Agricultural Fact and Activity Sheets
These fact sheets provide information on the history, production, top-producing regions and economic values of various agricultural products and natural resources. The activity sheets provide specific lesson ideas and fun facts for each topic. Commodities include agricultural water, alfalfa, almonds, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, beef, cantaloupes, carrots, citrus fruits, cling peaches, corn, cotton, cut flowers, dairy, dried plums, dry beans, forest resources, mushroom, pears, pistachios, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, processing tomato, rice, strawberries, table grapes, walnuts.
How to Grow a Monster
Last year, Gabe's mom grew way too many zucchinis. This year, Gabe and his sister have a secret plan to take control of the garden. They have to stop the zucchini madness! Tying into the popular Makers Movement, Makers Make It Work is a series of fun easy-to-read stories that focus on problem-solving and hands-on action. This charming story explores the Makers theme of Gardening and includes explanatory sidebars and a gardening-related activity for young makers to try themselves.
How to Grow an Apple Pie
It's easy to make an apple pie, but what does it take to make the apples? Sophie is about to find out! First, the apple trees need to be about six years old—just like Sophie. Next, they need to be pruned, and the bees have to pollinate their blossoms! After that, the tiny apples grow through the summer until they're ready to pick in the fall. Finally, it's time for Sophie to make the perfect pie!
I Love Blueberries!
With the help of Jolie's faithful rabbit, Munchy, and Margot's dog, Pip, plans are underway to bring the whole class together to convince the community to help them set up a hydroponics growing station in their classroom. Filled with engaging facts about blueberries, hydroponics, poetry, and a heartwarming theme of friendship, I Love Blueberries is not just a delightful read, but also a valuable educational resource.
I Love Strawberries!
Through Jolie's comical scrapbook-style journal entries, readers will learn how she convinces "old people" (her parents) to let her grow her own strawberries. Growing strawberries is a lot of work and responsibility, but Jolie is ready with the help of her faithful rabbit Munchy! Together they find out just how delicious, rewarding, and sometimes complicated it can be to grow your own food.
Jack & the Hungry Giant Eat Right with MyPlate
Yummy! Colorful images of fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy, and protein foods fill the pages of this picture book starring Jack of beanstalk fame. Fortunately, the friendly giant in this version of the story is happy to invite a guest for dinner. As they cook together, Jack learns about the food groups that are a part of a well-balanced meal. The book is an appetizing way to introduce children to the MyPlate nutrition program, written and illustrated by Loreen Leedy.
Las calabacitas de Zora (Spanish Edition)
The first zucchini of a summer garden is always exciting, but what happens when the plants just keep growing...and growing...and growing? Zora soon finds herself with more zucchini than her family can bake, saute, or barbecue. Fortunately, the ever-resourceful girl comes up with the perfect plan—a garden swap!
Linh's Rooftop Garden
Linh is having a picnic in her rooftop garden for all of her friends, and she needs help searching for blueberries to finish preparing her dishes. What do we know about blueberries? They're small, blue, and grow on bushes—and, just a second, is that a blueberry? No, that's. gooseberry. Where, oh, where could those blueberries be? Can you help Linh find them in time for her picnic?
Look Inside Food
Look Inside Food is an all-inclusive book highlighting the production of our food from the farm to our table. This interactive flap book includes extensive information and illustrations about the origin of our foods including grains, fruit and vegetables, and food from animals such as milk, meat, and eggs. Even sugar and chocolate begins its production on a farm.
Migrant
Anna is the child of Mennonites from Mexico, who have come north to harvest fruits and vegetables. Sometimes she feels like a bird, flying north in the spring and south in the fall, sometimes like a jackrabbit in an abandoned burrow, since her family occupies an abandoned farmhouse near the fields, sometimes like a kitten, as she shares a bed with her sisters...But above all Anna wonders what it would be like to be a tree rooted deeply in the earth, watching the seasons come and go, instead of being like a "feather in the wind."
