Teaching Social Studies

in the Garden
Where Does Your Candy
​ Come From?
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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.
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Grades: K-5
Download the complete lesson.
Download the Where Does Your Candy Come From? power point presentation here.
Ideas for Social Studies Lessons
PictureGeorge Washington Carver in his laboratory. Photo courtesy Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL
 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.  In addition to the lesson plans offered on this page, here are some more ideas to connect the garden and agriculture to your social studies units.
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Grades: PreK-5
​Download the complete list.
The Three Sisters
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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 crop. Students can compare different version of Three Sisters legends. The lesson includes a recipe for Three Sisters stew.
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Grades: K-5
Download the complete lesson.
Christmas Trees
Are Grown on Farms
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Do your students know where Christmas trees really come from? They are not cut from forests, they are grown on farms!  This lesson teaches students about Christmas tree farming in New Jersey and also explains how coniferous trees are different from deciduous trees. ​

Grades: K-5
Download the complete lesson.
Download the power point presentation Christmas Trees Are Grown On Farms ​here.
Why People Need Plants
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This lesson teaches students how important plants are to people. We use plants for food, shelter, clothing, fuel, medicine, and many other things. In addition to learning how plants live and grow, it's vital for students to understand how much we get from plants.

Grades: K-3, can be modified for older students
​Download the complete lesson.

Source Search

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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 here.
Download Source Search game labels here.
From Dirt to Shirt:
The World of Cotton
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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.
Download the power point presentation From Dirt To Shirt - the World of Cotton here.
Soy, the Super Bean
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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: K-5
Download the complete lesson.
Download the Soy, The Super Bean power point presentation here.
Jobs That Help Feed
​the World
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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 K-2 complete lesson.
​Download the 3-5 complete lesson.
Book: From the Garden State
​to Your Plate
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The New Jersey Agricultural Society's children's book From the Garden State to Your Plate, Farming Fruits and Vegetables in New Jersey is designed to give elementary school students information about agriculture, the state’s third largest industry. 
The book highlights 10 important fruit and vegetable crops grown in New Jersey, and includes a map showing the counties in which these commodities are grown. A two-page spread on each fruit or vegetable explains where, when, and how it is grown, plus nutrition information.
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Grades: 3-5
​Download the complete lesson.
Have a Cheeseburger
and​ See New Jersey
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Students take a tour of New Jersey to discover where all the parts of a cheeseburger are grown. They consult a map to discover the counties where beef, wheat, tomatoes, cucumbers, milk, and lettuce are produced and mark the counties included in their journey.

This engaging lesson teaches both the location of the counties in New Jersey and the crops that are grown there.

Grades: 3-5
Download the complete lesson.
Download the power point presentation Have a Cheeseburger and See New Jersey ​here.

First Peas to the Table
​Grades K-2

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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: K-2
​Download the complete lesson.

First Peas to the Table
​Grades 3-5

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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.
Century Farm
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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.
Christmas Tree Farm
​Mini-Lesson
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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: K-3
Download the complete lesson. ​

George Washington Carver,
the Peanut Wizard

PicturePhoto courtesy Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL
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.​

Grades: 2-5
Download the complete lesson.
Download the power point presentation:
George Washington Carver - The Peanut Wizard here.

Rice Paddy in a Bucket

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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
​Download the complete lesson.
Download the power point presentation:
Growing Rice: A Food That Feeds The World here.