- May Day
- Mother Goose Day
- Children's Book Week is May 2-8
- Mother's Day is May 8
- Oklahoma Beef
- Oklahoma Dairy
- Ag in Art: Lascaux Cave Paintings
- Homestead Act
- Take It Outside: Outdoor Activities for End of Year Celebrations
- May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
- Cinco de Mayo
- Red Dirt Groundbreaker: Juan Cruz Lujan and the Pastores
- National Hoagie Day
- Dance Like a Chicken Day
- The first Kentucky Derby was May 17, 1875
- May is World Trade Month
- Oklahoma Fruit of the Month: Blueberries
- Oklahoma Vegetable of the Month: Lettuce
- Build a Salad Day
- Ag in Art: "Stampede," Frederick Remington
Celebrate National Salad Month with Build a Salad Day.
Since earliest times people have harvested wild leafy plants, especially in spring, when they were young and tender. Read more, with activities...
Oklahoma Vegetable of the Month: Lettuce
Lettuce, a member of the sunflower family, is one of the oldest known vegetables and is believed to be native to the Mediterranean area. Read more, with activities...
Oklahoma Fruit of the Month: Blueberries
The blueberry is a native American fruit. Early settlers cherished it as a staple ingredient in foods and medicines. They incorporated the berries into their diets, eating them fresh off the bush and adding them to soups, stews, and many other foods. Read more, with activities...
Oklahoma produce available in May from some farmer's markets:
asparagus, beets, blueberries, broccoli, cabbbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, fennel, garlic, greens, herbs, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, mushrooms, onions, peas, radishes, rhubarb, spinach, strawberrries, summer squash, Swiss Chard, turnips.
Take it Outside: Outdoor Activities for End-of-Year Celebrations
May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month
Action Agriculture Across Oklahoma (Students get a good workout while learning about Oklahoma Agriculture)
Let's Move: America's Move to Raise a Healthier Generation of Kids
Celebrate Oklahoma's Bovine Population - Beef and Dairy Cattle
Beef cattle are central to the history of our great state. Many Oklahoma towns got their start as stops along the cattle drives. Read more, with activities, lessons and other resources...
Some common dairy cattle have markings that make them easy to recognize. Holstein cattle are probably the easiest to recognize because they are white with black spots. Read more, with activities, lessons and other resources....
Ag in Art: Lascaux Cave Paintings
Some of the earliest known works of art were paintings of the ancient aurochs, ancestors of the present-day domesticated bovine we know, found on the walls of caves in Lascaux, France. The paintings are estimated to be 16,000 years old.
Ag in Poetry: Poems About Cows
The Cow
by Robert Louis Stevenson
The friendly cow all red and white,
I love with all my heart:
She gives me cream with all her might,
To eat with apple tart.
She wanders lowing here and there,
And yet she cannot stray,
All in the pleasant open air,
The pleasant light of day;
And blown by all the winds that pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.
More poems about cows, with activities
The first Kentucky Derby was May 17, 1875
You know horses are smarter than people. You never heard of a horse going broke betting on people.
- Will Rogers
May is World Trade Month
World trade is very important to Oklahoma agriculture. Oklahoma Wheat on the World Market
Look for OAITC at these events during May:
May 5 - Science in Ag Day, Noble Foundation 7th graders
May 6 - Ag Day Sapulpa Schools, Washington Elementary
May 10 - Kids Kows & More, Shawnee
May 13 - Ag Day Collinsville, Harold Elementary 3rd grade
May 17 - Farm to School, Bethany Elementary
May 26 - Jenks Early Childhood Workshop
Oklahoma Crop Calendar
May Day
May 1 is May Day, the day celebrated by the Celts and Saxons as the first planting day. Our tradition of beauty pagents may have evolved from May Day customs. Read more, with activities...
Mother Goose Day is May 1
Little Miss Muffet
Sat on a tuffet
Eating of curds and whey
There came a spider
And sat down beside her
And frightened Miss Muffet away
Read more Mother Goose rhymes and identify those with agriculture-related subjects or themes.
Make curds and whey (cottage cheese) in honor of Little Miss Muffet.
Children's Book Week is May 2-8
It all begin in 1919, with the idea that children's books can change lives. See our extensive list of Ag-Related books for Children and Young Adults.
May 5 is Cinco de Mayo
Cowboys in the American West inherited the vocabulary, equipment and practices of the ranching culture from Mexican vaqueros who drove Texas longhorns along the Chisholm and Shawnee trails after the Civil War. Read more, with lessons...
May 5 is National Hoagie Day
It is said the Hoagie got its name during World War I from an area of Philadelphia named "Hog Island." It was a worker's sandwich, sometimes also called a "hobo." Learn the origin of the word "hobo" with Hoboes on Harvest
Mother's Day is May 8
Craft ideas for Mother's Day gifts
Dance Like a Chicken Day is May 14.
Did you know "The Chicken Dance" was first introduced in the US at the Tulsa Oktoberfest in 1981? Did you know the Chicken Dance was originally the Duck Dance? Read more...
The Homestead Act was passed May 20, 1862.
Learn more about The Homestead Act with this online lesson: Busting the Prairie.
Our Story: Free Land (Smithsonian Museum of American History)
Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom
Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.