Arianna's Nutrition Expedition™

Lesson Modifications

Personalizing the Program
Since no two classrooms are the same, every educational program needs some type of customization. Consider these suggestions:

• Each lesson runs 40-60 minutes. For shorter instructional periods, divide some activities into two parts. For example, Activity 8 can be split into two 30-minute sessions (Steps 1-5 in the first session and Steps 6-11 in the second session).
• Each activity includes a journaling assignment. If time is an issue, have students complete the Nutrition Journal assignment during your class journaling time.
• All student materials are written at the fourth-grade reading level or simpler. If you have many students reading below grade level, complete the reading activities as a large group.
• In Activity 8, students pull together all the content that has been covered in the unit for a class project. Save preparation time for the activity by having students store all of their handouts and worksheets in a folder.
• Activity 4 - Marcus's Big City Adventure - focuses on multicultural foods. It's a perfect opportunity for students to discuss and share samples of foods from their ethnic background. Work with your foodservice director to obtain ethnic foods from the Five Food Groups for students to taste, smell and see.
• Reinforce nutrition concept taught in class by having students play Arianna's Interactive Nutrition Games in the Kids Section of NutritionExplorations.org.
• Use the GOING FURTHER activities at the end of each lesson to enrich the program for more advanced students or to include more movement in your classroom.
• Select titles from the Book List to supplement Arianna's Nutrition Expedition.™

Get Students Moving
Incorporating movement into classroom activities:

• Provides variety in instruction.
• Helps students release pent-up energy.
• Models age-appropriate activity in the classroom.

Movement is incorporated:

• Within the reading selections
• In GOING FURTHER activities
• As part of the teaching strategy in selected lessons

Evaluation Ideas

• Use the "Check for Understanding" at the end of most activities, to assess whether students have achieved the lesson's Activity Outcomes.
• Use the pre- and post-test found in Arianna's Downloadable Materials to assess students' learning over the course of the entire unit. Note: We need to add the pre- and post-tests to the downloadable materials section's for both programs.

Home Connections
Making healthy eating a permanent habit often depends on what happens at home. Reinforce and extend Arianna's Nutrition Expedition™ messages using Home Connections, where you'll find blackline masters of handouts for adults. These handouts provide parents and guardians with basic nutrition information and help share the excitement students experience with this program.

Mealtime Extensions
The cafeteria is another important arena for reinforcing classroom nutrition messages. On page 7 of the Nutrition Backgrounder, there are several suggestions for helping students make the connection between the classroom and the cafeteria.

The school cafeteria and your school food service director or manager are great resources. For example:

• Ask the school foodservice to supply foods for GOING FURTHER activities, Cheeses of the World (Activity 2) and Before and After (Activity 5)
• Request a guided tour of the cafeteria, and identify Five Food Group foods served on the line and discuss their importance for good health.
• Invite the foodservice director or manager to visit your class and talk about the foods served in the cafeteria.
• Share Arianna's Nutrition Expedition™ artwork for use on cafeteria bulletin boards, menus or food stations.
• Conduct poster contests related to specific nutrition concepts taught in the program.
• Institute a family night where you and the school foodservice personnel can showcase how knowledge in the classroom is being applied to mealtime.
• Have students share what they have learned.
• Have students read from their Nutrition Journals.
• Invite parents and guardians to share their favorite Combination Food recipe.
• Invite parents and guardians to speak about foods from their cultural background.