September, 2008

Shine on, Harvest Moon

Throughout the year the Moon rises, on average, about 50 minutes later each day. But near the autumnal equinox, the day-to-day difference in the local time of moonrise is only 30 minutes. The Moon will rise around sunset and not long after sunset for the next few evenings. This is a big help to Northern Hemisphere farmers during harvest because it provides extra light for harvesting crops.

• Students will research online to find when the harvest moon is expected this year.
• Students will observe and chart the harvest moon as a homework assignment.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Autumn begins September 20

More ideas for fall from your fellow teachers

Browse all the lessons

Oklahoma Fruit of the Month: Peaches

China is widely held to be the native home of peaches. This is supported by the fact that there is a wide range of wild peach types in the countryside. Originally the peach grew in North China in areas of erosion and overgrazing. They were a symbol of fertility and affection.

Peaches rank 21 among Oklahoma agricultural commodities and Oklahoma peaches rank 25 nationwide. While peaches are not a big cash receipts commodity for Oklahoma, they are important to several counties in the state. Peaches are primarily grown in Wagoner county, near Porter, and in Garvin and Pontotoc counties near Stratford. There are also some orchards in eastern Oklahoma county. Production in an average year totals around 12 million pounds.

Roald Dahl's birthday is September 13. Celebrate with a Giant Peach Day. Read James and the Giant Peach while eating sliced peaches with yogurt or some other peach snack.

Play With Your Food: Stratification

1. Students use the Scientific Study Format to design their experiment with stratification.
2. Save peach pits to plant.
3. If the pit has dried out, soak it overnight in water.
4. Plant in 2 to 3 inches of potting medium.
5. Some pits will germinate after 2 or 3 weeks, some after 2, 3 or more months. Some may not germinate at all, so try different varieties.
6. Peach pits sometimes germinate better after a cold treatment:
7. Put the pit in a zip lock bag with enough potting medium to cover. The soil should be just barely moist.
8. Put the zip lock bag in a refrigerator. It may take 2 to 3 months to see growth.
9. Transplant to a pot once the root is a 1/2 inch or more in length.
10. This procedure is called stratification.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Be a Food Explorer: Dried Peaches

People travelling west in the 19th Century often carried dried peaches. Dry some peaches in a food dehydrator or in an oven at low heat. Have students try peaches dried, canned, fresh and frozen. Which do they like best? Sliced fresh peaches are a great addition to cereal for a healthy breakfast. Canned peaches taste great with plain yogurt. Add a little granola for crunch.

Peach (1 medium peach)

Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

More about peaches

September is National Mushroom Month

Picture a mature tomato plant, buried so that not a single leaf appears above ground. Overnight a rain falls, and in the morning the soil begins to crack. Suddenly tiny tomatoes pop through. If you watch closely, you can just about see them expand. Within a few days, they're round, ripe and ready for picking. If you can imagine that, then you've got an idea of how mushrooms grow. The part we see and eat is only the fruit. The mushroom plant, called the mycelium, does all of its growing underground (or inside a tree or other growing medium).

More about mushrooms

How mushrooms are produced

What other organisms reproduce by spores instead of seeds? Check out Where the Blue Fern Grows. (Now, at the beginning of the school year, is a great time to start this activity, since it takes a long time for ferns to grow from spores.)

September is Food Safety Education Month

American athletes at the Olympics in Beijing are eating food brought in from the US because organizers were concerned about the presence of hormones in meat purchased in the commercial market in China last year. Chinese officials insist all the food is safe and have established an elaborate system of tracing and testing to be sure.

One of the unusual food-safety measures being used involves preserving some of every dish served. "We will have a sample of each item on the menu and keep the sample for at least 48 hours. Should the athletes fall ill because of the food consumption, we will run a testing," officials said.

Hormones are chemicals that are produced naturally in the bodies of all animals, including humans. They are chemical messages released into the blood by hormone-producing organs that travel to and affect different parts of the body. Hormones may be produced in small amounts, but they control important body functions such as growth, development and reproduction.

