Redmond, Bend students among 13 honored with their artwork to be featured in Agriculture in the Classroom calendar
SALEM, Oregon (KTVZ) – Two Central Oregon students were among 13 third- through fifth-graders honored during a reception held at the Oregon State Fair on Friday, August 25. Their artwork was selected among 1,722 entries submitted to the AITC Calendar Art Contest, sponsored by Oregon Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation.
The AITC Calendar Art Contest showcases Oregon’s diverse agricultural and natural resource commodities.
This year, artwork was submitted by students in kindergarten through sixth grade across the state in public, private, charter and homeschool education systems featuring Oregon agriculture and natural resources. The entries received celebrated Oregon’s diverse agriculture with artwork depicting a wide variety of Oregon’s 220 agricultural commodities.
The two Central Oregon students receiving this honor came from Tom McCall Elementary School in Redmond and Highland Magnet School in Bend.
Joshua Capson, a fourth-grader at Tom McCall Elementary, drew a crab and can be viewed on the March page of the calendar. In describing the artwork, Joshua said, “I drew this crab because crabs provide both food and a fun family activity in Oregon. This little crab also has a story behind it. When we were doing our earth day projects one of my classmates said, since the world is 75% water, are we crabs? That's when we made a little joke in our class that 'we are crabs.'”
Highland Magnet School third-grade student Blake Porter’s artwork depicted Oregon’s growing regions and commonly grown products and can be viewed on the August page of the calendar.
“The calendar contest is a great project for teachers and students to cultivate creativity while celebrating agriculture’s beauty and bountiful lessons,” said Brittany Capell, AITC’s Education Programs Coordinator. Each month in the calendar features one of the winning student’s art and each day of the year has a fact about agriculture.
The 13 students selected to be featured in our 2023-2024 calendar received a $50 award and certificate to commemorate this honor. The winning artwork will be displayed at the Oregon State Fair which runs through Labor Day in Salem. Calendars are free to Oregon teachers, and can be ordered for just $4 on oregonaitc.org/shop.
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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.
