From Florida Agriculture in the Classroom:
GAINESVILLE – The 12th annual Florida Agriculture Literacy Day is scheduled for Tuesday April 21, 2015, and a new non-fiction children’s book developed for it will highlight Florida’s livestock and poultry industries.
The book, the title of which is ‘Drive Through Florida: Livestock and Poultry,’ features an animated red truck named ‘Ole Red’ that takes students on a tour of Florida’s beef, dairy, poultry, swine, equine, sheep and goat industries.
Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) and Florida Agriculture in the Classroom (FAITC) invite farmers, growers, ranchers, Farm Bureau members, Florida cattlemen and cattlewomen, University of Florida IFAS extension and 4-H agents, master gardeners, FFA teachers and students and agriculture industry representatives to read in elementary classrooms around the state as part of the event.
Readers are asked to schedule their classroom visits first, and then order materials on the FAITC’s website at www.agtag.org. The online ordering system will go live on FAITC’s website beginning mid-February. Materials will be mailed to readers. Readers will receive one book, one disc with the book and teacher resources on it and classroom sets of stickers and bookmarks per classroom, which they will deliver to the classroom the day of the reading. Please allow two weeks for delivery.
The deadline to register for materials is Tuesday April 7 for those who are reading on Florida Agriculture Literacy Day two weeks later.
The book is geared to upper elementary students – third, fourth and fifth grades – so it is recommended that volunteers target those grade levels when they schedule their readings. It can be read to younger elementary students – kindergarten, first and second grades – but readers should follow instructions in the book and in an online video to be placed on FAITC’s website to read to younger audiences.
Readers are encouraged to read on Agriculture Literacy Day, but they don’t have to. They can read until the end of the school year. The book and materials will be provided to readers for free thanks to funding FAITC receives from sales of the agriculture specialty license plate called the ‘Ag Tag,’ and a donation from the Florida Farm Bureau’s Women’s Committee.
Florida Agriculture in the Classroom is a non-profit organization that educates Florida teachers and students about where their food, fiber and fuel comes from using lessons, materials, grant programs and other projects.