Provided by: NJ Agriculture in the Classroom |Published on: May 23, 2024
Articles/Websites Grades k-2, 3-5, 6-8
Synopsis
This webpage includes several resources to teach elementary students about New Jersey's agriculture, including a fact sheet, a video introducing students to three New Jersey Farms, two websites from the Department of Agriculture for education, and an E-book detailing the popular crops grown in New Jersey.
Students will see farms in Sussex, Tabernacle, and Pedrickstown, learn about sweet corn from Salem, Burlington, and Gloucester counties, and become familiar with various New Jersey-grown foods.
The K-6 resources are in the upper right of the page.
Students will love hearing from young farmers they can relate to in the video.
The resources are easy to navigate and understand.
Additional Prerequisites
The e-book and the New Jersey State Ag Facts are primarily for older elementary students to read on their own; you should read them aloud for younger students.
It may help students to understand how plants grow and what they need to survive.
Differentiation
Teachers can make community connections by organizing a field trip to a local farm.
Students can taste-test locally grown foods such as blueberries, tomatoes, bell peppers, peaches, cranberries, and sweet corn.
During writing, students can practice persuasive skills by writing advertisements for locally-grown fruits and vegetables.
Students can read the book in groups, with each reading about a different locally-grown crop and sharing their learning with the class.
Teachers can use the section about bees in the e-book to introduce the role of bees as pollinators and the impacts they face due to climate change.
After watching the video about the three farms and the ways they have innovated, teachers can discuss ways farmers are innovating to protect the environment and mitigate climate change impacts.