June 2026 | Issue #178 Click 'View Entire Message' to make sure you don't miss important information! | | Eric's presentation will cover how to engage students in meaningful agricultural learning through story. Participants will explore ways to integrate agricultural literacy across content areas using two picture books: Wild Blueberries for ME by Maine Agriculture in the Classroom and I Love Blueberries by Shannon Anderson. | | Carissa will be sharing how students have engaged with aquaculture and oyster farming to better understand sustainable ocean food systems using GMRI's free, online game and virtual field trip resources of a working, Maine-based oyster farm. | | Nora's workshop will model strategies used at Blue Hill Community School for Pre-K thru 8th grade students to celebrate National Agriculture Week in collaboration with their Maine AITC resources. | | Robin's hands-on workshop looks at curriculum from The Gulf of Maine Research Institute investigating some of the challenges facing Maine farmers and exploring changes and solutions being tried as potato farmers and scientists work together to build a more climate resilient future for their community. | | | | |
FSTS Conference
The Maine Farm & Sea to School Network has hosted the Maine Farm & Sea to School Conference since 2015. Returning after a long pause, this statewide one-day event is open to everybody and dedicated to growing and strengthening Farm & Sea to School across Maine. This year, the conference welcomes both K–12 schools and early childhood education (ECE) programs.
You're invited to join K–12 educators, ECE providers, school nutrition professionals, local businesses, students, and advocates from across Maine for a full day of networking, hands-on workshops, and shared learning. They'll explore increasing local food in cafeterias and meal programs, growing gardens in schools and early childhood settings, and integrating food and agriculture into curriculum all while building the connections that make Farm & Sea to School thrive across Maine.
| | |
A year-long FREE experience in your classroom!
Forget the guinea pig. How about adopting a 100-pound dairy calf for your classroom mascot by joining the Adopt A Cow program?! Don’t worry about finding a pen big enough to hold her. The photos and stories Discover Dairy will send you about her life on the farm will make her “come alive” for your students! The best part? It is FREE!
| | Maine School Garden Network News | | | | |
MSGN School Garden Summer Tours kick off in June with Falmouth Schools on Thursday June 25th at 10am. This tour is hosted with Maine Farm and Sea to Institution Network.
You can find a full list of Summer Garden Tours here. Be sure to RSVP to brittany@msgn.org.
|
Thanks to funding from the Sewall Foundation, the Maine School Garden Network is proud to continue their School Garden Caretakers grant program in 2026 by offering three (3) $2,000 grants to pay School Garden Caretakers in Maine! The online application will open in June and be due August 30th. For more information, go to: msgn.org/resources/financing/ |
MSGN recently announced that Edgecomb Elementary School was honored as the School Garden of the Year 2027 at the Calendar Preview Party! In addition to being selected as one of the school gardens in the calendar, the School Garden of the Year also receives the cover image on the calendar. The 2027 School Garden of the Month Calendar is available for purchase now at MSGN.org. This calendar can also be purchased at a wholesale price in lots of 10 or more to use as a fundraiser for school gardens. | | |
Grades K-2
Eating Plants
Students identify the structure and function of six plant parts and classify fruits and vegetables according to which parts of the plants are edible.
| | |
Grades 6-8
DNA: Expressions in Agriculture
This lesson centers around the activity of extracting DNA from a strawberry while highlighting careers in biotechnology and agriculture.
| | |
Grades 9-12
Strawberry Breeding
and Genetics
Students learn about DNA by extracting it from strawberries. Students also analyze the similarities and differences of their extraction process to those on Genetic Engineering: The Journey of a Gene.
| | Looking for more? Explore the Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix HERE | | 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. | |  | From an award-winning Native American storyteller comes this captivating re-telling of a Cherokee legend, which explains how strawberries came to be. Long ago, the first man and woman quarrelled. The woman left in anger, but the Sun sent tempting berries to Earth to slow the woman's retreat. | | | |
Don't forget that all SIX of our Agriculture for ME books are available to read online!
Classroom teachers and Homeschool providers can also request a hard copy set of books at no cost by email.
| | |
Funding from this plate impacts up to 200,000 students annually with lessons, materials, volunteers and teacher training. Additionally, up to $60K is distributed annually in grants to schools, FFA, 4-H and other Non-profit programs for Ag education initiatives by the Maine Agriculture in the Classroom Council.
Learn more about the Ag plate here.
| | |
Our Mission Statement
"To promote the understanding of agriculture and natural resources among students, educators, and the general public"
| | | |
28 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
(207)287-5522
| |
| | | |
