in the grocery store. From farmer to scientist to mechanic, your students will explore the jobs that help feed the world.

Kindergarten, first, and second grade students look at pictures of people working in agriculture and decide which career is most interesting to them.

Students in grades three through five play an agricultural careers race game that introduces them to 16 jobs in agriculture.


​Download the complete lesson for grades 3-5.

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Growing Rice:
 Food that Feeds the World

Rice is one of the world’s most important food crops – more than half the people in the world depend on rice for their daily meals. In many Asian countries, where rice is a staple for 95% of the people, rice is still planted and harvested by hand. In this lesson, students will learn about this staple food and how it is grown in flooded fields.
For grades PreK-2, the lesson can be paired with a study of the Maurice Sendak poem, Chicken Soup With Rice, with many accompanying math or language arts activities.
For grades 3-5, the lesson can be paired with a math lesson on doubling, illustrated in Demi’s book One Grain of Rice.
Grades: PreK-5

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Teaching Social Studies
​ in the Garden

The Garden State On My Plate

New Jersey has a strong agricultural heritage, and farming remains its third largest industry. There’s a reason it’s called the Garden State. New Jersey ranks third for cranberry production, fourth in peach production, and fifth in blueberry production in the United States. This lesson's power point presentation gives students an overview of New Jersey farming and highlights the state's 10 biggest crops by market value. It also reviews why children should eat fruits and vegetables, grown in New Jersey or anywhere.
Grades: K-5
Download the complete lesson.

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Why People Need Plants

This lesson teaches students how important plants are to people. We use plants for food, shelter, clothing, fuel, medicine, and many other things. While learning how plants live and grow, it's important for students to understand how much we get from plants.
Grades: K-3, can be modified for older students
​Download the complete lesson.

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First Peas To The Table
​Grades 1-3

Students learn the life cycle of a pea while enjoying Susan Grigsby's wonderful book First Peas to the Table. Then they make a construction-paper pea pod, arranging the steps of the life cycle on the peas inside.
Grades: 1-3
​Download the complete lesson.

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From Dirt To Shirt - The World of Cotton

This lesson is designed to get your students thinking about where the things they wear, use, and eat every day come from. Cotton is a versatile plant. Its fluffy bolls are used to make fabric for clothes, towels, sheet, and much more. Cotton seeds are used for animal feed. They are also used to make cottonseed oil that is part of many food products. The power point presentation will show your students the myriad of ways one plant can impact our world and will also walk your students through cotton's long growth cycle.
Grades: K-5
Download the complete lesson.

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Where Does My Candy Come From?

Pair your Valentine celebrations with some real learning by having your students investigate what their candy is made of and where it comes from. Your students no doubt will be surprised to learn that although their chocolate bar looks nothing like the green plant on the windowsill, almost all its ingredients come from plants! Encourage your students to trace the source of sugar to sugar beets in the Midwest and sugar cane in Louisiana, and chocolate to cacao beans in the rain forest. They will appreciate plants more when they take those sweet bites.
Grades: K-5
Download the complete lesson.

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Christmas Tree Farm Mini-Lesson

In this mini-lesson, the teacher reads aloud Ann Purcell's book Christmas Tree Farm, in which Grandpa and the young narrator work all year on the farm in order to sell their Christmas trees at year's end. The book offers a behind-the-scenes look at what must be done for the trees in each season so they will grow into shapely Christmas trees.
Grades: 1-3
Download the complete lesson. ​

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Five Senses Apple Investigation
​Grades K-2

In this lesson, students learn that all apples are not the same. One variety of apple can be very different from another. In this apple investigation, students use their five sense to investigate different varieties of apples. They brainstorm adjectives to describe the apples using each sense. Then younger students write a class poem or older students write their own poem, using their apple adjectives in sentences. They vote on their favorite apple and create a graph of the class preferences.
Download the complete lesson.

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George Washington Carver
The Peanut Wizard

Born a slave 150 years ago, George Washington Carver became a world-famous scientist and teacher who revolutionized the American agriculture industry. He was the first African American to be honored with a national monument. In the Learning through Gardening power point presentation, students learn about the work of the “Peanut Wizard” to improve the lives of poor Southern farmers following the Civil War. This lesson also looks at peanut farming today, how the peanut grows, and how peanuts and other legumes enrich the soil with nitrogen.  It is a  perfect agricultural lesson to celebrate Black History Month.​​

Download the complete lesson plan here.

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