Thursday, December 16, 2010

2011 Teacher of the Year


The Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom program is pleased to announce the 2011 Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom Teacher of the Year is Dr. Kammie Richter of Oakwood Junior High School, Danville, Illinois. Dr. Richter received a plaque and a trip to the 2011 National Agriculture in the Classroom Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She will also be the Illinois nominee for the National Excellence in Teaching Agriculture Award.


Dr. Richter and her husband own a small family farm, and she is able to incorporate agriculture lessons into her existing curriculum on a regular basis in both Social Studies and Art. Her unique methods of incorporating agriculture include units on economics, careers, food and culture. Richter provides opportunities for her students to experience agriculture, food production, and food science in innovative ways including her Assembly Line Antics program, where students produce a snack mix, each representing a different part of the food delivery chain, or her example of grocery store employment opportunities. Local history and agriculture are also featured in relation to both Lincoln and Deere and the important contributions they both made to agriculture and that still exist today.


Dr. Richter strives to teach her students the importance of American agriculture on a daily basis. Her commitment to her students and her dedication to Agriculture in the Classroom is to be commended, thereby making Dr. Kammie Richter this year's leader for Illinois Agriculture in the Classroom.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Yummy Little Christmas Trees


Primary Subject: Art

Grade Level: Pre-K to 2nd Grade

Objective: To create edible Christmas trees


Materials:

Sugar ice cream cones

Cool Whip

Green food coloring

Various candies

Colored popcorn

Candy sprinkles

Gumdrops

Plastic knives

Paper Plates


Procedure:

Tint the cool whip with green frosting before beginning this project. Distribute paper plates. Provide each student with a sugar cone and a plastic knife. Invert the sugar cones. Students may hold the cones with one hand and ice the cones with the other. Demonstrate how to "ice the Christmas trees." Simply spread the coloring Cool Whip on the sugar cones. Add sprinkles, popcorn and other candies as tree decorations. Eat immediately.


Although this project is great by itself, it can be used to culminate a Social Studies Unit on holiday customs. It is also an excellent "cooking project."