August, 2009

Welcome back to school!

Corn harvest begins this month in Oklahoma

Most of Oklahoma's corn crop grows in the Oklahoma panhandle and is used for feeding livestock. In 2007 corn for grain was Oklahoma's 7th most valuable crop at a value of $159 million.

Cornbread in a Bag

Online Corn Lessons:

Corn Cob Toys Corn Field Math Corn in Legend and Myth Corn in Ancient America Pop Around the World Corn Facts

Oklahoma Crop Calendar

Browse all the lessons

Most county fairs begin this month.

• Contact your county Extension office for county fair dates and for information about special activities available to your students.
• Learn about fairs and conduct your own classroom fair with "A Trip to the Animal Fair" (lesson and Power Point presentation)

Healthy Farm Animals Mean Safe Food

The animal barn at the county fair is a good place to witness the excellent care given to animals grown for food. The basis of animal judging at the fair is to showcase animal health. Healthy animals produce healthy and high quality meat, milk, cheese and eggs. Professional livestock producers display their breeding stock at the fair alongside 4-H and FFA youth competing for prizes. The following guide explains the criteria used for judging healthy beef animals, swine and sheep.

Livestock Judging Guide for 4-H Members (Kansas State Univerisity)

Field Trip: Take a field trip to the animal barn at the county fair and have students use the criteria from the guide above to judge animals they see at the fair.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Online OAITC Lessons on Animal Care

• Beautiful Bovine (Power Point Presentation)
• Beef or Dairy
• Biosecurity Keeps Us All Safe
• Chew It Twice
• Come Into My Parlor
• Farm Babies
• Genetics: A List of Traits
• Good Breeding
• Great Expectations
• Hogs on a Diet
• How the Brahman Bull Got Its Hump
• Plotting the Plight of the Cattle
• Preventing Disease in Meat Animals
• Street Cows (Power Point Presentation)
• They Don't Just Eat Grass

Scrumptious Summer Squash

It's not too late to plant summer squash in your outdoor classroom. According to OSU's fall gardening fact sheet, you can plant summer squash seeds through September 1 for harvest in 40-50 days. To find out what else you can plant now, check out the fact sheet.

Squash is usually divided into two categories - summer and winter. Summer squashes are harvested and eaten while their skin is still tender. Winter squash grows a thick skin, which helps it keep longer. The most common summer squashes are constricted neck, zucchini and scallop, or patty pan. Patty pan is round and flattened like a plate with scalloped edges. It is usually white. Constricted neck squash is thinner at the stem end than the blossom end and is classified as either "crookneck" or "straightneck." It is usually yellow. Zucchini squash is cylindrical- to club-shaped and is usually green.

photo source: home.howstuffworks.com/summer-squash1.htm

Squashes originated in the Americas. European settlers of the New World were introduced to the numerous squash varieties by natives. Archaeologists have traced their origins to Mexico, dating back from 7,000 to 5,500 BC, when they were an integral part of the ancient diet along with maize and beans.

The colonists of New England adopted the name "squash," a word derived from several Native American words for the vegetable which meant "green thing eaten green." Eventually summer squash made its way to the warm Mediterranean regions of Europe where it thrived and was renamed zucchini by the Italians and courgette by the French. Both names mean "small squash," which implies that they were eaten at their small, young stage.

Pumpkins, Squash and Other Cucurbits (learning activities with cucurbits)

Summer Squash (1/2 cup, cooked)

Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

August is National Inventor's Month.

American agriculture owes much of its success to the innovative thinking of farmers looking for ways to solve problems and make farming easier. Thomas Jefferson was an avid farmer and inventor who saw a problem with the crude wooden plows used by farmers in his day. They barely scratched the surface and merely loosened the topsoil, making it susceptible to washing away at the first hard rain. Jefferson's solution was the moldboard plow, which lifted and turned the sod. With this tool he could plow to a depth of about six inches. This enabled farmers to contour-ridge erodible fields, plow out shallow ditches, and ridge poorly drained flat lands.

Over 100 years later a farmer from Hooker, Oklahoma, invented another plow that helped control erosion and became the "Plow to Save the Plains."

