Ag Literacy Week
The 2025 Ag Literacy Week will take place March 17-21, 2025.
The Soil in Jackie’s Garden
Join Jackie and her garden friends in this charming picture book as they discover the wonders of gardening, soil secrets, and the magic of composting.
Jackie and her garden friends embrace the joys of planting a garden, nurturing and harvesting their own food, and recycling scraps to compost, ensuring that the magical cycle of growth and sustainability continues anew.
Science facts about soil, plants, pollinators, decomposers, and more are included on every spread.
A fantastic book to engage young readers in becoming environmental stewards, learning how to care for a garden, understanding a plant life cycle, discovering the power of pollinators and the importance of composting.
Pennsylvania Ag Literacy Week focuses on connecting volunteers from the agricultural community to local classrooms to share the story of agriculture.
Volunteers throughout the state will read a book with an accurate and engaging theme about agriculture with a focus on kindergarten through second grade classrooms. It is an opportunity for Pennsylvania agriculturalists (farmers, industry representatives, FFA teachers and students, and others supportive of agriculture) to be the face of agriculture in kindergarten-2nd grade classrooms across the commonwealth.
Readers who participate in Pennsylvania Ag Literacy Week will have the opportunity to talk about farming and agriculture through the book they read as well as share their own story about farming, agriculture programs they are involved with or their connections to agriculture. After the book is read volunteers can engage further with students, if they choose, with an activity developed by the foundation that re-enforces the concepts they learned from the book.
The book is then donated to the classroom teacher along with educational activities and resources to use throughout the school year.
- Identify and contact your local elementary school to talk about the Ag Literacy Week program.
- Invite a Kindergarten-2nd grade classroom to participate with you. Let them know that the program takes about 30 minutes with the students start to finish.
- Register and give your $12 donation per classroom to cover the Ag Literacy Week book to be read and donated to the classroom library through the registration form
- Collect the following information about each the classrooms you will be visiting and submit no later than January 10, 2025 to the Foundation.
- teacher
- teacher email
- county
- school district
- school name
- grade
- number of students
By the end of February, Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation the will send you the Ag Literacy Week book of the year and instructions to complete your classroom visit!
Registration for
Ag Literacy Week 2025
is now open. Click here.
Contact:
Paula Shoop, program coordinator
717-724-9493
plshoop@pfb.com
Pennsylvania Ag Literacy Week focuses on connecting volunteers from the agricultural community to local classrooms to share the story of agriculture. Readers who participate in Pennsylvania Ag Literacy Week will have the opportunity to talk about farming and agriculture through the book they read as well as sharing their own story about farming, agriculture programs they are involved with or their connections to agriculture.
Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation invites all members of Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry to join with us to celebrate Ag Literacy Week in Pennsylvania. By becoming a reader, you can help us share the story of agriculture and teach students about the importance of agriculture in their daily lives.
Past Years
- 2024 - Anywhere Farm
- 2023 The Day The Farmers Quit
- 2022 My Family′s Soybean Farm
- 2021 - Tales of the Dairy Godmother
- 2020 - On The Farm at the Market
- 2019 - Right This Very Minute
- 2018 - Tyler Makes Pancakes
- 2017 - Before We Eat: From Farm to Table
Anywhere Farm
Written by Phyllis Root, and Illustrated by G. Brian Karas
The Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation’s 2024 Ag Literacy Week book, Anywhere Farm allows children to explore the different options one can plant a farm. From a box or bucket to a pan, almost anything can be turned into a home for green, growing things. Windows, balconies, and front steps all make wonderful spots to start. After all, anywhere can be a farm, all it takes is one small seed and someone to plant it.
The Day The Farmers Quit
Written by Autumn Pequignot, and Illustrated by Kate Fallahee
The Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation’s 2023 Ag Literacy Week book, The Day The Farmers Quit is an encouraging story of a boy that learns he can’t live without the hard work of his farmer friends.
You won’t believe what this young boy wakes up to in his community when Farmer Bob and his farmer friends decide to take a vacation. He panics when he realizes the farmers and all the things they provide are gone. Find out how this young boy sets out to save his town and get the farmers to return from their vacation.
This heartwarming book helps children of all ages appreciate the importance of farmers in their community.
Author Autumn Pequignot is a public-school teacher in Virginia with a passion for agriculture in her classrooms. After starting an “Ag-venture Day” at Lacey Spring Elementary School, Pequignot connected with local farmers and learned just how important their role was in the community. She gained the inspiration for this book shortly afterward, in 2019.
My Family’s Soybean Farm
Written by Katie Olthoff, and illustrated by Joe Hox
The Pennsylvania Friends of Agriculture Foundation’s 2022 Ag Literacy Week book of the year, My Family’s Soybean Farm details the day to day activities of a farming family through the eyes of young Alexander who lives on his family’s farm. Throughout the book, readers will learn about how plants grow, the nutrients they need to grow and how they are harvested. The book highlights how farmers care for their land and how farming practices have changed over the years using modern technology. “My Family’s Soybean Farm” showcases the importance of agriculture in our daily lives.