Miss MacDonald has a Farm
"Miss MacDonald has a farm, She loves things that grow!" E-I-E-I-GROW! With a "weed-weed" here and a "pick-pick" there, young readers can follow Miss MacDonald as she tends to her vegetable farm. It's a rollicking, rhyming read-aloud that ends in a community feast and celebrates themes of healthy eating, local produce, gardens, seasons, and female farmers.
Oliver's Fruit Salad
Oliver is off to stay with Grandpa, who grows his own vegetables. But Oliver doesn't eat vegetables—only chips. How will Grandpa persuade him into a week of healthy eating?
Our Apple Tree
A whimsical and very useful look at the life cycle of the apple tree. With the help of two helpful tree sprites as guides, readers travel from spring, when the apple tree blossoms, through summer, when the fruit grows, to fall and the harvest. Along the way, you'll learn about the life of the tree and the animals that visit—from insects that pollinate the flowers to deer that eat the fallen fruit.
Our Food Grows
With vibrant illustrations and simple explanations, Our Food Grows shows how fruits, vegetables, and grains make their way from the farm to our plates. Perfect for curious kids and budding gardeners, this engaging introduction to where our food comes from reveals the magic of growing your own garden. An
Educator's Guide for preK-1st grade is available.
Peach Heaven
The white peaches grown in Puchon are the best in all South Korea and are a rare treat for a little girl who lives in the town. She dreams of a peach orchard where she can play and eat as much of the delicious fruit as she wishes. Then one day, after weeks of heavy downpours, the sky begins to rain peaches. Yangsook finds herself in peach heaven—until she remembers the farmers who have lost their harvest, and decides she must help them.
Plants Feed Me
Plants Feed Me is an early elementary, non-fiction picture book about the plant foods we eat. This book describes which parts of plants are edible in simple accessible language using botanically realistic illustrations. Basic botanical science concepts of seed, sprout, flower, fruit, and plant structure are introduced with words and pictures.
Radio Man
Diego and his family are migrant farmers who move from state to state picking fruits and vegetables. Each day brings a new experience—a different place, a different crop, and different people to meet. But no matter where Diego goes, his radio goes with him—it helps him to learn about the places he's going and to keep in touch with the people he meets along the way.
Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant
Know any kids that don't like veggies? Here's a book that's sure to change their hungry minds. Rah, Rah, Radishes! celebrates fresh vegetables, nature's bright colors, and the joy of healthy eating.
Rooftop Garden
Set to a foot-tappin' original tune, this rhythmic, rhyming story shows a group of city friends work diligently together to grow herbs and vegetables in a rooftop garden, concluding with a summer harvest and feast that celebrates the gardeners' commitment.
Spring is for Strawberries
When a farm family brings their spring crops to a city farmers market, the farmer's daughter befriends the daughter of a neighborhood family doing their weekly shopping. Over the course of a year, the girls explore the bounty of each season. Sweet spring strawberries and crisp, fresh greens make way for corn on the cob, peppers, and a rainbow of tomatoes. Fall brings pumpkin patches and the crunch of apples. The friends part at the final winter market, already looking forward to the sweet red strawberries that will unite them again next spring.
The Apple Pie Tree
Two young sisters watch in fascination as their apple tree changes, from bare in winter to a burst of pink blossoms in the spring. When autumn comes, the small green apples have grown big enough for picking—and for pie! This colorfully illustrated book shows how apples are produced and how apple trees change with the seasons.
The Fruits We Eat
This book teaches accurate science about fruits and the production of fruits. It is a book of facts, examples, and illustrations. Facts taught include: How fruits are included in a healthy diet, different ways fruits are eaten, types of plants that grow fruit (tree, bush, vine, etc.), parts of a fruit, colors of fruit, and sweet fruits vs. tart fruits. The illustrations are very detailed and include many diagrams.
The Peach Pit Parade
When Polly's father goes overseas to fight in World War I, her whole world changes. Though the war is in Europe, its effects are felt on American soil. There are food, fuel, and other supply shortages everywhere. Even something as simple and enjoyable as a family Sunday car ride isn't possible anymore. Everyone must do their part to help the war effort. Victory gardens are planted and scrap metal is collected. "It's the biggest event in our history. And it involves every single adult, every single boy, and every single girl," says Polly's teacher. As Polly struggles to make sense of the war, she wonders how she can contribute. When the government puts out a notice requesting peach pits to be used in gas mask filters, Polly knows how she can help.
