logoFOOD FOR THOUGHT
NH Ag in the Classroom's Newsletter

DECEMBER 2010
Year in Review & Annual Appeal
                   
In This Issue
NH Grown Grazing Feast
Let's Watch a Video
UNH Open House
THE YEAR IN REVIEW
It has been a productive year for NHAITC and we'd like to share our outreach success--over 10,000 individuals were introduced to NHAITC.
Thank YOU for helping us spread the word!

 

CURRICULUM KITS:

*Wooly Wool was piloted to 600 students

 

*Loaned curriculum packages from our resource library reached 4,000 students.

 

*Grafton County AITC Ed Coordinator reached 1,000 students

 

BOOTH DISPLAYS:

*NH Farm & Forest Expo 1,000 parents, children, teachers and homeschoolers passed through our exhibit & 750 FARMO game cards distributed

*Sheep & Wool Festival approximately 500 individuals of all ages stopped by to learn about who we are and what we do.

 

SCHOOL TO FARM PROGRAMS:

*UNH -1,600

 

*Grafton County (part of Conservation Field Day) - 300

 

*Belknap County - 200

 

*Hillsborough County - 300

  

SPECIAL EVENTS:

*Ag Literacy Day - 75 schools were visited by volunteers who read Sugarbush Spring to 600 students and 200 teachers and principals.  The books were then donated to the schools' library.

 

*Grazing Feast at Zorvino Vineyards - over 100 people attended this local-food dinner and silent auction. (see article below.)

*Fudge-raiser - a new fundraising effort (see article below.) 

A NEW FUNDRAISING EFFORT!

Help us raise money - and enjoy a delicious treat at the same time!  (or... - and get the perfect holiday gift for your special person.) 

 

Here's a great way to support NH Agriculture in the Classrooms while getting some holiday shopping done!

 

The Mill Fudge Factory (a family business in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire) is bringing you the opportunity to send gifts of fresh fudge anywhere in the country with 20% of your purchase coming back to us to help further our mission. The fudge makes the perfect gift - it�€™s handmade, all-natural, and a delicious way to support our work.    Order by Dec. 15th to guarantee arrival by Christmas. Place your orders now at: http://www.themillfudgefactory.com/nhaitc.aspx.   Choose from 22 flavors including Belgian Chocolate, Eggnog, Cranberry Maple Nut and Holiday Mint. Add a greeting card with your personal message which will be handwritten inside.   FREE shipping in New England on 2 lbs or more, and nationally on 4 lbs. or more.  Fudge of the month club memberships also available.   Support NH Agriculture in the Classroom by ordering now! 
Click this ad!


Thanks for your support, and have a very happy holiday.

Quick Links to Lessons
Many Thanks to Audrey Harmon of Morrison, OK for these AITC multimedia presentations that are available for you to use at no cost!  You can choose PowerPoint or Keynote versions of each lesson.

Art in Agriculture

At Home on the Range-This lesson is about Bison.

Beautiful Bovine-This lesson compares and contrasts cattle and people.

Circles in the Landscape-This lesson is for grades 6-7, about irrigation.

Clucking Chickens-This lesson is about hatching chicks and about chickens.

Creepy, Crawly Critters-This lesson is about insects.

Fall Plowing-This lesson is for grades 6-7, art lesson.

Fish in a Bottle-This lesson is about aquaculture.

Fleece as White as Snow-This lesson is about sheep.

A Lovely Captive-This lesson is about butterflies.

Pizza Portions-This lesson is for grades 6-7, about nutrition.

Pumpkins by the Pound-This lesson is about pumpkins.

A Purple Cow-This lesson is actually about vineyards.

The Story of Milk-This lesson is about dairies.

Street Cows-This lesson compares real cattle to the Chicago Street Cows.

Sunny Sunflowers-This lesson is about sunflowers and biodiesel.

This Little Pig-This lesson is about pigs.

