Shine on, Harvest Moon

Throughout the year the Moon rises, on average, about 50 minutes later each day. But near the autumnal equinox, the day-to-day difference in the local time of moonrise is only 30 minutes. The Moon will rise around sunset and not long after sunset for the next few evenings. This is a big help to Northern Hemisphere farmers during harvest because it provides extra light for harvesting crops.

• Students will research online to find when the harvest moon is expected this year.
• Students will observe and chart the harvest moon as a homework assignment.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Autumn begins September 22

More ideas for fall from your fellow teachers

Browse all the lessons

September is National Honey Month

Honey is delicious, but did you know honeybees are more valuable for the job they do pollinating crops than they are for their honey?

OAITC bee lessons

Facts about bees and honey

Silence of the Bees (PBS video)

Oklahoma Fruit of the Month: Peaches

China is widely held to be the native home of peaches. This is supported by the fact that there is a wide range of wild peach types in the countryside. Originally the peach grew in North China in areas of erosion and overgrazing. They were a symbol of fertility and affection.

Peaches rank 21 among Oklahoma agricultural commodities and Oklahoma peaches rank 25 nationwide. While peaches are not a big cash receipts commodity for Oklahoma, they are important to several counties in the state. Peaches are primarily grown in Wagoner county, near Porter, and in Garvin and Pontotoc counties near Stratford. There are also some orchards in eastern Oklahoma county. Production in an average year totals around 12 million pounds.

Roald Dahl's birthday is September 13. Celebrate with a Giant Peach Day. Read James and the Giant Peach while eating sliced peaches with yogurt or some other peach snack.

Play With Your Food: Stratification

1. Students use the Scientific Study Format to design their experiment with stratification.
2. Save peach pits to plant.
3. If the pit has dried out, soak it overnight in water.
4. Plant in 2 to 3 inches of potting medium.
5. Some pits will germinate after 2 or 3 weeks, some after 2, 3 or more months. Some may not germinate at all, so try different varieties.
6. Peach pits sometimes germinate better after a cold treatment:
7. Put the pit in a zip lock bag with enough potting medium to cover. The soil should be just barely moist.
8. Put the zip lock bag in a refrigerator. It may take 2 to 3 months to see growth.
9. Transplant to a pot once the root is a 1/2 inch or more in length.
10. This procedure is called stratification.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

Be a Food Explorer: Dried Peaches

People travelling west in the 19th Century often carried dried peaches. Dry some peaches in a food dehydrator or in an oven at low heat. Have students try peaches dried, canned, fresh and frozen. Which do they like best? Sliced fresh peaches are a great addition to cereal for a healthy breakfast. Canned peaches taste great with plain yogurt. Add a little granola for crunch.

Peach (1 medium peach)

Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

More about peaches

September is National Mushroom Month

Picture a mature tomato plant, buried so that not a single leaf appears above ground. Overnight a rain falls, and in the morning the soil begins to crack. Suddenly tiny tomatoes pop through. If you watch closely, you can just about see them expand. Within a few days, they're round, ripe and ready for picking. If you can imagine that, then you've got an idea of how mushrooms grow. The part we see and eat is only the fruit. The mushroom plant, called the mycelium, does all of its growing underground (or inside a tree or other growing medium).

More about mushrooms

How mushrooms are produced

Mushrooms (poem by Sylvia Plath, with discussion questions and P.A.S.S.-aligned activities)

What other organisms reproduce by spores instead of seeds? Check out Where the Blue Fern Grows. (Now, at the beginning of the school year, is a great time to start this activity, since it takes a long time for ferns to grow from spores.)

September is Organic Harvest Month

Explore the different meanings of the word "organic" in this lesson.

Examine the differences between organic and conventionally-produced foods and learn to identify fact, opinion and various propoganda techniques with this lesson: Organic or Conventional

Between 2002 and 2007 the number of organic farms in Oklahoma grew from six to 131.

Browse all the lessons

September is Food Safety Education Month

Online AITC Food Safety Lessons

• Hot Off the Grill
• How Germs Spread
• Biosecurity Keeps Everyone Safe

September 6 is Read a Book Day

Check out our list of ag-related books for chldren and young adults.

