Okay, okay, okay. This doesn’t really address a specific TEKS. It’s just….It’s nearing the end of the year, and we need a fun diversion. I have also used this as a hallway display during those random, late-spring open house visits when it’s so late in the year that no one has any energy to entertain.
This is really an extension to the lesson from yesterday, so I often don’t even write a new lesson plan for this day. Instead, I just list it as an extension on the Cattle Drive lesson and then just move that lesson forward to finish the following day.
My previous district was fussy about plans, so here is the mess I wrote for that:
Social Studies Objective: Students can read and create cattle brands.
Proof: Students can prove they met their objective drawing their own brands and correctly reading the brands of three friends.
Materials:
Paper
Markers
Cardboard/Yarn (optional)
Dry-erase markers/boards (or just use the desks)
Vocabulary:
brand
cattle
Lesson:
I use the power point above to introduce and explain how to read brands. I then divide students into groups and let them make a brand as a group. We share those out and then read each other’s brands. I then tell students they are going to make their own brands and try to read those. We talk about how people usually try to include symbols, letters, and/or numbers that are important to their family because a brand often becomes associated with the name of the ranch. If you aren’t using the brands to display anywhere, you can just have kids sketch them on paper. Then, you can divide the class into small groups to read each other’s brands.
If you want to display them, you can have them take their sketch and put it on colored paper, decorate, and use yarn to make a picture hanger on the back. I wish I had a photo of some of ours, but I don’t.
The cutest ones I have ever had the kids make were on cardboard. We cut cardboard into square about 5 inches by 5 inches. I found scrap-booking paper that had a bandanna print on it (I chose red). I cut the scrap-booking paper into strips 5 inches long and one inch wide. The kids glued those strips on as a border to their cardboard squares. They then used black yarn to make their brand in the middle of the frame. We then glued some yarn onto the back as a hanger.
I’ve also seen people do metal art brands and use wood-burning kits. Personally, I’m too cheap for that (and old and tired).
Since I have distance learning on my mind right now, this would actually be a fun show and tell type activity for a Zoom meeting.
Teaching Without Twitching 