Students read a story about our nation's first survey of agriculture, discuss reasons for counting things, and gain practice by sorting and counting a variety of objects related to agriculture. Grades K-2

agriculture: the science or practice of farming, including cultivation of the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food, wool, and other products

census: official process of counting the number of people in a country, city, or town and collecting information about them

soybean: a cultivated plant of the pea family which produces edible seeds used in a variety of foods and animal feeds

1. Show a soybean plant to the class. Call your local Farm Bureau office and ask for names of farmers that could provide you with a few soybean plants before they are harvested in the fall. (Alternative: If you are unable to obtain a soybean plant with the pods, edamame can be used as an alternative. Edamame is an immature soybean harvested before it hardens. These delicious bright green soybeans have become quite popular in the American cuisine culture and can be purchased at the grocery store shelled or in the pod, fresh or frozen. They would serve as a tasty snack for students to try once the lesson plan has been delivered. Note that the variety of soybean used for edamame typically has two beans per pod. In contrast, the varieties of soybean grown commercially has three beans per pod.)²
2. Allow each student to pick a bean pod from the plant. Explain that soybeans are one of most versatile crops grown in the world. Farmers in the United States grow more soybeans than farmers in any other country. Soybeans are used in food products, such as chocolate, breads, cooking oils, and baby foods.
3. Have a group discussion on how the bean pod feels. Have students open their pod, take out the beans and feel them. As a class, discuss how the bean feels. Use the following questions to guide the discussion:
   • How do the beans feel compared to the pod?
   • How many beans were in the pod? (Most will answer “three” since this is the number of soybeans normally stored in a pod.)
   • Did any pod have less than three beans?
   • Did any pod have more than three beans? 
4. Have the students place the beans, while counting them, into one resealable plastic bag at the front of the room. The first person will count “one, two, three” and the next person will count “four, five, six.” This cumulative count will continue until all students have placed their beans in the bag.
5. Tell the students they will be counting more items to conduct their own agriculture census.

Activity 1: Agricultural Census

1. Ask students why they count things. What kinds of things do they count? Write their answers on the chalkboard.
2. Discuss the information in the Background Agricultural Connections, and read the story Arthur Young and the President.
3. Show the Arthur Young and the President PowerPoint as a visual to supplement the reading of the story.
4. Tell the students they will be conducting their own agricultural census. Divide them into groups of four or five. Provide each group with a plate of animal crackers and each student with a copy of the My Census of Agriculture: Livestock activity sheet.
5. Show the students how to use tally marks to keep count. Explain that this is similar to the way ancient people kept count by drawing pictures on the walls of caves.
6. Have the students draw pictures of the different animal crackers in separate columns on their activity sheets. Then have students sort the animal crackers and use the tally marks in the appropriate columns to count them.
7. Have students translate their tally marks into numbers, and ask one person from each group to make a “livestock report” by reading aloud the number of each animal counted.
8. Draw a classroom chart on the chalkboard, and record the data as the groups report it.
9. Repeat the process with the snack mix and the My Census of Agriculture: Crops activity sheet. Explain to students that the different ingredients in the mix represent different crops. Show students what each ingredient represents, and have them write the names of the different crops in the “Name of Crop” column on the activity sheet. Have students sort, count, record, and report, as in steps five through seven.
10. Provide extra snack mix and animal crackers for students to eat and discuss the results of their census.

Activity 2: Sequential Order with Soybeans

1. Using the soybeans or the edamame from the Interest Approach – Engagement activity, prepare a set of ten bags with one bean in the first bag, two beans in the second bag, three beans in the third bag, and so on until the tenth bag has ten beans. 
2. Repeat step one to prepare a second and third set of bags.
3. Place a blue dot on the first set of bags,  a red dot on the second set, and a green dot on the third set.
4. Give each student a bag. Tell them it is very important to keep their bags zipped at all times.
5. Ask the students, "What's inside your bag?" (soybeans)
6. Remind the students that soybeans are a major export in the United States and have many uses. Review their uses listed in the Interest Approach – Engagement activity.
7. Have the students find all of their classmates with the same color dot on their bag and then organize themselves in a straight line in sequential order from least to greatest according to the number of soybeans they have in their bags. Allow talking the first time the class completes this activity.
8. Collect the bags and then redistribute them.
9. Have the students organize themselves into colored groups in a straight line, from greatest to least, using NONVERBAL communication only.
10. Collect the bags and ask the students the following questions:
    • Which activity was the most difficult and why?
    • Why is it important to be able to count items and arrange them in sequential order? 
    • Why is it important for farmers to count things found on their farm?

After conducting these activities, review and summarize the following key concepts:

• Farmers provide food, fiber, and other important necessities of life.
• Soybeans are grown by farmers in the United States and have many uses.
• It's important for farmers to keep good records. Farmers count many things, such as the seeds they plant, the acres they grow, the size of their harvest, the cost of their tractors or machinery, and much more.

1. www.agcensus.usda.gov
2. http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280285.php

• Cucumber Soup
• Farms Feed the World
• How Did That Get in My Lunchbox?
• Illustrated Alphabet of Farms
• My Farm Web
• One Grain of Rice
• One Hundred Hungry Ants
• Who Grew My Soup?