By Sherrie Taylor Vann, Williams Elementary School
Incorporating our local agriculture in teaching is of utmost importance to me, having grown up in a rural community and as a 4-Her. My name is Sherrie Taylor Vann and I am a third grade teacher at Williams Elementary School in Colusa County. Our school is in the heart of Northern California’s rice country though many of our students have not traveled much outside the city limits, so I do my best to bring farming and agriculture into my classroom.
It can be difficult to squeeze in extra curriculum into an already compacted school schedule, but I have found success by imbedding agriculture literacy in to core subjects like language arts and English language development. Food is a common ground for all students because we need to eat and the basic nature of it creates interest for all students no matter what their socio-economic or ethnic backgrounds are.
Often when I teach an English lesson I use an area of farming, like rice production, as the content. While teaching my students about possessive nouns, they also learn about harvesting, drying, and shipping rice. By using agriculture literacy as the content in core lessons teachers can be sure to help pass on the knowledge of where our food comes from.
It is so important for our children to understand and learn about agriculture so they can help to preserve it. My students are beginning to learn why shopping locally for their food is important. Every time they look for a Grown in California emblem they are helping to preserve local jobs and encourage a healthy economy while receiving a quality product.
We are very fortunate in Colusa County because we have great community support for agriculture literacy. The local Farm Bureau, UC Cooperative Extension, and many business support education by coming to classrooms as guest teachers, hosting contests, and leading field trips. The children with love it and the teachers will appreciate your support!
Incorporating our local agriculture in teaching is of utmost importance to me, having grown up in a rural community and as a 4-Her. My name is Sherrie Taylor Vann and I am a third grade teacher at Williams Elementary School in Colusa County. Our school is in the heart of Northern California’s rice country though many of our students have not traveled much outside the city limits, so I do my best to bring farming and agriculture into my classroom.
It can be difficult to squeeze in extra curriculum into an already compacted school schedule, but I have found success by imbedding agriculture literacy in to core subjects like language arts and English language development. Food is a common ground for all students because we need to eat and the basic nature of it creates interest for all students no matter what their socio-economic or ethnic backgrounds are.
Often when I teach an English lesson I use an area of farming, like rice production, as the content. While teaching my students about possessive nouns, they also learn about harvesting, drying, and shipping rice. By using agriculture literacy as the content in core lessons teachers can be sure to help pass on the knowledge of where our food comes from.
It is so important for our children to understand and learn about agriculture so they can help to preserve it. My students are beginning to learn why shopping locally for their food is important. Every time they look for a Grown in California emblem they are helping to preserve local jobs and encourage a healthy economy while receiving a quality product.
We are very fortunate in Colusa County because we have great community support for agriculture literacy. The local Farm Bureau, UC Cooperative Extension, and many business support education by coming to classrooms as guest teachers, hosting contests, and leading field trips. The children with love it and the teachers will appreciate your support!
Sherrie Taylor Vann is a third grade teacher at Williams Elementary School. She was recently honored with the California Literacy for Life Award.
Reading “Everybody Cooks Rice” to my class
as part our Great Grains lesson
Showing two students some short grain rice for a class project 
A proud student showing a model container truck representing what his father uses to haul rice to the dryers.
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