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Kansas Corn Farm Teacher Guide

Learning about a farm can be a lot of fun! Your students may assume they know a lot about a farm however by reading this teacher guides you will find suggestions on how to expand learning with this activity sheet. We suggest that you read the teacher guide before handing out the sheet.

Kansas Corn Farm Teacher Guide

Learning about a farm can be a lot of fun! Your students may assume they know a lot about a farm however by reading this teacher guides you will find suggestions on how to expand learning with this activity sheet. We suggest that you read the teacher guide before handing out the sheet.

Helping the Animals Find their Food!

There are many different animals on the farm. In this section talk about the needs of animals such as food, water, air, shelter and space. Can the students identify which feeding location goes with each animal?

  • Feed bunk- cow
  • Dog bowl- dog
  • Feeder- chicken

Note what the chicken is saying “we all have corn in our food.” Talk about the importance of a healthy diet for humans and that animals need a healthy diet too. A cow and chicken may eat grass, but they need other food too like corn to stay healthy. You can extend the learning by having older students brainstorm careers at agexplorer.ffa.org that go along with each of the animals such:

  • Animal nutritionist
  • Farm technician
  • Feed/grain operator
  • Production manager

Deliver Corn to Storage

After harvest, a farmer will deliver their corn to a storage location. This storage location can be on their own farm or at a company who has their own storage. The grain will be stored in the bins until it is ready to be sold or used. Once sold or ready to be used it may travel by truck, train or boat to the final location. Most of Kansas’ corn is used to feed livestock and to make ethanol fuel for our vehicles. Some of our grain is exported overseas by boat to be used to feed livestock and to make fuel.

Word Search

Have fun with the word search! Before the students begin, talk about each word and how they are used on the farm.

  • Corn- raised to be used for livestock feed, to make fuel or other products.
  • Combine- used to collect grain from the field such as wheat, corn, soybeans and sorghum.
  • Truck- used to haul grain and other products on the farm.
  • Tractor- used to pull other equipment like planters, grain carts, feed wagons, etc.

How many corn kernels can you find?

Have the students trace around the ear of corn. Explain that this is where they would find corn kernels. Did they know that most of the corn grown in Kansas is called dent corn also known as field corn? The corn we eat from the store is sweet corn. Dent corn is harvested when it is hard and called a grain. It is used for products like feeding livestock, making fuel, etc.

There are 13 corn kernels hidden on this page. This is a great time to discuss other things they may find on the farm. Have them enjoy coloring what they find.

Printout of how dent corn is used: