National Geographic Education and The Center for Ecoliteracy have created BIG IDEAS: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment. The BIG IDEAS K-2 Guide helps teachers to lead conversations with students about the linkages between the food we eat, the ways that culture shapes our food choices and behaviors, the relationship between food and our health, and the interconnections between our food systems and the environment.

To facilitate incorporating these themes, this publication identifies key “big ideas” that link food, culture, health, and the environment and demonstrates how they align with the following new academic standards:

• Common Core State Standards
• Next Generation Science Standards: Crosscutting Concepts
• College, Career, and Civic Life Standards for Social Studies (also known as C3)
• National Health Education Standards
• California Nutrition Competencies (from Nutrition Education Resource Guide for California Public Schools, Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve)

The Boston School Forest provides an outdoor classroom for the Stevens Point Area Public School District in Wisconsin. The forest is located in Plover, Wisconsin. The school district offers downloadable standards-based curricula for grades K-2 for instruction in a school forest.

Clausen, Jess, Jennie Ucar, Dan Roberts, and Pam Miller. Connecting with Nature: An Educational Guide for Grades One to Three. Vancouver, BC: David Suzuki Foundation, 2014. PDF.

The David Suzuki Foundation is a science-based organization committed to helping Canadians act on the understanding that people are all interconnected and interdependent with nature — and each other. Connecting With Nature: An Educational Guide for Kindergarten provides lesson plans for classroom and outdoor experiences that link children with nature. The 2014 guide was created and written by David Suzuki Foundation staff, Toronto District School Board educators and staff, and students from Nipissing University’s Schulich School of Education. The guide includes tips on taking students outdoors, along with four lesson plans and handouts. The lessons are:

• ​Creating a natural learning space
• Snail farm
• Making art and music in the outdoors
• Adopt a tree