Holiday meals often include warm rolls, cookies, pies, stuffing, casseroles, pasta dishes, and breads. What do all of these foods have in common? They all begin with small grains—wheat, oats, barley, and rye. These crops are the foundation of winter food traditions and one of the most important parts of our food system.
This blog uses the Explore → Apply → Connect learning framework to help kids ages 9–14 understand how small grains move from the field to the holiday table. You can pair this lesson with the Small Grains 101 PDF and the Exploring Agriculture: Farm to Table Unit Exploration for deeper learning.
Explore: What Are Small Grains?
Small grains are cereal crops grown for their edible seeds. In U.S. agriculture, the main small grains are wheat, oats, barley, and rye. These crops grow well in cooler temperatures, store well after harvest, and become many of the foods families enjoy in winter.
Wheat
Wheat is a key ingredient in bread, dinner rolls, pie crust, cookies, cakes, noodles, and stuffing mixes. It is planted in the fall, goes dormant in winter, and continues growing in the spring. Kids can also explore different wheat types such as hard red winter wheat (bread flour), soft red winter wheat (cookies and pastries), and durum wheat (pasta).
Oats
Oats are used in granola, oatmeal cookies, muffins, breakfast foods, and stuffing mixes. Oats grow well in cooler climates and shorter seasons, especially in northern states.
Barley
Barley is found in soups, stews, barley flour baked goods, and malt used in cereals and holiday beverages. It is one of the oldest domesticated crops and remains a specialty grain in the United States.
Rye
Rye is used for rye bread, specialty crackers, winter cereals, and some baked goods. It tolerates cold weather extremely well and can grow when other crops cannot.
These examples help kids see how many holiday foods are tied directly to small grain agriculture.
Apply: From Grain to Plate – Understanding the Processing Pathway
Kids often recognize flour and oats as “ingredients” but may not realize how many steps it takes to turn a grain into food. This part of the lesson helps students follow the journey from field to plate.
Growing the Grain
Small grains begin in the field. They are planted, grow through cool seasons, and are monitored for soil nutrients, moisture, weeds, and pests. When mature, farmers harvest them using combines.
Harvesting and Storage
After harvest, grains are cleaned, dried, and stored in grain bins. From there, they may be transported by truck, rail, or barge to mills or processing facilities.
Processing and Milling
Grains are processed into usable forms such as flour, rolled oats, oat flour, pearled barley, malt, and rye flour. Milling separates the bran, germ, and endosperm. Oats may be steamed and rolled, barley may be malted, and wheat is ground into different grades of flour. Your Small Grains 101 unit includes diagrams that help kids visualize these steps.
Becoming Holiday Foods
This is where the connection becomes real for kids.
• Flour becomes rolls, pie crust, cookies, cakes, noodles, and pancakes
• Oats become oatmeal cookies, granola, muffins, and breakfast foods
• Barley becomes soups, stews, and malt flavorings
• Rye becomes specialty breads and crackers
Students learn that many holiday favorites begin with simple grains grown on farms.
Connect: Why Small Grains Matter in Winter Food Systems
Once kids understand how grains are grown and processed, they can begin to connect this learning to broader agricultural concepts.
Food Security
Small grains store well and provide consistent nutrition, making them essential for winter and early spring.
Climate and Geography
Kids can explore why wheat grows well in Kansas, oats in Minnesota, barley in Idaho and Montana, and rye in the northeastern U.S.
Nutrition
Small grains provide carbohydrates, fiber, and important vitamins and minerals. This helps kids build health literacy.
Livestock and Feed
Small grains are also important for animal agriculture. Some meats served during the holidays come from animals fed diets containing corn, soybean meal, and small grains like barley and oats.
Farm-to-Table Literacy
Kids begin to understand all the steps required to produce the foods they see on their plates—from the farm, to processing, to transport, to the grocery store, and finally to their meal.
Hands-On Activity: Small Grains Food Origins Map
Choose three to five holiday foods and challenge kids to trace each one back to its grain source. For example:
• Dinner roll → wheat
• Oatmeal cookie → oats and wheat
• Stuffing mix → wheat, sometimes barley
• Pie crust → wheat
• Holiday cereal → grains plus barley malt
Students can then identify the top-producing states for each grain, how it is processed, and how it travels through the food system. You can pair this with state maps (Small Grains 101) and supply-chain examples from the Farm to Table Unit.
Get your Free Download: Farm to Table Mini Sheet
Want to Go Deeper?
The Small Grains 101 PDF includes grain anatomy diagrams, lifecycle images, processing pathways, top producing states, grain comparison charts, and hands-on activities.
The Exploring Agriculture: Farm to Table Unit expands on food systems, transportation, supply chains, and grocery store connections.
These units work well together for a complete winter learning experience.
Final Thoughts
Small grains are at the heart of many holiday traditions. By learning how wheat, oats, barley, and rye move from the field to winter meals, kids build a deeper understanding of food systems and the agriculture behind the foods they enjoy.
Using the Explore → Apply → Connect framework, you can guide learners through a meaningful farm-to-table lesson rooted in real agricultural science and seasonal relevance.