Ag in the Classroom features poultry

Jefferson County Farm Bureau and Jefferson County ISU Extension partnered together this school year to do an Ag in the Classroom series in Pekin and Fairfield elementary schools.

They started early this spring with beef lessons in grades four and five. Lessons on pork were presented to third-graders in April. Lastly, the kindergarten and first-graders were presented with lessons on poultry. Local cattlemen and pork producers helped by creating videos to show that helped bring the farm to the classroom.

For the recent poultry session, incubators were in each kindergarten and first grade classroom so the students could see the hatching process. This gave the students an opportunity to examine the incubation period for the chicks development through a 21-day model.

During this time, the students read books, walked on eggs, and even got the chance to cook eggs. Ms. Goudy and the Iron Chef students gave cooking lessons to the kindergartners. They were taught how to crack an egg, stir and scramble eggs, hard boil eggs, make deviled eggs, and try a potential new food.