Shannon Arena Boyce

Date Implemented 11/13/13

PAS, Ms. Settles 3
rd
grade
Origins of Rice

Standards
NCSS Standard III, People Places and Environments

Goals/Objectives
SWBAT recall key facts about the origins of rice (including, but not limited to the fact that rice was first
grown in China approximately 10,000 years ago, that it is grown on every continent except Antarctica
and that it is the main dietary staple for more than half the worlds population), IOT demonstrate
understanding of how important and prevalent this crop is to people across the globe.

Materials
PowerPoint presentation
Map of the World
Premade labels of Africa, United States and Central America
Vocabulary Rice Bowl
grains of rice for staple, innumerable, and harvest, origin
Base 10 cube, stick and square
6 small white boards
Tissues for erasing
White board markers already in table group toolkit

Direct Instruction
This lesson will begin by going over behavior expectations.
Remember after the read-aloud we did together last week I asked you to rate your behavior on a scale
of one to five? One meaning you made really bad choices, and five being your best possible behavior. I
dont think anyone put up a five. What are some things you think you can do to be able to confidently
give yourselves a five?
Take suggestions. Answers to highlight include:
Raising your hand and wait to be called on to answer a question during the lesson.
Having your eyes on the teacher and/or the SmartBoard. You know how when were out in the
hallway I will wait to greet you until I have all eyes on me. When I am upfront teaching, or doing
a read aloud, I expect all eyes on me as well.
Not talking over the teacher or your peers.
I love being able to give you guys stars or marbles, but I cant just give them away, I need you
to earn them, so lets try and keep that in mind today.
Great suggestions everyone, now lets get started.
Begin PowerPoint
1. Last week we read Everybody Cooks Rice to begin our unit on rice.
2. Today we will be learning about the origins of rice. Can anyone tell me what the word origin
means?
Yes, origin describes how things began, so today we are talking about how rice began.
Just like we did as we were reading Everybody Cooks Rice where we labeled the countries where the
families in Carries neighborhood were from, we will also be labeling countries I mention in this
presentation. I will be calling on you randomly to help me find the countries on our map, so I dont need
anyone to raise their hand for that. We will also be learning a lot of new vocabulary throughout this unit.
As the new terms come up we will define them and add them to this Vocabulary Rice Bowl. I will also be
calling on students randomly to help me put words in the bowl. As we continue to learn new words
throughout the unit we will add them to the bowl. This vocabulary will come in handy when you are
working on the final project for this unit that well talk about next week.
3. Lets beginRice is grown in 113 countries. It is the main dietary staple for more than half the
worlds population. What does staple mean? Get a response. Here it means a basic or necessary item
of food. Choose student to add staple to the bowl. Thank them when they sit down.
There are innumerable different kinds of rice. Can anyone tell me what innumerable means? Get
response. Innumerable means too many to count, _______ will you add innumerable to the rice bowl
for me?
Scientists believe that the rice plant was first grown approximately 10,000 years ago in China. I need
you all to use your imaginations for a minute. Do you remember working with these before?
Referencing one cube, tens stick and hundreds square. Lets imagine that this little cube represents one
year, this stick would then be how many years? Right, 10 years. The square is100 years. We would
need to have 100 of these squares to represent 10,000 years. Thats a lot.
4. Rice in China. According to legend, a goddess sprinkled rice across the land. Farmers quickly realized
it was something they could use and have been harvesting it ever since. What does harvest mean?
Discussion of harvest as a verb to gather the crop and harvest as a noun the crop, itself. Student
adds vocabulary. Remember we already added China to our map last week.
In Chinese the word rice, mi, also means food, fan.
5. Rice spread throughout Asia from China.
Other countries in Asia have similar legends about a goddess sprinkling rice across the land.
In India, the legend says that a goddess saw that her people were starving and planted rice seeds for
them to eat.
6. Rice spread from Asia to Europe and Africa.
7. Rice moved from Europe and Africa to the United States and Central America.
8. Today, rice is grown on every continent, exceptAntarctica.
Ok, I need some help with labels. _____can you put this label on Africa? ________could you put this
one on the United States? __________, this one goes on Central America.