Certain hormones are used in food production to make young animals gain weight faster. They help reduce the waiting time and the amount of feed eaten by an animal before slaughter in meat industries. In dairy cows, hormones can be used to increase milk production. Thus, hormones can increase the profitability of the meat and dairy industries.

There are six different kinds of steroid hormones that are currently approved by FDA for use in food production in the US. Currently, federal regulations allow these hormones to be used on growing cattle and sheep, but not on poultry (chickens, turkeys, ducks) or hogs (pigs). FDA allows the use of the protein hormone rbGH to increase milk production in dairy cattle. This protein hormone is not used on beef cattle.

More information on hormones in meat from Cornell University

Online AITC Food Safety Lessons

• Hot Off the Grill
• How Germs Spread
• Biosecurity Keeps Everyone Safe

Books for September

Dahl, Roald, and Lane Smith, James and the Giant Peach, Puffin, 2000. (Grades 4-6)

When James Henry Trotter loses his parents in a horrible rhinoceros accident, he is forced to live with his two wicked aunts. One day, an old man in a dark-green suit gives James a bag of magic crystals . When James accidentally spills the crystals on his aunts' withered peach tree, he sets the adventure in motion. From the old tree a single peach grows, and grows, and grows some more, until finally James climbs inside the giant fruit and rolls away from his despicable aunts to a whole new life.

Easton, Patricia Harrison, and Herb Ferguson, A Week at the Fair: A County Celebration (3-6)

Detailed account of the care and judging of animals at a county fair, as told by a young 4-H'er showing her pig and the family's horse. Nice photographs and a great deal of text.

Gibbons, Gail, Chicks and Chickens, Holiday House, 2000. (Grades K-3)

Diagrams, definitions, and close-up views help viewers and readers understand more about raising chickens. Gibbons informs readers that a chicken can lay unfertilized eggs as well as fertilized, shows the development of chicks within the shell, and indicates how some chicks are raised under artificial conditions. A double-page spread shows different breeds, cutaways show the function of a gizzard, and the development of an egg within a hen. While the book is more complex than many preschoolers and kindergartners are used to, it suits perfectly those farm units where children's questions can be easily answered.

Landau, Elaine, Wheat, Scholastic, 2000. (Grades 3-5)

The history, cultivation, and uses of wheat - from the True Book Series.

Spurll, Margriet, and Barbara, Emma's Eggs, Stoddart, 1997. (picture book, Grades 4-7)

Emma is one ambitious young chicken. When she discovers that she has a talent for creating eggs, she won't rest until she executes the perfect delivery. To her surprise, Emma learns that a little patience can go a long way, and can sometimes be more productive than trying too hard to please.

More books about chickens

More books about fruits and vegetables

More books about wheat

Suggest a book.

September Art

"The Sick Chicken," watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper, Winslow Homer, 1874

Winslow Homer had been working as an artist for nearly two decades when he began using watercolors. Long the domain of amateur painters, watercolors had gained professional respectability in 1866 with the formation of the American Water Color Society. Homer recognized their potential for profit—for he could produce and sell them quickly—but he also liked the way watercolor allowed him to experiment more easily than oil.

Homer first worked as an illustrator. He sent back illustrations from the battlefields of the Civil War. After the war he traveled the countryside and painted men, women, and children in many different climates and circumstances. Homer is known for the roughness of his style which reflected 19th Century America. His finished work appears oddly unfinished, as if he were painting on the run and implying that what you see is about to change.

