Ag in the Classroom Conference

On Tuesday, I left school giddy with excitement.  I have always said that one of the worst parts of teaching is making sub plans - every little tiny detail needs to be written and explained so another person can teach your class.  And, I don't like to keep my stacks of paper out (I don't want the sub to think I am messy) so I also have to clean (more like move my stacks into the closet and lock the door, but whatever).  But, the lesson planning and cleaning was all worth it because early Wednesday morning we made the trek down to San Fransisco and even the Highway being closed didn't stop us from getting to Cow Palace for the Ag in the Classroom Conference.

Cow Palace.

I loved the table centerpieces - I should have got a set of these post cards!

As we arrived breakfast was being served (buffet style) and there were many tables with information for us to look over.  I love that metal pheasant on the left.  This booth was about ag in the classroom.

And there was a booth full of free stuff (teachers LOVE free stuff).

The other side of the free table. 

The California Beef Council table - I got a bumper sticker here.  I also talked to them about my plate.

I liked this poster and thought it would be something we could make with the kids.

The FLP table - FLP stands for food land and people, I didn't visit this booth, I just took a picture of it.

The life lab booth.

I took a picture of this set because I loved it and guess what?  I won it!!  So exciting!!

This book also looked really good.

This is Judy Culbertson, the executive director of the CFAITC (California Foundation for Ag in the Classroom).  She spoke a bit to welcome us.

If I remember correctly this is Dan Desmond, and he spoke a bit and welcomed us too.

Then there was a farmer panel. 

This is Dennis Hellwinkel and he is from the Nevada Ag in the Classroom - he seemed like a really nice guy.  He reminded me of my grandpa and looked a little like my Uncle Kenny.  He grew up on a ranch and owned a dairy. 

Side note - the woman in front of me is Renee - she works for ag in the classroom and is a fan of this blog - isn't that amazing!  When she told me at the very end of the day I was shocked - I didn't know what to say!  I've never met anyone who reads the blog (aside from my family and friends) - so hi Renee!!  Thanks for reading!!  Please leave a comment to tell me if I missed anything from the conference!

This is Ira Brister and he works for Foster Farms.  It was great to have a "big ag" farmer being represented - I liked how he put a face to a "corporation" but it would have been even better to have a person from the foster family there.  He talked about growing up and why he chose a career in poultry - he was pretty funny!  A great speaker.

This is Rick Phillips - he grew up on a dairy.  To be honest I was a little confused about what he does - he works in ag for a corporation (J.R. Simplot Company) - I just don't really know what he does. He was a good speaker and brought a national and global perspective.   

After each of the farmers talked there was a question and answer time.  There were a few good questions.  Someone asked Ira about organic, natural, and conventional I think she asked which is better - she didn't like his answer so she asked what he eats and he said conventional (which many people were surprised to hear but I expected).  I think that is my favorite question for farmers - What do you choose to feed your family.  There was also a question for Ira about the percentage of contracted bird and the percentage or company grown birds.  My coworker didn't know what that meant so I will explain it here too - contracted means farmers grow something (in this case chickens or turkeys) following a set of rules (set by the company they have a contract with) and it becomes property of the company come harvest time.  The farmer gets paid by the company and the company markets the product under their name.  It is a great way for small farmers to get a fair price for their product without having to go to market their own product.  

I know there were more good questions . . .

Next it was time for workshops.  There were four to choose from and we got to pick two.

We chose Eating Healthy from Farm to Fork.  We did an activity where we drew our favorite meal on a paper plate and then found a group that had the same thing as we did, then we traced it back to a plant.  for example, I drew beef (the presenter thought it was a potato - lol) so beef comes from a steer which eats grass and grain which are plants.  It was easy for us, but would be too hard for my first graders.  I might adapt this and have each student draw their favorite meal and then do the rest whole class. 

I know this book and love it - but I don't own it.  It is about a rabbit who tricks a bear and agrees to have the top or the bottom or the middle of a plant and the bear can have the rest - it is great for teaching parts of a plant that we eat. 

We also got some great info about farmers markets.

Then, it was time for lunch . . .

But we had to stop and take a picture with the turkeys.  This is my adorable coworker - she is AMAZING!

And here we are in the cage.

