First comes shopping, then comes putting food away — but where? You may be surprised to learn the best places to store your groceries! Here's a helpful guide from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act establishes strong nutrition policies for child nutrition programs. Many of these policies foster healthier school environments for kids, provide a variety of nutritious foods to millions of children nationwide, and prepare them to be productive students.

Curriculum Description

Botany on Your Plate is a life science unit that inspires children to explore the fascinating realm of plants we eat. Every lesson begins with plant tastings that spark curiosity, interesting question, and social dialogue to fuel the learning process. This inquiry approach engages children as botanists observing and collecting data, discussing findings, and reflecting on what they learn as they study edible roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons #1 and #8 are recommended. Lessons #2-7 are required. The lessons are designed to be implemented in sequence. These lessons are not stand alone.  Lessons can be taught in 30 minutes, but 60 minutes is recommended.

In an effort to brighten your table, we've supplied you with a weekly journal to keep track of your vegetables and fruits. Simply check off the boxes and try to eat a variety of vegetables and fruits to brighten your day.

This handout describes how to refrigerate food promptly and properly to reduce the risk of foodborne illness.

This handout focuses on the importance of washing hands and surfaces often.

Color Me Healthy is a program developed to reach children ages four and five with fun, interactive learning opportunities on physical activity and healthy eating. It is designed to stimulate all of the senses of young children: touch, smell, sight, sound, and, of course, taste. Through the use of color, music, and exploration of the senses, Color Me Healthy teaches children that healthy food and physical activity are fun.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons can be taught as stand-alone lessons. Color Me Healthy is designed to be used in family daycare homes, Head Start classrooms, and childcare centers serving 4 and 5 year olds.

This handout highlights the proper cooking temperatures for food.

This handout reports the safe minimum internal temperatures for cooking food.

This handout series provides basic cooking information to use with families.

This handout series provides basic cooking information to use with families.

This handout series provides basic cooking information to use with families.

This handout series provides basic cooking information to use with families.

This handout series provides basic cooking information to use with families.

Cooking Matters for Chefs and Kids is an easy-to-use guide that helps chefs, nutrition educators, and food service professionals provide hands-on instruction that will help kids develop a love of cooking and the skills to make healthy food choices wherever they go. Within the guide you will find a variety of resources to help you engage kids, including tips and advice for planning fun activities, materials lists and activity instructions, appealing and interactive recipes for kids, and fun handouts that supplement the lessons of each activity.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons can be taught as stand-alone lessons and can be implemented by anyone with culinary training in any community.

This handout describes how to compare labels to choose foods lower in sugar.

Tour leaders complete a self-guided and individualized training on our online Learning Space, where they can connect with other leaders across the country and find resources to make their tours a success. After completing the training and setting up their tour, leaders receive a ringed flip book with talking points that are divided by the section of the store allowing them to rearrange the sections to match the layout of the store hosting the tour. It also includes information on MyPlate as a tool to plan and guide your shopping decisions through the store, and each section comes with objectives, suggested timing, key talking points and skills to cover and practice with tour participants.

Discover MyPlate is fun and inquiry-based nutrition education that fosters the development of healthy food choices and physically active lifestyles for children. Kindergarten teachers can meet education standards for Math, Science, English Language Arts, and Health using the 6 ready-to-go and interactive lessons. Children become food-smart as they practice counting, reading, writing, and more.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons are part of a series (not stand-alone lessons). Intended to be taught in 6 weeks or it can be taught over a course several months. Lesson may be extended based on supplemental activities from this curriculum.

Use these guides to find which fruits and vegetables are in season in Arizona. Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall are all included in this zipped file.

Eat Smart, Live Strong is an intervention designed to improve fruit and vegetable consumption and physical activity among 60-74 year olds participating in or eligible for FNS nutrition assistance programs. The intervention can support the efforts of program providers and communities in delivering nutrition education to low-income older adults. Each session in Eat Smart, Live Strong focuses on changing behavior by guiding participants in learning and practicing new skills.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Curriculum can be taught as a series or as stand-alone lessons.

The Eat Together, Eat Better lessons support nutrition, parent, and youth educators in teaching the importance of family meals. The lessons use a mix of interactive learning formats, including small-and large-group discussions, brainstorming, planning, and cooking activities. All of these activities create discussion, encourage problem solving, and develop skills to support family meals.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons can be taught as stand-alone lessons, but each session of the lesson must be taught (child, parent and family sessions).