Discussion Questions:

• Homer was known for his rough style which appeared almost unfinished. What in this painting seems unfinished or rough?
• Discuss Homer's use of the color red in this painting.
• Look at the light and shadow in this painting. Where is the sun?
• What is the center of interest?
• How did Homer divide this scene?
• What does the painting tell you about 19th Century America?
• Write a story about what you see in this painting.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

More Ag in Art

National Chicken Month

In 2006, poultry and eggs were the number two agricultural commodity in our state. Celebrate National Chicken Month with these online poultry lessons:

• Clucking Chickens - Students explore sound with clucking chickens made from plastic cups and string.
• A Lucky Break - Student identify and decipher some common phrases in the English language that are related to poultry.

One of the biggest challenges for the poultry industry is the safe disposal of poultry waste. Learn how waste becomes a valuable resource with this lesson.

In Gainesville, Georgia, the chicken capital of the world, it is illegal to eat chicken with a fork.

More Facts About Chickens and Eggs

Rooster Puppet Pattern

Food Fit for an Olympian

Aramark, the American company that has fed Olympic athletes for the past 13 Olympic games, expects to serve 3.5 million meals during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. That's 10,000 people an hour, including 28,000 athletes, their coaches and other staff from all over the world. The Olympic Village dining room seats 6,000 and is open 24 hours a day. It is the size of three football fields and is considered the largest dining room ever constructed.

Meals are designed to build the strength of competing athletes and provide them with the tastes of home. Some of the food needed to serve a "world menu" of more than 800 recipes includes:

• 93,000 pounds of seafood
• 130 tons of meat
• 38,000 pounds of pasta (dry)
• 134,000 pounds of rice (about 20 million half-cup servings when cooked)
• 743,000 (232 tons of) potatoes
• 800,000 (44 tons of) eggs
• 1 million apples
• 936,000 bananas
• 312,000 oranges
• 684,000 carrots
• Nearly 24 tons of onions
• 50,000 pounds of mushrooms
• 57,000 pounds of cheese
• 190,000 loaves of bread
• 5,500 pounds of butter
• 16,000 pounds of tofu
• 20,000 heads of lettuce

All those ingredients will create a rotating menu of:

• 320 hot main entrée dishes
• 160 vegetable and potato dishes
• 128 rice and pasta dishes
• 400 different dessert, pastry and bakery items

The international food staff includes nearly 7,000 managers, chefs and workers.

Activity: Students develop word math problems from the information above. For older students - Write and solve number sentences using the distributive, commutative, associative, identity and inverse properties.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

World Water Monitoring Day

World Water Monitoring Day is an international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies. The month-long program kicks off each year on September 18, with a data entry deadline of December 18.

September is National Honey Month

Honey is delicious, but did you know honeybees are more valuable for the job they do pollinating crops than they are for their honey? Read about the importance of pollination in these lessons from the new 7th-8th grade curriculum:

• The Disappearing Honeybees
• If Not for the Pollinators

More online OAITC bee lessons

Facts about bees and honey

Consider planting some fall vegetables your students may never have tried. If you have an outdoor classroom, or just a little space outdoors, you can still plant:

• kale - so pretty it is often planted with pansies in the fall, but you can eat it, too.
• kohlrabi - what a great vocabulary word.
• mustard - for mustard greens, but your students might be interested in seeing the plant which produces the seeds that are ground into the condiment they use on their sandwiches.
• spinach
• peas
• Swiss chard
• turnips

In October, harvest the greens, chop them up, and throw them into a nice soup or stir fry - or have a tasting party and try them raw. Plants grown for harvest in the fall require some special treatment. OSU's Fall Gardening Fact Sheet walks you through the process.

Activities with leafy greens.

Oklahoma Vegetable of the Month: Tomatoes

Tomatoes love hot weather but stop producing once temperatures get down to 50 degrees. They ripen best at temperatures around 75 degrees. Savvy gardeners started new plants in July, so there may still be some delicious tomatoes available at your local farmer's market.

Of course the most important thing about tomatoes is that they are sooooo good for you. Tomatoes are high in Vitamins A and C and are considered one of the best sources of lycopene, an antioxidant that helps fight cancer and some other diseases.

The heaviest tomato ever grown weighed 7 lb, 12 oz. It was of the cultivar 'Delicious' and was grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986.