After we got our lunch Michael Marks talked to us.  This was the 25th anniversary of California Ag in the Classroom so he talked all about produce that was not here 25 years ago.  He kept asking if we remember this or that about the produce isle 25 years ago.  25 years ago I am pretty sure I was only drinking breast milk, so I didn't spend much time in the produce isle.  He was a great speaker - very enthusiastic about produce and knew so much information but it wasn't geared toward a young teacher like me.  Most of the teachers were older than I am so I am sure they enjoy the trip down memory lane much more than I did.  I enjoyed the facts he shared and the history of the produce.   

Mini pumpkins, personal watermelons, grape tomatoes, tomatoes on the vine, pico de gallo, fresh herbs, golden kiwi, and yellow pineapple were all not here 25 years ago. 

Then it was time for the last workshop.

We chose Cattle Ranching in the Classroom.  We almost didn't pick this because my sister is a rancher and we could have gotten this from her.  But, making my own brand sounded really appealing, so we went with it. 

A hide - I took a picture to remind myself that I was to find someone to tan a hide for Heman's room.  Wouldn't a cow hide rug with the family brand be awesome in his room?

Some brands he brought to show us. 

He explained to us how he starts his lesson - with a map to show how different the west is from the rest of the country.  He also talked about the allure of cowboys to young children. 

I know this is a bad picture, but this book looks really good. 

A kit he came up with for this unit. 

My brand! Circle S - do you like it?

Then, Miss Grand National and Cotton Rosser came to talk with us.

Cotton really enjoyed telling stories ... he was pretty funny.

Then we took a short tour of Cow Palace. 

I didn't hear anything he said, so I just took pictures. 

He showed us how the shoot opens.  Imagine how many great bullriders came out of these gates. 

We came back to the building for the make and take sessions. 

Mini Greenhouses - very cute!

Great book that I had not heard of.  Will be great to get for our plant unit in the spring.

We loved this pictorial and are going to recreate it for the plant unit.  My coworker (isn't she adorable) is also holding a great book (that I own a few copies of) by Gail Gibbons - Gail Gibbons is one of my favorite authors.  She writes many books about agriculture. 

Tree cookie name tags - like the one Bev is wearing here.

To finish off the conference Sherrie, the Literacy for Life award winner spoke.  She thanked us for coming and gave us some words of encouragement. 

I am very glad that I finally went to this conference (I have been meaning to go since I started teaching but always had something else going on)! 

Talk About Trees in the Classroom

We were lucky enough to welcome Bev from the Forestry Foundation into our classroom last week.  She was AMAZING!!  Thank you Mark for setting me up with her - you are amazing too!

Her set-up: 

Love this poster!

We had my class and another first grade class in my room for the presentation.  We had a nice conversation before she started setting up asking exactly what we wanted her to talk about.  She modified her presentation to fit exactly what we wanted them to learn.  It was perfect!  I could tell she was a teacher - she made the connection from trees in our backyard and trees in the area to trees in the forest and products from those trees we see and use every day. 

She interacted a lot with the kids, which was perfect!

She showed us how pencils are made. 

Then she set us free to explore (we did this one class at a time since my classroom is very small).

The students counting the rings to see how old each tree is.

Seeing what products are made of wood.  After she left and the next day they were still so impressed that balloons are a forestry product. 

My students kept bringing everything up to me and asking if I took a picture of whatever it was yet.  They were so excited!

My kids LOVED this presentation.  A few teachers came and asked me what we are learning about because my kids were all walking down the hall telling each other that they were going to be foresters when they grow up.  How cute is that? 

Wordless Wednesday - fence project

The fence in our backyard is literally falling down - it has been since we bought the house and we have been patching and supporting the fence for the past two years.  We never really got around to talking to the neighbors about replacing it.  A few weeks ago the neighbors were replacing a small section of their fence, so I asked them about replacing the fence between our houses.  We could do the work ourselves and split the cost of the materials.  They agreed and we started on Friday after work. 

This is what the fence looked like on Friday afternoon.

We tore the fence down and put in galvanized metal posts (that way they will last and not rot like the wood posts had). This is how we left it on Friday night (actually this picture was the next morning because we didn't stop working until it got dark).

Then Saturday we worked and worked and now our fence looks like this.  It is so nice!  Now we just have the rest of the fence to do!

And just for fun here is my nephew - he is the cutest little guy ever!!  I watched him in the morning while we were putting up the fence. 

Happy Wednesday!  If this blogger cooperates this will publish as I am enjoying the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in San Francisco.  I am so excited about it and can't wait to tell you all about it!! 

