FRANKLIN
CONSERVATION
DISTRICT
Wheat Week
HANDS-ON SCIENCE PROGRAM FOR
4TH & 5TH GRADE
Wheat Week is a series of five lessons, delivered over the course of one week. These lessons are aligned with Next Generation Science Standards educating students about systems, water, soil, conservation, DNA, energy, and wheat as well as how they impact our daily lives.
Attention 4th and 5th grade teachers - Registration is now open for the 2023-2024 school year!
Register NOW with your local Wheat Week educator before their calendar is full!
How it Works
-
Each lesson takes approximately 1 hour.
-
Our trained educators will visit your classroom and ALL SUPPLIES ARE PROVIDED!
-
Wheat Week is FREE and any school can request Wheat Week.
-
Teachers are asked to plan together so each day 3-4 classrooms can receive the daily one-hour lesson.
Wheat Week Lessons
What is Wheat?
Students explore the wheat plant as a system of parts while discussing implication of inputs and outputs to the system and how that affects the plant. Learn what makes wheat grow as students create their own wheat terrariums to observe throughout the week.
Amazing Soils
Students differentiate between the three soil textures (sand, silt and clay) based on particle size and permeability through a hands-on demonstration. Students discover how soil is made and discuss the properties of soil and their importance to farmers and community members.
Water in our World
Students explore the water cycle, including precipitation, evaporation, condensation and collection through classroom participation. Students model the water cycle as they play a game and travel to various locations as a drop of water.
Wheat DNA
Students earn about the important contributions Norman Borlaug had on feeding the world in the 1970's. Students explore wheat classes, plant breeding, and DNA through a wheat germ DNA extraction.
Wheat Energy
Students thresh a wheat plant to discover its energy source for humans and how it is transferred to us. Students wrap up their wheat terrarium observations and find out how to take care of their wheat at home.
Not able to sign up for in-person Wheat Week? No worries!
Register for DIY Online Wheat Week!
DIY Online Wheat Week is a series of short (each less than five minutes) videos that presents a condensed version of Wheat Week for your students to learn on YOUR time. Students in 4th and 5th grade will receive a hands-on kit full of all the materials they will need to learn about wheat while they learn from the videos (and from you). Once you order the kits and receive them, you're ready to teach Wheat Week to your students anytime you'd like! This is ideal for all homeschool, hybrid learning models and completely remote learners. This is also an option if you missed sign-ups for In-Person Wheat Week.