More tomato facts

More activities with tomatoes and other members of the nightshade family

Play With Your Food: Tomatoes

Bring a variety of tomatoes to class (from parents who have gardens or from the farmer's market).

• Students will sort tomatoes by shape, size, and color.

Bring green tomatoes to class.

• Students will experiment with the best conditions for ripening the tomatoes- on the window sill, in a bag, in a bag with a ripe peach or some other ripe fruit, in a refrigerator.
• Students will predict which tomatoes will ripen first.
• Students will observe the ripening tomatoes for several days and record observations.

Tomato varieties have some interesting names: Arkansas Traveler, Big Rainbow, Black Krim, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Mortgage Lifter, and Big Boy, to name a few.

• Assign each student two or three tomato varieties.
• Students will write paragraphs or draw pictures describing what they think the tomatoes look like, based on their names.
• Students will research the varieties, using the internet, seed catalogs or plant books.
• Students will write stories or plays with the tomato varieties as characters.

P.A.S.S. for these activities

How to save tomato seeds.

Read about Tomatina, a festival held each year in Buñol, Spain, where they take playing with their food (tomatoes) to a new level.

Be a Food Explorer: Cold Tomato Soup

Soup is great for warming you up in the winter time, but have your students ever tried cold soup? Prepare a simple gazpacho (another good vocabulary word) with tomato juice, chopped fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and herbs like basil or parsley. Add lemon juice and a little olive oil, and chill thoroughly. Serve in small paper cups.

Tomato (1/2 cup, cubed)

Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

Ag in Poetry

Ode to Tomatoes, Poem by Pablo Neruda

• Bring some tomatoes to class and cut them in half to set the stage for reading this poem.
• Students will take turns reading the poem aloud.
• Students will list words they don't understand, look them up in a dictionary and discuss their meaning in the context of the poem.
• Discuss the ode as a poetry form (ode: a lyric poem usually marked by exaltation of feeling and style, varying length of line, and complexity of stanza forms). What makes this poem an ode?
• Divide the poem into parts based on changes in setting. (the street, the kitchen counter, etc.)
• Students will discuss the poet's purpose: to persuade, inform or entertain.
• What crime is committed in this poem? (murder) What does the crime represent? (cutting the tomato)
• In one part of the poem, Neruda describes a wedding. Who (what) is getting married? (the tomato and an onion)
• What other foods are mentioned in the poem? (onion, potato, olive oil, salt, pepper)
• Find and discuss examples in the poem of symbolism, imagery, metaphor, personification and simile.
• What time of year is described in the poem? (summer) What is the month? (December) Discuss. (The poem is set in Chile, which is located in a different hemisphere. Seasons are opposite ours)
• Where is the geographical setting for the poem? Find this country (Chile) on a world map. The tomato's birthplace is thought to be Peru. Where is Chile in relation to Peru?
• Discuss the poet's use of short lines. What is the effect of using short lines.
• Student will select images from the poem to illustrate or act out.
• Students will choose their own topic and write an ode.
• Students develop a category chart for the poem that shows color, senses, shapes, etc.

P.A.S.S. for these activities

Writing Prompts

• Write a comparative essay on the advantages and disadvantages of eating chicken with a fork.
• Pretend you are an Olympic athlete and write a letter home about the food.
• Describe your favorite breakfast and explain why you like it.
• Pretend you are a lost honeybee and describe your adventures trying to find your way back to the hive.
• Honeybees communicate with other honeybees through their movements. Write a song to accompany the honeybee dance that explains where to find the honey.
• You are a migrating Monarch butterfly. Describe some of the most interesting places you have visited.
• Use online or library resources to research hormone use in food production and describe the pros and cons. Review How Reliable Are Your Sources? before searching online.
• Describe your best state fair experience.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

• State Fair of Oklahoma is open September 11-21.
• Tulsa State Fair opens September 25.

