Agriculture Literacy Week

Learning about Local Food

Spoons Across America is the primary implementer of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s New York Agriculture Literacy Week. Each Spring, 2nd graders learn about New York state agriculture – what kinds of food are grown and produced in the state, what areas these foods come from and the people who are involved in growing and producing them.In 2012, students participated in a seed germinating and observation activity after listening to a Spoons volunteer read the book, “Seed Soil Sun” by Cris Peterson. This year, over 30 Spoons trained volunteers read to students and implemented the activity as part of this week long national program.

2013 Agriculture Literacy Week: Monday, March 18th through Friday, March 22nd.
This year’s topic is bee-keeping! We are so excited that this year New York Agriculture in the Classroom has chosen a second Ag Literacy Week book specifically geared towards urban schools, with the intention of choosing a title and topic to create agricultural awareness within their student’s own unique environment. The book is The Honeybee Man by Lela Nargi and Kyrsten Brooker.

A special thank you to Let it Bee Honey (a local rooftop honey producer in NYC) for donating honey for the program and Random House for donating extra books for children and volunteers. We are also grateful Patricia Persaud for designing this years bookplates and recipe cards and to New York City College of Technology, City Tech, for printing them. Of course, a big thank you to all our volunteers. We couldn’t do this work without you.

Previous program included learning about apples through classroom activities and reading a the book “The Empire State Investigator: The Applesauce Bandit” provided by Spoons Across America. Students discovered that apples are grown from seeds, honeybees are needed to pollinate apple blossoms, and that most apples are picked in the fall. They also read the book “Sugarbush Spring“, learning how maple syrup is produced and took part in a maple syrup tasting activity.

Visit New York Agriculture in the Classroom for more information.