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Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom
April, 2008
In 2006 floriculture was number 9 among all Oklahoma agricultural commodities. Floriculture is one of the fastest-growing ag commodities in our state.
Now is the time of year when Oklahoma's floriculture industry comes to life. Temporary greenhouses spring up in the parking lots of large retail stores and bedding plants spill out onto the sidewalks of smaller garden centers.
Floriculture Activities
Send students on a scavenger hunt in the garden section of a large retail store or a local garden center.
- Provide a list of common garden plants grown in Oklahoma for students to find. Bring examples for students to see. The most common bedding plants grown in Oklahoma are begonias, petunias, geraniums and impatiens.
- Provide a floor plan of a local garden center with labels of plants or flowers. Students give directions from the entrance to find the Oklahoma plants.
- Discuss the difference between goods (plants for sale) and services (gardeners, landscape designers, etc.) in the floriculture industry.
- Students look for plants of certain color, with certain leaf shapes, annuals or perennials (Discuss the difference.), etc.
- Students graph results of their hunt.
Online OAITC lessons related to floriculture
- The Disappearing Honeybees
- Eat Your Flowers
- Fantastic Flower
- If Not for the Pollinators: Matching Flowers With Pollinators
- Pollinator Habitats
- The Sunflower Story
- Sunny Sunflowers
- Symbiosis in Agriculture
Cool Website of the Month: Oklahoma State FFA Floriculture Plant Index
Bring a variety of bedding plants for students to identify, using the Oklahoma State FFA Floriculture Plant Index.
Poems About Flowers (from the Academy of American Poets
April is National Gardening Month
Gardening is great exercise! Go outside and plant something!
Challenge students to start some kind of edible plant this month that will be ready to eat by the end of the school year. Lettuce and radish are good possibilities. The Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide, from OSU Cooperative Extension Service, provides a chart with number of days, from planting to harvest.
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Students use the Oklahoma Garden Planning Guide chart to plan what they will plant. (OSU fact sheet. Scroll down for the planning guide.)
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Students follow the Scientific Study Format to plan and conduct experiments with their plants.
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Students keep journals showing the progress of their plants.
Sneaker Salad
(from the Junior Master Gardener curriculum)
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Each student brings one old sneaker to class.
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Fill the sneakers with potting mix, and plant lettuce, radishes or a mesclun mix (mixed lettuce and greens for salad).
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Keep the sneakers watered, and have a salad lunch at the end ofthe school year.
Teachers on the OAITC gardening tour turn a compost pile at a school in Enid.
Start a compost pile
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Students follow the Scientific Study Format to plan and conduct experiments with their compost pile.
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Students keep track of what they add to pile and record observations in a journal.
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Students measure temperature of pile weekly and graph temperatures.
Prepare planting beds without digging by using sheet composting.
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One group prepares a planting bed using sheet composting. Another group use conventional technique.
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Students follow the Scientific Study Format to plan and conduct experiments with their planting beds.
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Compare results.
Songs and Poems About Dirt, Worms and One by Walt Whitman About Compost
Poems About Gardens (from the Academy of American Poets)
It's Baseball Season
There's no baseball - or any other sport - without agriculture. Your students are thinking about sports anyway. Why not join them?
Facts about Agriculture in Sports
April is National Poetry Month
Goats
Meat goat production has more than doubled in Oklahoma since 1997. Nationally we rank number 5 in the production of meat goats. Producers have found that meat goats are easy to handle and inexpensive to maintain. For this reason they are also gaining in popularity as show animals. One of the reasons they are easier to handle is because of their smaller size.
- Students use the Facts
about Goats and other resources to write short papers
on the following topics:
- Goats in World History
- The Goat as an Economical Food Source
- The Care and Feeding of Goats
- The Many Uses for Goats."
- The US is the largest importer of goats. Discuss this fact and possible reasons for it. Then have students research online to find answers and share their findings.
- Students read through the Facts about Goats and organize the information in outline form.
- Younger students list words that rhyme with goat and write short poems about goats, based on some of the goat facts.
- Students list descriptive words about goats, based on the goat facts.
The Fable of Franny and Her Fabulous Fainting Goat - Learn about some goats with an unusual trait.
Taming the Wild Aurochs - A time line of animal husbandry
Oklahoma Vegetable of the Month: Green Garden Peas
Peas are some of the first vegetables to be planted in the garden because they are frost-hardy. That means they can stand temperatures below freezing. In fact, peas taste better when they are grown while the weather is still cool. Peas grow in pods. In some varieties, like snow peas and sugar snaps, the pods taste as good as the peas themselves, In other varieties, the peas are shelled - removed from the shells.
