Go Wild with Fruits & Veggies! educational package

Go Wild with Fruits & Veggies! consists of seven 45-60 minute lessons:

• An introductory lesson.

• Five lessons that focus on different color groups of fruits and vegetables.

• A celebratory/summary lesson.

For a summary of all the lessons, see Go Wild Lessons at a Glance.

Through this program:

• Students will increase preference for and knowledge of fruits and vegetables.

• Students will expand the variety and colors of fruits and vegetables they eat.

• Students’ families will prepare and eat more fruits and vegetables at home.

• Students will take part in physical activity while learning about the importance of daily physical activity as a part of good health.

This evidence-based program ensures that students meet the objectives through the combined efforts of many people.

• The nutrition educator visits the class. She or he presents hands-on lessons about the many benefits of colorful fruits and vegetables and physical activity.

• The classroom teacher leads special activities and reinforces nutrition and physical activity messages. See a sample from the related resource: Lesson 4 Teacher Activity Resource.

• The school food service staff includes fruits and vegetables in their menus. See a sample from the Lesson 4 School Cafeteria Promotion Resource that is used to promote them.

• The students’ families buy and make fruit and vegetable dishes with their children. See the related resources: Lesson 3 Family Newsletters and Lesson 3 Go Wild Challenges.

Go Wild with Fruits & Veggies! is designed to involve students in active learning.

• The engaging flip book or presentation is used to share information and guide discussion.

• Lessons are organized by fruit and vegetable colors.

• The cartoon animal character for each lesson models behavior through a story and is interwoven throughout activities.

• Lessons include games, music, dance, tasting opportunities, and other activities. This helps stimulate all five senses and keeps students engaged throughout the whole lesson.

This program is easily adaptable. While each lesson builds upon the prior one, one can use specific lessons or activities within a lesson if needed. Minnesota references have been minimized where possible and there are tips for adapting it to other states. Non-nutrition educators can easily adapt this program for use as a regular educational unit (spelling, science art, etc.) within their classroom. Also, educators can use the program materials in non-classroom settings as they see fit.

The educational package is web-based. Purchasing the educational package gives you access to the Go Wild with Fruits & Veggies! instructor website. This website is the one stop shop and contains all of the resources you need to teach the seven lessons of the program.

Each Go Wild lesson features six to eight activities. Each lesson features:

• Cartoon animal character from the Go Wild Bunch.

• Poster. (See a sample: Lesson 7 poster.)

• Flip book, story book, or presentation which introduces key content. (See a sample: Lesson 3 flip book.)

• Overview, listing of objectives, estimate of time needs, and a complete listing of materials and preparation needed for the lesson (See a sample: Lesson 1 introductory sections.)

• Nutrition activity (See a sample: Lesson 3 nutrition activity.)

• Physical activity (See a sample: Lesson 1 physical activity.)

• Tasting activity (See a sample: Lesson 6 tasting activity.)

• Review activity (See a sample: Lesson 2 review activity.)

Each lesson also features print-friendly activity sheets. While all lessons feature some unique activity sheets, most of the lessons feature:

• Read Aloud. (See a sample: Lesson 2 Read Aloud.)

• Go Wild Journal. (See a sample: Lesson 2 Go Wild Journal.)

• Family Newsletter in English and Spanish. (See a sample: Lesson 3 Family Newsletters.)

• Go Wild Challenge in English and Spanish. (See a sample: Lesson 3 Go Wild Challenges.)

• Teacher Activity Resource. (See a sample: Lesson 4 Teacher Activity Resource.)

• School Cafeteria Promotion Resource. (See a sample: Lesson 4 School Cafeteria Promotion Resource.)

Lessons also use the Go Wild theme song and videos found on the instructor website. See the Go Wild! Eat Colors! Video.