Strawberry Girl: Lesson 2

Outdoors in Florida

SS.A.6.2.3 - Students will understand the perspectives of diverse cultural, ethnic, and economic groups with regard to past and current events in Florida History
SS.A.1.2.3 - Students will understand broad categories of time in years, decades, and centuries

Objectives:

• Students will identify some of the animals of Florida in the time of 1890-1900.
• Students will compare and contrast animals of Florida in the time period of 1890-1900 to the present day using Venn diagram.
• Students will describe crops grown in Polk County.
• Students will describe in writing and orally the important relationships between the Slater family and the Boyer family.
• Students will make judgments about fencing animals vs. free range.
• Students will analyze the importance of saving Florida’s natural resources.
• Students will compare and contrast a classroom in the 20^th century to one in the 21^st century.
• Students will research stories on the Central Florida Memory website that relate to animals.
• Students will write to communicate ideas and information in an effective way.
• Students will explain the life cycle of a strawberry using the website:
  http://www.ramseysfarm.com/Strawberry/spring_strawberrylifecycle.htm

Materials:

• Central Florida Memory website: http://www.cfmemory.org/
• Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski - Chapters 2-3
• The Strawberry Girl Journal
• Computers with Internet access
• Resource materials: dictionary, encyclopedias, and books on Florida
• Letter writing paper
• Life cycle of a strawberry
• Florida Map

Time: Four 50 minute classes

Procedure:

Day 1&2

Setting: computer lab or classroom with Internet accessible computers

1. Read together Chapters 2-3 of Strawberry Girl and instruct the students to create a list of all the animals mentioned in the chapters. Be sure to locate Galloway on the map.
2. Instruct the students to go to the Central Florida Memory site to find a picture of an alligator. Click on “performing a search.” Type in “alligator.”
3. Share animal lists.

Day 3 - Chapters 2 & 3

Setting: classroom

1. Discussion on fencing or free range of animals
   1. Slater vs. Boyer
   2. crops vs. hunting (crops are listed on page 16 and animals on page 22)
   3. Show the diagram of the life cycle of a strawberry
2. Discussion on the pages describing Mr. Pearce’s classroom where the Slater and Boyer children attend. (Page 32)
   1. Compare a classroom of the 20^th century vs. 21^st century

Day 4

Setting: Classroom

1. Pass out writing paper
2. Instruct students to write a letter to a friend in Marion County and describe their new home in Polk County using the facts and information discussed in the previous chapters.

Evaluation:

1. Students will complete journal entry #2 and #3
2. Students will write a letter to a friend describing their new home in Polk County using facts and information found in the historical novel and on the Central Florida Memory website.