Eating Smart • Being Active is a healthy eating and active living curriculum designed to be taught to limited-resource adults. The lesson plans of Eating Smart • Being Active are appropriate for use by paraprofessional (peer) nutrition educators when teaching limited-resource adults about healthy lifestyle choices. The curriculum consists of nine core lessons, each designed to be taught in less than 2 hours. All participant materials are available in English and Spanish*. All lessons include a food preparation activity and lessons 2 through 9 include a physical activity segment. Eating Smart • Being Active can be used to teach adults 1-on-1 or in small groups (2-12 people). While the materials could be used in larger groups, adult learning principles guide us toward smaller groups to encourage greater participant involvement and enhanced learning.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

The curriculum consists of nine core lessons, which are designed to be taught in order.

A component of the Healthy Classrooms Health Schools curriculum, FitBits^™ is an innovative, best practice resource that gets students up out of their seats and moving while, at the same time, reinforcing nutrition and health concepts that are aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, grade level National Health Standards and USDA MyPlate. The activities are arranged into four content areas: Healthy Bodies, Food Groups, Fruits and Veggies and Healthy Snacks.

Fruits and Veggies More Matters ™: Storing Fresh Fruits and Vegetables for Best Flavor handout.

Go4Life from the National Institute on Aging at NIH is designed to help older adults fit exercise and physical activity into their daily life. This resource explores the kinds of exercises and physical activity that improve health and physical ability.

Without leaving the classroom, students participate in a variety of purposeful movement designed to get the wiggles out and refocus the classroom — all in five minutes or less. GoNoodle involves movement activities that develop memory and fluency in math, spelling, and vocabulary.

Grow It, Try, Like It! is a nutrition education kit Featuring MyPlate is a garden-themed nutrition education kit for child care center staff that introduces children to: three fruits - peaches, strawberries, and cantaloupe; and three vegetables - spinach, sweet potatoes, and crookneck squash. The kit includes seven booklets featuring fruits and vegetables with fun activities through the imaginary garden at Tasty Acres Farm! It also has a CD-ROM with Supplemental Information and a DVD with Cool Puppy Pup's Picnic and Lunch Parties. Each set of lessons contains: hands-on activities, planting activities, and nutrition education activities that introduce MyPlate. Use the kit to promote learning at home with fun parent/child activities and family-sized recipes that give tips for cooking with children.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

The booklets are designed to be taught in sequential order and follow a Day 1 to Day 5 Planning Chart. Booklets may be taught in any order or individually, following the lesson order within each booklet.

Growing Healthy Habits is a gardening and nutrition education curriculum for elementary aged kids. This resource focuses on integrating nutrition into the classroom through gardening and scripted lessons that meet science, language arts, social studies, health, and math objectives. Growing Healthy Habits uses gardening as a tool for encouraging students to consume more fruits and vegetables and whole grains, and increase physical activity.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Units can be taught in any order and each lesson within each unit can be taught in any order, but all units of the curriculum must be taught.                                                                                 

Health Through Literacy is a book set of five to six books, age-appropriate for each grade K–5. Each set includes books with nutrition or physical activity themes. Every book comes with a tip sheet to enhance the health messages in the book. The tip sheets help teachers discuss the books with their classes, incorporate physical activity into the reading of the book, provide ideas for a food tasting for students, and integrate health messages with other areas of the curriculum.

Healthy Classrooms, Healthy Schools helps teachers transform their classroom and school into environments promoting healthy eating and physical activity. This curriculum includes two sets of supplemental lessons, one for grades K-2 and one for grades 3-5. Healthy Classrooms, Healthy schools can also be ordered with companion books that have nutrition and physical activity themes tailored to individual grades, K-5.  The curriculum includes eight lessons incorporating 27 activities. FitBits^™ is a best practice resource component that gets students up out of their seats and moving while, at the same time, reinforcing nutrition and health concepts that are aligned with the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, grade level National Health Standards, and USDA MyPlate. Another accompanying resource is Health Through Literacy, which is a book set of five to six books, age-appropriate for each grade K–5. Each set includes books with nutrition or physical activity themes.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Unit 1 must be taught first and the last lesson to be taught must be the last Unit. The Units in-between may be taught in any order (Per the Ensuring Success sections “beginning and Ending the Program” and “Completing the Units”). At least 6 lessons must be taught (including the first and last Unit). Fit Bits and Health Through Literacy are supportive materials/ resource and not lessons in and of themselves.

A nutrition and lifestyle handout that encourages family’s to live healthier lives.

Tips on the many ways you can use healthy foods from the food bank.

Tips on how to stretch your food dollars while on a budget.

Tips to help save time, money, and food.

This handout teaches how one-pot meals make cooking easy, fun, and can be more affordable.

This resource kit will give child care providers the tools they need to teach children about eating right and being physically active using familiar Sesame Street characters.