September 15 is the birthday of children's author and illustrator Robert McCloskey. One day McCloskey noticed some ducks crossing the road and holding up traffic. He decided they would be a good subject for a picture book. He wanted to observe them more closely in order to draw them, so he picked up four ducks and took them home to his studio apartment in Boston. He said, "The ducks had plenty to say—especially in the morning. I spent the next weeks on my hands and knees, armed with a box of Keenex and a sketchbook, following the ducks around the studio and observing them in the bathtub." All that observation and drawing became Make Way for Ducklings (1941), which won a Caldecott. (from Garrison Keillor's "Writer's Almanac," September 15, 2009)

Books for September

Dahl, Roald, and Lane Smith, James and the Giant Peach, Puffin, 2000. (Grades 4-6)

When James Henry Trotter loses his parents in a horrible rhinoceros accident, he is forced to live with his two wicked aunts. One day, an old man in a dark-green suit gives James a bag of magic crystals . When James accidentally spills the crystals on his aunts' withered peach tree, he sets the adventure in motion. From the old tree a single peach grows, and grows, and grows some more, until finally James climbs inside the giant fruit and rolls away from his despicable aunts to a whole new life.

Easton, Patricia Harrison, and Herb Ferguson, A Week at the Fair: A County Celebration (3-6)

Detailed account of the care and judging of animals at a county fair, as told by a young 4-H'er showing her pig and the family's horse. Nice photographs and a great deal of text.

Gibbons, Gail, Chicks and Chickens, Holiday House, 2000. (Grades K-3)

Diagrams, definitions, and close-up views help viewers and readers understand more about raising chickens. Gibbons informs readers that a chicken can lay unfertilized eggs as well as fertilized, shows the development of chicks within the shell, and indicates how some chicks are raised under artificial conditions. A double-page spread shows different breeds, cutaways show the function of a gizzard, and the development of an egg within a hen. While the book is more complex than many preschoolers and kindergartners are used to, it suits perfectly those farm units where children's questions can be easily answered.

Johnson, Sylvia, Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn and Beans: How the Foods of the Americas Changed Eating Around the World, Atheneum, 1996. Grades 6-8)

Landau, Elaine, Wheat, Scholastic, 2000. (Grades 3-5)

The history, cultivation, and uses of wheat - from the True Book Series.

Pelham, David, Sam's Pizza: Your Pizza to Go, Dutton, 1996. (Grades K-3)

A pop-up book that shows what happens when siblings are allowed to cook for one another and hides among the more typical pizza ingredients several less-appetizing ones.

Rotner, Shelley, and Julia Pemberton Hellums, Hold the Anchovies! A Book About Pizza, Orchard, 1996. (Grades K-3).

Full-color photographs illustrate each step of the pizza-making process, as young pizza lovers learn how flour comes from wheat fields, the reason why dough rises, and the origins of popular toppings.

Spurll, Margriet, and Barbara, Emma's Eggs, Stoddart, 1997. (picture book, Grades 4-7)

Emma is one ambitious young chicken. When she discovers that she has a talent for creating eggs, she won't rest until she executes the perfect delivery. To her surprise, Emma learns that a little patience can go a long way, and can sometimes be more productive than trying too hard to please.

Sturges, Philemon, and Amy Walrod, The Little Red Hen: (Makes a Pizza), Dutton, 1999.

Children will enjoy following the process of making a pizza as the Little Red Hen - who can get no help from the duck, the dog, or the cat - buys an appropriate pan, kneads the dough, cuts and chops vegetables (and other stuff) for a fabulous topping, and bakes a humongous pizza ("It was lovely, but it wasn't little"). Despite many a "Not I," the duck, the dog, and the cat finally do help out in surprising ways.

More books about chickens

More books about fruits and vegetables

More books about wheat

Suggest a book.

September Art

"The Sick Chicken," watercolor, gouache and graphite on paper, Winslow Homer, 1874

Winslow Homer had been working as an artist for nearly two decades when he began using watercolors. Long the domain of amateur painters, watercolors had gained professional respectability in 1866 with the formation of the American Water Color Society. Homer recognized their potential for profit—for he could produce and sell them quickly—but he also liked the way watercolor allowed him to experiment more easily than oil.

