Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom News 
October 2015
Books in book bundles
New Book Bundles!
The Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom (MAITC)  is excited to to introduce two new Children's Agricultural Literature Book Bundles. Each bundle includes ten books that are targeted to a specific student grade range - K-2 or 3-5. 
These fiction and nonfiction books focus on a wide variety of topics that represent agricultural plants and animals, food, and natural resources. 
Each bundle also has an accompanying Educator Guide.  These guides include activities, lessons, and resources that offer easy connections to many curricular areas.
In This Issue
Teacher Feature   
Ms. Carole VelasquezCarole Velasquez
1st Grade Teacher 
Cedar Park STEM Elementary School 
Apple Valley, MN

What advice do you have for other teachers on implementing agriculture into their classroom?
I would tell teachers to just try it. Implementing agriculture into the classroom is fun and easy to do with such great resources. Start with an agriculture read aloud book or AgMag and branch out from there.
  Students in the garden  
MAITC Outstanding Teacher Award  
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The MAITC Foundation is excited to present the Outstanding Teacher Award to a K-12 educator who integrates agriculture into his/her classroom and curriculum. The winning Minnesota teacher will receive $500 and have up to $1,500 of his/her expenses paid to attend the National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference June 20-24, 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona. Please encourage an outstanding teacher you know to apply!
Applications are due November 18th, 2015.
30 Years of MAITC!
MAITC kicked off it's 30th year with an event recognizing the past, present and future of Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom in the Securian Room at CHS Field on October 8th.   Stay tuned for additional events throughout the year celebrating 30 years of exploring agriculture with MAITC!
MN Ag in the Classroom 30 year event
Agricultural Trivia
  
Congratulations to Darla Haines for being the first person to respond with the correct answer to our September trivia question.  Darla knew that the Honeycrisp apple is our state fruit. The top ten responders were Marueen Hauck, Jim Resch, Marilyn Vollbrecht, Shell Tumberg, Tracy Tebben, Hayley Faber, Brian Boomgaarden, Lisa Busack, Katrine Bender and Beth Pagel.

October Trivia
The first person to email the correct answer for the question below will win a copy of the book The Cow in Patrick O'Shanahan's Kitchen.
It's harvest time!  Minnesota farmers are harvesting field corn, also known as dent corn, from fields across the state.  On average, how many ears of field corn are grown on one corn plant?

Email your answer to  Sue Knott to be eligible for the prize!