We are proud to announce the availability of our new third grade curriculum, Shaping Up My Choices. This curriculum, which is free to California third grade teachers and available at reasonable prices outside California, contains ten lessons that have students problem-solving, reasoning and using critical-thinking techniques as they learn about nutrition and physical activity.

Specific lessons include:

• learning about food labels
• estimating serving-sizes using hand symbols
• how to make healthy beverage choices
• learning about nutrients while learning the song, “A Tooty Ta”

One activity that students especially love is the Lunchtime Launch lesson where they draw what they had for lunch and then figure out what they are missing to make their lunch healthier.

The curriculum was created by a Dairy Council of California staff team, consisting of Tammy Anderson-Wise, Mary Anne Burkman, Trina Robertson and me. During the 24 months of program development, we developed several drafts getting input from classroom teachers to help evaluate and change it. Thank you to all of the wonderful teachers that helped with the curriculum development.

The curriculum comes with a wide variety of teaching resources, including transparencies, CD-ROM, food pictures and vocabulary cards. Learn more about Shaping Up My Choices in the classroom programs section of this website and if you are a third grade teacher, order today. While you’re there, become a certified Shaping Up My Choices Teacher by taking the free, online teacher training. By becoming certified you will learn the basics for teaching nutrition and strategies for integrating nutrition into core subjects while using the Dairy Council of California’s curriculum.

Debbie Souza Asada

Northern California Schools Supervisor