Farm-to-Fork, Kindergarten Style

Julie Winsor, Director of Finance and Human Resources for Kansas Wheat, guest-blogs on her visit to Mrs. Martin’s Kindergarten class in Wamego, Kansas.

I was honored when Mrs. Martin, my son’s kindergarten teacher, asked me to present to the classroom on April 16^th.  The class has been sorting seeds, planting seeds and observing how seeds begin to develop into plants. They are also learning the different parts of a seed and the things that a seed needs to grow into a plant. I saw this as a great opportunity to share my knowledge of wheat with them. 

We started out by looking at the Kernel of Wheat poster and talking about the different parts of the wheat kernel, and then we planted the kernels into cups of dirt, watered them, and put them in the window sill to grow.

They should begin to sprout in about 6 to 8 days. 

After we planted our seeds, we sat down together to look at the book “Field to Flour” to learn about the process of planting wheat, harvesting, selling, and eventually milling it into flour.  When the children were asked if their moms had flour in their kitchens they excitedly answered, “Yes!”

Some had no idea that flour had come from a wheat plant. This was very intriguing to them.  When asked what products they could name that were made of wheat, most were right on: bread and cinnamon rolls were the most common answers.

By being fortunate enough to be afforded this opportunity, some of these children’s eyes were opened to the agriculture world at a young age. They learned where their food comes from and the process and work it takes to get it to them. I left them with the instruction to go home and ask their moms if they knew where their flour came from, and to share the story of the kernel of wheat with their parents.

Children at Wamego Elementary School plant tiny seeds of wheat in order to learn how plants grow and become food.

Kansas Wheat’s Julie Winsor explains to young people “how wheat becomes flour.”