Featured
Stories and Activities
Web
Resources
Walk
into a grocery store any time of year and you’ll encounter
a bounty of “fresh” food – most of which comes from faraway
factory farms. For most of us, the concept of harvest is,
at best, a remote one. But that’s hardly been the case throughout
history. In fact, since ancient times, every society that
has raised its own food has had at least one important ceremony
or ritual celebrating plentiful harvests. After all, food
equals survival!
Whether you have a school garden or not, you can use the
theme of the harvest to enhance lessons on history, cultures,
and farming; support nutrition and local food education projects;
inspire creative arts and performance; and build bridges
to your community. Here we share ideas and resources for
bringing the concept to life.
Featured Stories and Activities
Home
in on Historic Harvest Festivals - The goods on traditional
harvest celebrations from cultures across the globe,
and suggestions for weaving them into your curriculum.
Plan
a School Garden Harvest Celebration - A how-to guide
for commemorating the harvest season with your young
gardeners.
Harvest
of Dreams - Enthusiasm for garden edibles culminates
in an annual schoolwide harvest luncheon planned and
prepared by sixth-graders.
Celebrating
a Historical Harvest: Learning from the Three Sisters -
A New York school delves into local history, garden techniques,
and food lore, and brings it all together at an end-of-season
festival.
Food
Plant Life Stories: Exploring Colorful Histories –
By focusing on the origins and travel tales of some of
the foods they harvest, students will have an intriguing
lens for studying geography and cultures.
Good
Things Cooking in North Carolina – Learn how school
garden harvests inspired a broader nutrition and farm-to-school
program that includes farm visits, classroom cooking,
chef demos, and cafeteria connections.
Homegrown
Lunch – Local farm harvests in Wisconsin fuel school
snacks, farm connections, fundraisers, and learning.
Harvest Season Resources
Web Sites
Harvest
Festivals Around the World - Features short descriptions
of loads of harvest festivals.
Harvest
Celebrations Around the World - A teacher-created
resource with links for student research.
A
Multicultural Thanksgiving - This student-friendly
site features such harvest festivals as the Moon Festival
(Chinese), Yam Festival (African), Succoth (Jewish),
Pongal (Indian), Kwaanza (African American), Chusok (Korean),
and more. Short descriptions are followed by copious
links to books, Web sites, and other resources.
Moon
Festival (Mid-Autumn Festival) - These are different
names for similar celebrations that take place in China,
Korea, and Asia. On this Asia for Kids site, you’ll find
background information and a recipe for mooncakes!
Local
Harvest - Are you seeking local farmers to visit,
invite to classrooms, donate produce, or participate
in other ways with your harvest festival? On this site,
you can put in your zip code and see a clickable map
of your area. Find information and contacts for farms,
farmer’s markets, and more.
Hoboes
on Harvest (PDF file) - Students can explore
the role Oklahoma’s wheat fields played in the
history of labor movements in this country.
From
Corn to Tortillas (PDF file) - This one- to two-week
early elementary curriculum focuses on the importance
of the tortilla to Mexican culture. Includes a list of
related kids’ books and directions for grinding meal
and making tortillas.
Books
The
Autumn Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest
by Ellen Jackson
Students can learn about the importance of this time of year to societies
past and present – and the festivities that surround it. Grades 2-5
Itse
Selu:
Cherokee Harvest Festival
by Daniel Pennington
A tale of the Cherokee harvest festival unfolds through the eyes of a Cherokee
boy as he dances the sacred corn dance and enjoys the festival foods: corn,
beans, and squash. Grades K-3
Thanksgiving
is . . .
by Gail Gibbons
This delightful picture book with folk-art illustrations features historic
and contemporary information. It portrays ancient harvest celebrations and
the important role Native Americans played in teaching the Pilgrims how to
grow food and be better hunters. Grades preK-2
Farmer’s Market
(Green Light Readers)
Bright oil paintings depict a day at the market through the eyes of a girl
who helps her parents take their vegetables in.
Grades K-2
© 2007
National Gardening Association