Having Fun with Wheat
Teaching kids about wheat, whole grains and wheat-foods can actually be fun.
Each and every day, from breakfast through snacks and dinner, wheat is an ingredient in many of the foods we eat.
Wheat also creates many jobs, from farmers to flour millers to bakers (or future bakers).
We invite educators and parents to explore the Activities & Materials section which features activities, downloadable booklets and other materials to help children learn more about wheat production, marketing and it's nutritional value.
Resource Materials
The Resource Materials listed below are also available from the North Dakota Wheat Commission for classroom use. To order materials, contact the Commission at 701-328-5111 or ndwheat@ndwheat.com
Grades K-2: Sammy Spaghetti & Becky Bread
Color the story as you join first graders Sammy Spaghetti and Becky Bread, along with their Teacher Mrs. Goodfood, for an exciting tale of how wheat becomes food and why it's so good for you. Activities include coloring, a maze, matching drawings, sequencing of events, dot-to-dot and a search for wheat foods. Download Summer Vacation Activity Book.
Ages 6-9: Sprouting Up Toolkit
This fun toolkit provides easy, nutritious wheat recipes and games. Download the tookkit.
Grades 3-5: Story of Wheat
Let North Dakota farm girl Jenny Johnson introduce you to the wheat kernel and explain who it's grown, marketed and made into delicious, nutritious food. Activities include identifying parts of the wheat kernel and plant, unscrambling terms, crossing out letters to reveal good things about wheat, a crossword puzzle, and recipe. Download the Story of Wheat Activity Book.
Grades 3-5 Ag Mag
The Ag Mag’s information and activities are geared toward the state’s third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. This magazine is one of the N.D. Agriculture in the Classroom Council activities that helps students learn more about North Dakota agriculture in science, math, language arts, social studies and other classes.
Wheat Ag Mag
Top Commodity Ag Mag
Kernel of Wheat Flyer
A colored diagram showing the parts of a wheat kernel: the bran, germ and endosperm. Explains the difference between whole and enriched grain foods and their importance in a healthy diet. It features MyPlate information. Download Diagram.
Easy Wheat Activities
Looking for a couple of easy hands-on activities great for kids of all ages? Here's a couple quick, fun, and sometimes messy wheat related activities:
- Dough for it. Give kids a cup of flour and some water and let them make their own simple dough, or better yet, help them mix their own homeade playdough. Discuss how wheat is used to make many of the foods we eat, which once started out as dough like cookies, pasta and bread.
- Make a wheat box. Get a gallon or two of clean wheat from an elevator or local farmer and put it in a plastic bin, like the ones used to store sweaters under a bed. Now you've got a wheat box! Add your favorite sandbox toys and play for hours. Set the box on top of a plastic tablecloth in the living room to make clean up easy.
- Check out the Wheat Foods Council's interactive kids site. It has tons of wheat information, recipes and activities all geared to keep children engaged. Go to the Wheat Foods Council web site and click on Fun for Kids.
Useful Links
Team Nutrition
An initiative of the USDA Food and Nutrition Service to support the Child Nutrition Programs through training and technical assistance for foodservice, nutrition education for children and their caregivers, and school and community support for healthy eating and physical activity.