Lessons and Resources
Tales of the Dairy Godmother – Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish
Written by Viola Butler, and Illustrated by Ward Jenkins
Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish is an engaging book about agriculture taking its readers behind the scenes to a dairy farm to learn about how we get the milk used to make ice cream. It shows students the hard work farmers do each day to grow and produce our food and how it goes from the farm to the table for us to consume.
Lessons and Resources
Virtual Reading All Resources Tour Chuck’s Farm
Daily Activities for Chuck’s Ice Cream Wish
Moo-valous Monday – Learn about how delicious milk gets from the cow to the ice cream cone. Cow to Cone and Ice Cream Trivia (on Kahoot) activities
Toppings Tuesday – Your delicious dairy treat is not complete without the help of a few other agricultural products. Learn more about the forestry, peanut, soy, and fruit industries. Build-A-Sundae and Race to 120 activities
Work-A-Lot Wednesday – Today we will learn about the different careers that exist within the agriculture industry. Careers Cootie Catcher and Careers Digital Workbooks
Thank A Farmer Thursday – See what the day in the life of a dairy farmer is like and write a note of thanks to local farmers for all they do for their cows and the community. A Day in the Life of a Dairy Farmer and Writing Thank You Notes
Fun on the Farm Friday – Join us as Chuck’s farm as we meet Chuck and PFB President Rick Ebert. Zoom with us for a live question and answer session with Chuck (registration required to receive the Zoom link). Prerecorded farm tour followed by live Q&A with Rick and Chuck and B-I-N-G-O game
Thank You 2021 Sponsors
Allied Milk Producers | Growmark Foundation | Nationwide Insurance | Northeast Agricultural Education Foundation | PA Dairymen’s Association | PA Grain Processing | PA Pork Producers | PA Soybean Board | PA Livestock Assoc. | The Donald B & Dorothy L. Stabler Foundation
On the Farm, at the Market
Written and Illustrated by G. Brian Karas
On the farm, workers pick vegetables, collect eggs, and make cheese. At the market the next day, the workers set up their stands and prepare for shoppers to arrive. Amy, the baker at the Busy Bee Café, has a very special meal in mind-and, of course, all the farmers show up at the café to enjoy the results of their hard work.
This informative book introduces children to both local and urban greenmarkets and paints a warm picture of a strong, interconnected community.
Learning Station Cards
- Activity Pages (P indicates Primary)
Language/Arts |
Math |
Science |
Writing |
Right This Very Minute
Written by Lisl H. Detlefsen | Illustrated by Renée Kurilla
We are often hungry “right this very minute” throughout the day for breakfast, or lunch, or a snack. But do you we ever think about what farmers are doing “right this very minute” to ensure we have safe, nutritious and delicious foods when we want them? Right This Very Minute connects the foods we find ourselves wanting during the course of a day to the work farmers are doing everyday to grow, raise and produce our food.
Learning Station Cards
- Activity Pages (P indicates Primary)
Language Arts |
Math |
Science |
Writing |
Tyler Makes Pancakes
Written by Tyler Florence | Illustrated by Craig Frazier
Tyler and his dog, Tofu, are hungry for blueberry pancakes. They are so good to eat — all fluffy and juicy and hot. But the real fun is making them. First you need a chicken, a cow, a few blueberry bushes, some special trees, and lots of mixing, flipping, and topping.
Chickens? Trees? We’re still talking pancakes, right? Yes we are, and Tyler and Tofu find out just how it’s done, all before sitting down for the best breakfast ever!
Do you think pancakes come from a box? Not really! So let Food Network star Tyler Florence and Craig Frazier take you on an adventure from farm to mouth. You’ll learn how we get the best ingredients and discover that the most important one of all comes from the heart.
Learning Station Cards
- Activity Pages
Language Arts |
Math |
Science |
Writing
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Before We Eat: From Farm to Table
Written by Pat Brisson | Illustrated by Mary Azarian
The 2017 Ag Literacy book, Before We Eat: From Farm to Table, illustrates that our food doesn’t just appear in our refrigerator or on our table. Before we eat, many people must work very hard-planting grains, tending animals, and filling crates. Through a simple poem thanking the people who grow, transport, sell and prepare our food, readers find out what must happen before food can get to our table to nourish our bodies.
The theme of farm to table is an exciting and appropriate theme for our inaugural PA Ag Literacy Week, as it in inclusive of all aspects of food production. Incorporating seven different agricultural commodities from Pennsylvania, it allowed Volunteer Readers the opportunity to connect the book to their farms and agricultural experiences. Showing workers both on and off the farm, illustrated to students the number of people and hard work it takes to provide the food on their plate.
With beguiling illustrations and a lovely spare text, this book will inspire conversations with young children about the origins of their food and start them on the path to being caring stewards of the environment.
– Anne K. Fishel, Ph.D., Co-founder, The Family Dinner Project, Associate Clinical Professor, Harvard Medical School
Volunteer Lesson Plan
Vocabulary Quizlet
Extension Lessons
Use these lessons to expand your student knowledge on each of these agricultural commodities highlighted in Before We Eat: From Farm to Table:
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