Farming for Kids

On Wednesday in my Elementary Science Curriculum and Instruction course a presenter came from the Virginia Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom.  Tammy Maxey brought with her a car full of supplies to share with the class.  I was extremely impressed by the different activities that she used to demonstrate how agriculture, especially Virginia’s agriculture can be incorporated in classroom lessons.  During the 50 minute class session, Tammy went through at least five different activities that could be used in K-8 classrooms.  The activities are aligned with SOL curriculum and provided wonderful ideas .  Here are some of the ideas she brought to us:

1. Seed Germination – have your class create “seed boys” and “seed girls” that they will take care of during the school day.  The activity involved cotton balls, soybean seeds, small plastic bags that seal, water, and yarn.  The colored yarn allows the student to pick if their seed will be a boy or girl.
2. Using a map of Virginia, create a grided graph that will allow students to practice using the coordinates system while figuring out where crops are grown in the state.
3. Name that Crop – Using clear name tag necklaces, the students each draw a necklace that has a picture of a crop in it.  They do not look at the object because it is covered by a post-it note.  Next the student must get three other students to each give an adjective about the agricultural product.  Finally the student tries to guess what they have based on the clues.
4. Using your sense of touch – cover a variety of agricultural products with a picnic blanket or table cloth.  The students then try to guess what object that they have under the blanket based on their sense of touch.
5. Teach a song about the Water Cycle and make bracelets using colored beads to show the different stages of the cycle (yellow-sun, clear – evaporation, white – condensation, blue – precipitation).  The Water Cycle Song that Tammy gave us is to the tune of “She’ll be Coming Around the Mountain”.  Here are the lyrics:

Water Travels in a cycle, yes it does!

Water Travels in a cycle, yes  it does!

It goes up as evaporation.

Forms clouds as condensation.

Then falls down as precipitation, yes it does!

Not only did Tammy give us a lot of hands on activities to work on during our session, she also sent us home with a lot of information.  A class set of Virginia Agriculture maps, activity booklets, a seed catalogue, a short story about a soybean, a CD with lesson plans, as well as information about the foundation.  I think that this presentation will definitely lead me to incorporate agriculture lessons into my classroom.  Tammy even mentioned having her come to our school once we start teaching to do in-service presentations for our colleagues.  If you are interested in the foundation, please visit this site for further information and for activities and lesson plans… www.agintheclass.org