Below are a range of educational programs and materials designed around students developing skills and making connections between food, farming, health, culture, and the environment. Within these resources are lesson plans, handouts, full curricula sets, and activities for integrating Essential Academic Learning Requirements. Though some have a small fee, most resources are free.
Books, Resources, and Activities for all ages, K -12
Agriculture in the Classroom is an online searchable database that lists hundreds of educational resources designed to help educators locate high quality classroom materials and information to increase agricultural literacy among their Pre-K through 12th grade students.
Washington Ag in the Classroom (WAIC) is a school-based education program aimed at enhancing agricultural literacy in K-12 students and educators. It is not a vocational agriculture program and does not promote products or political points of view. WAIC's goal is helping teachers, especially those with little knowledge of agriculture, integrate the study of this vast industry into existing curriculum. (includes lessons tied to EALRs)
The USDA SNAP-Ed Library has over 150 nutrition education curricula and lesson plans. There are also 47 social marketing campaigns, 154 evaluation tools, and a whole lot more!
My American Farm by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture is a free educational game platform used to engage pre-K through fifth grade learners in the discovery of relevant agricultural issues. Online games teach children math, reading, science and social studies skills in the context of agriculture.
My Plate, My State are resources for that combine topics such as food and nutrition, farmers and farmers markets, and the state's agriculture. The resources include lesson plans around gardening, agriculture and nutrition, as well as new MyPlate, MyState activity sheets that can be used throughout the school year.
Healthy Meals Resource System is a USDA resource site that has information about nutrition education, gardening, and cooking with kids.
Readers to Eaters, Food Literacy From the Ground Up is an organization with the mission to promote food literacy with events and programs that connect good eats and good reads.
Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State
In 2015, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 5433 modifying the original 2005 legislation, now requiring the Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State or other tribally-developed curriculum be taught in all schools. These “Ready to Go” lessons have been shared by Tribes and educators to provide quick access to a variety of complete lessons to implement along with or in addition to the Since Time Immemorial tribal sovereignty curriculum.
Sustainable Agriculture Resources and Programs for K-12 Youth, a resource list from ATTRA: Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas.
Harvest of the Month Lessons & Teaching Tools
Cafeterias and nutrition services departments sometimes feature a monthly locally produced product on school lunch menus through a promotion called "Harvest of the Month". Feature a Harvest of the Month product in the classroom through these resources and tools!
WSDA's Washington Grown Food & Recipe Kit is the primary resource for posters, signage, videos, educational activities, recipes, nutrition facts, and more materials for over 50 Washington grown products from WSDA and other partners.
Useful resources from other states include:- Oregon Department of Education, Harvest for Schools materials for 44 crops include a poster, "Classroom Connections" lesson, family newsletter, coloring page, sticker template, "passport" hand stamp, "Food Hero" newsletter, school garden identifier, and recipes.
- Network for a Healthy California, Harvest of the Month materials for 36 crops include an educator newsletter, family newsletter, community newsletter, and menu slick. Most materials also available in Spanish. También disponible en español.
Visit the Promotion and Educational Materials page for Harvest of the Month posters, signage, handouts, and other promotional tools.
Preschool and Kindergarten
The Kindergarden Initative, from The Food Trust, is a program that promotes healthy eating through education, snacks from local farms, parent involvement, and community support.
Elementary and Middle School
Action for Healthy Kids Resources is a searchable database for a wide range of materials, including lesson plans, toolkits, guides, fact sheets and more.
Ask the Answer Worm is a USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service program. Answers lots of questions about soil. Complete with a soil-saving diploma!
Cultivating Washington: The History of Our State's Food, Land, and People is intended to be a go-to resource for Washington state middle school educators seeking student-centered instructional materials that make learning about the history of the Pacific Northwest more relevant and meaningful for students. It is a resource for agricultural education teachers, parents, and community members interested in helping students discover the history and development of agriculture in the state of Washington.
Dairy Farm to School: From Moo to You is a Washington Dairy Council project that can help introduce Washington agriculture, get an overview of dairy farming and the steps of milk production, and link components to common core standards.
Food$ense CHANGE Curriculum, created by WSU King County Extension, integrates nutrition education with reading, writing, math and science studies, while providing hands-on learning in cooking and gardening for elementary aged children. CHANGE lessons are aligned to the Washington Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALR's) and Grade Level Expectations (GLE's). For Grades 1-5.
The Great Plant Escape from the Univeristy of Illinois Extension is desgined for 4th and 5th graders. It is interdisciplinary and designed to introduce students to plant science and increase their understanding of how foods grow. This interactive program includes a teacher guide, a variety of activities for independent and group work, and is available in English and Spanish.
Linking Food and the Environment, from the Center for Food and Environment at Columbia University's Teacher's College, uses investigations of food and food systems and their interactions in the biological world to address many of the national standards for scientific literacy as well as some of the federal guidelines for encouraging healthful eating through school health education. LiFE curriculum is currently comprised of four modules, with each module containing 20-30 lessons, geared to students in grades 4-8.
Real Food Show is a recording of a dynamic live assembly show originally produced by the Community Food Co-op in Bellingham, WA for elementary schools using an energetic, entertaining format to teach and motivate children to make healthy food and lifestyle choices. Through a series of fun routines involving visual aids, comedy, juggling, and other circus skills, the show presents easily accessible and memorable information in a highly entertaining and engaging way. The Real Food Show was written by Sam Williams, aka Smerdyakov, of the Flying Karamazov Brothers, and current and past show performers Della Plaster, Jason Quick, and Wren Schultz.
Starting with Soil is a new app from the Center for Ecoliteracy and Whole Kids Foundation that offers a playful, visually rich way to help kids understand that soil is a living system full of fascinating relationships.
Washington State Dairy Council Activities, Posters - A variety of activities, posters, curriculum and visuals featuring Washington grown products from every food group are featured by the Washington State Dairy Council at www.eatsmart.org. Every educator in the state is eligible for $25 per year of Council Cash to be used on eatsmart.org for nutrition education resources.
High School
FoodSpan - A free, downloadable high school curriculum that highlights critical issues in the food system and empowers students to be food citizens. It is aligned to national education standards in science, social studies, health, and family and consumer sciences. This curriculum stimulates debate about crucial food system topics related to human health, the environment, equity, and animal welfare. The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future developed FoodSpan as a natural outgrowth of the work it does to help build a healthier, more equitable, and more resilient food system.
Toward a Sustainable Agriculture - A free curriculum for high school students that addresses the social, environmental and economic impacts of agriculture. The curriculum provides a critical analysis of agricultural and food systems and helps students understand new concepts through hands-on examples. The curriculum was developed by the UW-Madison Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, with financial support from the North Central Sustainable Research and Education Program.
Feed and Food Safety In a Global Environment - These instruction modules for agriculture biology classes are A set of seven ready-to-use animal and human food safety instruction for the high school level from WSDA Animal Feed & Food Safety Program. These modules meet Washington State science or math standards emphasizing career options, global awareness, systems thinking and case studies in emergent diseases and intentional feed contamination.
Edge Perma - Edge Perma develops interactive virtual farm field trips that enhance agriculture education programs. The combination of a 3d model, 360° walkthrough, maps, photos, and farmer lead video create a unique, immersive learning experience for students.
If you have activities and curricula to share, please send them our way and we can post them on the site for more schools to use. Also, send us your photos and we can post those too!