A Trip to the Animal Fair-This lesson is about 4-H and FFA members caring fortheir animals.

What's Your Brand-This lesson is about brands- how to read them, where to place them, why we have them.

Wheat: From Field to Oven-This lesson is about wheat.

Writing the Wind-This lesson compares modern windmills with older ones.

Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.
Have you used a Glogster in your classroom?

These are great technology tools for your classroom. Here's how to make your own Glogster...

1) Go to the Glogster site
2) Register
3) Decide what topic you want your students to focus on.
4) Pick a background (wall)
5) Decide which graphics you want to use (you can import your own.)
6) Choose your text.
7) Edit and link the graphic to the website you want your students to visit.
**Remember to save often! While you work, choose save unpublished. When you finish save and publish it.
                   

Seasons Greetings NHAITC Friends,Donate


     This is our annual appeal  for your donations to fertilize NHAITC so that we can staff our office so generously provided by our NH Farm Bureau at their location  and continue our mission of cultivating understanding and appreciation of agriculture in our youngsters.   This past year we have more than doubled our outreach and  more than tripled our exposure in the case of the Ag Literacy program in our schools, mostly through tremendous volunteer help.  We want to multiply  again.
     Hold on to your hats while you open your hearts and hands for 2011, because  we are poised at the gate to blow open one of the granite state's best kept secrets - NH Ag In The Classroom.
 

     We have hired
Ruth Smith as our State Coordinator.  She comes charged with the essential experience in grant writing, teaching, exhibiting, tech savvy, plus a long-time devotion to sustainability, conservation, and  the general  idea that we all need to work together to care responsibly for ourselves, our fellow creatures, and our world.    Ruth is passionate in a just plain, what my dad would call, "horse sense" way about how indispensible it is for our citizens, leaders, and future policy makers to have some comprehension of farming, that natural connectedness that we have lost because so many folks are now several generations removed from the land.  We are not trying to make farmers of everyone. 
We plan to continue  assembling learning kits and packets, and aligning curricula to state standards, but our bigger service  will lie more in being  able to "show and tell"  how to point and click in order to find, access, and duplicate  the incredible amount of material that has already been and is being invented, rather than reinventing stuff. Furthermore, we  intend to  return to presenting teacher workshops,  and  we will work to promote our services  and resources.
      We plan more county School to Farm activities and are looking for places to hold them.  We are looking for a volunteer representative in every school to receive newsletters and   regularly plant our Food For Thought to teachers and administrators; home school organizations, too.  We will continue to build relationships with commodity groups, designing units about their products with them to ensure accuracy and appropriateness.

    
In a couple of weeks we will begin  to have a little more light each day.  We ask you to make contributions to NHAITC so that we can help bring  a brighter and earlier dawn to the understanding and appreciation of the roles  all the components of agriculture have in our lives.  Do you know that "All jobs rely on one of two industries - mining and agriculture?" (Mike Rowe at National FFA convention , see blog "The Future of Farming".) We need financial assistance to be able to pay  reasonable  wages and expenses to actually accomplish all these objectives,  supplementing the time already being contributed  by our devoted volunteers.
    
 Please help us paint colorful  sunrises in NH classrooms.   

                                               Humbly,                      
                                    Jozi Best
                                             President       


P.S.  If you are not already a member of NH Farm Bureau you can help all of us by becoming a member today. Membership is NOT for farmers only! 

Donate Just click the button
or
DONATION CHECKS MAY BE MADE PAYABLE TO NHAITC and mailed to 295 Sheep Davis Rd., Concord, NH  03301- Thank you!
NH GROWN GRAZING FEAST--An Amazing Success!

     Those who attended NH Ag in the Classroom's first annual benefit dinner on Friday evening, November 19 at Zorvinos Vineyard in Sandown say, "Bravo!"  "Outstanding food!"  "Loved the wine and cheese!"  "Loved the venue!"  "Great music!"  Overall, "A terrific success!"

