Pre-K Farm Curriculum

Our first physical curriculum is the Pre-K Farm Curriculum

We have a four week, five day written and hands-on curriculum for pre-k students. 

We started with an understanding of farming because it is important for our students to know that Black people can be farmers too. 

We have a list of Common Core standards that align with our curriculum. We have reading, math, science, listening, and writing standards that are all age appropriate. 

50% of the proceeds go back to our co-op children who have have worked on the marketing, packaging, learning about product design, and editing our product. We have tested and refined our product as part of our in-person curriculum and our students deserve to reap the benefits. 

Here is a glimpse of our curriculum outline: 

Welcome to the first unit of our pre-kindergarten curriculum. We'll be covering the practice of farming. As our world deals with climate change, and supply chain disruptions, it's important that children are educated about farming.

In addition, we know that Black and/or mixed race farmer's only represent 1.4% of the total farmer population in the U.S. Most curriculums that cover farming approach it from a Eurocentric perspective. We want kids to know that Black farmers exist, provide a vital experience to our community, and are able to thrive.

PreK is a time for exploration and to cultivate a love of learning. We start this unit with the classic song, Old MacDonald Had A Farm. Students will learn the song and read the book, "Old MacDonald Had A Farm by Gris Grimley.

 We want to acknowledge that our first book features a white farmer. The reason is because currently there aren't any widely available classic Old MacDonald books with a Black main character.

To compensate, we have put videos of Black people covering the song and will use predominately Black main characters in the rest of our books. If you know of a widely available book of Old MacDonald that has a Black main character, you can email us at info@theblackapple.org.

In our next section, we will read "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" by Jonas Sickler. We also want to acknowledge that though the main character in this selection is Bolivian, the author writing this book is white. Currently, there is not a book on the market that has both a non-white Old MacDonald parody and a non-white author. If you know of a widely available book of Old MacDonald that has a non-white main character and a non-white author, you can email us at info@theblackapple.org.  

Our third section, students will read "I Am Farmer: Growing an Environmental Movement in Cameroon by Miranda Paul and Baptiste Paul."

Lastly, our final book in this series is "The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington." In each unit, students will have an art activity, a literacy activity, a math activity, and pretend play. It's vital that students who are in preK engage in play and have a comprehensive education. We will also include standards covered in this unit so you can track your child's progress.

 We will always operate our curriculum from a pro-Black point of view; inclusive and representative education is vital for all children everywhere. We hope you enjoy our curriculum with your students. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please message us at info@theblackapple.org.