Oklahoma Groundbreaker: Fred Hoeme

Fred Hoeme was a farmer living near Hooker during the Dust Bowl era who was concerned about wind erosion. Hoeme noticed that road equipment kicked up dirt clods that didn’t blow around like the soil plowed using the usual plowing methods. He invented the chisel plow, which left the residue of previous crops exposed. This helped stabilize the soil and prevented the formation of surface crusts, which helped the soil take in and hold rainwater.

Hoeme and his sons manufactured and sold about 2,000 plows from their farmstead. In 1938 W.T. Graham bought the rights to make and sell the plows. Graham modified the plow and advertised it as the Graham-Hoeme Plow, the “Plow to Save the Plains.” It was sold worldwide. By the 1950s, about half of all Great Plains farmers owned chisel plows. The widespread use helped control wind erosion during the seven-year drought of the 50s. In 2000 a plaque was installed in Hoeme's honor at the Williams Homesteaders Park in Hooker.

Find other Oklahoma inventors in this new lesson packet: Oklahoma Groundbreakers

Research important agricultural inventions using these resources

• A History of Ag Research
• A History of American Agriculture: Farm Machinery and Technology

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Online OAITC Lessons Related to Ag Inventions and Research

• Agriculture: It Doesn't Just Happen
• The History of Ethanol in America
• Timeline of the Land
• Unearthing the Facts

What Oklahoma inventor, inspired by a folding chair, changed the way people shop for groceries?

What groundbreaking invention developed at OSU helps farmers use fertilizer more efficiently?

21st Century Agriculture (Cooperative Extension Service video)

Oklahoma Inventors Database

An index of US patents issued to individuals residing in Indian and Oklahoma Territories, 1880-1907.

• Students will compare the number of ag-related inventions with non ag-related inventions in a sampling of the inventions on the list and develop graphs to illustrate their findings.
• Students will use data from a sampling of the database to predict the number of ag-related inventions in a larger sample and compute simple probabilities as fractions, decimals or percents.
• Students will use the index to make a timeline of some of the ag-related inventions.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Transcontinental Railroad

The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad occurred on August 15, 1870. What impact did this have on agriculture in Oklahoma and Indian Territories? Look for answers in these lessons:

• Hit the Trail
• Agriculture: Oklahoma's Legacy
• Oklahoma Groundbreakers

August 29 is More Herbs, Less Salt Day.

Oklahoma is a great place for growing herbs. Fresh herbs may be available in students' home gardens, at the farmers' market or in the produce section of your grocery store. You may also purchase herb plants in garden stores.

Bring an assortment of fresh herbs for students to smell.

Chop and blend into cream cheese.

Spread on crackers for taste-testing.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

P.A.S.S.

August is National Catfish Month

• Grade 3: Social Studies - 1.1; 4.2
• Grade 4: Social Studies - 2.1,2; 3.1

Getting to Know You

• Pre-Kindergarten: Large Motor - 1.2. Oral Language - 1.2; 2.1. Science Process - 1.1. Physical Science - 2.1. Civics - 1.1,3,4
• Kindergarten: Oral Language - 1.3; 3.1. Science Process - 1.1. Physical Science - 1.1. Civics - 1.1,2,3,4
• Grade 1: Oral Language - 1.1,2; 3.1. Science Process - 2.1. Physical Science - 1.1,2
• Grade 2: Oral Language - 1.1,2; 3.1. Science Process - 2.1.
• Grade 3: Oral Language - 3.1,2. Science Process - 2.1.
• Grade 4: Oral Language - 3.1,2. Science Process - 2.1.

Healthy Farm Animals Mean Safe Food

• Grade 3: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1
• Grade 4: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1. Life Science - 3.2
• Grade 5: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1
• Grade 6: Science Process - 2.1,2
• Grade 7: Science Process - 2.1,2. Life Science - 3.1
• Grade 8: Science Process - 2.1,2

More Herbs, Less Salt

• Pre-Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.1,2. Physical Science - 2.1
• Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.2. Physical Science - 2.1
• Grade 1: Science Process - 1.2; 3.1,2. Physical Science - 1.2
• Grade 2: Science Process - 1.2; 3.1,2.

