Food Education and Gardening

A Guide to Using the Creative Curriculum® for Infants, Toddlers, & Twos to Support Farm-to-ECE Models

For infants, Toddlers, and Twos. This resource provides simple, concrete guidance to enhance existing teaching practices that support health and wellness.

A Guide to Using the Creative Curriculum for Preschool to Support Farm-to-ECE Models

For Preschool. This resource provides simple, concrete guidance to enhance existing teaching practices that support health and wellness.

Grow It, Try It, Like It! Nutrition Education Kit For Child Care Centers and Homes

Grow It, Try It, Like It! Fun with Fruits and Vegetables at Family Child Care is designed to help Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) operators provide garden-based nutrition education for children ages 3 through 5 years old in family child care settings.

Grow It, Try It, Like It! Fun with Fruits and Vegetables at Family Child Care

Grow It, Try It, Like It! Fun with Fruits and Vegetables at Family Child Care is designed to help Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) operators provide garden-based nutrition education for children ages 3 though 5 years old in family child care settings.

5-2-1-0 Activities for Early Care Providers

The “5-2-1-0 Healthy Choices Count!” campaign supports sites to make policy, systems and environmental shifts to center healthy habits. These activity resources offer ideas for how to do this in early care settings. From the Healthiest State Initiative.

Plant It, Grow It, Eat It! Healthy Habits Take Root

Get tips from the Team Nutrition on how to start a school garden. School gardens can help increase students’ awareness of where foods come from and increase their preferences for fruits and vegetables.

Learning in the Garden, Lessons from Next Step Adventure

Use and adapt these K-5 lessons to help students develop mapping skills, design and conduct experiments, create graphs, and learn about life cycles. Connected to academic standards, these lessons grow academic skills throughout the whole garden year, from planning, planting, caring for and harvesting in the garden.

Print-and-Go Activities, from Next Step Adventure

Adaptable for home or school-based learning, these printable activities offer several categories for outdoor and garden-based education.

Pick a Better Snack Educator Lessons

Pick a better snack brings fruits and vegetables into the classroom for kindergarten through third grade students all over Iowa. Kids learn about kiwi, spinach, zucchini, pears, and more! As part of the program, kids get to see, touch, smell and taste fruits and vegetables.

FoodCorps Lessons to Support Remote Education

Designed for one FoodCorps service member to lead with up to 25 students (K-5th grade), FoodCorps’ hands-on cooking and gardening lesson can be adapted and used at school or home by any educator.

Sprout Scouts Leader Handbook

Sprout Scouts is a kids club for elementary-aged students that links Common Core and other academic standards to food and health in fun and engaging ways. Sprouts Scouts clubs are perfect for after-school programs, summer camps, or even as a classroom unit.

Produce Basics In School Gardens

Spend Smart. Eat Smart. is a resource that provides easily digestible information on all types of produce. Nutrition benefits, storing, and cleaning are just a few of the sections provided for each food, including videos to help you follow along.

Produce Safety in School Gardens

The School Gardens Program provides a free school garden safety guide. The training includes how to identify chemical, physical, and biological hazards, as well as various videos and quizzes to increase the effectiveness of the lessons.