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Classroom activity Grade 2 Social Studies & Civics

Two Farms, One Creek: A Grade 2 Fair-Share Role-Play

A 35-minute grade 2 role-play in which pairs act as two farms sharing a low creek in a dry week and write the one sharing rule they can both agree to.

Objectives

  1. Students will explain why two farms cannot both take all the water they want in a dry week.
  2. Students will agree with a partner on one sharing rule and state it in a sentence.
  3. Students will name one thing each farm gives up under their rule.

Vocabulary

Key words: creek, upstream, downstream, share, rule

Teacher overview

Pairs of students take the parts of two neighboring farms on a made-up creek, one upstream and one downstream, during a week with no rain. The activity carries the concept directly: counters travel down the paper creek from the top, the upstream farm scoops first, and the downstream farm sees what is left, so the pair feels the shortage rather than being told about it. Every pair has to land on one written rule before the round ends. Run it with the whole class working in pairs at the same time, then bring the rules together on chart paper.

Activity Directions

  1. Lay a long blue paper strip or a length of blue yarn down the middle of each pair's table. Mark one end Top and the other end Bottom. Place the Tilden Farm cup beside the top half and the Karas Farm cup beside the bottom half.
  2. Read aloud: "Willow Fork Creek runs past two farms. Tilden Farm is upstream, near the top. Karas Farm is downstream, near the bottom. Water flows from the top to the bottom. Tilden Farm grows corn. Karas Farm keeps cows."
  3. Round one, a wet week: place 20 counters at the top of the creek. Tilden Farm slides 8 counters into its cup. Karas Farm takes what reaches the bottom. Ask each pair whether both farms got enough. They will find that they did.
  4. Round two, a dry week: sweep the counters back and place only 10 at the top. Tilden Farm again slides 8 counters into its cup. Karas Farm takes what reaches the bottom, which is 2. Stop the class here and ask what the cows will do.
  5. Name the idea out loud: when there is not enough water for everything two people want, they have to make a choice. Write the word share on the board next to the word rule.
  6. Round three, the meeting: partners sit facing each other with the 10 counters back at the top. Each partner says one sentence about what the farm needs. Then together they move the counters into the two cups in a way both partners will accept.
  7. Each pair completes the handout, writing the sharing rule they agreed on in one sentence. Neither partner signs until both agree, which is the point of the round.
  8. End the role-play when every pair has a written rule, or after twenty-five minutes of table work.
  9. Debrief on the carpet: collect four or five rules on chart paper. Ask which rules give both farms something, and ask what each farm gives up under its own rule. Close by asking whether a rule written in a dry week should also apply in a wet week.
Two Farms, One Creek: A Grade 2 Fair-Share Role-Play — Grade 2 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Read aloud with your teacher. Write with your partner.

  1. Which farm is closer to the top of the creek?
  2. What does Karas Farm need water for?
  3. In the dry week, why was there not enough water for both farms?
  4. Write the sharing rule you and your partner agreed on.

Our farm names: Tilden Farm and Karas Farm.

Tilden Farm gives up: ___

Karas Farm gives up: ___

We both agree. Partner names: ___ and ___

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: Tilden Farm.
    The directions state that Tilden Farm is upstream, near the top of Willow Fork Creek.
  2. Answer: Its cows.
    Karas Farm keeps cows, and the cows need water to drink.
  3. Answer: Only 10 counters of water came down the creek.
    In the dry week the creek carried half as much water, so the amount Tilden Farm took left almost nothing for the farm below it.
  4. Answer: Answers will vary.
    A strong rule is specific and gives both farms something, such as each farm taking 5, or Tilden Farm taking 6 and leaving 4, or Tilden Farm watering corn only in the morning. Push back on rules that leave one farm with nothing.

Differentiation

Support

Give these pairs the counters already sorted into two small piles so the trading step starts from a visible split. Offer three written rules on cards and let the pair pick one and copy it rather than composing a rule from a blank line.

Extension

Add a third farm at the very bottom of the creek and have the pair renegotiate their rule with a neighboring pair playing that farm. Ask these students to write one sentence about what changes when a third neighbor joins.

ELL supports

Pre-teach upstream and downstream by walking a finger down the blue strip while the class says the words together. Post the frames "My farm needs water for ___." and "Our rule is that ___." Accept a drawing of the two cups with numbers in them as the written rule.

Extensions

Ask each pair to test their rule against a second dry week with only 6 counters at the top. A rule that worked at 10 counters often will not hold at 6, which gives the class a reason to revise a rule its own members wrote.