National Inventor's Month

• Grade 4: Social Studies - 1.1; 4.2
• Grade 5: Social Studies - 1.1; 6.4

Oklahoma Inventors Database

• Grade 3: Social Studies - 1.1; 4.4
• Grade 4: Social Studies - 1.1,2; 5.1,2,3
• Grade 5: Social Studies - 1.2; 6.1,4
• Grade 6: Math Process - 1.1,3,4,5; 4.1. Math Content - 2.3; 5.1
• Grade 7: Math Process - 1.1,3,4,5; 4.1. Math Content - 2.2bc,5.,1
• Grade 8: Math Process - 1.1,3,4,5; 4.1. Math Content - 2.1c; 5.1

Writing Prompts

• Grade 1 - Writing - 2.5
• Grade 2 - Writing - 2.2abc
• Grade 3 - Writing - 2.1,2,3ab,4,6abc. Visual Literacy - 3
• Grade 4: Writing - 2.1abcd,2,3. Visual Literacy - 3
• Grade 5: Writing - 2.1,2,4,5bcd,8abcd. Visual Literacy - 3
• Grade 6: Writing - 2.1abc,2abcd,3abc,7,8. Visual Literacy - 3
• Grade 7: Writing - 2.3abc,8,9. Visual Literacy - 3.1,2
• Grade 8: Writing - 2.3abc,4abc,8,9. Visual Literacy - 3.1,2

Cool Down with Cucurbits

Which family of vegetables has members so sweet they are eaten as dessert and often mistaken for fruit? Oklahoma watermelon and cantaloupe are members of the cucurbit family, along with squash, cucumbers and pumpkins.

Watermelon and cantaloupe are both warm season crops that thrive in Oklahoma's long growing season. Acreage for watermelon has been the second largest for a vegetable crop in our state for many years. The southern pea is number one. Watermelon production is concentrated in central and south-central Oklahoma. In 2006 the Oklahoma watermelon industry added about $3 million to our state’s economy and ranked number 16 in value of all Oklahoma agricultural commodities. Of the 44 states that grow watermelons, Oklahoma ranked 15 in 2006. Florida, Texas, California, Georgia and Arizona are the top watermelon producers in the US.

The Oklahoma State Legislature has declared watermelon Oklahoma's state vegetable. What do you think? Is it Fruit or Vegetable?

Online Watermelon Lessons

• Working Watermelon
  Students perform estimates, measurements and calculations on a watermelon.
• Melon Meiosis
  Students learn how seedless watermelon were developed andmodel the process of mitosis and meiosis in
  watermelons, using jelly beans.
• Magnificient Melons
  All about all kinds of Oklahoma melons, including cantaloupe and the bright yellow canary melon.
  

Watermelon Facts

Watch video harvest of the world's largest watermelon.

And check out the bite-sized pepquino, the world's smallest watermelon.

Ag in Poetry: Fiesta Melons

by Sylvia Plath

In Benidorm there are melons,
Whole donkey-carts full

Of innumerable melons,
Ovals and balls,

Bright green and thumpable
Laced over with stripes

Of turtle-dark green.
Choose an egg-shape, a world-shape,

Bowl one homeward to taste
In the whitehot noon:

Cream-smooth honeydews,
Pink-pulped whoppers,

Bump-rinded cantaloupes
With orange cores.

Each wedge wears a studding
Of blanched seeds or black seeds

To strew like confetti
Under the feet of

This market of melon-eating
Fiesta-goers.

More poems about melons, with discussion questions and activities

The Watermelon Patch Song

tune: Are you Sleeping?

Watermelon, (Make a circle with your arms.)
Watermelon,
On the vine, (Curve hands and arms beside body.)
On the vine,
Sweet and red and juicy, (Rub your tummy.)
Sweet and red and juicy,
Please be mine! (Palms together as though pleading.)
Please be mine!

Watermelon, (Make a circle with your arms.)
Watermelon,
Thump, thump, thump, (Make a thumping movement with thumb and middle finger.)
Thump, thump, thump,
I think you are ready- (Point, resting finger on your temple.)
I think you are ready-
Big and plump! (Make a circle with your arms.)
Bug and plump!

