By Shelby Shank
Field Editor

In classrooms across the state, students and teachers explored agriculture through Texas Farm Bureau’s (TFB) Ag Literacy Week, which was held on March 23-27.

“Ag Literacy Week provides teachers with valuable resources to help grow agricultural literacy among students,” said Jordan Bartels, TFB associate director of Organization Division, Education and Outreach. “By incorporating hands-on activities and engaging lessons, learning about agriculture is both fun and relatable across various grade levels and subject areas.”

Over 1,700 public, private and homeschool K-5 teachers signed up to receive a free, accurate ag book to read during the week, as well as an educator’s guide and TEKS-aligned lessons and activities.

The featured book provided by TFB was titled I LOVE Blueberries by Shannon Anderson. The short book is the sequel to the award-winning book, I LOVE Strawberries. The book follows Jolie and her new friend Margot as they work together with their classmates and community to set up a hydroponics growing station in their classroom to grow their own blueberries.

For Dakota Baker, a fifth-grade reading and science teacher at Harrold Elementary School, the book served to bring agriculture into the classroom.

Harrold is a small, rural school west of Wichita Falls with fewer than 200 students in K-12, and while many students are surrounded by farmland, not all fully understand agriculture’s role in their lives.

“We’re just in the middle of nowhere. A lot of our students are from rural communities, or they come from farming families themselves, but many of them grow up here and aren’t a part of agriculture,” Baker said.

During Ag Literacy Week, Wilbarger County Farm Bureau board members visited classrooms in the area to read the book and share their knowledge in agriculture.

“It was fun getting to read to the kids today and just talk to them about agriculture,” said Kurt Lemon, Wilbarger County Farm Bureau president. “It’s very important that we are involved in our communities, and we believe in investing in our youth and like to get in front of them as much as we can to teach them about agriculture.”

The experience helped students connect what they read to real-world applications.

“Agriculture is all around us. Everywhere we look, there is something about agriculture,” Baker said. “Even though the kids may not realize it’s a part of their daily life, agriculture plays a big part.”

That connection is what Ag Literacy Week aims to foster and help students understand where their food comes from and the people behind it.

The Ag Literacy Week Book Program resources were aligned for kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms.

TFB’s goal is to expand student knowledge about agriculture and help students grow into more informed consumers, while also providing resources that educators can use.

View #ReadAgBooksTX2026 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see more teachers reading the book.

TFB also works year-round to increase agricultural literacy in Texas classrooms through a variety of in-classroom programs, lessons, resources, grants and professional developments. More information on those opportunities and resources is available at texasfarmbureau.org/aitc.