Green garden peas are a valuable source of protein, iron and insoluble fiber. Sugar snap peas contain less protein, but are an excellent source of iron and vitamin C.
Play With Your Food
Bring fresh green garden peas to class for students to examine and shell.
- Students arrange the peas according to size.
- Students estimate the number of peas in the pods before shelling them.
- Students use tally marks to count the peas.
- Students graph number of peas per pod.
- Students use the peas to construct addition and subtraction facts.
- Students develop strategies for estimating the total number of peas.
- Students use peas to develop multiplication and division algorithms (e.g., four groups of three peas, etc.)
Be a Food Explorer
Bring fresh snow peas, canned peas and frozen peas for a taste test. Graph preferences. (Fresh peas taste good raw, right out of the shell.)
Peas (Serving Size: 1/2 cup cooked)
amounts per serving |
% daily value |
|
calories |
70 |
|
calories from fat |
0 |
|
total fat |
0g |
0% |
sodium |
0mg |
0% |
total carbohydrate |
13g |
4% |
dietary fiber |
4g |
14% |
sugars |
5g |
|
protein |
4g |
|
Vitamin A |
15% |
|
Vitamin C |
20% |
|
calcium |
2% |
|
iron |
6% |
Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Source: Centers for Disease Control
Other fresh veggies in season this month: asparagus, greens, lettuce, onions, radishes, spinach
More classroom recipes with vegetables
Library Week is April 13-19
Check out our complete list of Ag-Related Books for Children and Young Adults
April Books
Azarian, Mary, A Gardener's
Alphabet, Houghton Mifflin, 2000 (preK-4)
Alphabet book celebrating the simple joys of gardening through woodcuts.
Blood, Charles, Martin Link and Nancy Winslow Parker,
The Goat in the Rug, Aladdin, 1990.
Geraldine is a goat, and Glenmae, a Navajo weaver. One day, Glenmae
decides to weave Geraldine into a rug. First Geraldine is clipped.
Then her wool is spun into fine, strong yarn. Finally, Glenmae weaves
the wool on her loom. The reader learns, along with Geraldine, about
the care and pride involved in the weaving of a Navajo rug -- and
about cooperation between friends.
Bregoli, Jane, The Goat Lady, Tilbury House, 2004.
(Grades 3-6)
Neighbors complain about the goats in an old lady's
yard until an artist paints portraits of the lady and hangs
them in a local art museum.
Burton, Robert, Egg, a Photographic
Story of Hatching, Dorling Kindersley, 1994. (Grades K-3)
More than five hundred full-color,
life-size, sequential photographs, with captions and text, explain the
story of bird, reptile, insect, fish, and amphibian development, from
the initial signs of growth through the struggle to hatch.
Cherry, Lynne, How Groundhog's
Garden Grew, Blue Sky, 2003, (K-2)
Groundhog loves to eat fresh veggies from his neighbor's garden until
a friend teaches him to plant his own garden.
Cole, Henry, Jack's Garden, Harper Trophy, 1997. (K-4)
A
cumulative story that traces a little boy's backyard flower garden
from tilling the soil to enjoying the blossoms. The text catalogs
the process in a take-off on "This Is the House That Jack Built." As
the garden takes shape, readers see seedlings sprout and bud, flowers
open, insects and birds visit and, at last, a lovely garden in full
bloom. Each double-page spread is done in soft colored pencils on various
colored background. The borders contain detailed labeled drawings of
tools, insects, birds, eggs, and, of course, flowers. Instructions
for starting a garden complete the presentation.
Fleischman, Paul, and Judy Pederson,
Seedfolks, HarperCollins, 1997.
(Grades 4-7)
Using multiple voices, Fleischman takes readers to a modern inner-city
neighborhood. where bit by bit the handful of lima beans an immigrant
child plants in an empty lot blossoms into a community garden, tended
by a notably diverse group of local residents. Toughened by the experience
of putting her children through public school, Leona spends several
days relentlessly bullying her way into government offices to get the
lot's trash hauled away; others address the lack of readily available
water, as well as problems with vandals and midnight dumpers; and though
decades of waging peace on a small scale have made Sam an expert diplomat,
he's unable to prevent racial and ethnic borders from forming. Still,
the garden becomes a place where wounds heal, friendships form, and
seeds of change are sown.
Martin, Jacqueline Briggs, and Alec Gillman, The
Green Truck Garden Giveaway: A Neighborhood Story and Almanac, Simon and Schuster, 1996.
