Abstract
Obesity at a young age predisposes children to have detrimental behaviors and non-communicable diseases associated with being obese that can continue throughout their lives. Research has shown that early obesity prevention programs are an effective way to establish lasting healthy eating and physical activity behaviors in children. The current study tested a short-term, standards-based nutrition curriculum with 20 rural, first-grade students. The USDA’s MyPlate curriculum, consisting of nine lessons focused on the five food groups, was implemented over a three-week period. The classroom teacher implemented the curricular lessons while the researcher conducted assessments of nutritional knowledge during regularly scheduled classroom activities. Teacher perceptions of the curriculum were gathered using both informal check-ins and one structured interview. The results showed significant increases in the participants’ nutritional knowledge. Findings from the study align with previous research showing that early, school-based nutritional prevention programs are effective at increasing young children’s nutritional knowledge. The teacher’s evaluation of the program revealed that the curriculum was easy to implement in the classroom. The study’s findings indicate that school-based intervention programs may be one promising tool for addressing the problem of obesity.