Fall 2009
Well, another dairy exciting school year is underway! And, Brown County Dairy Promotions is here again with a set of exciting free programs to enhance your students’ agriculture education.
First, let me thank you for making agriculture such an important part of your students’ education. Last year over 9,000 Brown County students benefited from programs that promote dairy consumption, agriculture and nutrition! Agriculture is a very important to Wisconsin, both historically and economically, and your efforts to promote it are invaluable. Again, thank you!!
We have lots of exciting things happening for you this year in our program offerings:
- The third grade Cheese Please! Program will be featuring a new book: Mooing, Milking and Munching. This book was developed by the Wisconsin Millk Marketing Board and features everything Wisconsin. And, the Wisconsin Dairy Council is providing a copy of the book to each student who participates in this program free!
- There is new fourth grade program called Taste Wisconsin which replaces the previous program Building a Healthy Wisconsin. It is similar to the previous program in that it focuses on Wisconsin agriculture commodities, but works to make a stronger connection between the farmer and the grocery store through a “Fantastic Farm” theme.
- Building a Healthy Wisconsin will be offered to fourth graders yet this year but will be discontinued in 2010-2011.
- The Make & Take Kits are gone and the Red Barn Learning Centers have arrived! Based on your feedback, you liked the activites of the Make and Take Kits but wanted more information. That’s just what you’ll find in the Red Barn Learning Centers. Each Center is topic based and comes with an activity in which all the of the major items are supplied. Plus, you will find a wealth of information such as additional activity sheets, informational pages/booklets, books, videos and posters. There is an evaluation in each center and we would greatly appreciate any feedback you have on this new tool.
- Thank you to everyone for utilizing the automated calendaring system. It allows for smooth scheduling of your events and provided you with reminders of the event right before it happened (especially good when events are scheduled well into the school year!). This year we are expanding that system. There will now be two separate scheduling systems:
- One system will handle the school presentation programs. You WILL NOT be able to do any double booking on this system (I can only be in one place at one time!).
- One system will handle the Red Barn Learning Centers. There are multiple kits for each topic so you do not need to worry so much about dates or if another school has already booked a center. If there is a conflict, I will let you know so we can work out another timeframe that is convenient for you.
The second calendar was added because there was some confusion last year as to when I was available to come into a school and when I wasn’t. When you click on CALENDAR, on the navigation bar to the right, you will see the option at the top of the page for the different calendars.
- The topic for the Ag in the Classroom Essay contest is “The machines that make Wisconsin agricluture work.” For more information, click on the ESSAY CONTEST tab. We encourage all 4th and 5th grade students to participate.
One final note: When you are looking to schedule programs, I would ask that if you don’t fill a day with your particular grade level, check with other teachers to see if there would be interested in scheduling a program. Filling a day makes the best use of a valuable commodity – time! I have been fortunate that I have not had to say no to any schools; but, I could not have accepted any more requests last year as I became booked solid. Thank you in advance for considering this as you are scheduling your programs.
As always, I look forward to working with you again this year and hope you will take advantage of these great programs and resources that are available free to your school! If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Wishing you the dairy best!
Kris Meulemans
Brown County Dairy Promotion Coordinator
920-712-5605
coordinator@browncountydairypromotions.com