Hunk of Meat Monday: Marinading Chicken

Instead of a cooked hunk of meat - this week I am going to share how we prepare a hunk of meat. 

Since there are two of us and I buy chicken in "bulk" (I don't really consider this a large amount of meat but the store does) since it is a better price that way.  And, chicken goes bad when it is just left in the fridge until you want to use it - oh, you knew that? Uh, me too - lol.  Anyway, on to the prep work. 

All you need is chicken (we use boneless skinless chicken breast) and . . .

marinade and freeze bags.  This is my favorite marinade - Lawry's Herb and Garlic.  It is the best!! 

I put one breast in each package - I used to put two since there are two of us, but the breast keep getting bigger and bigger and we only eat half of one, so I started puttting one.

Put the marinade in - just enough to cover.

Make sure the marinade covers the entire breast - lay flat and freeze.

Then, whenever you want chicken all you have to do is defrost and you have marinaded chicken ready to be cooked. 

Guest Room Tour

Next stop on our tour is the guest bedroom.  We have done nothing to this room - oh, wait that is a lie - it was three colors when we moved (like the rest of the house) so we painted it a neutral color. 

Here is the view from the hallway.

A chair that used to belong to my dad's grandpa (I really have no idea who it used to belong to - mom will you leave a comment and tell us who really owned it).

The bed.  The frame is just beautiful and I LOVE it - my mom and dad bought it at a thrift store or something like that and loooong time ago and we got it when my mom got a new bed.  It makes noises when you sit on it and it is only a full but it is perfect and I love it.  The pillow (and the matching one on the chair) we bought at TJ Maxx for the couch but wanted more pillows on the couch, so we moved it in here.  The sheets and bed spread are both from Ross and we bought to go with the pillow. 

We did buy a mattress pad - one of those amazing memory foam ones for a great price at Kohl's the day after Thanksgiving a few years ago - which makes the not so great mattresses feel really nice. 

That's it! Pretty boring guest room - I would like to work on this room.  Some artwork on the wall, a pop of color (turquoise like in the pillow would be great), some curtains maybe.  A real side table and a lamp would be great too.

How do you make your guests feel at home?  I would love to read your suggestions for this blank room!

Farmers in the Classroom

I have so many things to share with you that my kids are learning in the classroom, but I am just so excited about this I am going to skip to it. 

Last week I was lucky enough to have a farmer visit our classroom.  We have been learning about agriculture for 3 weeks, specifically cotton so I was a little worried my kids were going to think these were cotton farmers, but it was fine.

A rice field.  95% of rice grown in California is grown with 100 miles of Sacramento.  Our school is in the heart (not really - more like the feet since we can't see rice fields from our school or neighborhood) of rice country so I was SO EXCITED when I asked begged some farmers to come to my classroom.

A field being harvesting before the rain hit last week.  I was VERY worried when I saw field being harvested the weekend before the farmers where supposed to be in my room.

But, come last Tuesday morning there were two rice farmers sitting in my classroom!!  This is Pa and Susan, they operate Daddow and Sons Farming (you can show them some love on Facebook).  Susan is a former first grade teacher and was just perfect!  Side note - she is super creative and has a blog - go check it out and tell her I sent you! 

Here is my classroom full of kids!  One of the other first grade teachers is doing the ag unit with us and joined us for the presentation.

First, Susan showed us wheat and helped us make the connection from the Little Red Hen to rice (I told you she is awesome). 

Then Pa showed us lots of pictures and explained the whole process from getting the field ready to harvest.  He was wonderful - the kids LOVED seeing the pictures and thought it was pretty cool that rice is planted using an airplane.

See Pa smiling?  I think he had fun too!  Then they showed us the difference between long grain, medium grain, and brown rice.  Susan said that brown rice has a jacket on and white rice took its jacket off - it was THE PERFECT explanation!

Then they explained the two different methods for harvesting rice, showed us products made from rice, let us look at the rice up close, and fed us some rice.  And if that wasn't enough they let us take rice (and wheat) home to share with our families. 

It was AMAZING!!  I would love to do something like this everyday!  Susan and Pa were just perfect and my kids sat and listened for 45 minutes - seriously!!  They never do that for me!

I am so grateful for farmers likes these that take time out of their lives (especially during this busy harvest time) to talk to kids about what they do.  THANK YOU PA AND SUSAN - you two are amazing and I love you both to pieces!!