Weaving the Rainbow by George Ella Lyon and illustrated by Stephanie Anderson has been selected by the NYAITC Advisory Committee as the 2015 Agricultural Literacy Week book. This year will be focused on fiber production in New York State from sheep, goats, llamas, alpacas, rabbits, & more. Agriculture is more than the food we eat, it is also the clothes on our backs, the materials that keep us warm and dry, and are used each and every day of our lives. Mark your calendars for March 16-20, 2015 and be sure to invite an Agricultural  Literacy Week volunteer into your classroom. Visit the website soon for more details!

Christine Bow, 2014 Teacher of the Year

Applications are due October 17, 2014 to select the NYAITC Teacher of the Year. We are looking for nominees that include a teacher, or team of teachers, who educate in a context of agriculture. They must be integrating agriculture and exposing students to the food, fiber, and natural resources in innovative ways.

Winners of this award will attend the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Louisville, Kentucky with all expenses paid by NYAITC. The teacher(s) will also submit an application to be awarded a National Excellence in Teaching About Agriculture award from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). To view the rubric, access the application, or learn about previous winners please visit the Teacher of the Year portion of our website.

American Farm Bureau is again offering the White-Reinhardt Mini-Grant opportunities. These grants fund ag literacy projects and are worth up to $500 for classroom education programs. Applications are due October 15, 2014. To learn more, visit their website.

Again this year NYS will see a beautiful and bountiful apple harvest - and this is a great opportunity to bring your classroom on a fall field trip to an orchard. Field trips to a farm offer so much more than a one day, fun opportunity - visiting a farm can assist in framing your curriculum for the rest of the year. Have your students journal their experiences, documenting what they see, hear, taste, smell, and feel on the farm; or have them count the number of apples on a tree, trees in row, and number of rows to calculate the farmer's estimated crop.

 

Find orchards in your area and great apple resources from NYS Apple Country website, and consider pairing it with the My Farm Web lesson found on the National AITC Curriculum Matrix.

    Farm Academy Live is a free program that uses video conferencing to provide an interactive experience for students in grades 3 and 4. The program is aligned with Common Core Standards and each lesson provides a hands-on activity for your students. Learn more about the program or  schedule a class here.

Project Learning Tree annually funds grants for environmental service learning projects that link commmunity service with academic curriculum. There are three types of grants, with an opportunity to earn up to $2,000 for your service-learning project. 
The deadline to apply is September 30, 2014. Learn more online.

National Agriculture in the Classroom is accepting workshop proposals for their 2015 conference in Louisville, Kentucky. If you feel as if you have an innovative agricultural program that other educators and volunteers across the country should know about, apply today! Proposals are due October 1, 2014. Submit here!

This book contains real and beautiful pictures that brilliantly depict the process of apple growth, harvest, and other living things involved in those processes. 'Apples for Everyone' is educational and interesting. To buy the book for your classroom, find it here.

Learn in your classroom about how these three things--seeds, soil, and sun--can be the basis for our food.  Author Cris Peterson writes about growth, harvest, and renewal in this book, which sheds light on agriculture and brings clarity as to where our food comes from.

MyPlate teamed up with the AgCensus to create maps that show where the food from each food group on your plate come from. The maps are great for use in your classroom to initiate discussion on where food comes from and also can merge other topics like nutrition, math, and science into a lesson. Find the maps and other information here. 

• Grants up to $2,000 for environmental service-learning projects
• Learn more or apply online

• Mini-Grants to promote Ag Literacy in your classroom
• Learn more here

• Applications Due October 17, 2014
• Applications and more information here 

• Team registration opens November 3, 2014
• Learn more here

Agricultural Literacy Week Book

NYAITC Teacher of the Year

American Farm Bureau Mini-Grants

An Encore Apple Season

National Honey Month

National Mushroom Month

National Chicken Month

National Rice Month

  

 

      

New York State produces about 29.5 million apples per year.