MN Agriculture in the Classroom at the Minnesota State Fair!
Falcon Heights, MN | August 27th - September 7th, 2026
Across the state, Minnesotans count down the days every year for the Great Minnesota Get-Together! The Minnesota State Fair is one of the largest expositions in the country, and even the world¹! Founded in 1854 by the Minnesota Territorial Agricultural Society (now known as the Minnesota Agricultural Society), the fair brought people together to highlight agriculture, show off the industry’s innovations, and encourage farming². What was once a small festival that was hosted at different sites across the state each year, the Minnesota State Fair now sits on over 300 acres of land in Falcon Heights, MN–a suburb of St. Paul that is also home to the University of Minnesota’s St. Paul campus and its College of Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS).
The fair draws in over one million visitors annually! Attendance rates have risen dramatically in the past few years as the fair has grown in popularity. This year, the fair broke two daily attendance records (155,185 attendees on the first Thursday, and 204,065 on the first Friday) and by the fair’s end, 1,923,325 attendees had stepped onto the grounds³. People travel from across the state, the country, and the world to experience this amazing gathering with all its delicious food, engaging exhibitions, and exciting attractions. There is truly something for everyone to enjoy at the fair!
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture featured many of its programs at the fair in the North Hall of the Agriculture Horticulture Building. Our team at Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom hosted a table and reading space to get kids, educators, and all other visitors engaged with agriculture! Kids and their families gathered every day at our agriculture storytimes, hosted by Dairy Princesses, Agriculture Ambassadors, and other agriculture enthusiasts. We taught visitors about our program, shared agriculture-themed educational resources, supported educators preparing to go back to school, and engaged everyone with the many ways agriculture can be brought into the classroom.
One of our favorite education resources, the AgMag, was featured at our table to share with fair goers! Designed for every grade K-6, the AgMag meets Minnesota standards and helps students understand where the food, fiber, and fuel they use in everyday life comes from. Fall and spring editions are published for each grade level. Physical copies are available for classrooms and digital copies can be explored on our website. Click here to order FREE copies of our AgMags and other agriculture-themed posters/placemats!
Keep an eye out this fall for our newly updated grade 3 and 4 AgMags! Look out for updates, sneak peaks, and article features on our social media. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram today!
Storytimes at the Fair
MAITC’s mission is to increase agriculture literacy through K-12 education. One of the ways we work to achieve this mission is through helping educators find standards-based, agriculture-themed materials. Books are a big part of this! Found in the Educator Center on our website, Read and Grow is a book recommendation hub organized by agricultural topic and grade level. Our Curriculum Matrix also features many books and highlights lesson plans and activities to go along with them.
To continue promoting agricultural literacy through reading, we organized daily storytimes at the Minnesota State Fair! At 10:30 AM and Noon everyday, we were joined by Dairy Princesses, Agriculture Ambassadors, authors, and education specialists to feature a variety of agriculture-themed books. Our reading area was also open throughout the day for kids and their families to take a break and enjoy a book.
Featured Books
Our education specialists at MAITC picked out some of their favorite books to bring along to the fair! Take a look at some of the selected books below. Click on each one to be directed to our Curriculum Matrix where you can find lesson plans and activities associated with the book!
Dairy Princesses and Princess Kay of the Milky Way
Across the Midwest, dairy princess programs get young women involved in the dairy industry and help them build leadership skills to become dairy advocates and spokespeople. These women are daughters of dairy farmers or farm workers, employees of dairy farms, and/or are involved in raising or leasing dairy animals. According to Midwest Dairy (the sponsor of the Princess Kay in the Milky Way program), the princesses are selected based on their communication skills, personality, general knowledge of the dairy community and its products, and their commitment to dairy promotion.
In Minnesota, each county hosts their own competitions to crown a county dairy princess, then in May of each year, these crowned princesses can attend dairy leadership events to be considered for a position as a finalist in the Princess Kay of the Milky Way competition. Princess Kay reigns for a full year, attending events across the state and broader Midwest region to share her love and enthusiasm for dairy. Then, on the eve before the Minnesota State Fair, a new Princess Kay is crowned!