The Summer My Father Was Ten
That was the summer the boy lost a baseball under a tomato plant in Mr. Bellavista's garden. And someone tossed a tomato back instead of a baseball. A lively battle took place, which seemes like great fun at the time, but in the end Mr. Bellavista's garden had been destroyed. In a touching story of one boy's efforts to make amends, we see the rebuilding of a garden and the forming of a relationship across generations.
The Very Oldest Pear Tree
In the 1630s in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a Puritan settler planted a pear tree—the first pear tree in America. More than a century later, the tree still bore fruit, impressing a famous poet and one of the first US presidents. The pear tree survived hurricanes, fire, and vandalism, and today, more than 350 years after it was first planted, it's alive and strong, and clones of it grow all around the US. This is the amazing true story of the Endicott Pear tree, and how it grew up with our nation.
Try It! How Frieda Caplan Changed the Way We Eat
Meet fearless Frieda Caplan—the produce pioneer who changed the way Americans eat by introducing exciting new fruits and vegetables, from baby carrots to blood oranges to kiwis. In 1956, Frieda Caplan started working at the Seventh Street Produce Market in Los Angeles. Instead of competing with the men in the business with their apples, potatoes, and tomatoes, Frieda thought, why not try something new? Starting with mushrooms, Frieda began introducing fresh and unusual foods to her customers—snap peas, seedless watermelon, mangos, and more! This groundbreaking woman brought a whole world of delicious foods to the United States, forever changing the way we eat. Frieda Caplan was always willing to try something new—are you?
Up, Down, and Around
From seeds dropping into soil to corn bursting from its stalks, from children chasing butterflies to ants burrowing underground, everything in this vibrant picture book pulses with life—in all directions! Sprightly illustrations set the mood for a rhythmic text that follows nature's course to a feast of backyard bounty.
What's in the Garden?
Good food doesn't begin on a store shelf with a box. It comes from a garden bursting with life, color, smells, sunshine, moisture, birds, and bees! Healthy food becomes much more interesting when children know where it comes from. So what's in a garden? Children will find a variety of fruits and vegetables and a tasty, kid-friendly recipe for each one to start a lifetime of good eating. A "Food for Thought" section explains facts about each fruit and vegetable, and a "How Does Your Garden Grow?" section explains facts about gardening and the parts of plants.
Zora's Zucchini
The first zucchini of a summer garden is always exciting, but what happens when the plants just keep growing...and growing...and growing? Zora soon finds herself with more zucchini than her family can bake, saute, or barbecue. Fortunately, the ever-resourceful girl comes up with the perfect plan—a garden swap!
Booklet/Reader
Jr. Sprout – Funky Foods
Blue tomatoes, red bananas, and green oranges – is this possible? Yes, it is with the help and knowledge of farmers and scientists. Changes in color or taste made to fruits and vegetables can create healthier foods. This activity booklet provides colorful images and information regarding healthy fruits and vegetables through standards of science, math and English.
Jr. Sprout – Healthy Eating
This creative activity booklet engages students to create their own food faces while using healthy fruits and vegetables grown in a vegetable garden. It also discusses challenges that people encounter while selecting "bad foods" that contain oils, sugars, and fats versus "good foods."
Learn More: Farmers Market
Learn more about food grown in all 50 states in this digital magazine. Each page includes top agricultural states, crop life cycles, fun facts, special days, and more. Start a conversation about where food comes from.
Science in Your Shopping Cart
We pay less for food than citizens of other nations; the United States enjoys the cheapest food in the world. Each year, dozens of improved products and new varieties of fruits, nuts, and vegetables emerge from the laboratories and greenhouses of the Agricultural Research Service. But walking through the grocery store, do we ever consider where such an abundance and variety of food and products come from?
View the Science in Your Shopping Cart
eReader or order copies from
agclassroomstore.com.