Guided Practice/Assessment
9. Lets Review. Im going to ask you a series of questions. As a table group you will decide on the
answer. Each table will get a white board. Youll write your answer on the boards and when I tell you to,
youll hold them up. Maizy, Maia, Brady, Jada, Daniel and Emmet will be team captains. You will be
responsible for writing down and holding up the answer. Each table group with the correct answer will
get one point. Ms. Settles, do you think you could be our score keeper? Each person on the team with
the most points at the end will get a star. If every team ties well add 15 marbles to the jar. If there is a
tie that includes less than every team there will be a tie breakers until one team wins. _______(the
assistant), will you give one white board to each table. ________(last months assistant), can you give a
tissue to each table that they can use to erase.
Will not be soliciting but will take individual questions or comments as materials are being distributed.
Once that happens, if class has become noisy will say clap once if you can hear my voice, clap twice If
class is still relatively orderly, I will continue.
Ok ready? I hope everyone was paying attention
10. 1
st
Question Rice was first grown in what country? Allow time for students to write down
answers. Ill know your group is ready when youve written something down and everyone is sitting
quietly.
Lets see your answersChina was the correct answer.
11. Next questionWhat vocabulary word means too many to count? Feel free to look at the rice
bowl
I can tell everyone is ready because you are all sitting quietly, thank you. Now, show me your
answersGreat, the correct answer was innumerable.
12. Erase your answers, heres the next question Today rice is grown on every continent except?
What did you write down? Antarcticayeah that one was easy.
13. What term means a basic or necessary food item?...Dont forget to check the rice bowl
Answers upnicely done. Staple means a basic or necessary food item.
14. Next question. True or False? Rice came to America from Australia?
Show me your answers. The answer is False. Rice came to America from Europe and Africa.
15. You all are doing a great job. Next question. True or False? Harvest can be used as a noun or a
verb.
Answers pleaseTrue. Harvest means both to gather a crop and a crop that is gathered.
16. Ok, this is it. Last question. Scientists believe that rice has been growing in China for how many
years? A. 100 years, B. 500 years, C. 1,000 years, D. 5,000 years, E. 10,000 years. You can just write the
letter if you like.
Really think about it. If it helps think about the base 10 blocks I had out.
Alright, lets see your answers. The correct answer is E. 10, 000 years.
We then tally the score and either all the teams are tied (Great job 108, you were really paying
attention, you got all the questions right. 15 marbles into the jar.) or we go to the tie breaker.
Great job everyone, but it looks like we have a tie between tables__________ and _________, now we
have to go through the tie breaker questions. The format remains the same but it is sudden death, if
your team gets the answer correct you continue, if not, youre out and it continues until only one team
is left. The tie breaker questions will see how well you were listening last week during our read aloud of
Everybody Cooks Rice.
1. The Krishnamurthys are having a dish called biryani. What country is this family from? India
2. The Diaz, from Puerto Rico are cooking their rice with turmeric. Turmeric makes the rice
what color? Yellow.
3. Why is Carrie, the main character going from house to house? Shes looking for her brother.
4. Madame Bleu, the woman from Haiti, teaches English at the community center. She speaks
two other languages. Name one. French and Creole.
5. Carries brother brings what home to show his sisters? A kitten
6. Final question. I chose Maizy, Maia, Brady, Jada, Daniel and Emmet as the team leaders for
todays activity. What do they all have in common, besides being the same age, and being in
this class? They are all sitting in the same seat and their table group.
Wrap Up
Congratulations to_____________, but really great job all around. So today we learned about the
origins of rice. Tomorrow well be learning about how rice is grown and harvested.
At the beginning of this lesson we talked about what we could do to be on our best behavior. So,
thinking about today. How would you rate your behavior? Your own personal behavior, one means you
have a lot of work to do, five means you were really well behaved. Respond appropriately.

Accommodations
The power point presents students with the information in both audio and visual form. They can read
what is on the board but also hear it as I say it. They can also absorb information by simply looking at the
pictures.
By making the review portion a group activity, each student and table has the best chance of
succeeding. If one student cannot recall the answer than hopefully, one of the three other students at
that table can. Also, it presents the children with a second chance to hear the information.