Growing Healthy Kids Virtual Toolkit

A Guide for Educators

This page provides further clarification on the materials adapted in the GHK Virtual Toolkit.

Introduction

In 2020, with many children learning from home, the GHK Virtual Toolkit was designed to provide elementary school teachers, including other educators and homeschooling parents, a flexible curriculum to deliver in either a distance or hybrid learning setting. The Virtual Toolkit brings pieces of the full GHK Curriculum alive digitally, including by providing an engaging interactive tour of each lesson using Google Sites as its delivery platform. It also includes new resources targeted to virtual learners. For those teaching the full GHK curriculum in person, the GHK Virtual Toolkit can enhance the learning experience. For the most impact when using the GHK Virtual Toolkit, aim to add hands-on growing and taste-testing experiences. Resources to support and enrich the delivery of each lesson are included at the bottom of the page in every Virtual Lesson.

The Virtual Lesson

The lessons were created using a Google Site and then published on the web. This creates an accessible link for our partners and teachers who can then use it to assign to their students through various learning platforms (i.e., Seesaw, Google Classroom, Canvas). The Virtual Lessons are available in both English and Spanish. One benefit to assigning the Virtual Lesson is it allows students to access all of the lesson components in one place. All of the materials found in the Virtual Lesson are also available separately so educators may deliver the series in a way that fits their current teaching situation.

The Virtual Mission Log

A large portion of the original curriculum involved students accepting missions and keeping a log of all the fruits and vegetables they tried throughout the series. In the original curriculum, students receive a paper logbook to record completed missions. For remote use, questions from the original logbook were adapted to a Google Form. These Forms are embedded within the site so students can complete their logs without having to open a new browser. Students are encouraged to answer the questions and fill in whether or not they completed the mission from the previous lesson. To protect student confidentiality, they are not asked to provide a name. Instead, other basic demographics are collected in order to measure student engagement.

The Virtual Accept New Mission

As stated earlier, a large portion of the original curriculum involves the acceptance of missions, encouraging students to try something new. In each video lesson, students are provided with a new mission. To reinforce the message, students are encouraged to complete the Google Form survey after watching the video lesson.

The Video Lesson

There are a total of 7 video lessons, approximately 8-12 minutes in length. The videos were created using PowerPoint then exported to an MP4. These video lessons are embedded within the Google Site page to prevent sending students to another browser. Additionally, these videos are hosted through Oregon State University's Media Space, instead of YouTube, to prevent further distraction. These video lessons have been adapted from the original GHK curriculum and still include the lesson objectives.

The Oregon Harvest for Schools Videos

The Oregon Harvest for Schools (OH4S) videos are a series of videos released by the Oregon Department of Education to promote Oregon foods in school settings and to families. There are six videos that were designed to extend the GHK curriculum, which builds on itself and includes a repetition of concepts such as using senses to explore food, being a Food Adventurer, plant parts, eating a variety/rainbow These six OH4S videos mirror this repetition.

The Grow This! Challenge and Additional Activities

The Grow This! Oregon Garden Challenge is a call to action to individuals, families, schools, community groups, and counties to come together around gardening - to have fun and GROW Oregon's health and food supply. Anyone can participate in the challenge and follow along using their own seeds. It is recommended students follow along with the help of an adult. Participation in the Grow This! Oregon Garden Challenge encourages students to engage in hands-on gardening activities; a critical piece from the original curriculum that could not be adapted in the virtual video lessons. Included in the Virtual Lesson are links to the challenge, seed information, and other gardening-related support. Additionally, students will find other activities to access from the Virtual Lesson. Featured recipes, coloring sheets, and other supplemental worksheets are available for students to access. Please note: at this point in the Virtual Lesson, students will be directed to the Food Hero website.