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Grade Level: 3rd Grade

Time: 1-2 days of 30-45 minute lessons, depending on how detailed you would like to be for your friendly letter instruction.

Essential Question:  How can we be stewards of Wyoming’s agriculture to benefit current and future generations?

Objectives: Students will:

• • Define agricultural stewardship
  • Write a letter using a heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature
  • Identify agricultural stewardship in Wyoming
  • Write a letter explaining what stewardship is, and how the person they are writing to is an example of a steward

Purpose: Students will show their appreciation for ranchers who are good stewards when being responsible with their livestock and land.

Required Materials/Resources:

• • Rancher Directory found as a separate document in the teacher resources section

    Teacher Note:

    For the following lesson, we have provided you with a directory of ranchers and agriculture community members to contact. The idea of this project is to give the students a chance to personally thank a member of their community that deals with agriculture and specifically with livestock. 
  • Wyoming Stewardship Teacher Cover Letter (provided as a .doc file for you to edit)
  • Stewardship definition poster from earlier lessons
  • Student letter template

Suggested Teacher Preparation:  

• • Using the Rancher Directory, choose a rancher from your community to be the focus of the writing project.
  • Make copies of the student letter template for each of your students.
  • Personalize the Wyoming Stewardship Teacher Cover Letter.
  • Optional: Create an example letter to use as a guide for students.

Standards:

Social Studies: SS5.1.1(Explicit), SS5.2.1, SS5.2.3 (Practiced/Encountered)

ELA: 3.W.2 (Explicit), 3.L.3.a, 3.SL.1 (Practiced/Encountered)

CVE: CV5.4.1(Practiced/Encountered)

Vocabulary:

• • Stewardship – As Wyoming citizens, we are stewards entrusted with the responsible development, care, and use of our resources to benefit current and future generations.

Instructional Procedure/Steps:

1. 1. 1. Ask: “We have used the word stewardship multiple times during this unit. What does it mean?” If necessary, refer students back to the definition poster in the room. Stewardship: “As Wyoming citizens, we are entrusted with the responsible development, care, and use of our resources to benefit current and future generations.” – Wyoming Stewardship Project.

   2. Evaluation

      In this task, students will be engaged in the higher order thinking skill of evaluation by defending their opinions of agricultural stewardship.

1. 1. In small groups or partners, have students answer the following question:

“What does agricultural stewardship mean to you?” Possible responses: proper grazing practices, predator/prey management or balance, drought challenges and preparation.

1. 1. This just serves as a quick refresher to get brains moving toward stewardship.
      2. Say: “Throughout this unit, we’ve learned about the livestock branch of the agriculture industry. We may not be ranchers ourselves, but we know that, all over our state, we have people who are directly working with livestock. This is our opportunity to show them what we know and our appreciation for their stewardship in our state. We’re going to complete a project called ‘Appreciate A Rancher.’  We’ll take the opportunity to write to a rancher and tell him/her how much we value his/her stewardship in our community and offer our encouragement. The work ranchers do is tough, and we want them to know how much we appreciate the responsibilities they’ve taken on to help the future generations of Wyoming.”

   2. Evaluation

      In this task, students will be engaged in the higher order thinking skill of evaluation by defending their opinions of agricultural stewardship.
      Say:

“The rancher we are going to appreciate is ____________.”

1. 1. Tell your students about the rancher that you have chosen. After providing the rancher background information, if necessary, teach the students about writing a friendly letter. Make sure students include all the components of a friendly letter: Heading, Greeting, Body, Closing, and Signature. Possibly, provide an example letter as a model.
   2. 3. When students are ready to move forward, have students begin drafting their letters. The following are sentence stems are provided to help guide students’ letter writing.

1. 1. 3. • • I learned that a steward is…
           • We learned about livestock. Livestock is…
           • We learned ranchers face many challenges when caring for livestock such as…
           • Thank you for…
           • One way you’re a great steward in our state is…

Within the student letters, students need to not only mention what they have learned about livestock and the challenges that the stewards face, but we want students to acknowledge how this specific person is showing stewardship in our state. Individual students may or may not need more coaching around these ideas. Either assist these students in small groups or one-on-one.

1. 2. 4.  After students have completed letter drafts, conference with students and/or use peer editing to improve letters before students make their final copies. Print your personalized copy of the Wyoming Stewardship Teacher Cover Letter, which explains to the rancher why he/she is receiving letters from the class and mail it along with the student letters to your chosen rancher. Some possible extension activities are listed below:
   3. • • • • Rather than sending your student letters, invite the rancher in personally to accept the letters and show him/her what the children have learned through a presentation of some sort.
            • Send a DVD of your students thanking the rancher.
            • Plan a trip to the local ranch and thank the rancher for his/her stewardship and hard work.
            • Contact the rancher to see if there is a way that your class can come volunteer with him/her.
            • Possibilities are endless, based on the available resources in your community. Go as in-depth with these projects as you want. The directory includes ranchers from all over the state including every county. In the directory, any rancher marked with an * means that they are Centennial Ranchers, and their ranches have been running for over one hundred years. That’s an amazing feat to recognize also! Be creative and, most importantly, have fun!

Assessment:

Read through the letters before they are sent in order to assess if the students are able to demonstrate the following criteria:

1. 1. • • Student shows an accurate understanding of the meaning of stewardship.
        • Student provides an accurate list of the livestock in our state, with a focus on cattle and sheep.
        • Student names various challenges that stewards of livestock face.
        • Student identifies the way the letter recipient is a steward of Wyoming. This answer should be focused around how the steward addresses the challenges within his/her field.

Credits/Sources:

Not applicable