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December 2025 | Issue #171
*make sure to click "View entire message" to get access to the full newsletter!*
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Registration is OPEN! The Northeast Livestock Expo (NELE) Kids Day returns to the Windsor Fairgrounds on Friday, May 15, 2026.
A full day field trip experience for grades K-4, NELE Kids Day offers students the opportunity to interact with over 30 agricultural exhibits and commodities that they may not otherwise have access to.
Busing is reimbursable for schools within a 60 mile radius. Only 2500 students are accepted, so register today!
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2026 MAITC Summer Teacher's Institute
August 3 - 7, 2026
Downeast Institute, Beals, ME
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Located on the rocky coast, in 2026 we will be at the Marine Science Station for the University of Maine! Tours include marine, wild blueberry, aquaculture, and downeast agriculture! You will NOT want to miss this!
38 Contact Hours Awarded – 3.8 CEUs
Agenda at a Glance
- Monday, August 3 – Travel to the Institute in Washington County – Move in, Lunch included, Orientation, guest speakers
- Tuesday, August 4 – 8:00 AM Start, speakers & resources, Curricula, and meals on campus
- Wednesday, August 5 – Bus Tour of Local Agriculture, dinner off-site – evening activity
- Thursday, August 6 – Bus Tour Continues – Aquaculture and MORE!
- Friday, August 7 – Breakfast, classroom and lunch on Campus with afternoon to Travel home
Conference fee is $225.00 before the deadline of July 14, 2026, or $275 afterward (if space is still available). This is a First Come, First Served opportunity!
Register Here!
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Hemlock Monitoring and Stewardship
Thursday, December 4
9:30 AM–3:30 PM | Ferry Beach Retreat & Conference Center
Join educators, scientists, and conservation professionals from across the northeast supporting youth in forest research and stewardship
Maple Sugaring in a Changing Climate
Sunday, December 7
9:30 AM–4 PM | University of Maine - Cooperative Extension Building
Join GMRI staff and educators in Orono for a day long workshops to learn about this Maine-focused maple curriculum resource.
Maple Sugaring in a Changing Climate
Monday, January 12
9:30 AM–4 PM | Gulf of Maine Research Institute
Join GMRI staff and educators in Orono for a day long workshops to learn about this Maine-focused maple curriculum resource.
MOFGA Gardener to Gardener Conference
Sunday, February 8
9 AM - 5:30pm | Holiday Inn by the Bay
The Gardener to Gardener conference will offer in-depth learning opportunities for gardeners of all backgrounds and levels of experience. Gardeners will have opportunities to connect with, and learn from, prominent university faculty, service providers, farmers, and of course, fellow gardeners — through speaker sessions, meals, and activities.
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Purple Plow: Hands on Challenges!
Are you looking for hands-on STEM challenges for middle or high school students? Check out Purple Plow at https://www.purpleplow.org/, brought to you by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture and Corteva Agriscience. Purple Plow offers real-world agricultural challenges where students design, build, test, and present solutions - and they can even win great prizes!
Explore the current challenge or browse the Challenge Library complete with digital resources for use in your classroom, homeschool group, after-school club, or 4-H program. If a full challenge feels like too much, try their smaller Puzzlers, where “bite-sized is the right size.”
| | Inspire students to creatively problem-solve while they learn about agricultural science, engineering, and the real-world challenges shaping our food and fiber systems. | | |
Grades K-2
Growing Up Evergreen
In this activity, students will explore how evergreen trees grow from cone to maturity by reading Where Would I Be in an Evergreen Tree? by Jennifer Blomgren and by making a bird feeder from a pine cone.
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Grades 3-5
Discover Christmas Trees
Students explore the history of the Christmas tree, explain the life cycle of a conifer, identify types of trees and how they adapt, discover what it's like to work on a Christmas tree farm, and examine the ecology of conifer trees.
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Grades 6-8
Walnuts: Naturally Nutritious
Students will interpret and compare nutrition labels to make healthy food choices and learn about the nutritional value of walnuts. Students will also have a walnut taste test and use walnuts in a recipe.
| | Looking for more? Explore the Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix HERE | | Throughout the years, Paige has trimmed the trees, Mom has mowed the paths, and one extra special tree was planted for Kate. She and her tree are both seven years old and—finally!—the tree has grown tall enough to be brought inside and decorated for Christmas. Little brother Henry loves the tree so much that the family decides to graft a piece of it so they can grow Henry his very own Christmas tree too. This holiday picture book features information on how trees are grown and cared for on a farm. | |  | Each year on Christmas Eve, Rosie's abuela, mamá, tía, sister, and cousins all gather together in abuela's kitchen to make tamales—cleaning corn husks, chopping onions and garlic, roasting chilis, kneading cornmeal dough, seasoning the filling, and folding it all—and tell stories. Rosie learns from her abuela not only how to make a delicious tamale, but how to make a delicious life, one filled with love, plenty of spice, and family. | | | |
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.
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Our Mission Statement
"To promote the understanding of agriculture and natural resources among students, educators, and the general public"
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28 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
(207)287-5522
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