Stories about agriculture light up young minds
Written by Jonathan Eisenthal
There’s food.
And then there’s food for thought.
Learning and thinking can’t exist without food, and food can’t exist without a society that appreciates and understands how it’s made and how it keeps us healthy and strong, and our brains energized.
Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom (MAITC) made this food-thinking connection with its second-annual Farm and Food Book Week, an online series bringing the excitement of reading to young students across Minnesota (plus classrooms from four additional states and Canada). Authors and other special guests — 11 altogether — read to the students and then fielded their questions during the week of February 14-18.
MAITC is a public-private partnership with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, and for more than three decades, supported by the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. Teachers can find out more about Minnesota Ag in the Classroom resources and events here, and they can subscribe to the MAITC newsletter, so they don’t miss out on future events.
“Farm and Food Book Week was a fantastic way to celebrate National I Love to Read Month!” said MAITC Education Specialist Sue Knott. “Our Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom team sincerely appreciated the willingness of our guest readers to share agriculture-themed children’s books and interact with elementary students across Minnesota. Our hope is that this event not only builds a love of reading with these students, but also grows agricultural literacy.”
Feb. 16 lineup
On Wednesday, February 16, the lineup included Minnesota children’s author, Phyllis Alsdurf, who was born and raised on a Minnesota farm. She read from her book “It’s Milking Time,” which recounts how she grew up helping with the chores, feeding the cows, cleaning the stalls and get getting the cows ready to be milked. She told about how it had to be done every day, twice a day, without fail.
Alan Page, equally famous as a defensive tackle for the Minnesota Vikings and as an Associate Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court, read a children’s book he wrote with his daughter, Kamie, a second-grade teacher, about the importance of bees. It’s called, “Bee Love (Can Be Hard).” Page has written four children’s books with Kamie, and more are in the works.
[Learn more: Read past blog posts about Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom]
Wrapping up the morning of learning, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan read one of her and her third-grade daughter’s favorite books, “Fry Bread,” by Kevin Noble Maillard. Fry bread has become an important staple in Native American cuisine across the United States. Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, greeted the students, Bozhoo, “hello,” in Ojibwe.
She told the students about all the foods that people eat with fry bread — among the most popular are taco toppings. The fry bread tradition arose among the Navajo people in the American Southwest in the 1860s during a forced relocation that became known as ‘The Long Walk,’ when suddenly, they found themselves without their usual staple ingredients, and had to invent ways to make use of flour, lard and sugar supplied by the U.S. government. Fry bread has become a potent symbol of Native American resilience. Flanagan talked about how delicious it is, but that when she makes food, her favorite to make is wild rice, a major agricultural product harvested by Minnesota’s Native American tribes.
Q&A sessions
The question-and-answer sessions were lively and showed that the readers had really grabbed the students’ attention.
A student named Josie, after listening to “Bee Love,” wanted to know, “Is this story true?”
Page responded, “There is some truth in it, and there’s some fiction in it, but it’s based on real facts. I have a friend named Jerry Blackwell, who has a farm in Jordan, Minnesota. It’s a bee farm, and its name is Lilyhaven Farm and he raises bees. I have had the good fortune to visit there with my grandchildren, and they got a chance to put on the beekeeping outfit, and spend time with the bees, holding the hive (frames), and learning about them.”
Naturally, lots of the questions to Page had to do with football. Carter, an elementary student who wore a Notre Dame T-shirt in honor of Page’s alma mater, asked him, “How did you prepare for your big games?”
[Learn more: Explore the Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom YouTube channel]
A student asked Flanagan, what are some of your job responsibilities as Lieutenant Governor?
She answered, “I really love my job. I get to, every single day, think about how to make the lives of people in Minnesota better, but in particular, how to make the lives of kids better. … My favorite thing, my absolute favorite part of being in this job, is when I get to go to schools and I get to visit with students. You should ask us to come visit. That’s how we get to hear directly from students: (to learn) what’s working for them, what needs to change, their hopes, their dreams — I get to bring that (information) back to the Capitol and try to work on those issues. So that’s how we started working on making it possible for every kid in Minnesota to have breakfast and lunch at school for free. We know that when you don’t have food in your tummies it is sometimes difficult to focus on learning.”
A student named Harley asked Alsdurf, “What is it like to be a writer?”
Alsdurf said, “I like the writing process, but you have to write and rewrite. So, if your teacher tells you to write something, and then to write it again, that’s just what you’ll have to do to be a writer. You have to make sure that every single word is just the right word.
Minnesota Ag in the Classroom encouraged teachers to sign up for its newsletter, to keep informed about the resources and many upcoming events offered by MAITC.
Farm and Food Book Week was a team effort by the entire MAITC staff. Education Specialists Keri Sidle and Sue Knott provided technical support for every session, and hosted some of them. MAITC Regional Curriculum Specialists Jessica Blosberg, Sarah Kuschel and Emily Ponwith each hosted a session, and Farm Camp Director Ann Vote also hosted one session.
To learn how you can support MAITC, contact Ann Marie Ward, MAITC Foundation Executive Director annmarie@maitc.org or 218-556-1436. Foundation web page.
Farm and Food Book Week By the Numbers
11 — Farm and Food Book Week special guest readers
115 — agriculture-themed children’s books given away to participating classrooms
209 — number of grades K-5 classrooms that participated
4,434 — students who listened to a book reading and took part in a Q&A session with the readers
MAITC virtual events have prompted classrooms across the country and parts of Canada to participate. Farm and Food Book Week engaged classrooms from five states and Canada. Readers for the second Annual Farm and Food Book Week included: Emily Hansen-U of MN athlete, Patrice Bailey-Minnesota Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture, Phyllis Root-Author, Dalvin Tomlinson-Minnesota Vikings, Phyllis Alsdurf-Author, Alan Page-Author/retired Justice Minnesota Supreme Court and former Vikings player, Peggy Flanagan, Lieutenant Governor, Anna Tales-(Dairy) Princess Kay, Zoe Adam, U of MN athlete, Zach Johnson-Millennial Farmer, Thom Petersen-MN Commissioner of Agriculture.