Our nation's first fairs were all about agriculture

The first fairs in our country were all about agriculture. They were organized to introduce farmers to new animal breeds and other agricultural innovations.

After the War of Independence, patriotic gentlemen began forming agricultural societies to advance schemes that might help the US achieve economic self-sufficiency. Elkanah Watson was one such gentleman. He was a farmer and one-time revolutionary who traveled around Europe and recorded his observations about European manners, morals, farming, industry, etc. After retiring he returned to his native Massachusetts. In 1808 he held an exhibition on the village green to show two Merino sheep he had acquired. Merino sheep are valued for their fine fleece. Watson hoped to encourage local hillside farmers to raise the sheep in order to guarantee a steady supply of raw wool for his newly established wool factory.

Two years later Watson convinced local farmers to hold a larger livestock exhibition. Its success led to the establishment of the Berkshire Agricultural Society the following year, organized for the sole purpose of holding an annual county fair, The first fair was held in 1811. Prizes were offered for the best livestock in the county, and more than 3,000 people attended.

In  later fairs, women were invited to compete in the domestic skills of cloth production. The purpose of these competitions was to encourage local households to lessen their dependency on European products.

Other communities began to organize county fairs not only to compete but to learn. By the 1840s county fairs would come to be showcases for new American inventions, such as Cyrus McCormick's reaper and John Deere's steel plow, as well as for imported livestock. They also became the social event of the rural year. Fairs provided a morally legitimate and socially sanctioned reason for farm families to rest from their labors and travel to town to mingle and enjoy each other’s company. (Source: McCarry, John, and Randy Olson, County Fairs: Where America Meets, National Geographic Society, 1997.)

Cherokees held the first fair in what would become Oklahoma. In 1845, the Agricultural Society of the Cherokee Nation staged a one-day fair near Tahlequah to promote stock raising and the planting of cash crops.

September is Organic Harvest Month

Explore the different meanings of the word "organic" in this lesson.

Examine the differences between organic and conventionally-produced foods and learn to identify fact, opinion and various propoganda techniques with this lesson: Organic or Conventional

Browse all the lessons

P.A.S.S.

Food Fit for an Olympian

• Grade 3: Math Process - 1.1,2; 3.2; 4.4. Math Content - 3.1,2d
• Grade 4: Math Process - 1.1,2; 3.2; 4.4. Math Content - 1.2b; 3.1,4
• Grade 5: Math Process - 1.1,2; 3.2; 4.4. Math Content - 2.2a
• Grade 6: Math Process - 1.1,3; 4.1. Math Content - 1.2
• Grade 7: Math Process - 1.1,3; 4.1. Math Content - 1.1; 2.1b
• Grade 8: Math Process - 1.1,3; 4.1. Math Content - 2.1b

Time to Plant Winter Wheat

• Pre-Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.3,4. Life Science - 3.1,2,3. Earth Science - 4.3. Writing - 9.1,3
• Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.2,3. Life Science - 2.1,2. Earth Science - 3.3. Writing - 1.1
• Grade 1: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.1. Writing - 2.3
• Grade 2: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.1. Writing - 2.4
• Grade 3: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.1. Writing - 2.1
• Grade 4: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 3.1. Writing - 1.2
• Grade 5: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.2. Writing - 2.1
• Grade 6: Science Process - 3.1,5; 4.1,5. Life Science - 4.1,2. Earth Science - 5.3. Writing - 2.7
• Grade 7: Science Process - 3.1,5; 4.1,5. Life Science - 4.2. Writing - 2.8
• Grade 8: Science Process - 3.1,5; 4.5. Life Science - 3.2. Writing - 2.8

Shine On, Harvest Moon

• Grade 3: Reading - 6.1bde,2ab
• Grade 4: Reading - 4.1b; 5.2c
• Grade 5: Reading - 5.1a,2b. Science Process - 1.1; 3.1; 4.1. Earth Science - 3.3
• Grade 6: Reading - 5.1b
• Grade 7: Reading - 5.1abf. Science Process - 1.1; 3.1; 5.1. Earth Science - 6.1
• Grade 8: Reading - 5.1ab

