| Classroom Activity | Accompanying Books | Description | Suggested Month |
| Veggie Crowns | Eating the Alphabet |
Introduce students to new fruits and vegetables. |
August |
| Tomato Exploration | Little Yellow Pear Tomatoes |
Introduce students to different varieties of tomatoes, how they grow, and how they taste. Guide students in making a three dimensional object. |
August |
| Cucumber Exploration | The Pickle Patch Bathtub |
Introduce students to cucumbers, how they grow, and what they taste like. |
September |
| Cabbage Exploration |
The Giant Cabbage |
Introduce students to cabbage and guide them in closely observing characteristics of, and tasting, several cabbage varieties. |
October |
| Pumpkin Exploration |
How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? |
Introduce students to pumpkins and how they grow. Use a pumpkin seed activity to practice sorting and counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s. |
October |
| Potato Exploration | Two Old Potatoes and Me |
Introduce students to potatoes and how they grow. Teach students about measurement and guide them practicing close observation through potato explorations. |
November |
| Thanksgiving for Farmers | The Gardener |
Review activities that happen on the farm and animals that live there. Make the connection between farms and the food we eat each day, emphasizing the importance of community farms. Introduce letter writing, specifically thank you letters, and guide students in writing thank you letters to farmers in your county or region. |
November |
| Apple Exploration | Applesauce Season, Apple Farmer Annie |
Introduce students to the systems farmers use to sell the vegetables and fruits they grow. Set up a farmers market in the classroom where students will sort, sell, and buy apples. |
December |
| My Plate | To Market, To Market |
Students become familiar with “My Plate,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s nutrition program and teaching tool. Through an exploration of whole foods, they develop an understanding of good nutrition, food groups, and well-balanced meals. They will be able to identify healthy foods and will be empowered to make good food choices. |
January |
| Farm Animals | My Farm Friends, Too Many Chickens, Agatha’s Feather Bed |
Introduce students to different farm animals and what food and materials they can provide us and our community. |
February |
| Lettuce Exploration | And the Good Brown Earth |
Guide students in using scientific inquiry to observe and learn about several varieties of lettuce. Create a line plot to record the results of a class tasting and interpret the data collected on the line plot. |
March |
