Lesson Plan 1:
Amazing Grazing

Lesson Activities

1) Read and preview the book yourself before presenting it to the students. Brainstorm any questions, stories, and connections that you want to share with them.

2) Gather students into a group, whether at their desks or on the floor.

3) Begin with either a short personal story or a question for the students. For example, perhaps you could tell them about your visits to your grandfather's ranch in the Bitterroot Valley every summer, the fun you had there, and the many things you learned from him and from being on the ranch. If beginning with questions, one possibility would be asking the students if any of them live on a ranch or have ever visited one. Be sure students responding in the affirmative have a short opportunity to tell 'the best thing' about the experience or 'one thing they learned' there.

4) Hold up the book Amazing Grazing and introduce it to the students. Tell them it is a non- fiction book and explain what non-fiction means or ask recall questions if students have already been introduced to this topic. Ask the students to be listening for five key things (listed below). (For younger grades, you may want to pick just 1-3 of these for them to focus on. Feel free to adjust the vocabulary to fit your grade level of instruction.)

• Why were rangelands in such bad condition in past decades and centuries?
• What are some things the ranchers in the story do to maintain the health of their land?
• Who/what else uses the land that comprises the ranches in the story?
• What are some factors they learned about the growth processes of the grasses on the rangeland?
• What are some things the ranchers in the story do to care for their cattle and the wildlife that use their land?

5) Read the story to the class, pausing to ask reflective questions throughout. For example, the end of the first page of the book states, "c any good soil remained, it was blown away by the wind or washed away by the rain. Wildlife PAGE3 that depended on the same land for food became scarce or disappeared altogether." Asking the students at this point why it became difficult for wildlife to survive on the land in the 1800's would recall three or four key points that the book states about impacts on an ecosystem (e.g., huge herds of bison trampled the grasses to dust, ranchers who lacked the right knowledge allowed their cattle to overgraze, the wind and rain removed much of the topsoil). To facilitate student understanding, you may need to define and explain some of the terms in the book for the students (e.g., rangeland, cattle, grazing, overgrazing, renewable, pasture, natural resource, and wildlife). Pose questions like this throughout in order to further assist student understanding and in order to assess their comprehension of the presented material.

6) After reading the book, ask the five questions listed previously above. List students' responses on the board or a large piece of paper. Prompt students to recall what they learned about rangeland, an ecosystem, grazing, and management practices that maintain the health of the land.

7) Proceed to the "Assessment" list and choose the assessment activities that best suit your population of students.

8) Adaptations for older grades (3rd and up):

• Borrow or purchase more copies of the book and have students read it individually or in small groups.
• Place the book at a center and provide students an opportunity to rotate through so that everyone has a chance to read the book.
• Follow up questions for upper grades could be asked to the whole class after everyone has read the book or could be done in the form of a worksheet (see attached), or both. A short class discussion of the book, its information, and the students' recall might also be helpful for the students to retain and process the content.