Play With Your Food: Tomatoes

• Pre-Kindergarten: Math - 1.1. Science Process - 1.1,3,4,5. Physical Science - 2.1,2. Life Science - 3.2
• Kindergarten: Math - 1.1. Science Process - 1.1,2,3. Physical Science - 1.1,2. Life Science - 2.2
• Grade 1: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1; 3.1,2. Physical Science - 1.1,2
• Grade 2: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1
• Grade 3: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1. Reading - 6.2ab. Writing - 2.1,2,6
• Grade 4: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1. Reading - 5.2c. Writing - 2.2
• Grade 5: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1. Physical Science - 1.1. Reading - 5.1a. Writing - 2.2
• Grade 6: Science Process - 1.1; 2.1,2; 3.1. Physical Science 1.1. Reading - 5.1ab. Writing - 2.1abc

Ag in Poetry

• Grade 4: Reading - 1.4b; 3.1ab,2abd; 4.1ab,3ab. Writing - 2.2. Oral Language - 3.3
• Grade 5: Reading - 1.4b; 3.1ac,2abe,4ad; 4.1ab,2c,3bcd. Writing - 2.1,3. Oral Language - 3.2. Social Studies - 7.1,2,5
• Grade 6: Reading - 1.3b; 3.1a,3a,4d; 4.1a,2c,3acd,4b. Writing- 1.4; 2.7. Visual Literacy - 3.1. Oral Language - 1.2. Social Studies - 1.1,2; 2.3; 3.2,3
• Grade 7: Reading - 1.3bcd; 3.1ac,2a; 4.1a,3ac,4b. Writing - 1.4; 2.8. Oral Language - 1.2. Visual Literacy - 3.1. Social Studies - 1.1; 2.4; 3.2; 5.2
• Grade 8: Reading - 1.3bcd; 3.1a; 4.1a,3ac. Writing - 1.4; 2.8. Oral Language - 1.2. Visual Literacy - 3.1

Writing Prompts

• Grade 3: Reading - 6.1bc,2ab. Writing - 2.1,2,3ab,4,5,6abc
• Grade 4: Reading - 5.1abd,2acd. Writing - 2.1d,2,3
• Grade 5: Reading - 5.1ac,2bd. Writing - 2.1,2,3,4,6a,8a
• Grade 6: Reading - 5.1abcde,2abcd. Writing - 2.1abc,2abcd,3abc,4a,7,8
• Grade 7: Reading - 5.1ab,2ad. Writing - 2.2ab,3ab,8,9
• Grade 8: Reading - 5.1ab,2abe. Writing - 2.2abd, 3ab,5a,8,9

Play With Your Food: Stratification

• Grade 3: Science Process - 3.1,2. Life Science - 2.1,2
• Grade 4: Science Process - 3.1,3. Life Science - 3.1
• Grade 5: Science Process - 3.1,3. Life Science - 2.2

Ag in Art

• Grade 3: Visual Art - 1.1,2,3; 2.1,3. Social Studies - 3.2. Writing - 2.1,2,3ab,6ab. Visual Literacy - 2.1
• Grade 4: Visual Art - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,2. Writing - 2.1d,2. Visual Literacy - 2.1,4
• Grade 5: Visual Art - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,2,5. Writing - 2.2. Visual Literacy - 2.1
• Grade 6: Visual Art - 1.1,2; 2.2,5. Writing - 2.1a,4a,7. Visual Literacy - 1.1
• Grade 7:Visual Art - 1.4; 2.2. Writing - 2.4b,8. Visual Literacy - 1.1
• Grade 8: Visual Art - 1.4; 2.2. Social Studies - 1.2; 2.4. Writing - 2.5a,8. Visual Literacy - 1.2