{"id":20147,"date":"2016-03-15T10:35:35","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T14:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=20147"},"modified":"2016-03-15T13:42:29","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T17:42:29","slug":"ag-secretary-reads-to-students-at-edgewood-elementary-school-promotes-ag-day-and-read-across-maryland-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2016\/03\/15\/ag-secretary-reads-to-students-at-edgewood-elementary-school-promotes-ag-day-and-read-across-maryland-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Ag Secretary Reads to Students at Edgewood Elementary School; Promotes Ag Day and Read Across Maryland Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sec.<\/a>

Sec. Bartenfelder with Edgewood Elementary School Principal Sollers and 2nd Grade Classes<\/p><\/div>\n

BALTIMORE CITY, MD \u2013<\/strong> Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder today read to second grade students and led hands on activities at Edgewood Elementary School in Baltimore City as part of National Agriculture Day<\/a> (March 15) and \u201cRead Across Maryland\u201d month. Governor Larry Hogan proclaimed Maryland Agriculture Week<\/a> (March 13-19) to commemorate the national celebration and raise awareness about agriculture and its importance to our economy and consumers.\u00a0 As a special treat, each second grade student received an apple donated by Steve Balderston of Colora Orchards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to be here today with the students from Edgewood 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,\u201d said Secretary Bartenfelder. \u201cWorking 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 to read with their children for at least 30 minutes every day in March and to develop the habit of reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to have Secretary Bartenfelder here reading aloud with our students. Reading aloud to young children is widely recognized as the single most important activity leading to language development. It is not only one of the best activities to stimulate language and cognitive skills; it also builds motivation, curiosity and memory,\u201d said Edgewood Elementary School Principal Kimberly Sollers. \u201cWhen coupled with programs like the Fresh Fruit and Vegetables Program, we create a well-rounded learning opportunity. Teachers are building exciting learning activities around the fruit each week. By combining tasting with nutrition education we increase their consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables while helping students build healthy habits that last a lifetime. As a school community, we believe healthy bodies lead to healthy minds and today\u2019s visit has helped us in making that belief a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Hogan-Rutherford Administration is partnering with the Maryland State Education Association, 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 \u201cRead 30 for 30\u201d theme.<\/p>\n

This year also marks the 6th<\/sup> annual Ag Literacy Campaign<\/a>, 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 2016 is the \u201cThe Cow in Patrick O’Shanahan’s Kitchen<\/em>\u201d by Diana Prichard,<\/em> which he read to second grade students. The book is a fun story that teaches readers where their food comes from.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u201cRead Across Maryland<\/a>\u201d was inspired by the National Education Association\u2019s \u201cRead Across America\u201d program, which encourages children across the country to celebrate reading on March 2, the birthday of children\u2019s author Dr. Seuss.\u00a0Throughout March, Maryland\u2019s public school students have been treated to readings by community leaders, elected officials, published authors and educators to promote daily reading.<\/p>\n

For more about Ag Day, visit www.agday.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: Photos Available Upon Request.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE CITY, MD \u2013 Agriculture Secretary Joe Bartenfelder today read to second grade students and led hands on activities at Edgewood Elementary School in Baltimore City as part of National Agriculture Day (March 15) and \u201cRead Across Maryland\u201d month. Governor Larry Hogan proclaimed Maryland Agriculture Week (March 13-19) to commemorate the national celebration and raise  Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20147"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20176,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20147\/revisions\/20176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}