TEAM nutrition was created to translate the ideas of being healthy into a reality. TEAM nutrition was born as an integrated, behavior–based, comprehensive plan for promoting the nutritional health of the Nation's children. (USDA, "A guide for team nutrition leaders") The research from the United Stated Department of Agriculture is alarming: The number of overweight children ages 6 to 11 has more than doubled from 7 percent in 1980 to 18.8 percent in 2004. (Ogden CL, 2006) Also noted by the USDA, every day on average, 8 to 18 year–olds spend nearly 4 hours watching television, videos, DVD's, and prerecorded shows and over 1 hour on the computer and about 50 minutes playing video games. (Henry, J. 2005) These statistics are alarming and need to be reversed. The research has linked nutrition and fitness and good health with the ability to learn, and a more important aspect I want to teach my students is that their eating habits, and physical activity and sleep patterns not only affect their academic achievement today, but will also affect their productivity and achievement as adults.
There is a documented relationship between aerobic fitness and motor skills and memory and attention in preschoolers. The study was done because of the decrease in children's aerobic fitness and the associated pressures of schools to enhance cognitive performance. The study assessed 245 ethnically diverse preschool children for 9 months. The results were not surprising. Aerobic fitness was associated with better attention as well as working memory. (Niederer, 2011)This unit will help children learn positive physical activity habits and be able to understand that their energy and readiness to learn will help them become healthy, happy adults.