Watermelon (1/2 cup, diced)

Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

Oklahoma Farmer's Markets

Oklahoma farmer's markets are an explosion of great home-grown produce this month. Plan a trip to the farmer's market so students can talk to fruit and vegetable growers and get excited about eating the delicious, nutritious produce that grows in our state. Many markets across the state are open through mid October. Oklahoma students need to eat more fruits and vegetables. We remain near the bottom of all states for eating what is recommended.

Farmer's Market Activities

• Consider applying for an OAITC/Oklahoma Pork Council grant to cover your expenses for a trip to the farmers market.
• Use the lesson Fresh From the Farm to conduct surveys at the farmer's market.
• Learn how far food from the grocery store travels, in comparison with food from the farmer's market, with this online lesson, How Far Did It Travel?

What's available at the farmer's market in August?

Getting to Know You: Games for Starting School

Fruit and Vegetable Pairs

1. Cut an assortment of fruits and vegetables in half, or cut pictures from the Oklahoma Fruits and Oklahoma Vegetables pattern pages in half.
2. Each player is given half the fruit or vegetable or picture.
3. On signal, all scurry about to find their partners.

Guess My Name

1. Cut out pictures of fruits or vegetables from the Oklahoma Fruits and Oklahoma Vegetables pattern pages.
2. Without letting the players see the pictures, pin one to each player's back.
3. The players circulate and ask each other questions to try to identify the fruits or vegetables pinned to their own backs.
4. Any question may be asked except the direct one, “What am I?”
5. The first player to guess his or her fruit or vegetable is the winner, but the game continues until all or most of the players have guessed what they are.

Have You Seen My Sheep?

1. Players stand in a circle, with one, the shepherd, standing outside the circle.
2. The shepherd walks around the outside of the ring, stops anywhere, and taps a player on the shoulder.
3. The shepherd asks, "Have you seen my sheep?"
4. The shepherd describes the clothing of another player, and when the player being questioned recognizes the player described, he or she answers: "Your missing sheep is Johnny [or Jane or Mary]."
5. On being indentified, the sheep bolts from the circle and races around the outside, pursued by the player who made the identification.
6. If the sheep can get back in place before being tagged, he or she becomes the shepherd for the next round. If he or she is tagged, the pursuer is the new shepherd.

P.A.S.S. for these activities

More games

August is National Catfish Month.

Although catfish farming is not yet a major agricultural enterprise in Oklahoma, Oklahoma catfish certainly have played a major role in the development of catfish farming in the US. The majority of all the channel catfish stock farmed in the US originated near the Denison Dam on Oklahoma's Lake Texoma. These fish were captured in 1949 by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in pools formed in the Red River behind Denison Dam after its construction. The fish were spawned in the Arkansas state hatchery system and were the basis of broodstock for some of the earliest catfish farms. These fish were also some of the founder stocks in federal hatcheries and research institutions in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, where most of the catfish farming in the US takes place.

In addition to catfish farms, aquaculture in Oklahoma also includes fingerling production for pond stocking, pay lakes, ornamental fish and plants, and small-scale food-fish production.

Activity: Students pretend they are channel catfish trying to get home to Lake Texoma from Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana or Mississippi. Students use a map of the US or an Atlas to follow the rivers from a lake in one of those states to Lake Texoma.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Online OAITC Lesson: "Fish in a Bottle" (lesson and Power Point presentation)

Make an edible aquarium.

Aquaculture Facts

Fish Farming: The Futures Channel (movie)

Writing Prompts for August

• Watermelon is Oklahoma's official state vegetable. Is it really a vegetable or is it a fruit? Discuss why it should or should not be our state vegetable.
• Choose your favorite member of the cucurbit family and describe it in detail. Why is it your favorite?
• You have an abundance of zucchini in your family garden. Design a marketing campaign to sell it to your neighbors or classmates.
• Write instructions for selecting the best watermelon or other melon from the grocery store.
• Visit your county fair or your local farmer's market, and write a blog describing what you saw.
• Develop your own trail mix for National Trail Mix Day and write a recipe.
• The majority of all the channel catfish stock farmed in the US originated near the Denison Dam on Oklahoma's Lake Texoma in 1949. You are a channel catfish living in Tuscaloosa Lake in Alabama. Write a tall tale describing how your family got from Lake Texoma to Lake Tuscaloosa.
• The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad occurred on August 15, 1870. You are a cattle rancher on the Cherokee Strip in Indian Territory. Write a letter to your cousin back east describing how the railroad will change your life.
• The shopping cart was invented in Oklahoma City in 1937 by Sylvan Goldman. Goldman's invention was inspired by a folding chair. Develop your own invention based on a common item like the folding chair. Name your invention and write one or more paragraphs explaining why it would be useful.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Books for August

