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Our Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom (MAITC) team is celebrating the 2025-26 school year by featuring an awesome teacher who uses agriculture as a context for teaching and learning each month. Our May featured teacher is Ms. Marie Kruse.
Marie Kruse is a kindergarten teacher at Bluff View Elementary in Lake City, Minnesota. In Ms. Kruse's class, students don't just learn about agriculture, they fully experience it!
A few of Marie's favorite lessons include:
To learn more about Ms. Kruse, visit our Featured Teachers webpage.
Join Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom this July for our Summer Teacher Tour and the first-ever Growing Minds Conference! These events feature immersive agricultural tours, interactive resource sharing sessions, and networking opportunities to inspire all K-12 educators to use agriculture as a context for learning.
Summer Teacher Tour
- Tour Smude Sunflower + Angus Farm and Sprout MN Food Hub
- July 15, 2026
- Little Falls, MN
- Find registration info and more details here: https://mnagmag.org/teacher-tour/
Growing Minds Conference
- Experience immersive agricultural tours, interactive breakout sessions, fast-paced mini sessions, and networking opportunities!
- July 27-28, 2026
- St. Paul College, St. Paul, MN
- Find registration info and more details about the conference here: https://mnagmag.org/growing-minds/
 Minnesota School Garden Week is an exciting celebration that highlights the incredible impact of school gardens across Minnesota. It's an opportunity to celebrate the learning, food production, and community building that takes place in school gardens and recognize the hard work of the students, teachers, and community members who make these gardens possible!
Wondering how you can celebrate? See our list of daily suggested activities and supporting resources at https://minnesota.agclassroom.org/school-gardens/school-garden-week/.
Let us know you're celebrating School Garden Week by filling out the registration form! The first 100 people to register will receive a packet of squash seeds, joining other schools and early care centers across the state in growing and learning about the same food.
Register today!
As part of the Minnesota School Garden Week festivities we are hosting a From Gardens to Cafeterias webinar.
Date: May 19, 2026
Time: 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m.
Join Izzy Bajek from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture for this after-school webinar on getting produce from school gardens into cafeterias. You'll learn from University of Minnesota Extension Educator Annalisa Hultberg about how to practice food safety in school gardens. Plus, you'll hear from South High School about how they operate their garden to cafeteria program. If you're looking to get more garden produce onto your students’ lunch trays, this webinar is a great place to start!
Register for the Webinar Today!
Check out this brand-new series of Harvest of the Month videos to explore six delicious Minnesota-grown foods: greens, cucumbers, beans, apples, peppers, and squash. Meet the farmers who grow them, the students who enjoy them, and discover what makes each of these foods special. Visit the YouTube Playlist today!
If you share these videos with your students, we'd love your help in evaluating their impact. The process is very simple:
- Select one or more videos to show to your students from the playlist.
- After viewing the video(s), ask the students: "Did you learn anything new about fruits and vegetables? If yes, please raise your hand."
- Record the number of students who raised their hands on this survey form.
By completing this process, you will provide valuable data and build a case for funding similar projects in the future. Thanks in advance for your help!
 Forget the guinea pig. How about adopting a 1,500-pound dairy cow for your classroom mascot? Discover Dairy will provide photos and stories about your cow's life on the farm. Bring agriculture into the classroom this school year with the Adopt a Cow program! Enroll anytime May 1, 2026 – January 31, 2027. Enroll by September 1 to get a mailed welcome packet.
Learn more at discoverdairy.com/adopt
May Trivia Question: May is National Beef Month! What cut of beef is pictured below?
Photos from the MN Beef Council https://mnbeef.org/
Send your answer to sue.knott@state.mn.us. The first two people to respond with the correct answer will win a MAITC reusable bag.
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