Homer first worked as an illustrator. He sent back illustrations from the battlefields of the Civil War. After the war he traveled the countryside and painted men, women, and children in many different climates and circumstances. Homer is known for the roughness of his style which reflected 19th Century America. His finished work appears oddly unfinished, as if he were painting on the run and implying that what you see is about to change.

P.A.S.S.-aligned dicussion questions and activities for this painting

More Ag in Art

National Chicken Month

In 2007, poultry and eggs were the third most valuable agricultural commodity in our state. Celebrate National Chicken Month with these online poultry lessons:

• Clucking Chickens - Students explore sound with clucking chickens made from plastic cups and string. (New: Power Point presentation for this lesson)
• A Lucky Break - Student identify and decipher some common phrases in the English language that are related to poultry.

One of the biggest challenges for the poultry industry is the safe disposal of poultry waste. Learn how waste becomes a valuable resource with this lesson.

In Gainesville, Georgia, the chicken capital of the world, it is illegal to eat chicken with a fork.

More Facts About Chickens and Eggs

Rooster Puppet Pattern

Consider planting some fall vegetables your students may never have tried. If you have an outdoor classroom, or just a little space outdoors, you can still plant:

• kale - so pretty it is often planted with pansies in the fall, but you can eat it, too.
• kohlrabi - what a great vocabulary word.
• mustard - for mustard greens, but your students might be interested in seeing the plant which produces the seeds that are ground into the condiment they use on their sandwiches.
• spinach
• peas
• Swiss chard
• turnips

In October, harvest the greens, chop them up, and throw them into a nice soup or stir fry - or have a tasting party and try them raw. Plants grown for harvest in the fall require some special treatment. OSU's Fall Gardening Fact Sheet walks you through the process.

Activities with leafy greens.

Oklahoma Vegetable of the Month: Tomatoes

Tomatoes love hot weather but stop producing once temperatures get down to 50 degrees. They ripen best at temperatures around 75 degrees. Savvy gardeners started new plants in July, so there may still be some delicious tomatoes available at your local farmer's market.

Of course the most important thing about tomatoes is that they are sooooo good for you. Tomatoes are high in Vitamins A and C and are considered one of the best sources of lycopene, an antioxidant that helps fight cancer and some other diseases.

The heaviest tomato ever grown weighed 7 lb, 12 oz. It was of the cultivar 'Delicious' and was grown by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklahoma in 1986.

More tomato facts

More activities with tomatoes and other members of the nightshade family

Play With Your Food: Tomatoes

Bring a variety of tomatoes to class (from parents who have gardens or from the farmer's market).

• Students will sort tomatoes by shape, size, and color.

Bring green tomatoes to class.

• Students will experiment with the best conditions for ripening the tomatoes- on the window sill, in a bag, in a bag with a ripe peach or some other ripe fruit, in a refrigerator.
• Students will predict which tomatoes will ripen first.
• Students will observe the ripening tomatoes for several days and record observations.

Tomato varieties have some interesting names: Arkansas Traveler, Big Rainbow, Black Krim, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Mortgage Lifter, and Big Boy, to name a few.

• Assign each student two or three tomato varieties.
• Students will write paragraphs or draw pictures describing what they think the tomatoes look like, based on their names.
• Students will research the varieties, using the internet, seed catalogs or plant books.
• Students will write stories or plays with the tomato varieties as characters.

P.A.S.S. for these activities

How to save tomato seeds.

Read about Tomatina, a festival held each year in Buñol, Spain, where they take playing with their food (tomatoes) to a new level.

Be a Food Explorer: Cold Tomato Soup

Soup is great for warming you up in the winter time, but have your students ever tried cold soup? Prepare a simple gazpacho (another good vocabulary word) with tomato juice, chopped fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet peppers and herbs like basil or parsley. Add lemon juice and a little olive oil, and chill thoroughly. Serve in small paper cups.

Tomato (1/2 cup, cubed)

Percent daily values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

Source: Centers for Disease Control

Ag in Poetry: Ode to Tomatoes

Ode to Tomatoes, Poem by Pablo Neruda, with discussion questions and P.A.S.S.-aligned activities

Writing Prompts

• Write a comparative essay on the advantages and disadvantages of eating chicken with a fork.
• Describe your favorite breakfast and explain why you like it.
• Write a menu for the All-American breakfast.
• Pretend you are a lost honeybee and describe your adventures trying to find your way back to the hive.
• Honeybees communicate with other honeybees through their movements. Write a song to accompany the honeybee dance that explains where to find the honey.
• You are a migrating Monarch butterfly. Describe some of the most interesting places you have visited.
• Use online or library resources to research hormones use in food production and describe the pros and cons. Review How Reliable Are Your Sources? before searching online.
• Describe your best state fair experience.