This year, Jena Hanson was crowned as the 73rd Princess Kay of the Milky Way! Representing Steele County from Owatonna, Minnesota, Jena is a 20-year-old college student at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls studying Dairy Science Management. She is involved in the Dairy Club, FFA, the Newman Center, and has mentored at a local dairy farm.
Nine other dairy princesses were considered for the crown. Find out more about each of these amazing young women on Midwest Dairy’s website.
- Kalley Christen, 19, Lester Prairie, McLeod County
- Elizabeth Coudron, 20, Milroy, Redwood County
- Stephanie Dykstra, 19, Bigelow, Nobles County
- Claudia Frenchick, 19, St. Martin, Meeker County
- Morgan Morrow, 18, Princeton, Benton County
- Isabella Schiffler, 18, Albany, Stearns County
- Gracie Sellner, 21, Sleepy Eye, Brown County
- Jaiden Smith, 19, Melrose, Stearns County
- Daisy Zimmerman, 18, Sauk Centre, Stearns County
Agriculture Ambassadors
We were also joined by many agriculture ambassadors who promote different types of agriculture across the state!
Minnesota 4-H Agriculture Ambassador Program
4-H is the largest youth development organization in the United States! With the cooperation of over 100 public universities across the country, this program supports over 6 million kids and teens to help them learn “the skills and abilities to be resilient, adaptable and ready for work and life."⁵ The 4 Hs stand for Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. These are the four values that all members focus on while engaging in their programs.
Minnesota 4-H supports over 50,000 young people from kindergarten through one year post-high school⁶. At the Minnesota State Fair, 4-H members are very active: from showing animals, to displaying fine art and engineering displays, to performing plays and musical numbers, and everything in between, these students showcase all their amazing skills at the fair.
The Minnesota 4-H Agriculture Ambassador Program–supported by the University of Minnesota Extension–is a leadership opportunity for 4-H members in tenth grade and above. These ambassadors promote agriculture, educate their communities, develop teamwork and leadership skills, and have an opportunity to research an agricultural topic of interest⁷. Ambassador Luke M. joined us at the fair for storytime! Find Luke’s bio on the UMN extension site.
Minnesota FFA Organization
The National FFA Organization is a nationwide youth organization that uplifts students’ leadership abilities, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. Representing a diverse range of opportunities in agriculture, FFA helps members build on their own talents and interests to discover their place in the industry⁸.
Over 16,000 students are involved in FFA chapters across Minnesota! Supported by 300+ agricultural educators across more than 200 agricultural education programs, Minnesota FFA uplifts students to support their future endeavors, whether they pursue a career in agriculture or not.
FFA Chapters have a variety of officer positions, all of which play key roles in supporting fellow members. One such role, the Sentinel, is in charge of making everyone feel welcomed and accepted, assists the chapter President to maintain order, and keeps supplies in proper condition during meetings⁹. Aidyn Brutger, the Minnesota FFA State Sentinel, joined us at the fair this year to read at storytime! You can learn more about Aidyn and his work with Minnesota FFA on Instagram.
MN State Beef Ambassador Program
The MN State Beef Ambassador Program’s goal is to develop “beef advocates and leaders for the cattle industry.”⁴ Open to young people of all genders, the program is hosted by Minnesota Cattle Women (MNCW), an organization aiming to promote, support, and encourage women in the beef industry. Their Ambassador Program works to strengthen students’ leadership and communication skills, helps them to build a career network, and enhances their knowledge of the beef industry.
We were joined by all four members of the 2026-2027 MN State Beef Ambassador team!
- Megan Fellbaum, Swanville, MN
- Brooklyn Holtz, Little Falls, MN
- Katie Mousel, Jacobson, MN
- Kelly Willegal, Gibbon, MN
Find more information about this program and learn about the ambassadors on MNCW’s website.
Farm to Kids Minnesota
Introducing students to locally-produced foods is an amazing way to bring agriculture into the classroom! Our friends at Minnesota Farm to Kids are working to connect kids with nutritious, locally-grown foods and support farmers in their communities! In partnership with Minnesota Grown, Farm to Kids celebrates schools and early care centers that are going above and beyond to connect kids with foods grown and raised in Minnesota through the Cream of the Crop Awards.
