Agricultural Literacy Week

Agricultural Literacy Week ~ March 18-22, 2024

How Does Agricultural Literacy Week (ALW) Work?

In celebration of New York agriculture, volunteers throughout the state will read a book with an agricultural theme to elementary students, with a focus on second grade classrooms. Farmers, FFA and 4-H members, adults engaged in a career in agriculture, and engaged in our food system volunteer to enthusiastically engage your students in a paired hands-on activity related to the book to extend learning. The book will be donated to the school or classroom library with a bookplate recognizing the donor and our celebration of New York Agricultural Literacy Week. 2,300 books were donated last year while 75,000 elementary students participated in an experiential learning activity.

Start to finish the program takes approximately 40 minutes per classroom

Agricultural Literacy Week volunteers work with their county's coordinator to set up visits to local schools
Volunteers read the selected book aloud to the students.
Following the reading, volunteers conduct an activity with students and share their experiences in agriculture.
The book is donated to the school or classroom library for students to enjoy and reference throughout the school year.

All activity materials are prepared by NYAITC and schools get to keep a copy of the book for their school or classroom library.

Find Your County Coordinator

About This Year's Book

I LOVE Strawberries

Written by Shannon Anderson
Art by Jaclyn Sinquett

Jolie LOVES strawberries - and she’s on an unstoppable (and hilarious) mission to grow her own food from seedling to table in this colorful introduction to the joy of growing the popular perennial.

Through Jolie's comical scrapbook-style journal entries, young readers will learn how she convinces the "old people" (aka her parents) to let her grow her own strawberries. Growing strawberries is a lot of work and responsibility, but Jolie is ready with the help of her faithful rabbit Munchy! Together they find out just how delicious, rewarding, and sometimes complicated it can be to grow your own food.

Creating a garden calendar and notebook, how strawberries grow, what pests to look out for in a garden, why ladybugs are helpful, and how a good gardener takes care of strawberry plants are all explained in this fun and educational story.

Educator Resource Guide

Coming soon.

Classroom ALW Videos

Companion Lessons and Resources

You can share these additional resources with the classes your volunteers read to so teachers may prepare their students for Agricultural Literacy Week or extend the learning afterwards in their classrooms.

Lessons

Multimedia

Books

Spring is for Strawberries

When a farm family brings their spring crops to a city farmers market, the farmer's daughter befriends the daughter of a neighborhood family doing their weekly shopping. Over the course of a year, the girls explore the bounty of each season. Sweet spring strawberries and crisp, fresh greens make way for corn on the cob, peppers, and a rainbow of tomatoes. Fall brings pumpkin patches and the crunch of apples. The friends part at the final winter market, already looking forward to the sweet red strawberries that will unite them again next spring.

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The Thing About Bees: A Love Letter

A love poem from a father to his two sons, and a tribute to the bees that pollinate the foods we love to eat. "Sometimes bees can be a bit rude. They fly in your face and prance on your food." And yet...without bees, we might not have strawberries for shortcakes or avocados for tacos! Children are introduced to different kinds of bees, "how not to get stung," and how the things we fear are often things we don't fully understand.

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The Bug Girl

Sophia Spencer has loved bugs ever since a butterfly landed on her shoulder—and wouldn't leave!—at a butterfly conservancy when she was only two-and-a-half years old. In preschool and kindergarten, Sophia was thrilled to share what she knew about grasshoppers (her favorite insects), as well as ants and fireflies...but by first grade, not everyone shared her enthusiasm. Some students bullied her, and Sophia stopped talking about bugs altogether. When Sophia's mother wrote to an entomological society looking for a bug scientist to be a pen pal for her daughter, she and Sophia were overwhelmed by the enthusiastic response—letters, photos, and videos came flooding in. Using the hashtag BugsR4Girls, scientists tweeted hundreds of times to tell Sophia to keep up her interest in bugs—and it worked! Sophia has since appeared on Good Morning America, The Today Show, and NPR, and she continues to share her love of bugs with others.

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In the Garden: Who's Been Here

Christina and Jeremy have been sent to the garden to gather vegetables for dinner. But they quickly realize that they are not the first visitors to the garden today. There's a slimy trail on a leaf in the cucumber patch, and some corn kernels have been pecked off the cob. Not only that, someone has been snacking on the lettuce leaves! Christina and Jeremy follow the clues to discover which birds, animals, and insects have been in their garden. Keep your eyes open and join Christina and Jeremy on a scientific journey in their own backyard!

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Quizlet

Coming soon.

Agricultural Literacy Week Archive

Now in its 17th Year, Agricultural Literacy Week has helped to bring agriculturally themed books and resources into thousands of classrooms and libraries throughout New York State.

Click book image below to explore past years books and resources.

Sponsorships & Donations

Would you like to fund the purchase of one or more books?

The books are $12 each and will be donated to the school library after being read.

Contact your county coordinator for more details on where to send your donation. Donors will be recognized on a special bookplate. You may choose to have your donated book sent to a specific school, or to read it yourself to your local school.

For County Coordinators

This area of NYAITC's website is for those who assist with carrying out Agriculture in the Classroom programming. County coordinators should follow the link below to login and access planning documents and information regarding Agricultural Literacy Week.

Access documents and information regarding ALW

Programs