Redmond FFA brings agricultural literacy project to Tom McCall Elementary
REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Redmond FFA members energized students at Tom McCall Elementary School earlier this week as they celebrated the accomplishments of Dr. Temple Grandin, a renowned animal scientist and her advancements in increasing livestock comfort through corral designs.
The event marked the kickoff of Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom’s annual Agricultural Literacy project.
Each year, Oregon AITC organizes a statewide literacy project partnering with volunteers from agricultural communities across the state. Featuring an agriculturally themed book, volunteers visit local classrooms and lead students in a lesson plan that reinforces key messages in the story while increasing literacy and agricultural knowledge of Oregon students.
This year’s book is The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin; which tells the true story of renowned animal scientist, Dr. Grandin and her remarkable journey as she navigates through school as a child with autism overcoming adversity, to designing livestock handling systems used worldwide.
This book allows us the opportunity to celebrate the diverse students within our communities empowering student’s differences and reinforcing messages of kindness.
Twelve Redmond FFA students collaborated with Oregon AITC to engage elementary students in fun and exciting activities to kick off the assembly early Wednesday morning that concluded with the reading of the book.
After the assembly, Tom McCall Elementary students returned to their classes, where they were visited by FFA members who led them in a follow-up lesson, which allowed the young students the opportunity to engineer their own corral systems using concepts they learned in the story.
Dawn Alexander, a fifth-grade teacher at Tom McCall Elementary and Oregon AITC board member praised the project as not only being a great opportunity to celebrate agriculture as a school community but also providing the opportunity to “expose young students to the importance of agriculture and an industry that takes all types of young innovative minds.”
To learn more about how you can volunteer with this project or to bring a volunteer to your classroom, visit oregonaitc.org/literacy-project.
About Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom: Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation (AITC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping students grow in their knowledge of Oregon’s agriculture, environment and natural resources. AITC provides free educational lessons, activities and resource materials to Oregon educators to support the integration of agricultural themes into academic subjects such as math, science, history and language arts. For more information, visit the AITC website at www.oregonaitc.org.
