About

The Farmer in the Classroom program aims to teach second grade students about where their food comes from by taking a more in-depth look at Montana-focuses agricultural topics. Each of these topics links back to Montana geography, nutrition, and farming.

The program begins in the fall, with an educational field trip to the PEAS Farm in either September or October (busing costs paid by us!) and is followed by six, once-a-month, 45 minute, in-class educational visits by one of our Farm Educators from November through April. Each lesson includes a food sample or taste test linked with the lesson topic. The program concludes with a second farm field trip to the PEAS Farm in the late spring (May or June).

Contact

Lead School Gardens Manager, Lori Blumenthal, for more details: lori@gardencityharvest.org or 406.220.6434.

Monthly Lesson topics

November - Food Preservation

We’ll review why we have seasons, define “growing season”, discuss how folks in Montana can eat locally all year long by preserving their food or by eating storage veggies. We’ll taste four preserved or winter storage foods: cucumbers, apples, carrots, and squash.

December - Honey Bees 

One of our most fascinating topics! We’ll learn about how honey bees are connected to farming, including pollination, honey bee biology, and how bees make honey. We’ll taste two types of honey.

January - Apples

Students will learn about where apple trees grow and why Montana has the perfect climate for growing apples. We’ll discuss how apple trees change throughout the seasons, the life cycle of an apple tree, and decode fruit stickers. There will be an apple taste test of four different varieties of apples, encouraging students to use new adjectives.

February - Wheat

We’ll review why plants make seeds, leading us into different seeds we eat - like wheat! We will talk about the many foods made from wheat, and will use flor mills to grind wheat seeds into flour. We’ll finish with a bite of Montana-made bread.

March - Cows

Students will discover how important cows are to farmers in Montana. We’ll learn what it means to be a ruminant and discuss the difference between dairy and beef cattle. This lesson concludes with a butter-making activity, which will ultimately be spread on wheat bread which students helped to make during our wheat lesson.

April - Year in review

Students will quickly summarize each prior topic before delving into a Farmer in the Classroom Jeopardy game. We celebrate our final lesson with a taste of “Montana Super Bread”, which includes an ingredient from each lesson.