This story is part of a series of “meet & greets” with individuals who use our Adopt a Cow program to inspire you with the endless ways you can incorporate the program in the classroom and beyond!

Angela Grills has been teaching for 34 years, and if there’s one thing she is passionate about, it’s helping her first-grade students gain an appreciation for the community around them. With dairy farms just a few minutes down the road from their elementary school in Indiana, Discover Dairy’s free Adopt A Cow program has helped her share some of the real-world impacts that agriculture has on their area.

“We have a huge agricultural community and lots of farmers in our area. Even though our kids are driving by some of the farms, they don’t necessarily have much connection to them,” Angela shared. “This was actually our first year participating in Adopt A Cow. We have been partnering with Ag in the Classroom through Farm Bureau for the last several years as well as our Purdue Extension here in our local community. Adopt A Cow was such a nice fit. We were looking to continue with that agricultural topic and incorporate it into our curriculum.”

After “adopting” a calf for her classroom, they received photo and video updates throughout the year along with other classroom enrichment activities. Not only did Angela build on her monthly ag in the classroom lessons, but the program helped her team make STEM connections and work toward a STEM certification for their school.

“We [incorporated the program] all the way across our curriculum. We’re trying to become STEM certified at our school. From reading and writing to science and math, anything we could make it fit into, we were trying to pull that out each month. The program is fantastic. It’s hitting all of our boxes for STEM,” she added.

Using several activities the program provided, such as a growth chart to compare the cow’s size to students’ heights, Angela found creative connections to make with her class.

• Math connections: “We had an entire wall devoted to the cow. When we got our updates with our cow’s weight and height, we would take turns taking our class out to the cow wall. We would mark the measurements on the wall so they could see how much taller their cow had gotten. We would also talk about the weight. We brought in gallon jugs to show how much milk they produced each time.”
• Reading and writing:  “We would read books about different cows and dairy cows in in particular. We wrote facts about them. We used it for our writing, and we even wrote letters to our cow.”
• Ag in the classroom connections: “Our Ag in the Classroom coordinator was fantastic because when she would read books about corn, for example, we would connect it to what the cows eat. The Adopt A Cow program just blended in so nicely.”

While these curriculum connections are important, Angela says the program also sparked her students to appreciate where they live – and the farmers that support their community.

“Agriculture is a large part of our community. We have a lot of kids who are in poverty, so they don’t always get to travel and go places even though there are farms just a few minutes down the road,” Angela said. “I’ve been born and raised in this community. I’ve taught for 34 years, and I went to this elementary school when I was a little kid. I just want them to have a good understanding of what our community is all about because it is a large agricultural area.”

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The Adopt a Cow Program is now open for enrollment through January 31 for the 2026-27 school year! Click here to learn more and adopt a cow for your classroom today. Sign up by September 1 to receive a mailed welcome packet. The program, which impacted more than 2.1 million students last school year, is free thanks to support from Discover Dairy partners and donors.

Discover Dairy is an educational series managed by the Center for Dairy Excellence Foundation of Pennsylvania in partnership with American Dairy Association Northeast, American Dairy Association Indiana, Midwest Dairy, The Dairy Alliance, Dairy Farmers of Wisconsin, Dairy Management West, Dairy West, New England Dairy, American Dairy Association Mideast, Dairy Council of Florida, and Maine Dairy and Nutrition Council.