Kindergarteners Wake Up to Agriculture With FFA
When agriculture teachers in Iredell County, N.C., realized their area had no facility for ag-related field trips for elementary students, they created their own experience, called Wake Up to Ag Day.
FFA members, advisors, community partners and volunteers are currently planning the 16th annual event. Over the course of two days each spring, approximately 1,500 kindergarten students climb on tractors, plant seeds, touch livestock and learn safety lessons through 35 interactive stations. For many children, it’s their first hands-on introduction to agriculture.
“We want the kindergarteners to experience agriculture up close — seeing real animals, touching agriculture — as they learn where their food and fiber comes from and how it impacts their daily lives,” says Bryant York, FFA advisor and ag teacher at North Iredell High School. “We knew that by focusing on kindergarten students, there would be a lot of parents and adults coming, too, so we’re doing some adult education along the way.”
Stations are divided into four zones: animals, horticulture, natural resources and ag mechanics. Beef and dairy cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry are housed in the animal zone, which is always a big hit with 5-year-olds. “Even though we’re in a rural area, this is the first time many of these kids are seeing one of these animals up close,” York says.
Doing to Learn
FFA members lead every station. “We try to pair students doing their Supervised Agricultural Experience projects in a particular area with that station, so the FFA member already comes with good background knowledge,” York says. “Some of them even bring part of their SAE for display.” One year, an FFA member demonstrated shoeing a horse. Another student developed an entire restaurant experience to explain the origins of pizza ingredients.
“Our veterinary science students set up a station to work up an animal and practice injections on stuffed animals,” York says. “The North Carolina Forest Service brings out real animal pelts, and we’ve got a mobile dairy classroom where kindergarteners get to see a cow milked. We’ve even got one station where kids get to make their own duck calls out of regular drinking straws.”
As the youngsters are calling ducks and planting seeds in little cups of soil, they’re not only learning about ag, but the lessons also reinforce kindergarten curriculum, says Taylor Knox, past president of the North Iredell FFA Chapter. “We try to match activities to the curriculum, whether that’s sight words, counting, matching or recognizing patterns, which also helps make the lesson interactive.”
Growing Ag Advocates
About 200 FFA members from five area high schools help plan and organize Wake Up to Ag Day. “This event has so many moving parts,” says Grace Baker, past North Iredell FFA reporter. “Being able to see what it takes behind the scenes to make this all come together has helped my organizational skills. I was in charge of communicating a lot of details to the kindergarten teachers and helping make sure everything is running smoothly, which just grew me as a leader so much.”
York says FFA members hone time management, organization and leadership skills, but he sees the greatest lesson in improved public speaking. “It happens every year, that the quiet kid in the back of the class who is afraid to talk in front of peers, somehow just comes alive when teaching a group of kindergarteners,” York says. “For us as advisors, that’s a really neat part to see those skills come to life.”
The event also gives FFA students the opportunity to advocate for ag. “If you teach these concepts at their level, these kindergarteners get it and still talk about their favorite stations,” Baker says. “It’s so important to help shape young minds and for them to grow up learning about the importance of agriculture.”
FFA chapters and community partners integral to the success of Wake Up to Ag Day include: North Iredell High School FFA, Lake Norman High School FFA, South Iredell High School FFA, West Iredell High School FFA, Statesville High School FFA, Iredell County Cooperative Extension, Iredell County Young Farmers and Ranchers and Progressive Agriculture Safety Day Foundation.
