Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programming

The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, in conjunction with Team Nutrition, developed lesson plans for high school students using the engaging, interactive SuperTracker tool to help students think critically about their food and physical activity choices. SuperTracker is a visually appealing, comprehensive, state-of-the-art diet and physical activity tracking tool. Based on the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, this tool is designed to assist individuals as they make lifestyle changes to reduce the risk of chronic disease and maintain a healthy weight. Using this free, online tool, students can choose a variety of features to support nutrition and physical activity goals.

Curriculum Implementation Guidelines

Lessons can be taught as stand-alone lessons. The lesson plans are designed for high school Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Science teachers; however, the resources provided allow any teacher to promote health and wellness in their classrooms, with or without experience in nutrition education.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.