Examples of a Lesson Plans for a German Bank Barn Circa 1800
A German Bank Barn Circa 1800 LESSON TOPIC: Wheat Harvesting TEACHER: Theodore R. Hazen GRADE LEVEL: Kindergarten-3rd DATE: March 1997 OBJECTIVES: 1. The student will identify the processes in which wheat was obtained for milling by the early settlers. 2. They will recognize the basic equipment used in processing the wheat harvest and that there are different types of barns for various uses. 3. They will be able to determine the value of the term cooperative farming when the early settlers harvested wheat. 4. The student will identify the term "food staple" and will explain its importance, using the concept of different food groups. RATIONALE: Centuries before barns evolved as shelter for animals, barns were used for threshing. The threshing floor (which the name threshold comes from) was an important place on the farm. The barn was a place to store sheaves of wheat, and the threshing floor was a place were they could be spread out and beaten with a stick, animals would trod the grain with their hoofs. This technique is still used in undeveloped parts of the world. Beating the sheaves of wheat with a stick was followed by the flail. The average flailer could flail 7 to 8 bushels per day of wheat, 30 bushels of oats, 8 bushels of rye, and 20 bushels of buckwheat. Wheat, rice and rye was usually flailed. Oats, barley, and buckwheat was generally threshed under animal hoofs. Grains flailed easiest on snapping cold days. The flailer wore shoes made from an old hat as not to bruise the grain. The grain was flailed to separate it from the straw and chaff. English and American barns were place so the prevailing winds blew through the threshing floor from open doors at one end to a winnowing doors at the other end. The chaff would be carried on the breeze while the grain fell to the floor. The flailed mixture of grain and chaff would be tossed aloft from a tray, basket or sheet. Latter a winnowing machine the fanning mill was used as early as the 1700's by Andrew Fletcher of Scotland from barley mills and fanners found in Holland. James Meikle was the co-called inventor of the winnowing machine in the year 1720. In 1732 Michael Menzies designed a threshing machine that consisted of a series of flails drawn by a water wheel. By 1840 the tread horse powered threshing machines and latter the successor was the steam driven threshing machine was combined with a separator. Today a modern farm "combine," it combined the operations of cutting, threshing and separating the grain from the straw and chaff. The harvested grain was threshed with flails two months after it was harvested. Wheat threshing was a cooperative enterprise. Later horse-powered threshing machines threshed the wheat. The wheat would season in the fields for a while, and then hauled into the threshing barn. The bundles of wheat were built into large stacks in the barn's mows to await threshing day. INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT: 1. Introduction:
A German Bank Barn circa 1800 LESSON TOPIC: Wheat Harvesting TEACHER: Theodore R. Hazen GRADE LEVEL: 4th to 6th DATE: March 1997 OBJECTIVES: 1. The student will understand the three process in which wheat was obtained for milling by the early settlers. 2. They will recognize the basic equipment used in processing the wheat harvest. 3. They will be able to deduce the benefits of the term cooperative "workings" when the early settlers harvested wheat. 4. The student will define the term "staple of life" and will explain its importance to an individuals diet and survival. RATIONALE: The average farmer grew only enough wheat to supply bread for his own family. The average wheat crop consisted of ten to fifteen acres of wheat and could be harvested in less than a day using cooperative neighbors labor. The wheat must be harvested before it ripened so dry it would shatter and be wasted in the cutting process . At harvest time, the farmer would invite his neighbors to come with their cradles. Wheat was cut with cradles. The "cradler" would cut the wheat in the field and the "binder" would follow and bound the wheat into bundles or sheaves of wheat using wisps of wheat for the bands. The harvested grain was threshed with flails two months after it was harvested. Wheat threshing was a cooperative enterprise. Later horse-powered threshing machines threshed the wheat. The wheat would season in the fields for a while, and then hauled into the threshing barn. The bundles of wheat were built into large stacks in the barn's mows to await threshing day. INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT: 1. Introduction:
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