(Grades K-3)
Two strangers drive their green pickup truck down Second Street, giving
away almanacs and planting small gardens for reluctant neighbors. As
time goes by, the gardens thrive and so do the neighbors, who begin
to share their harvest of produce and happiness with others. Throughout
the book, informative sidebars tell readers about topics related to
the story: why medieval insomniacs ate lettuce, what to plant in order
to attract butterflies, and how to make sprays that repel insects from
plants.
Bial, Raymond, A Handful
of Dirt, Walker and Co., 2000. (Grades 3-6)
Introduces dirt dwellers, from the tiniest protozoans through myriad
invertebrates, to the mammals and reptiles whose burrows aerate the
earth, all depicted in large, sharp, full-color photos. The author
includes basic instructions for setting up a home compost heap.
Byars,
Betsy, McMummy, Viking, 1993. (Grades 4-7)
Mozie's part-time job watering plants in an eccentric professor's
greenhouse takes a sinister turn when he is mysteriously
attracted to a giant, humming pea pod.
Lavies, Bianca, Compost Critters, Dutton Children's, 1993. (Grades
4-7)
Nature's recyclers receive a close-up look, in an informative, photographic
study, at the creatures, from bacteria and fungi to worms and millipedes,
that break down our garbage, returning raw materials to the earth.
McBrier, Page and Lori Lohstoeter, Beatrice's Goat,
Atheneum, 2001. (Grades K-3)
An impoverished family begins to flourish
after receiving a special gift--of the four-legged variety--in this
picture book set in western Uganda. Beatrice longs to attend school
with other village children, but instead she must tend her five younger
siblings and help her mother in the fields. Everything starts to change,
however, when Beatrice and her family receive a goat from a charitable
organization.
Miller, Susanna, and John Yates, Beans and Peas, Carolrhoda,
1990.
Describes beans and peas, the history of their cultivation and
use, and their role in industry and diet. Includes some recipes.
Noyes, Deborah, and Bagram Ibatoulline, Hana in the Time of Tulips,
Candlewick, 2005. (Grades K-5)
Rembrandt-inspired illustrations and text
tell the story of tulip fever's impact on a Dutch family.
Ray, Mary Lyn, and Lauren Stringer, Mud, Harcourt Brace, 1996. (Grades
K-3)
The joy of a child playing in mud is tied to the change of seasons. Ray
uses spirited language to show a child's playfulness as the mud thaws
and comes alive with spring. The point of view
is at ground level, where readers can visually muck around in all that
goo. The transformation of winter frost to mud serves as a spawning stage
for the green of the new season.
What is the last frost date? Why does the last frost date matter?
The last frost date is the last day in spring that temperatures go below freezing. Many plants cannot withstand freezing temperatures, so gardeners and farmers must wait until all danger of frost is past before planting. Some plant earlier but provide protection (covering plants or placing a heat source near plants) when low temperatures are expected.
Common garden vegetables that are cold-sensitive include tomatoes, peppers, squash, okra and more. Cold weather garden vegetables, such as lettuce, spinach, peas, broccoli and cabbage, are not cold-sensitive and can survive light frost.
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
What to do in April
- Cool Website of the Month: Oklahoma State Floriculture Plant Index
- It's Baseball Season
- April is National Poetry Month
- Thomas Jefferson's Birthday is April 13
- National Wildlife Week is April 19-27
April Fool!
Celebrate April Fool's Day and Oklahoma Ag Day with this activity: Students separate into teams and choose topics from the Ag Facts link to make up true and "April Fool!" statements about agriculture. Teams quiz one another with their true and false statements.
Other lessons for April Fool:
Ag Day in Oklahoma is April 2.
Celebrate Ag Day with these lessons
Ag Day Fun Facts: Flora, Fauna and Food for Thought
No occupation is so delightful
to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that
of the garden.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson's Birthday is April 13.
Jefferson loved gardening and farming and was a pioneer in agricultural experimentation in our country's early years. Learn more about Jefferson and agriculture
April is Made in Oklahoma Month
Visit a Farmer's Markets
Many farmer's markets open mid-April in Oklahoma. Find the farmer's market nearest you, and introduce your students to Oklahoma-grown fruits and vegetables.
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Discuss the difference in what fruits and vegetables farmers can grow in Oklahoma compared with other places.
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Students draw maps from the school to the nearest farmer's market.
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Discuss occupations related to farmer's markets.
Student Advocates:
- Support local growers and Oklahoma agriculture by promoting farmers’ markets.
- Visit local growers and discuss how to promote their sales.
- Make a schedule of farmers’ markets in your area. If none are nearby, find out how to get one in your neighborhood.
- Develop a promotional flyer inviting students, friends and families to visit there markets.
