Online Lessons and Curricula to Teach Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Education

Online Lessons: Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Education

Search the California School Garden Network’s Publication Database for free or low-cost GENE curriculum publications. Most of the publications listed are free and all are reviewed by CSGN before being posted.

Edible School Yard.org has an extensive list of edible education resources submitted by users across the nation and world.

Online Lessons: Nutrition Concepts

General Nutrition Education

• Games, lessons and resources for kids, parents and educators from the Santa Cruz City Schools at Schoolnutritionandfitness.com
• Free resources on nutrition education from USDA’s Team Nutrition including storybooks, posters, fact sheets, and activity guides http://teamnutrition.usda.gov/library.html
• Nutrition Education lessons for integration into core educational content standards, from California Healthy Kids Resource Center

Food Grouping Activities

• Choose My Plate: USDA’s online nutrition resource covering the food groups and key nutrition education messages, includes posters, tip sheets, and activities for teachers
• Chef Ann’s Meal Wheel: poster and visual aid of the food groups and serving sizes from Chef Ann
• Dairy Council of California: online games, activity books, and educational game available for purchase on physical activity, food groups and serving size resources.

Eat the Colors of the Rainbow: Nutrition Lessons on Eating a Diversity of Fruits and Vegetables

Online Lessons: Edible Activities

Six Plant Parts Lessons

• “Plant Part Factory” Lesson: Introducing the six plant parts, from UC Davis Children’s Garden
• “Finger Salad” Lesson: harvest and prepare a simple hand-held salad, for all ages, from UC Davis Children’s Garden
• “My Edible Garden” Lesson: create a miniature edible garden of harvested plant parts on a cracker, from Life Lab
• “My Edible Garden” Lesson: video demonstration of the lesson
• “Roots, Stems, Leaves” the Six Plant Part Song: listen on Singing in Our Garden album by Banana Slug String Band or download the lyrics

Three Sisters (Corn, Beans and Squash Traditional Planting) Lessons