Adventures in First Grade

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Ag in the Classroom and FREE Resources for YOU!

Yesterday, I had another professional development workshop.  This one was for Ag in the Classroom (AITC).  I think I have posted about this before, but yesterday's workshop was fantastic. 

A little background: AITC is a nonprofit organization that gives teachers resources to incorporate science across the curriculum.  The workshops are fun, informative, have a make-and-take section, and always end with getting a bag of goodies!

This year, AITC's theme is Jump Start Your School Garden. 



The booklet we got was full of fantastic ideas.  Some of my favorites are:

Butterfly Life Cycle
Pizza Garden Fractions
During the make-it-take-it portion of the day, I made two crafts.

The first one was a plant parts flip book.  Please excuse my terrible artistic skills!


The second craft, and I'm using the term loosely simply because it is WAY more than just a craft, is a math flower.  It is actually for upper grades because it shows prime and composite numbers.  However, I turned it into a way for my firsties to think about all the ways to add to a number.  Here is my example, excuse my lopsided flower:


Every teacher in the workshop was also given a bag of FREE resources:

I already have this book, and it is great for showing kids how their bread gets to the table.
A class set of maps
This poster, What's Really Happening on the Farm, has 4 numbers.  There is a lesson plan that corresponds with each number on the back.
Are you interested?  AITC has a website with TONS of free resources for teachers.  There are so many lesson plans aligned with the S.O.L.s.  Yes, this is a Virginia organization, however, our standards are pretty much in line with Common Core.

Click the picture to take you to AITC's website.
Let me know what you think!

Happy Wednesday!

2 comments:

  1. YAY ... perfect for farmers' daughters, like us! Checking it out next; thanks for the tips!

    Barbara

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  2. Thank you for taking time to attend the workshop and give this great feedback to the AITC program. Thanks also to the many businesses and individuals who support AITC through donations, grants and sponsorships, we can't provide resources without them! Ron Saacke, AITC staff

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