Agriculture Secretary Reads to Students at Fullerton Elementary School

FULLERTON, MD – Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder today read to kindergarten and fourth grade students and led hands on activities at Fullerton Elementary School in Baltimore County as part of “Read Across Maryland” Month and  National Agriculture Day (March 18).

“I’m happy to be here today with the students from Fullerton Elementary School and to share my passion for agriculture and the environment with them. Agriculture provides the food and nutrition to help students to succeed in school,” said Secretary Bartenfelder. “Working together with educators, our public libraries, and families across Maryland, we can prepare the future leaders of Maryland to live and learn with excitement. I encourage every family read with their children for at least 30 minutes every day in March and to develop the habit of reading.”

“Fullerton Elementary greatly appreciates having Secretary Bartenfelder return to our school, where his children attended, and share his love of reading with our students,” said Fullerton Elementary School Principal Candace Winterson-Salkowski. “As a guest reader, Secretary Bartenfelder enthusiastically modeled the joy that comes from books and the importance of developing college and career readiness skills as young learners.”

The Hogan-Rutherford Administration is partnering with MSEA, the Maryland Library Association and the Maryland Association of School Librarians to encourage educators, parents and children to read 30 minutes a day for 30 days as part of a “Read 30 for 30” theme.

This year also marks the 5^th annual Ag Literacy Campaign, launched by the Maryland Agriculture Education Foundation, to visit elementary school classrooms across the state, read a selected book and talk to students about the importance of agriculture in their lives. The selected book for 2015 is the “Amazing! Maryland Agriculture,” which he read to the fourth grade class. The book defines agriculture and describes the different kinds of geography in Maryland while showing the agricultural products of each county

For the kindergarten classes, Secretary Bartenfelder read “What’s in the Garden” by Marianne Berkes, which was the 2014 Ag Literacy Campaign selected book. The book explains that good food comes from a farm or garden, not a box on a grocery store shelf. The story features a variety of rhyming riddles about healthy, tasty fruits and vegetables along with hidden pollinators and pests in a garden.

“Read Across Maryland” was inspired by the National Education Association’s “Read Across America” program, which encourages children across the country to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of children’s author Dr. Seuss. Throughout March, Maryland’s public school students have been treated to readings by community leaders, elected officials, published authors and educators to promote daily reading.

For more about Ag Day, visit www.agday.org.

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