All links below are to printable portable document format (PDF) pages.

Welcome to Agricultural Education Day at the fair!

If you are interested in joining us please read over our letter to educators and AgEd schedule of events that went to local schools in our region for the details and  events of the day.

To register please print and fill out our school registration form and send it to our office via email, regular mail or fax (802-889-3236).

Please utilize our resources & book list [see below] to have classroom discussions before or after the Fair with your students and if you would like them to have a fun activity while attending the fair please use our scavenger hunt cards. These can also be used for great conversation starters on the bus ride to the Fair!

We hope you will join us for an educational day in the country and enjoy a cold carton of milk from Booth Brothers to go with your lunch.

Integrate Tunbridge fair into your classroom

Ideas and Web Links:

• Use a map of the fair to demonstrate coordinates and map reading skills.
• Make advertising posters for the fair.
• Email for old ribbons to use in artwork (while supplies last.) to pick up on Ag Ed day.
• Have each student bring in a vegetable. Graph results. Compare the numbers on your graph.
• Make a class book. Assign students to research the blacksmith, the schoolhouse, the post office, sawmill, transportation, fashion, cooking, candle making, etc. while visiting Antique Hill. Further research can be done at school.
• Imagine yourself living and working in colonial times. Write or draw about what you would wear and jobs you’d have to do.
• Focus on the chicken and rabbit show: what breeds are on display. Find out about rare breeds of chickens.
• Build a Ferris wheel that actually turns on a straw or a pencil, using light cardboard.
• Play “I’m Going to the Fair” by sitting in a circle with one child going first by saying “I’m going to the fair and I want to see a cow.” Second child says, “I’m going to the fair and I want to see a cow and a horse.” The third child says, “I’m going to the fair and I want to see a cow, a horse and a merry-go-round.” Continue around until every child has a turn. 
• Make a fair ABC.
• Write an essay or draw a picture about your favorite part of the fair.
• Make a class mural on what you did at the fair.
• Research the history of the fair. Focus on effects of weather since this is an event depending on good weather.
• Create a study of Vermont farms and agriculture.
• Study Vermont geography as it relates to farming.
• Explore distance, rate, and time problems involving different vehicles to get to the fair (a tractor, a horse & buggy, a Model T, a helicopter, a pair of shoes with a person walking or running in them, a bicycle).
• Practice interviewing skills (key people at the fair).
• Study the different ways animals are shown in the rings and some basic judging criteria.
• Refer to the bibliography for a few books to read about the fair/farm theme.
• Research, make, and eat a colonial meal.
• Play colonial games (ex. jacks, ninepins, checkers, chess, tag, red rover, etc.)
• Make quilt squares (paper or cloth) for a quilt.
• Hold a spelling bee with fair theme; create a crossword puzzle; search a word; srambled words.

Resources:

• Educational kits in maple sugaring, beef and vegetable gardening, more links, mini grants, connections with farmers: Vermont Agricultural in Classroom Partners, 116 State St, Drawer 20, Montpelier VT.
• Educational kits in Dairy and the Learning Barns: Cabot Creamery; indicate age group, Elementary or Middle
• Billings Farm and Museum
• Morgan Horses, www.morganhorse.com or www.uvm.edu/morgan
• Harness racing US Trotting Assoc.: www.ustrotting.com

Bibliography for younger grades

Yesteryear
Azarian, Mary. Farmer’s Alphabet.
Cooley, Oscar. When Grandpa Was A Boy.
Hastings, Scott E. & Geraldine S. Ames. The Vermont Farm Year in 1890.
Sloane, Eric. American Barns and Covered Bridges.
Sloane, Eric. Diary of an Early American Boy.
Zeigler, Phillip C. Storehouses of Time: Historic Barns of the Northeast.
And Everyone Would Sashay: the Remembrances of the Ed Larkin Contra Dancers.

Maple
Chall, Marsha Wilson. Sugarbush Spring.
Crook, Connie. Maple Moon.
Haas, Jessie. Sugaring.
Knowlton, Laurie Lazzaro. Maple Syrup From the Sugarhouse.
Lasky, Kathryn. Sugaring Time.
London, Jonathan. Sugaring Off Party.
Linton, Mary. Maple Syrup Book.
Metcalf, Rosamund. The Sugar Maple.                                                                                                                                    Mitchell, Melanie. From Maple Tree to Syrup.                                                                                                                          Perrin, Noel. Amateur Sugar Maker.                                                                                                                                      Rossiter, Nan Parson. Sugar on Snow.                                                                                                                                      Wilder, Laura Ingalls. Sugar Snow.

Dairy and Oxen
Cronin, Doreen. Click Clack Moo Cows That Type.
Dubanevich, Arlene. Calico Cows.
Gibbons, Gail. The Milk Makers.
Hall, Donald. Milkman’s Boy.
Hall, Donald. Ox-Cart Man.
Leaf, Munro. Story of Ferdinand.
Lindbergh, Reeve. There’s a Cow in the Road.
Older, Jules. Cow.
Paterson, Katherine. Smallest Cow in the World.
Soutter Perrot, Andrienne. Cow.

