Economics and Geography Lessons

Pancakes, Pancakes!

MCPS Status of Book as of 4/4/96:
Approved as Library Book for Grades PreK-3

Title: Title: Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle (Scholastic Inc., New York, 1990)

Lesson Developed by Patricia King Robeson

Literature Annotation: Eric Carle, author of the classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar, serves up another recipe for fun in this tale of Jack, who wakes up hungry for an enormous pancake for breakfast. But before he can enjoy his pancake, he must first get flour from the miller, an egg from the black hen, milk from the spotted cow, and butter churned from fresh cream.

Grade Level: 2-3

Duration: 2 class periods

Economic Concepts: Consumption; Production; Interdependence; Natural, Capital and Human Resources

Geography Themes: Relationships: Humans and Environments, Movement

MSPAP Outcomes and Indicators:

Economic Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical development and current status of economic principles, institutions, and processes needed to be effective citizens, consumers, and workers in American society.

Indicators:

• Describe the relationship between economic wants and needs.
• Identify economic resources located within a community.

Geography Outcome: Students will demonstrate an understanding of geographic concepts and processes as needed to examine the role of culture, technology, and the environment in the location and distribution of human activities.

Indicators:

• Explain the relationship between the physical setting of a community and its ability to satisfy the wants and needs of its people.
• Describe how transportation and communication networks link communities.

Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Use illustrations from the book to explain how Jack used natural, capital and human resources to get his pancake breakfast.
• Describe how Jack's family used the physical environment to meet their needs.
• Make a web which demonstrates interdependence.
• Explain why transportation is important for our pancake breakfast today.

Vocabulary: miller, sickle, chaff, threshing, flail, millstone, interdependence, capital resources, natural resources, human resources

Materials:

• Book: Pancakes, Pancakes!
• Drawing paper for each student
• Webbing cards and large ball of yarn

Teacher Background: Knowledge of natural, capital and human resources and ways people use land to satisfy their wants and needs.

Lesson Development:

Review/Motivation:

1. Place students in cooperative groups of four and give each group a sheet of paper. Write the following chart headings on the chalkboard.

   Making Pancakes
   Ingredients	Utensils	Steps for Making Pancakes

2. Instruct the students to work in their groups and complete the chart. Have groups share their charts with the class.

3. Explain to the students that they are now going to hear a story (or read a book) about a boy named Jack and what he had to do in order to have a pancake breakfast.

4. Read the story.

Discussion Activities:

1. Describe what Jack might have seen, other than the crowing rooster, when he woke up and looked out the window. (Jack saw a farm with fields, animals, barn, fence, etc.)

2. Identify the natural, capital and human resources Jack used to get flour for his pancakes. (Natural: wheat, donkey, ground or soil, water, stone; capital: sickle, flail, water wheel, mill; human: Jack cutting and threshing and the miller threshing and grinding.)

3. How did Jack use the wheat to satisfy the hen's needs? (Jack fed the hen the grain he got from threshing the wheat.)

4. What natural resources did the cow produce? (Milk and cream)

5. Look at the pictures in the book where Jack's mother placed all the items needed to make his pancakes. Identify the capital resources which she needed. (Capital resources: mixing bowl, cup, wooden spoon, ladle, frying pan, plate, knife, fork)

Webbing Activity:
Prepare the webbing cards. Instruct the students to stand in a circle; give one student an index card which reads "Jack"; give one student the card which reads "Jack's mother"; give the other students each a card which contains the name of one of the natural, capital or human resources needed to make Jack's pancakes. Give "Jack" a ball of yarn. Instruct "Jack" to hold onto the end of the yarn and roll the ball of yarn to someone in the circle. That student will show the card he or she is holding and explain why Jack needed that resource for his pancakes. That student holds on to the yarn and rolls the ball of yarn to another student in the circle and the process continues until a web is made which demonstrates how Jack's was dependent upon or needed all the resources for his pancakes.

Conclusion/Closure:
Give each student a sheet of paper and instructions to draw and label a picture which shows one way that Jack used the physical setting of the farm to satisfy his wants and needs.

Thoughtful Application:
Instruct students to turn their drawing paper over and make a web which how we get the resources we need to make pancakes today. Before they begin to make their web, discuss with students that in order to have flour we go to the grocery store and buy it. In order to do that, we need farmers to grow the wheat, trucks and drivers to take the wheat from the farm to a factory where workers turn it into flour. Flour needs to be placed into packages, and drivers take the packages of flour to warehouses in trucks. Workers load trucks to take the flour from the warehouses to the stores where clerks place the flour on shelves in stores. People go to the store and buy the flour. Have students share their webs.

Extension:
Make butter: Buy whipping cream at the store and pour it into a clear pint size jar with a tight fitting lid. Have students take turns shaking it until it turns into butter. Serve on crackers or make pancakes and serve it on them.

Resources for Teacher Preparation:
Duplicate webbing cards on tagboard and cut into cards before beginning this lesson.

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Last updated on April 3, 1997
Maintained by John L. Day

<jday@umd5.umd.edu>