Bean Poll
To get people involved at the fair, Farm to Kids displayed pictures of lunch trays from four schools to show off different ways Minnesota-grown foods are being used in school lunch programs! The four schools are among those celebrated with the Cream of the Crop Awards in years past: Prior Lake, Becker, Hutchinson, and Wayzata. Visitors could vote for their favorite in the bean poll!
Read more about the Cream of the Crop Awards, learn about past winners, and keep up to date with information regarding the 2027 awards on the Farm to Kids webpage.
Dirt Stage Presentation
MAITC and Farm to Kids Minnesota joined together on the Dirt Stage to share all about agriculture in the classroom! Through a presentation about both programs, sharing information about upcoming events, and playing games, fair goers got a look at how to engage students in agriculture through food.
Upcoming Events!
Register by September 11th, 2026
September 17th, 2026 | 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM | Dodge Nature Center and Urban Roots
FBEN is a free member network created in 2006 to strengthen and support the work of farmers, educators, and community leaders who provide access and experiences of all kinds on working farms. FBEN Learning Journeys convene those working in food and farm education for a series of farm tours. Tour leaders go beyond “what” each site offers to focus on their strengths, struggles, and unique attributes.
Explore FBEN's website: https://www.farmbasededucation.org/
Register to attend here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScIIP8kf_eNKMvssSRGwZ5r11679bI0O7-Hd5bZs4_70k1xEQ/viewform
The Ag Literacy Grant Program provides cash awards to K-12 educators to encourage them to bring agriculture and food systems education "to life" by effectively integrating related content into their classroom or school.
Grants are available for new ideas as well as enhancements to current events and activities. Teachers, educators, FFA chapters, and 4-H programs are all eligible.
The Outstanding Teacher Award is given to a K-12 educator to recognize their creative efforts to integrate agriculture into their classroom and curricula to increase agricultural literacy!
The winner will receive a $500 cash prize and $1500 to attend the National Agriculture in the Classroom Organization (NAITC) Conference in Oklahoma City, OK, June 28-July 1, 2027.
Minnesota licensed teachers that are currently engaged in integrating agricultural concepts into non-agricultural education classroom settings at the K-12 grade levels are eligible. This may be an individual teacher or a team of teachers.
The AGRI Farm to Kids First Bite Grant is meant to be an intentional learning process for school districts and early childhood education (ECE) centers that have little to no experience with local procurement as part of a Farm to Kids program.
The AGRI Farm to Kids Full Tray Grant is meant for school districts and early childhood education (ECE) centers that have some Farm to Kids experience and want to grow their Farm to Kids programming and expand local procurement from Minnesota producers.
All month in October!
Celebrate all the ways we can connect kids to local foods. The theme for 2026 is Thank You, Farmers!
October 8th, 2026 | Noon
The Great Apple Crunch is an annual tradition in Minnesota and the broader Great Lakes region to celebrate local farmers, healthy kids, and strong communities. Millions of people across the region crunch into an apple at the same time. Participating is easy: just buy, serve, and crunch into locally grown apples with students, staff, families, and neighbors.
October 27th, 2026 | 2-3pm | Virtual
Join the Minnesota Farm to Kids Alliance to hear what is happening across the state, celebrate all the highlights from the past year, and get a look at what’s coming next!
Register here: Minnesota Farm to Kids Annual Network Meeting
March 9th, 2027
Come learn strategies for building, maintaining, and engaging learners in school gardens!
Learn more here: https://minnesota.agclassroom.org/school-gardens/school-garden-conference/
May 17-21, 2027
School Garden Week is celebrated across the state, highlighting the impact of school gardens in Minnesota! Explore our website to find ideas on how to celebrate.
https://minnesota.agclassroom.org/school-gardens/school-garden-week/
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The Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom e-newsletter provides us with the opportunity to connect educators with ideas on incorporating food, fiber, forests, flowers, and farming in their curriculum. Our newsletter highlights these connections through lesson plans, websites, books, videos and additional materials for classroom teachers, agriculture advocates and community volunteers who teach science, social studies, language arts, and health/nutrition. Stay updated with all Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom upcoming events and news by subscribing!
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Check out our other blog posts!
References:
September 11, 2026
Elliot Dusosky
Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom
