Each year, the Oklahoma Pork Council works with Oklahoma’s Ag in the Classroom program to provide teachers with grant money to purchase supplies needed to teach Ag in the Classroom curriculum. Teachers can request up to $500 for supplies. This fall, six teachers were the recipients of the Fall 2020 Ag in the Classroom grants provided by okPORK in the amount of $2,870.27.
The funds were used to purchase supplies such as recipe ingredients, craft items, gardening supplies and library books to help teach the Ag in the Classroom curriculum. With the help of these lessons, students will learn more about the diverse agriculture in Oklahoma and the importance of agriculture in our lives.
“We are so excited to see Oklahoma educators apply agriculture to their lesson plans through Ag in the Classroom grants,” said Paige Endres, communications specialist at okPORK. “We look forward to following along their journey and see what students will learn throughout these fun projects their teachers have planned.”
Arleen James is an extension educator in Texas County, Okla. James plans to utilize Ag in the Classroom lessons to promote ag literacy. At the end of her lessons, she plans to serve a farm-to-table meal for 4-H members and their families. During this meal, members will present a program on what they learned during the previous lessons.
Beth Sprague is a third, fourth and fifth grade teacher at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic school in Oklahoma City, Okla. Sprague plans to purchase materials to build three raised beds for the outdoor classroom area of her school. With these raised beds, she plans to teach students about planting and growing a successful vegetable garden.
Bobbie Hummingbird is a second and third grade teacher at Warner Elementary in Warner, Okla. Hummingbird’s project will focus on foods and nutrition, starting with foods traditionally served at Thanksgiving. Students will compare how traditional Thanksgiving foods relate to the history, culture and agricultural crops in Oklahoma. This project plans to provide students with correct agricultural facts through the purchase of agriculturally correct library books.
Connie Copenhaver is a sixth grade teacher at Kingsgate Elementary in Moore, Okla. The purpose of Copenhaver’s project is for students to understand the term “citizen science.” Students will recognize the importance of local, state, national and global interactions with nature as scientists, as well as good will ambassadors with students from Mexico through lessons about weeds, pollinator habitats, and monarchs. The grant will help purchase materials such as larvae, habitat nets, homes, milk weed host plants and writing materials to help guide students’ written expressions of a monarch’s journey from Oklahoma to Mexico.
Jennifer Crosthwait is a pre-k and kindergarten teacher at Skyline Elementary in Stillwater, Okla. Crosthwait plans to purchase materials for a variety of apple activities with her students. Under the direction of Crosthwait, students will learn where and how apples grow, different varieties of apples and different ways to use apples in recipes. Students will also sing songs and present finger plays about apples. They plan to attend a virtual field trip to an apple orchard and hear from an apple farmers about how apples get to the store. Students will also conduct a presentation to another class about something they learned and share a sweet apple treat.
Johnnie Keel is the gifted resource coordinator at Truman Elementary in Norman, Okla. She plans to use the funds to nourish a year-long lesson plan in ag literacy, proving to her students agriculture is needed and utilized daily. Keel plans to teach lessons about soil, corn, apples, pumpkins, hay, tomatoes, peanuts, soybeans, cotton, pigs, technology, famous people in ag, wheat, cattle, poultry, pollinators and Oklahoma commodities, all while developing a school garden.