Poultry
Andreae, Giles. Cock-a-Doodle-Do.
Bang, Molly. Goose.
Barton, Byron. Buzz Buzz Buzz.
Brett, Jan. Hedgie’s Surprise.
Dunn, Judy. The Little Duck.
Duvoisin, Roger. Petunia.
Ernst, Lisa Campbell. Zinnia and Dot.
Gibbons, Gail. Chicks & Chickens Ducks!                                                                                                                                  Hazen, Barbara Shook. Turkey in the Straw.                                                                                                                       Hutchins, Pat. Rosie’s Walk.                                                                                                                                                       Jensen, Patricia, Be Patient Little Chick.                                                                                                                                  Megyesi, Jennifer. Joy of Keeping Chickens.                                                                                                                                    Polacco, Patricia. Just Plain Fancy.                                                                                                                                              Reiser, Lynn. Surprise Family.                                                                                                                                                 Simont, Marc. Goose Who Almost Got Cooked.                                                                                                                  Stevens, Janet. Cook-a-doodle-doo!                                                                                                                                        Stoeke, Janet. (any Minerva Louise books)                                                                                                                              Sykes, Julie. Dora’s Egg.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Fair
Bial, Raymond. County Fair.
Calhoun, Mary. Blue Ribbon Henry
Cooper, Elisha. Country Fair.
Gibbons, Gail. Country Fair.
Tudor, Tasha. Corgiville Fair.

Horses/Donkeys
Gibbons, Gail. Horses!                                                                                                                                                                    Haas, Jessie. (any books about Beware)
Haas, Jessie. Hurry.
Haas, Jessie. Mowing.
Haas, Jessie. Uncle Daney’s Way.                                                                                                                                        Henderson, Carolyn. Horse & Pony Book.                                                                                                                                Hobbie, Holly. Everything But the Horse.
Lange, Willem. John and Tom.
Petty, Kate. Horse Heroes.                                                                                                                                                        Polacco, Patricia. Mrs. Mack.

Pigs
Dunn, Judy. The Little Pig.
Ehrlich, Amy. Parents in the Pigpen, Pigs in the Tub.
Gibbons, Gail. Pigs.
McPhail, David. Pigs Aplenty Pigs Galore.
Numeroff, Laura. If You Give a Pig a Pancake.
Palatini, Margie. Piggie Pie.
Peck, Robert Newton. A Day No Pigs Would Die.
Peet, Bill. Chester the Worldly Pig.
White, E.B. Charlotte’s Web.
Wood, Don. Piggies.                                                                                                                                                                  Wooster, Chuck. Living With Pigs.

Bees
Cole, Joanna. Magic School Bus Inside a Beehive.
Hogan, Paula. Honeybee.
Johnson, Sylvia A. A Beekeeper’s Year.
Krebs, Laurie. Beeman.                                                                                                                                                                 Lecht, Jane. Honeybees.
Micucci, Charles. The Life & Times of the Honeybee.
Gibbons, Gail. Honey Makers.
Polacco, Patricia. Bee Tree.

Vegetables and Fruits/Apples
Aliki. Corn is Maize.
Azarian, Mary. Gardener’s Alphabet.
Bunting, Eve. Sunflower House.
dePaola, Tomie. Popcorn Book.
Ehlert, Lois. Growing Vegetable Soup.
Ehlert, Lois. Eating the Alphabet.
Hall, Zoe. It’s Pumpkin Time.
Hart, Avery. Kids Garden!
Houghton, Eric. Crooked Apple Tree.
Lerner, Harriet. What’s So Terrible about Swallowing an Apple Seed.
Lovejoy, Sharon. Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots.
Let’s Go to the Farm. (Video & book.)
Lindbergh, Reeve. Johnny Appleseed.
Micucci, Charles. The Life & Times of the Apple.
Priceman, Marjorie. How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.
Stewart, Dianne. Gift of the Sun.
Wallace, Nancy. Apples Apples Apples.
Watson, Clyde. Applebet an ABC.
Watson, Clyde. Tom Fox and the Apple Pie.

Crafts and Cooking                                                                                                                                                                      Blood, Charles. Goat in the Rug.                                                                                                                                              Wilkes, Angela, Children’s Step by Step Cookbook.

Farm Life/Barn/Animals
de Paola, Tomie. Charlie Needs a Cloak.
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield. Understood Betsy.
Fleming, Denise. Barnyard Banter.
Galdone, Paul. Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee.
Galdone, Paul. The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
Graff, Nancy Price. The Strength of the Hills, a Portrait of a Family Farm.
Hall, Donald. The Farm Summer.
Herriot, James. (any of his books)
Jaspersohn, William. A Day in the Life of a Veterinarian.
Jaspersohn, William. Two Brothers.
Johnston, Tony. Yonder.
Kalman, Bobbie. In the Barn.
Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie. Farm of Her Own.
Kinsey-Warnock, Natalie. As Long As There Are Mountains.
Lambert, Beth. Farm Wife’s Journal.
Lewin, Ted. Fair.
Lewis, Kim. Floss.
Lewis, Kim. Emma’s Lamb.
Lewis, Kim. Friends.
Lewis, Kim. Just Like Floss.
MacLachlan, Patricia. All the Places to Love.
McGuire, Leslie. This Farm is a Mess.
McPhail, David. Farm Boy’s Year.
Moller, Carol. The History of Tunbridge World’s Fair.
Miller, Peter, Vermont Farm Women.
Euclid Farnham, History of the Tunbridge Fair
Sweet, Melissa. Fiddle-i-fee.
Tafuri, Nancy. Early Morning in the Barn.
Watson, Clyde. Father Fox’s Feast of Songs.
Westcott, Nadine Bernard. Skip to My Lou.
Wilder, Laura Ingalls. (any of her books)
Yolen, Jane. Raising Yoder’s Barn.