Curriculum Description

The 2016 revised Junior Master Gardener (JMG) Level 1 curriculum provides elementary teachers with the tools to teach the world of gardening with eight chapters of novel, hands-on and proven lessons. The curriculum also helps develops life skills, includes career exploration and provides opportunities for students to culminate the JMG experience with service-learning projects. As students complete areas of study, they can earn different recognition certifications including designation as Certified Junior Master Gardeners. Each chapter is divided into sections called teaching concepts. Then, there are multiple activities within each teaching concept.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons may be used individually as stand-alone lessons. The program can be implemented in schools, after-school programs, or other groups interested in young gardeners. Teaching multiple activities within a teaching concept is recommended.

Curriculum Description

The Junior Master Gardener (JMG) Level 2 Operation Thistle module allows students to participate in novel, hands-on activities focusing on Plant Growth and Development. Students will work as a group to complete lessons in each of learning concepts in the guide then work independently to complete activities which are found within the mission briefs and mission option pages. JMG Level Two combines Teacher/Leader Guide and reproducible pages of independent student “handbook” activities into a single book. This premier program encourages youth to take part service projects in their community.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons may be used individually as stand-alone lessons. The program can be implemented in schools, after-school programs, or other groups interested in young gardeners. Teaching multiple activities within a teaching concept is recommended. Please note: JMG Level 2 Operation Water is not approved for AZ Health Zone use.

Curriculum Description

Learn, Grow, Eat & Go! (LGEG) is a 10-week unit of study (two lessons per week) that is hands-on, multi-faceted, and academically rich. It combines the interdisciplinary elements of nutrition, garden science, physical activity, food preparation, and fresh vegetable tastings to improve the health and wellness of children, families, and the school community.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

• The lessons are designed to be implemented in sequence. These lessons are not stand alone.
• This curriculum guides each class in planning and planting a garden. The size of the garden may be modified according to the curriculum.
• At least six food exposures are recommended. Two Garden Kitchen recipe demonstrations are recommended. Ten Go Strong classroom exercises are recommended (one per week).  “Growing further” lesson extensions are optional.

Use this log to determine how much time you are spending in front of a screen.

“I’m going on a picnic and I’m bringing…” The first person to go completes the sentence with a word that starts with “A.” The next person repeats what the first person said and adds a word that starts with “B.” Continue through the alphabet until you can’t think of any more things to bring on your picnic! Game When you’re finished, draw your favorite picnic items on the table below

Cut out the conversation starters to the right along the dotted lines, and place each strip in a cup or jar. Whenever you want to get the family talking, pull one out and let the fun begin!

Use the tips in this guide to fill your plate with healthy foods without breaking the bank.

This colorful handout developed by the Indian Health Service shows balanced meals with reasonable portion sizes. This tool shows three easy steps to knowing what and how much to eat. The front features a dinner plate. The back shows youth breakfast, lunch, and optional dinner plates. Based on the USDA MyPlate and designed for Native audiences.

MyPlate for My Family: SNAP Nutrition Education is a MyPlate resource that supports SNAP-Ed nutrition education and obesity prevention efforts, and is based on recommendations from the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. It is targeted to parents and caregivers who are SNAP participants or eligible for SNAP, and play a key role in planning, purchasing, and preparing food for their families.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lesson can be taught as stand-alone sessions. This curriculum is designed to be taught to parents with children ages 2-18 years old.

The PAK is based on best and promising practices to increase physical activity. The PAK toolkit can be used in schools, communities, worksites, Head Start programs, elderly centers, and youth programs. The goal of the PAK is to increase the time American Indians and Alaskan Natives spend in medium to high physical activity for all ages across the lifespan. While the activities have been field tested to be culturally appropriate for Native communities, others might find PAK useful in their community.

Put a Little Play Into Your Day - Mind Map Activity Sheet. Refer to the map legend for ways you can put a little play into your day. For each activity you complete, check off the box on the mind map below. From your head to your heart, physical activity keeps your mind and body strong.

Curriculum Description

Seed to Supper is a six week classroom-based beginning gardening curriculum developed by Oregon Food Bank in collaboration with Oregon State University Extension. The goal of the program is to increase food security of low-income audiences by providing training in beginning vegetable gardening. The curriculum uses structured PowerPoint slide sets, a participant workbook, and time for instructor/student Q&A. Materials to train volunteer teachers from the community are also provided.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Seed to Supper lessons are not stand-alone and must be taught in the sequence provided. Participants should be provided with the course booklet plus additional resources educators use to supplement their teaching. The pre- and post-program survey included in the curriculum is required. The curriculum is flexible to meet participants' needs. For example, there is a presentation on container gardening that may be useful to urban gardeners.

Discover which fruits and vegetables are sweetest, crunchiest, and juiciest through a series of investigations and fun experiences connecting the school garden to the classroom, school cafeteria, and home. This eleven-lesson curriculum for 3rd and 4th grades includes bulletin board materials, veggie dice, fruit and vegetable flash cards, and ten issues of Garden Detective News for parents/caregivers.   

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons are part of a series and taught in order. Curriculum flexibility based on garden type and size of garden.