Make plans now to read for Ag Literacy Day

Make plans now to read for Ag Literacy Day

The school year started later in Florida this year, which means Florida Agriculture in the Classroom, Inc.’s Florida Agriculture Literacy Day will be held a month later in April 2008.

The event is scheduled for Thursday, April 10, 2008 and hundreds of Florida agriculture industry volunteers are invited to read a special children’s book developed in honor of next year’s event.

“These Florida Farms” is a children’s book developed by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Division of Marketing to celebrate Florida Ag Literacy Day’s fifth anniversary.

The Department’s Gary Seamans and Mike Wright wrote and illustrated, respectively, the rhyming book that chronicles the adventures of two students who follow a safari guide from a grocery store to farms around the state to learn about the different commodities produced in Florida.

“Writing a children’s book with Florida commodities seemed a fitting way to celebrate the anniversary of Florida Agriculture Literacy Day,” said Cara Martin, chairman of Florida Ag in the Classroom and assistant director of government and community affairs for Florida Farm Bureau.

“Ag Literacy Day is Florida Ag in the Classroom’s most popular agriculture industry event,” Martin said, adding that “we have more than doubled to 1,500 the number of industry volunteers who participate in Ag Literacy Day since it began in 2003.”

Registration for Florida Agriculture Literacy Day will begin in early 2008, and online registration will be available on Florida Ag in the Classroom’s web site www.agtag.org for the first time. Books, lessons and packets for teachers and bookmarks and other goodies for students will be sent out beginning in February.

Florida farmers, growers, ranchers, Farm Bureau members, Cattlemen and Cattlewomen members, University of Florida/IFAS extension and 4-H agents and master gardeners, FFA teachers and students and other industry association representatives are asked to schedule their classroom visits at least two weeks before their readings.

Though Ag Literacy Day is set for April 10, industry volunteers can read after that date. But Florida Ag in the Classroom asks that the readings be completed by the end of the school year.

Florida Ag in the Classroom is able to provide these Ag Literacy Day books, lessons, bookmarks and other items for free to agriculture industry volunteers because of the funding it receives from the sales of the Florida agriculture specialty license plate also known as the “Ag Tag.”

Florida Ag in the Classroom is a non-profit association based in Gainesville, and charged with educating Florida students and teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade about the importance of the Florida agriculture industry.

For more information about Florida Ag Literacy Day or other Florida Ag in the Classroom programs visit www.agtag.org, contact Lisa Gaskalla by calling (352) 846-1391 or email faitc@ifas.ufl.edu