P.A.S.S. for this activity

• Oklahoma State Fair is open September 17-27.
• Tulsa State Fair opens October 1-11.

Our nation's first fairs were all about agriculture

The first fairs in our country were all about agriculture. They were organized to introduce farmers to new animal breeds and other agricultural innovations.

After the War of Independence, patriotic gentlemen began forming agricultural societies to advance schemes that might help the US achieve economic self-sufficiency. Elkanah Watson was one such gentleman. He was a farmer and one-time revolutionary who traveled around Europe and recorded his observations about European manners, morals, farming, industry, etc. After retiring he returned to his native Massachusetts. In 1808 he held an exhibition on the village green to show two Merino sheep he had acquired. Merino sheep are valued for their fine fleece. Watson hoped to encourage local hillside farmers to raise the sheep in order to guarantee a steady supply of raw wool for his newly established wool factory.

Two years later Watson convinced local farmers to hold a larger livestock exhibition. Its success led to the establishment of the Berkshire Agricultural Society the following year, organized for the sole purpose of holding an annual county fair, The first fair was held in 1811. Prizes were offered for the best livestock in the county, and more than 3,000 people attended.

In  later fairs, women were invited to compete in the domestic skills of cloth production. The purpose of these competitions was to encourage local households to lessen their dependency on European products.

Other communities began to organize county fairs not only to compete but to learn. By the 1840s county fairs would come to be showcases for new American inventions, such as Cyrus McCormick's reaper and John Deere's steel plow, as well as for imported livestock. They also became the social event of the rural year. Fairs provided a morally legitimate and socially sanctioned reason for farm families to rest from their labors and travel to town to mingle and enjoy each other’s company. (Source: McCarry, John, and Randy Olson, County Fairs: Where America Meets, National Geographic Society, 1997.)

Cherokees held the first fair in what would become Oklahoma. In 1845, the Agricultural Society of the Cherokee Nation staged a one-day fair near Tahlequah to promote stock raising and the planting of cash crops.

P.A.S.S.

Time to Plant Winter Wheat

• Pre-Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.3,4. Life Science - 3.1,2,3. Earth Science - 4.3. Writing - 9.1,3
• Kindergarten: Science Process - 1.2,3. Life Science - 2.1,2. Earth Science - 3.3. Writing - 1.1
• Grade 1: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.1. Writing - 2.3
• Grade 2: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.1. Writing - 2.4
• Grade 3: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.1. Writing - 2.1
• Grade 4: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 3.1. Writing - 1.2
• Grade 5: Science Process - 3.1,2; 4.3. Life Science - 2.2. Writing - 2.1
• Grade 6: Science Process - 3.1,5; 4.1,5. Life Science - 4.1,2. Earth Science - 5.3. Writing - 2.7
• Grade 7: Science Process - 3.1,5; 4.1,5. Life Science - 4.2. Writing - 2.8
• Grade 8: Science Process - 3.1,5; 4.5. Life Science - 3.2. Writing - 2.8

Shine On, Harvest Moon

• Grade 3: Reading - 6.1bde,2ab
• Grade 4: Reading - 4.1b; 5.2c
• Grade 5: Reading - 5.1a,2b. Science Process - 1.1; 3.1; 4.1. Earth Science - 3.3
• Grade 6: Reading - 5.1b
• Grade 7: Reading - 5.1abf. Science Process - 1.1; 3.1; 5.1. Earth Science - 6.1
• Grade 8: Reading - 5.1ab

