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Healthy Choices, Healthy Me! Curriculum

Nutrition education lessons that help children learn the basic skills to identify healthy food choices and understand more about agriculture and our food system.

Description

This curriculum engages students by providing opportunities to personalize health and nutrition concepts. In the first grade program, students learn basic skills to identify healthy choices for eating and physical activity. The second grade program is built around The Market Mystery, a story about agriculture and how food gets from the farm to the grocery store. It aligns with the most popular and widely used textbooks adopted by the state for language arts, math, and science.

What’s Inside

Teacher guide with cafeteria connections, student workbooks, and a box of multicultural food pictures; MyPlate food poster; materials storage box; cafeteria connections activity; and The Market Mystery storybook.

Activity Highlight

Activity 5 for second grade, What’s for Breakfast, features pictures of common breakfast foods that students select to create a healthy breakfast. Students work in pairs to combine food pictures into what they believe is a healthy breakfast. Students read part of The Market Mystery story to analyze what the family in the storybook ate. Students complete their workbooks to select foods that would be part of a healthy breakfast, and they discuss the reasons for their food choices.

  • Key Content Areas: Afterschool, Cafeteria Connections, Integrated Subjects, MyPlate, and Parent/Family Involvement

  • Originator of Resources: Dairy Council of California

  • User of Resource: Teachers

  • Audience: Grades 1–2

  • Languages: English and Spanish

  • Number of lessons: 10 lessons

  • Amount of time per lesson: 30–60 minutes

  • Format: Hard copy, and some downloadable lessons and activities

Resource

To access the curriculum, visit the Dairy Council of California Healthy Choices, Healthy Me! First Grade web page External link opens in new window or tab. or Healthy Choices, Healthy Me! Second Grade web page External link opens in new window or tab.. To order the lessons, select the Order Now box on the right side of the web page.

Contacts

For questions regarding this curriculum, visit the Dairy Council of California Contact Us web page External link opens in new window or tab..

Questions:   Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609
Last Reviewed: Wednesday, March 18, 2026
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