- Distribute flyers or contact the local newspaper to include information about the time, place, and produce available at local farmers’ markets.
The rising costs in groceries are not the result of farmers getting more for their product but the rising cost of transportation. Explore the distance food typically travels from the farm to us with this lesson:
Last Frost Date
In Oklahoma, the average date of the last frost is sometime this month.
Have a contest, and ask students to guess what day in April will be the last frost date.
Set a thermometer outside your classroom so students can keep track of daytime temperatures.
Students use Oklahoma Mesonet or TV weather forecasts to keep track of temperatures throughout the month.
Check out last frost dates in other states
Discuss: What is the last frost date? Why does the last frost date matter?
April 22 is 89er Day
What Oklahoma farm animal played a key role in Oklahoma's land runs?
April 22 is Earth Day
National Wildlife Week is April 19-27
Farmers support wildlife through the National Resources Conservation Service's Conservation Reserve Program.
Register your class for the National Wildlife Federation's Wildlife Watch.
Arbor Day is April 25
Mighty Oaks From Little Acorns
The Role of Fire in Healthy Prairie, Brush and Forest Land
Wild fires can be frightening, but is fire always a bad thing?
April is National Soy Foods Month
In 2006, soybeans ranked 10th among Oklahoma commodities. The soybean is called "the miracle bean" because it has so many uses. Check out these facts about soybeans, then try this lesson.
One of the crops used in the production of ethanol is soybeans. Learn more about The History of Ethanol in America.
Meet the Beans: Soybeans are Everywhere (Ohio Soybean Council)
Keep America Beautiful Month
Have students keep track of all the paper they use in a day with this activity from the lesson "Making Paper."
Bring two empty trash containers to class. Label one “white paper” and the other one “colored paper.”
Ask students how much paper they think they use in one day. Record estimates for each student.
Ask how much they think the entire class
uses
in one day. Record estimates.
Explain that for one day each student will sign or initial every sheet of paper he/she throws in the trash. All the white paper will go in the trash labeled “white paper,” and all the colored paper will go in the trash can labeled “colored paper.”
At the end of the day have students estimate how many sheets of paper are in each recycling box.
Have students estimate the number of sheets of paper he or she personally used.
Check the results by counting and recording this information on the board for everyone to view.
Have students estimate the length of the papers if placed end to end in the hallway. Have students line the hallways with the paper and measure to check their estimates.
Have students create bar graphs showing the total amount of paper used by the class in one day. Then have each student create a bar graph showing how much paper he or she used.
Oklahoma Fruit of the Month: Strawberries
Strawberries can be grown throughout Oklahoma. They are the number one fruit crop for home plantings. Strawberries are the first fruits to ripen in early spring. In Oklahoma, most won't be ready until May. One cup of fresh berries supplies more than the recommended daily adult requirement for Vitamin C.
Strawberries are the only fruit with seeds growing on the outside. More fun facts about strawberries.
Be a Food Explorer: Strawberry Bread
American Indians were already eating strawberries when the colonists arrived. The crushed berries were mixed with cornmeal and baked into strawberry bread. After trying this bread, Colonists developed their own version of the recipe and created strawberry shortcake.
Make Native American strawberry bread as described above. Crush frozen strawberries or strawberry preserves into your favorite cornbread recipe or mix. Serve with strawberry cream cheese with a few fresh strawberries on the side.
More classroom recipes with fruit
Play With Your Food: Strawberry Math
On average, there are 200 seeds on a strawberry. Using this figure, have students estimate the number of seeds in a cup of fresh strawberries. Develop a strategy for counting the seeds before eating the strawberries.
Strawberries (Serving Size: 1/2 cup, sliced)
amounts per serving |
% daily value |
|
calories |
25 |
|
calories from fat |
0 |
|
total fat |
0g |
0% |
sodium |
0mg |
0% |
total carbohydrate |
6g |
2% |
dietary fiber |
2g |
7% |
sugars |
4g |
|
protein |
1g |
|
Vitamin A |
0% |
|
Vitamin C |
80% |
|
calcium |
2% |
|
iron |
6% |
Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.