Appelt, Kathi, Watermelon Day, Henry Holt, 1996. (K-3)

There's a watermelon growing in the corner of the patch where the fence posts meet, and Jesse is waiting for it. Waiting for it to fill up with the cool summer rain and the hot summer sun. Waiting until at last it is ripe and ready for eating. Waiting until it is ready for her family's annual Watermelon day.

Bauer, Joan, Squashed, Puffin, 2001. (Young Adult)

If only Ellie's potentially prize-winning pumpkin would gain 200 more pounds in time for the Rock River Pumpkin Weigh-In, and if only Ellie could lose 20 or so pounds herself, her life might be perfect. Well, at least it would be perfect enough to give her the courage to make friends with Wes - the cute new guy at school. She's well on her way to winning big on all counts when frost and pumpkin thieves begin to attack! The thing is, Ellie has the sass, humor, and smarts to be a winner - whether or not her pumpkin breaks the scales ... if only she would realize it.

Bender, Lionel, Invention, Eyewitness Books, Knopf, 1991.

Collins, David R., Pioneer Plowmaker: A Story About John Deere, Carolrhoda, 1990. (PreK-5)

Galindo, Mary Sue, and Pauline Rodriguez Howard, Icy Watermelon/Sandia Fria, Arte Publico, 2001. (Grades Pre-K - 2)

In this bilingual picture book, three Latino children share riddles and stories with their parents and grandparents as they eat watermelon on Sunday afternoon. Abuelo remembers that when he was a boy, he helped his father harvest watermelons and sell them along the highway and in the barrios. In fact, that's how Abuelo met his wife. When her mother sent her to buy a watermelon, her dog jumped in the truck and went after Abuelo, and he dropped the fruit. His face was "redder that the watermelon lying all over the street," but he was in love. The text appears in both English and Spanish on each page.

Lottridge, Celia B., One Watermelon Seed, Oxford, 1990. (pre-K - 2)

As Max and Josephine tend their garden, there are ample opportunities to count - from 1 to 10 as the garden is planted and from 10 to 100 (in tens) while the garden is being harvested. Not only is the book good arithmetic fun, it also offers a fascinating introduction to gardening as well.

Bial, Raymond, Corn Belt Harvest, Houghton Mifflin, 1991. (Grades 3-6)

A straightforward presentation of current American practice in raising and using corn - planting, harvest, storage, marketing and life in corn country.

Stevens, Jan Romero, Carlos and the Cornfield/Carlos y la milpa de maiz, Rising Moon, 1995 (Grades 2-5)

Picture book in English and Spanish describes how Carlos learns a life-long lesson after planting corn for his father. Includes recipe for cornmeal pancakes.

Melmed, Laura Krauss, and Maryann Kovalski, The Marvelous Market on Mermaid, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1996. (Grades 2-4)

Grandma sets up a market on Mermaid Street, and a day of excitement and laughs begins with the hustle and bustle of the crowds, a cat and mouse chase, and other lively events.

Rendon, Marcie R., and Cheryl Walsh Bellville, Farmer's Market: Families Working Together, Carolrhoda, 2001. (Grades 3-6)

An introduction to farmers' markets, with photos, as seen through the eyes of two successful truck-farming families. Emphasizing the family cooperation required to keep a farm going, and with a special focus on the children's participation, the book also concentrates on moments in the growing season, from the planting of greenhouse seedlings to fall harvests, noting farming techniques and equipment.

Easton, Patricia Harrison, and Herb Ferguson, A Week at the Fair: A County Celebration, Millbrook, 1995. (Grades PreK-1)

Detailed account of the care and judging of animals at a county fair, as told by a young 4-H'er showing her pig and the family's horse. Nice photographs and a great deal of text.