Willow Springs second grade team receives Missouri Farm Bureau Mini-Grants

The Willow Springs second grade team made up of Mrs. Kelley, Mr. Gossard, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Anderson, and Mrs. Thompson has been awarded two $500 Missouri Farm Bureau mini-grants for this school year.

The Missouri Farm Bureau awards mini-grants to educators every year to help improve agriculture understanding among students. These grants allow educators to purchase educational materials that will enhance the understanding and awareness of agriculture.

The topics that will be covered by the Willow Springs second grade team with the funding from the mini-grants will be plants and honeybees.

“In second grade, we enjoy teaching our science and social studies standards through units of study,” said second grade teacher Julia Kelley. “With the gift of these grants, we are able to make learning about the life cycle of plants and honeybees much more hands-on and applicable to our learners. We are able to grow various plants in different environments and observe what changes happen based on those environments. In our honeybee unit, the students learn all about the life cycle and honey. We tie the two together with pollination and do a simulation at the end to show the importance of honeybees to our plant production via pollination. It's such a great learning experience all year long.”