Food Guide Pizza

• Grade 4: Reading - 4.3b. Writing - 2.1bc,2. Visual Literacy - 2.1; 3. Math Process - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,3; 3.2; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content - 5.1a
• Grade 5: Reading - 1.1b; 4.3c. Writing - 2.1,3.Visual Literacy - 2.1; 3
• Grade 6: Reading - 1.1b; 4.3a. Writing - 2.7. Visual Literacy - 1.1; 3. Math Process - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,3; 3.2; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content - 3.1; 5.1a
• Grade 7: Reading - 1.3c. Writing - 2.8. Visual Literacy - 1.1; 3.1. Math Process - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,3; 3.2; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content - 4.1; 5.1
• Grade 8: Reading - 1.3c. Writing - 2.8. Visual Literacy - 3.1. Math Process - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,3; 3.2; 4.1,4; 5.1,2. Math Content - 4.1,2; 5.1

Play With Your Food: Tomatoes

• Pre-Kindergarten: Math - 1.1. Science Process - 1.1,3,4,5. Physical Science - 2.1,2. Life Science - 3.2
• Kindergarten: Math - 1.1. Science Process - 1.1,2,3. Physical Science - 1.1,2. Life Science - 2.2
• Grade 1: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1; 3.1,2. Physical Science - 1.1,2
• Grade 2: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1
• Grade 3: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1. Reading - 6.2ab. Writing - 2.1,2,6
• Grade 4: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1. Reading - 5.2c. Writing - 2.2
• Grade 5: Science Process - 1.2; 2.1. Physical Science - 1.1. Reading - 5.1a. Writing - 2.2
• Grade 6: Science Process - 1.1; 2.1,2; 3.1. Physical Science 1.1. Reading - 5.1ab. Writing - 2.1abc.

Ag in Poetry

• Grade 4: Reading - 1.4b; 3.1ab,2abd; 4.1ab,3ab. Writing - 2.2. Oral Language - 3.3
• Grade 5: Reading - 1.4b; 3.1ac,2abe,4ad; 4.1ab,2c,3bcd. Writing - 2.1,3. Oral Language - 3.2. Social Studies - 7.1,2,5
• Grade 6: Reading - 1.3b; 3.1a,3a,4d; 4.1a,2c,3acd,4b. Writing- 1.4; 2.7. Visual Literacy - 3.1. Oral Language - 1.2. Social Studies - 1.1,2; 2.3; 3.2,3
• Grade 7: Reading - 1.3bcd; 3.1ac,2a; 4.1a,3ac,4b. Writing - 1.4; 2.8. Oral Language - 1.2. Visual Literacy - 3.1. Social Studies - 1.1; 2.4; 3.2; 5.2
• Grade 8: Reading - 1.3bcd; 3.1a; 4.1a,3ac. Writing - 1.4; 2.8. Oral Language - 1.2. Visual Literacy - 3.1

Writing Prompts

• Grade 3: Reading - 6.1bc,2ab. Writing - 2.1,2,3ab,4,5,6abc
• Grade 4: Reading - 5.1abd,2acd. Writing - 2.1d,2,3
• Grade 5: Reading - 5.1ac,2bd. Writing - 2.1,2,3,4,6a,8a
• Grade 6: Reading - 5.1abcde,2abcd. Writing - 2.1abc,2abcd,3abc,4a,7,8
• Grade 7: Reading - 5.1ab,2ad. Writing - 2.2ab,3ab,8,9
• Grade 8: Reading - 5.1ab,2abe. Writing - 2.2abd, 3ab,5a,8,9

Play With Your Food: Stratification

• Grade 3: Science Process - 3.1,2. Life Science - 2.1,2
• Grade 4: Science Process - 3.1,3. Life Science - 3.1
• Grade 5: Science Process - 3.1,3. Life Science - 2.2

Ag in Art

• Grade 3: Visual Art - 1.1,2,3; 2.1,3. Social Studies - 3.2. Writing - 2.1,2,3ab,6ab. Visual Literacy - 2.1
• Grade 4: Visual Art - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,2. Writing - 2.1d,2. Visual Literacy - 2.1,4
• Grade 5: Visual Art - 1.1,2,3,4; 2.1,2,5. Writing - 2.2. Visual Literacy - 2.1
• Grade 6: Visual Art - 1.1,2; 2.2,5. Writing - 2.1a,4a,7. Visual Literacy - 1.1
• Grade 7:Visual Art - 1.4; 2.2. Writing - 2.4b,8. Visual Literacy - 1.1
• Grade 8: Visual Art - 1.4; 2.2. Social Studies - 1.2; 2.4. Writing - 2.5a,8. Visual Literacy - 1.2