We wanted to bring our guests an evening filled with New Hampshire's finest farm grown foods and farm products. The evening featured cheeses from Landaff Creamery, Heart Song Farm, Boggy Meadow Farm, Via Lactea Farm, Garfield's Smokehouse, Hickory Nut Farm and Cabot Creamery, though based in Vermont but supplied in part with raw milk from NH dairy farmers.  From the Pumpkin Soup to the Local Apple Strudel with homemade vanilla ice cream, all the major courses and several of the lesser ingredients came from our own NH farms.  Of course, the appetizers and the main course, including Marinated Roasted Turkey with Pan Dripping Sauce, Smoked Cheddar and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and Butternut Squash and Leeks, all combined beautifully with the Zorvinos' wines to make a magnificent dining experience for everyone.

The Crunchy Western Boys, a local folk and bluegrass band, helped create a homegrown atmosphere and provide a reason to stay and linger awhile or even dance! And a few of us did enjoy a real dancing floor.

With a raffle for all the table decorations, provided by Alvirne Hig School's horticulture classes, along with the big prize--a wine tasting party for twenty guests at Zorvinos, and a Silent Auction featuring a wealth of NH made products, hardly anyone left empty handed.

Thanks to the 100 attendees, including many local NH producers and consumers, the Silent Auction netted $1,184 and the Raffle earned $480.  Though the finances for the dinner itself have not been finalized, much of the meal was donated, which we hope, will make a modest income for this first ambitious fund raising event.

Thank you to all who helped make this event so successful -- the NH Farm Bureau, the Board of Directors for NH Ag in the Classroom, Rockingham County Farm Bureau, our New Hampshire farms, the NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, and most of all, our guests, who are invited back next year.

                                                                 Matty Huckins    

LET'S WATCH A VIDEO!

These videos are available on loan from NHAITC's lending library. Just give us a call and let us know what you'd like to borrow!

Gee Whiz Series in Agriculture

Explorations of a wide range of agriculture-related topics-agronomy, anatomy, animal science, aquaculture, chemistry, ecology, engineering, entomology, evolution, food processing, forestry, horticulture, hydroponics, microbiology, physics, and physiology-introduce upper elementary students to basics science and math concepts. These all come with print outs for teachers to use. Choose your topics from the list below:

How Why Can a Cow Eat Grass?
An in-depth look at the digestive tracts of cattle from the day they are born to maturity, focusing on differences between bovine and human digestive systems.
 


How Wood You Take Care of Me?
A look at the forestry industry and its impact on the environment, including a firsthand look at a logging operation and a trip through a furniture factory.

 

What's Bugging You?
Th
e role of insects in our environment, with close-up and personal accounts of several unique insects.
 


       How Do Horses Run So Fast?

Explores the differences and similarities between human and equine athletes and introduces anatomy and physiology via skeletons, X rays, heart monitors, real-time and slow-motion video comparisons, and computerized imaging.



A fish-eye view of fish and lettuce production in an ecologically closed system shows how land and water life systems depend on each other for nourishment.



Explores a dairy food plant making cheese, butter, and ice cream and compares the nutrient values of milk and soft drinks.
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Food Doesn't Grow in the Supermarket  Recommended for grades 3-6 with lesson plans. 
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Science In Your Shopping Cart
by the Agricultural Research Service. Recommended for grades 5-8.  It talks about how and where your food comes from and how agricultural research plays a role in our food supply.  This VHS also comes with a teachers lesson plan.

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We have several other videos for younger audiences covering dairy related topics, horticulture and general farm life. Just give us a call!



GALA POINSETTIA TREE & GREENHOUSE OPEN HOUSE AT UNH

   At the recent open house of UNH's gala poinsettia tree (below) and greenhouse, NHAITC President Jozi Best had the opportunity to connect with Ann Hilton and her group of home schoolers (above.)  Ann Hilton helped work on NHAITC's Poinsettia Kit by piloting it with her home school group.