Learn about ARS research and how it affects your food using the
Science in Your Shopping Cart Factsheets and the
Science in Your Shopping Cart Podcasts.
Movie/Video
George the Farmer
Join George the Farmer from Australia in his YouTube video series to discover the paddock to plate or paddock to product journey of some of your favorite products, including apples, wool, dairy, chickpeas, potatoes, chickens, and wheat.
Top 10 Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different
Everyday foods, fruit and veggies used to look totally different before we started cultivating them. But did you know they haven’t always looked like they currently do? Here are 10 fruits and veggies that looked very different before we started cultivating them!
Will the Last Farmer in America Please Turn Out the Light?
Immigration policy affects how we eat... what we eat... and how much it costs. Discover the necessity farmers have for skilled labor in order to plant, grow, and harvest the food on our tables. When did immigrant farm labor begin and what challenges would occur if this work force was lost?
Poster/Infographic
Dig In! Posters
These dynamic posters visually express the world of possibilities found in growing and eating fruits and vegetables. Display them in your classroom, the school cafeteria, and throughout the school to motivate students to choose more fruits and vegetables at meals and as snacks. Horizontal posters are 24" x 36". Vertical posters are 36" x 24". Posters are available in
PDF or upon request from
USDA Team Nutrition.
Nutrition Posters
How would you rather eat calcium, fiber, iron, protein, vitamin C, and zinc? This set of posters provides examples of foods that fit into each category and includes nutrition information about each.
Parts of a Strawberry Plant Poster
The fruits and vegetables we eat come from parts of a plant. Flowering plants have six main parts. Use this 28" x 24" laminated poster of a strawberry plant to label and discuss the functions of the roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruit and seeds.
Order this poster online from agclassroomstore.com.
Plant Part Chart
The fruits and vegetables we eat come from parts of a plant. Identify examples of roots, stems, leaves, flower, fruit, and seeds from every letter of the alphabet using this colorful 25" x 30" poster.
Order this poster online from agclassroomstore.com.
Tree Fruits Flowchart
This three-page informational sheet describes the process of how tree fruit crops are grown and harvested, how the products get from the farm to the store, and nutrition facts. Words and graphics are used to portray this information for apples, cherries, oranges, peaches, and pears.
Print your own or order a set of 30" x 8" printed charts from
agclassroomstore.com.
Teacher Reference
Botany on Your Plate: Investigating the Plants We Eat
This investigative science curriculum introduces the world of plants to elementary school students through foods we eat. Watch children's understanding of our world grow as they partake in hands-on activities that explore edible roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds through observation, dissection, journaling, discussion of findings, and, of course, tasting! This book can be used in educators' instruction to support standards in nutrition, math, language arts, and social studies. Every lesson includes plant snacks that spark curiosity, interesting questions, and social dialogue to fuel the learning process.
Encyclopedia of Gardening Techniques
The definitive guide to the best gardening techniques from pruning and propagation and planting to harvesting by the American Horticultural Society. This step-by-step guide contains a vast amount of expert information clearly demonstrating the tried-and-tested techniques honed by the world's leading garden authority. The book covers every aspect of gardening from pruning to sowing, watering to feeding, and propagating to planting. Covering all plants including trees, flowers, shrubs, climbers, lawns, vegetables, fruit and herb, it shows how to create water features and patios, and add lighting. It also includes organic techniques, recycling, and how to treat pests and diseases.
Grow it Again
This resource will help you find creative solutions to growing affordable plants in the classroom. You may find it hard to believe, but the makings of a fantastic growing experience are probably in your kitchen right now. Don't put those carrot tops in the compost or throw out the seeds in that apple core—try growing them instead. Turn a peanut into an unusual flower or a beet top into a leafy plant. The step-by-step illustrated instructions in this book make it easy!
Website
Producepedia
Fruits, vegetables, and nuts are all considered produce. Producepedia is a website devoted to teaching about these important food crops. Find fun facts about various produce, learn about how and where it is grown, when it is in season, and watch videos from top chefs about how to cook and prepare the produce for eating.