Source: Centers for Disease Control
April Art
Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin (1699-1799), Wild Strawberries
P.A.S.S
Floriculture
Grade 1 - Science Process: 1.2; 4.3. Physical Science: 1.1. Social Studies: 5.2
Grade 2 - Science Process: 1.2; 2.1; 4.3. Social Studies: 4.2; 5.2
Grade 3 - Science Process: 1.2; 2.1; 4.3. Social Studies: 4.3; 5.1,3
Grade 4 - Science Process: 1.2; 2.1; 4.1,4. Life Science: 3.2. Social Studies: 4.2
Grade 5 - Science Process: 1.2; 2.1; 4.1,4. Physical Science: 1.1. Social Studies: 7.5
National Gardening Month
Grade 1 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.1,2,3; 4.3. Physical Science: 1.1. Life Science: 2.1,2
Grade 2 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.1,2,3; 4.3. Life Science: 2.1. Earth Science: 3.1
Grade 3 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.1,2,3; 4.3. Life Science: 2.1,2. Earth Science: 3.2
Grade 4 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.1,2,3; 4.1,3,4; 5.1,3,4. Life Science: 3.1,2
Grade 5 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.1,2,3; 4.1,3,4; 5.1,3,4. Life Science: 2.2. Earth Science: 3.1
Grade 6 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 3.1,2,3,4,5; 4.1,3,4,5; 5.1,3,4. Physical Science: 1.1. Life Science: 4.1
Grade 7 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 3.1,2,3,4,5; 4.1,3,4,5; 5.1,3,4. Life Science: 4.2
Grade 8 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 3.1,2,3,4,5; 4.1,3,4,5; 5.1,3,4. Physical Science: 1.2. Life Science: 3.1
Farmer's Market
Grade 1 - Social Studies: 2.3; 5.1,2
Grade 2 - Social Studies: 2.1,3; 4.1; 5.2
Last Frost Date
Grade 1 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.3. Earth Science: 3.1,2
Grade 2 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.3.
Grade 3 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.3.
Grade 4 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.3. Life Science: 3.1,2
Grade 5 - Science Process: 1.1,2; 2.1; 3.3. Life Science: 2.2. Earth Science: 3.2
Grade 6 - Science Process: 1.2,3. Earth Science: 5.3
Grade 7 - Science Process: 1.2,3. Life Science: 4.2. Earth Science: 6.2
Grade 8 - Science Proces: 1.2,3.
Goats
Grade 1 - Reading: 2.1. Writing: 2.4. Oral Language: 2.2,6. Social Studies: 1.1; 4.1,2; 5.1
Grade 2 - Writing: 2.5. Reading: 5.1a. Social Studies: 1.1; 4.2
Grade 3 - Reading: 6.2b. Writing: 2.1,2,3ab. Social Studies: 1.1; 5.2
Grade 4 - Reading: 3.1b,3c; 4.1b,2b. Writing: 1.1,6; 2.4c,6. Oral Language: 3.2. Social Studies: 1.1; 5.5
Grade 5 - Reading: 3.1b,5.2bd. Writing: 2.5ce,6acd. Oral Language: 2.6; 3.2. Social Studies: 7.5
Grade 6 - Reading: 3.1b,3ad; 5.1b,2a. Writing: 1.2; 2.2c,7. Oral Language: 2.1. Social Studies: 1.3; 3.2
Grade 7 - Reading: 3.1a,31d; 5.1b,2a. Writing: 1.2; 2.2b,8. Oral Language: 2.1. Social Studies 1.1; 4.4
Grade 8 - Reading: 3.1a,3ab; 5.1a,2a. Writing: 1.2; 2.2b,8. Oral Language: 2.1. Social Studies: 1.1
April Fool
Grade 3 - Reading: 4.1ad,2c; 5.1b. Oral Language: 1.1,2; 3.2
Grade 4 - Reading: 3.1b,2d,4a; 4.1b. Oral Language: 1.2; 3.2
Grade 5 - Reading: 3.2e; 4.1b. Writing: 2.1. Oral Language: 3.2
Strawberry Math
Grade 4 - Math Process: 1.1,2,3,5; 2.3; 3.3; 4.4. Math Content: 3.1; 4.4b
Grade 5 - Math Process: 1.1,2,3,5; 2.3; 3.3; 4.4. Math Content: 4.4
Peas
Pre-Kindergarten - Math: 2.2,3,4; 4.2,3; 5.2
Kindergarten - Math: 2.4,8; 4.2,3; 5.1,2
Grade 1 - Math Process: 1.1,2; 2.1,3; 3.2,3; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content: 2.2a,4; 3.1ab,3; 5.1,2
Grade 2 - Math Process: 1.1,2; 2.1,3; 3.2,3; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content: 3.1b; 5.2,3
Grade 3 - Math Process: 1.1,2; 2.1,3; 3.2,3; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content: 3.1; 5.1ac
Grade 4 - Math Process: 1.1,2; 2.1,3; 3.2,3; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content: 3.2b; 5.1ab
Grade 5 - Math Process: 1.1,2; 2.1,3; 3.2,3; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content: 3.2a; 5.1a