- Email: [email protected]
Eating from the Garden
New Resources for Nutrition Educators CURRICULA Eating From The Garden. Elliott K. 2011. University of Missouri Extension publication N755, Family Nutrition Education Program, 2700 E. 18th St., Ste. 240, Kansas City, MO 64127–2695. Book and lesson supplies, 416 pp, $80.00. This program helps high needs youth in schools and community programs improve eating habits using research-based information, nutrition, and gardening activities. With help from area partners and volunteers, the program also promotes healthier food choices, gardening knowledge, and physical activity. What better way to go ‘‘green’’ than by growing a garden? When children are actively involved in growing food, they will be more excited about preparing and eating it. That is the concept behind Eating from the Garden, nutrition and gardening curriculum for 4th and 5th grade students. Several published studies have concluded that children and adolescents should be targeted for nutritional interventions focusing on amounts and types of fruits and vegetables to consume. Eating from the Garden provides a comprehensive, hands-on curriculum designed to encompass and promote healthier food choices and the reasons we need to make those food choices. Many factors contribute to today’s childhood obesity epidemic, including poor food choices and inadequate physical activity. The time has
come to build life-long eating habits while improving nutritional knowledge for future generations. Each unit provides learning objectives, core activities, handouts, supplies needed, and optional activities for enhancement and reinforcement of the learning objectives. Lesson topics include: Food for Growth, Seeds We Eat, Fight BAC, Nutrients for Plants and You, MyPyramid, Making Healthy Food Choices, Fruits and Veggies-More Matters, What’s on a Label, Get Physically Active, Eat Right Exercise Have Fun, We Need a Garden Plan, Consumerism, and Garden Celebration. Additional items include color tips and handouts, garden plan cards, recipes, and a fruit and veggie mania game. While the information in the curriculum is based on the seasonal climate in Missouri, it can be adapted to any region. The layout makes it easy to understand the lifecycle of the lessons through activities like puzzles, coloring sheets, and a family nutrition newsletter. It has been written to cover the Missouri Grade Level Expectations and is on a positive level that
encompasses cross-cultural levels. Illustrations and charts in the book provide reinforcement of activities or concepts in each unit. This program would be an asset to anyone who teaches at an elementary school or a community center with an afterschool program, and is also appropriate for special needs students of any grade range. Eating from the Garden is a turnkey curriculum. With a much needed emphasis on the lack of activity and unhealthy eating habits among youth, what better way to encourage consumption of more fruits and vegetables than by involving students in the garden? Students will be engaged in the learning process from seed to table. This curriculum integrates sustainable gardening into the classroom while incorporating science, math, nutrition, and history. We need to focus on this generation of students, and what better way to instill healthy food and eating habits while simultaneously teaching responsibility and ownership, cooperation, and patience than with exciting hands-on education? Deborah Bolger, MS, RD, Renaissance Academy, 5100 Cleveland Street, Virginia Beach, VA 23462 doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2011.03.141
Cite this article as Bolger D. Eating From the Garden [New Resources for Nutrition Educators]. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2011;43:306.e1.
Inclusion of any material in this section does not imply endorsement by the Society for Nutrition Education. Evaluative comments contained in the reviews reflect the views of the authors. Review abstracts are either prepared by the reviewer or extracted from the product literature. Prices quoted are those provided by the publishers at the time materials were submitted. They may not be current when the review is published. Reviewers receive a complimentary copy of the resource as part of the review process. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2011;43:306.e1 Ó2011 SOCIETY FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 43, Number 4, 2011
306.e1
come to build life-long eating habits while improving nutritional knowledge for future generations. Each unit provides learning objectives, core activities, handouts, supplies needed, and optional activities for enhancement and reinforcement of the learning objectives. Lesson topics include: Food for Growth, Seeds We Eat, Fight BAC, Nutrients for Plants and You, MyPyramid, Making Healthy Food Choices, Fruits and Veggies-More Matters, What’s on a Label, Get Physically Active, Eat Right Exercise Have Fun, We Need a Garden Plan, Consumerism, and Garden Celebration. Additional items include color tips and handouts, garden plan cards, recipes, and a fruit and veggie mania game. While the information in the curriculum is based on the seasonal climate in Missouri, it can be adapted to any region. The layout makes it easy to understand the lifecycle of the lessons through activities like puzzles, coloring sheets, and a family nutrition newsletter. It has been written to cover the Missouri Grade Level Expectations and is on a positive level that
encompasses cross-cultural levels. Illustrations and charts in the book provide reinforcement of activities or concepts in each unit. This program would be an asset to anyone who teaches at an elementary school or a community center with an afterschool program, and is also appropriate for special needs students of any grade range. Eating from the Garden is a turnkey curriculum. With a much needed emphasis on the lack of activity and unhealthy eating habits among youth, what better way to encourage consumption of more fruits and vegetables than by involving students in the garden? Students will be engaged in the learning process from seed to table. This curriculum integrates sustainable gardening into the classroom while incorporating science, math, nutrition, and history. We need to focus on this generation of students, and what better way to instill healthy food and eating habits while simultaneously teaching responsibility and ownership, cooperation, and patience than with exciting hands-on education? Deborah Bolger, MS, RD, Renaissance Academy, 5100 Cleveland Street, Virginia Beach, VA 23462 doi: 10.1016/j.jneb.2011.03.141
Cite this article as Bolger D. Eating From the Garden [New Resources for Nutrition Educators]. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2011;43:306.e1.
Inclusion of any material in this section does not imply endorsement by the Society for Nutrition Education. Evaluative comments contained in the reviews reflect the views of the authors. Review abstracts are either prepared by the reviewer or extracted from the product literature. Prices quoted are those provided by the publishers at the time materials were submitted. They may not be current when the review is published. Reviewers receive a complimentary copy of the resource as part of the review process. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2011;43:306.e1 Ó2011 SOCIETY FOR NUTRITION EDUCATION
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 43, Number 4, 2011
306.e1