Students learn why dairy is an important part of a balanced diet, find out how milk moo-ves from a local dairy farm to their kitchen table, and discover how today’s dairy farmers use science and technology to keep their cows healthy and protect our environment.
Take a virtual farm tour with your students to add to their learning experience. Students will get an overview of where their favorite dairy foods come from, while learning about how local farmers care for their animals and the land and use technology on the farm.
Grades:
Subject Area:
- Health
- Nutrition
- Science
- Social Studies
Made Possible By: Dairy Farmers of the Northeast
Elementary School Lesson Plans
Mission Nutrition: Dairy Every Day
Subject Area: Health, Nutrition
Send your students on a learning mission that can lead to a lifetime of good nutrition as they discover the role of dairy foods in a balanced diet, the importance of having dairy at every meal, and the benefits of starting each day with a wholesome breakfast.
Planet Partners
Subject Area: Social Science, Science, Health, Math
Find out how farm and city lifestyles connect to help both kids and our planet stay healthy. Students use a Venn diagram to compare Annie’s typical day on a dairy farm with Kyle’s daily routine in the city, learn how kids everywhere can help protect our planet, and solve a word-find to gather the ingredients for a balanced diet. Complements Farm to Table, a program that explores how milk and other nutritious foods make their way from local farmers to your students’ homes and school lunches.
Farm to Table
Subject Area: Health, Nutrition, Science, Math
Explore how milk and other nutritious foods make their way from local farmers to your students’ homes and school lunches. Students take a virtual tour of a dairy farm, discover how farms and gardens benefit the environment, and learn how they can start growing fruits and vegetables in a garden of their own.
Discover Dairy Science!
Subject Area: Science, Health & Nutrition
Explore the science behind your students’ dairy favorites — milk, cheese, and yogurt — with these standards-based classroom activities. Students follow milk from the dairy farm to the supermarket, experiment with cheese making, and learn the steps for making yogurt. Each activity also includes a nutritious recipe for students to try at home.
Healthy Farming, Healthy You
Subject Area: Health, Nutrition, Social Studies, Science
Take your students on a virtual field trip to five dairy farms with Meet the Milkmakers!, a video-based online learning game. Then explore the history of dairy farming with a timeline poster and learn about the skills, technology, and science that dairy farmers use to protect the environment and provide families with fresh, wholesome milk 365 days a year!
Dairy Tech
Subject Area: Science, Nutrition, Health
What do kids and cows have in common? They both use high-tech devices! Show your students how dairy farmers use 21st century technology to keep their cows healthy and provide families with fresh, nutritious milk every day, while protecting the environment with sustainable agriculture.
Water Wise
Subject Area: Science, Nutrition, Health
Help your students become water wise as they learn how local dairy farmers conserve water on their farms, and how they and their families can conserve water at home. Students explore the many ways dairy farmers protect the watershed, conduct a hands-on experiment to investigate the water cycle, and discover the importance of dairy nutrition.
Dairy Recyclers
Subject Area: STEM, Environmental Science
Get students excited about sustainability by exploring the many ways dairy farmers recycle to protect and preserve the environment. Students brainstorm new ways to recycle at home, learn why dairy cows are natural recyclers, and use recycled dairy containers for desktop farming.
Dairy Math
Subject Area: Math, STEM, Health
As with running any business, numbers are top of mind for dairy farmers as they calculate how much feed their herd will need to stay healthy, how many gallons of milk they will provide to school systems, restaurants, and home consumers, how much energy they can save by using technology effectively, and more. Challenge students to solve math problems related to cow care and dairy farm sustainability, and then use USDA MyPlate guidelines for planning healthy meals.
Dairy During the Day
Farm to School
How Dairy Cares
Middle School Lesson Plans
Science on the Farm
Subject Area: Science, Environmental Science, Biology
Help your students discover how science has changed farming and improved food production in the 21st century. Students will learn how today’s farmers use robotics and digital technology to care for their crops and livestock, how science is providing farmers with new ways to carry on the tradition of selective breeding, and how all these advances in agriculture contribute to the health of our environment.
High School Lesson Plans
Farming for the Future
Subject Area: STEM, Environmental Science, Social Studies
Introduce your students to the concept of sustainable nutrition — food that promotes good health and a healthy environment — with help from the dairy farmers of the American Dairy Association North East. Students research how farmers are meeting the need to increase food production while reducing impacts on the environment, learn how dairy farmers combine sustainable farming practices to protect the environment, and explore the many STEM-based career paths open to them in agriculture.