With the fall harvest season coming up, planning begins for family and class fieldtrips to local farms and farm markets. People who live in farming communities have a much different understanding of what a farm can be than those who live in urban or suburban communities. The Maryland Agricultural Education Foundation, Inc. explains why we should teach about agriculture: “Incorporating agriculture into teaching and learning creates the foundation that students, as future citizens, need to make educated decisions regarding food choices and nutrition, community issues, land use planning, and natural resource conservation.” 

Getting to know where our food comes from is the first step and teachers want to plan meaningful, accurate experiences so young children can become familiar with food sources. We have tastings of different apple varieties, children graph their favorite flavor, and we read How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman (Dragonfly Books 1996).  My children enjoy seeing live farm animals at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Zoo where even the chickens have names. At Oxon Cove Park & Oxon Hill Farm, which replicates a historical farm, the Pre-k to 1st grade program on Animal Life on the Farm introduces children to the milking cows and chickens. (There is a PreK-1 teachers’ guide, Animal Life on the Farm to help teach about the animals and that they provide us with milk, eggs, wool and meat.)

We also visit the Claude Moore Colonial Farm in McLean, Virginia, “a living history museum that portrays family life on a small, low-income farm just prior to the Revolutionary War” where they raise tobacco, wheat, rye, corn, apples and vegetables, and heritage breeds that represent animals that were present in Virginia in the late 18th century.  The children delight in seeing live cattle, hogs and geese. Many children get their first experience with live farm animals at these museum farms. 

If we don’t live near farms of any kind, we can reach out to those who do for help in designing curriculum about food sources. National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) members have been answering one teacher’s request for help planning a social studies and science unit on farms for kindergarten students. The teacher’s planning began with activities such as, making homemade butter, milking a pretend cow, meeting and petting a real bunny, making a scarecrow, planting a vegetable garden, and meeting a real farmer.

Educators on the NSTA members’ listserv recommended first considering what the teacher wants children to learn about farms, and then prepare children ahead of time for a visit to a modern or historic farm. Here are some suggestions:

“Take it from someone who once took 20 (3) and (4) year olds from the inner city to a dairy farm. Singing Old MacDonald and doing cow puzzles had not in any way prepared them for the sight of those gigantic furry beasts lowing and breathing on them!”

“Everything we know about how young children learn tells us that REAL experiences (not one-shot activities and not worksheets) are what promote learning. Real experiences are even more critical when children are being introduced to concepts that they do not encounter in their everyday lives. My suggestion would be to provide as many authentic experiences about farms upfront and then have a fun farm day, having children help with planning and creating the activities.”

“Analyze and dissect ‘fruits’ to find seeds.”

“I highly advise “The Project Approach” by Judy Harris Helm. This helps teachers understand how to do in-depth investigations and learn the processes of engineering and science inquiry as well as develop understanding of the social world. As an Iowan growing up on a farm and now managing a farm for my mother, remember to consider female farmers as well as male.” Resources include: Young Investigators: The Project Approach in the Early Years (Teachers College Press 2010), Kohl Children’s Museum Projects of Chicagoland: Successful Implementation of the Project Approach 2009 (see pages 90-92), “Implementing the Project Approach in Part-time Early Childhood Education Programs” by Sallee Beneke (2000).

“If the class can’t get to a real farm, then providing kids with some real life experiences with the plants, animals, and activities found on a farm is the next best thing—having kids do some planting and growing of their own in a classroom garden, creating their own compost pile with worms; and hatching chicks and having other authentic experiences with farm animals. These types of activities extend way beyond one day and obviously require more time and commitment, however the pay-off in terms of what children will learn is well worth it. They will learn more about the characteristics, needs, and life cycles of living things and inter-dependency among living things.”

“And dig into soil!”

There are many books about farms, farm animals, and growing vegetables and fruit, but fewer about growing animals for meat. Adults can read or view media before choosing to share it with children. Farm animals may be discussed in great detail like in the delightful video, Come With Me Science, Farm Animals: Pigs by Pat Perea, which also lists products for human use from pigs. Lesson plans about farms often say “beef comes from,” and “chickens produce eggs and meat,” which could be misinterpreted by young children as unrelated to the animal’s death. The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture’s materials about beef begin at grade 3, and include book suggestions: Protein (Healthy Eating with My Plate) by Nancy Dickmann (Heinemann 2012) and Producing Meat (The Technology of Farming) by Rachel Lynette (Heinemann 2012). Children can read about a turkey farm in, My Family’s Farm, and a beef farm in My Family’s Beef Farm, both by Katie Olthoff.

The omission of butchering animals to produce meat reminds me of how the topic of death is avoided when teaching about life cycles—the animal or plant grows into an adult…and the story ends there. How do you include death of living organisms when you teach about a life cycle?

Books about animals eating other animals can be a stepping stone into the discussion of humans killing animals for food. Animals Eat Animals, a board book by Sarah Hutt and illustrated by Dave Ladd and Stephanie Anderson (Phaidon Press 2016), is a collection of three accordion-foldout volumes showing three food chains (humans not included). In What Do You Do When Something Wants To Eat You? Steve Jenkins’ always wonderful and realistic paper cutout illustrations depict many kinds of animals and what they do to avoid being eaten (HMH Books for Young Readers 1997). (See the teachers’ guide for Jenkins’ books.) The blog, The best children’s books.org lists additional books about food chains.

There are thoughtful discussions on talking about meat production with children—see “Kids and factory farming: Yes, tell them the truth” by Christina (Feb 27, 2012) and “Eating Reading Animals” by Jennifer Armstrong (May 1, 2010). That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals by Ruby Roth (North Atlantic Books 2009) presents a vegan perspective where “We strive for a world where every earthling has the right to live and grow.”

What do you think young children need to know about how meat arrives at their table?