Lesson Plan

Grades 3-5

Earth: The Apple of Our Eye (elementary)

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30 minutes

SUBJECTS: Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies

TOPICS: Agriculture, Food & Hunger, Land Use

Resource Overview

An apple is sliced into pieces to model the amount of agricultural land being used on Earth while students track data on a pie chart.

Students will be able to:
    • Describe Earth’s geography in terms of relative amounts of water, inhospitable land, habitable land, and land being used for farming.
    • Apply knowledge of fractions to create a pie chart showing how the features of Earth’s surface are divided.
    • Identify two reasons why protecting agricultural land and maintaining healthy soil is important for food production.
    • Describe at least two ways people can help preserve agricultural land.

Features of This Resource

  • Updated as of October 2021! New apple fractions and a close reading article on erosion
  • Students consider risks to farmland and soil health
  • Lesson plan includes a Math Extension Bank that provides real-world elementary math problems

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