#TWKatHome Activities
November: Grateful for Farms
Welcome to TWKatHome, our fun, free online content that helps kids and families explore food and build positive, healthy eating habits. Each month, we will provide activities and ideas for ways to engage children as they learn about food and where it comes from.
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Taste Wise Kids at Home and in the Classroom!
Welcome to our Taste Wise Kids Discover Fall. We welcome educators at home and in the classroom to discover the tastes and harvest of the Fall with us. You will find downloadable activities to print, links to explore virtually, and ideas to start a conversation. November begins the season of gratefulness and we believe that our farming community deserves a lot of ouf appreciation. This month, we are focusing on farms and we hope you enjoy our farm focused activities. Download our Gratitude coloring page here! Print it out and use it to guide your learning.
October Content
Gratitude for Farms
Teaching appreciation and qualities of being thankful to children is so important.
Engage your students/children with a gratitude challenge. See example here. Invite students to share reasons why they should be thankful for farms. How many reasons can they list? Consider inviting families to add reasons as well or creating a school wide display.
Other ways to teach gratitude for local farms.
- Write a thank you letter to a local farmer.
- Shop at a local farmers market and share a message of thanks in person.
- Look up farms nearby and discuss the difference amongst the farms and farmers.
- Visit 3 farms virtually and discuss the similarities and differences.
- We Need Farms by Scholastic
Jobs on a Farm
Farms are packed with daily responsibilities to ensure the farm is successful. Do you know all of the roles of a farmer?
Listed below are some of the roles of a farmer. Learn about each and complete the Jobs on a Farm activity for note taking. Download notetaking sheet here!
- Farm Basics: Time for Kids "On the Farm"
- Read an Interview with a Farmer
- Plant: Planting seeds takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Sing Plants the Seeds Song and learn about sowing seeds.
- Irrigate-Water is essential to life. Farms have many ways to make sure plants get the water that they need to grow. Read about The Shape of Farming: Water for Crops by NASA.
- Harvest- A lot of work begins when crops are ready. Harvesting is the process of collecting things grown in the ground. Read about Fall harvests.
- Sell- Pricing, selling, and shipping produce is how farmers make money. Read about how produce gets to the grocery store.
- Farm Machinery-Learn about machines on a farm.
Fall Harvest Learning:
We can learn so much from what produce grows each season.
- Learn about how to grow broccoli.
- Gather some green beans and have an investigation.
- Grow a Fall herb garden.
- Be amazed at where sweet potatoes come from!
- Watch MPT Maryland Farm & Harvest to hear stories behind farmers in Maryland.
- Make a list of all of the crops that are harvested in the Fall. Challenge young learners to create a recipe with the ingredients.
Writing Prompts:
- Write a list of ten character traits to describe a farmer. Use that list to write a job description for a farmer.
- If you could invent a new farming tool or piece of machinery, what would it be? Why do you think your new idea would be important and how would it be helpful?
- Imagine you were asked to design a garden for your school or community. What would you grow and how would you share the farming responsibilities with others?
- Rain is important to farming. If you were a farmer and experienced a drought in a season, what would you do to help keep your crops growing? How would you feel and what creative watering solutions might you come up with?
- If you could be any animal on a farm for a day, what would you be and why?
Book Recommendations
Here are a few book suggestions for young learners.
- The Farm That Feeds Us by Nancy Castalado is a book that invites readers to explore the jobs on a farm throughout the four seasons.
- Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, is an inspiring story about urban farming. Farmer Will Allen sees and abandoned city lot and dreams of a farm to feed the community. His dream comes to life in this positive story and can spark ideas in children of all ages.
- Thank a Farmer by Andrea Kirchoff gives a glimpse into some of the behind the scenes jobs on a farm and shares the importance of thanking farmers in our communities.
- BEFORE WE EAT from farm to table, by Pat Brisson, is a book of gratitude to all of the people that help to get food from the farm to a dinner table.
STEM and Farming
Science, Math, and Technology are important in farming. Explore the activities below to see another side of farming and why it is important to keep learning.
- Check out Science on the Farm by Young Minds Inspired.
- Watch Transforming Farming with Technology. Give children a blank sheet of paper and ask them to create their own new technology tool for a farm. Allow children time to share their ideas.
- Learn about how weather impacts farms with National Agriculture in the Classroom. When discussing the daily weather, consider allowing a few minutes to share thoughts on how the weather could guide the day for a farmer.
Learn and Discover at Home!
Use our Grateful for Farms Inspiration Board to help you with ideas. Print it and you can display it and check things off as you go. Download it and discover ways to engage your taste buds and your mind by clicking on each picture or word. Once downloaded, each image is linked to a recipe or story and each word is linked to an activity or craft. Click here to download your copy!
Share your adventures with us!
Share what you learned or created from any of our activities on our social media! We’d also love to hear your ideas for what other content you’d like to see from TWKatHome. Share with us on Facebook (@TasteWiseKids) or Instagram (@tastewise_kids) and use the hashtags #TWKatHome and #myTWKsalad, or email info@tastewisekids.org.
