Proper nutrition and exercise are critically important throughout the life span. This is especially true during growth, when the bones that will support the body for life are developing. Everyone needs calcium. But unlike boys, growing girls typically have low calcium intakes. That's why growing girls are the focus of this educational effort entitled "Calcium! Do You Get It?", which is designed for presentation to girls ages 11-14. This program should raise awareness, increase knowledge and encourage girls to consume adequate amounts of calcium and to exercise in order to build and maintain strong and healthy bones. By addressing this need at an early age, it is our hope that young girls will develop health promoting behaviors they can carry throughout life.

Upon completion of this program, students will:

be able to read and understand the "Nutrition Facts" panel on the food label so they can add up their calcium intake and strive to reach 120%Daily Value (%DV) of calcium per day

list a variety of foods they will eat from each major group of the Food Guide Pyramid to meet their daily calcium goal

recognize that exercise is important for the growth and maintenance of strong and healthy bones

list physical activities they can do routinely to help build strong and healthy bones.

Section I provides you with background information about nutrition emphasizing the need for calcium and exercise to build an maintain healthy bones.

Section II focuses on the tools that you and the girls can use to identify calcium sources that are both personally appealing and support healthy growth and development.

Section III gives you educational activities designed to reinforce the information presented and help the girls develop healthful behaviors.

Section IV contains handouts supporting the activities in the previous section which are designed for reproduction and distribution. It also includes answers to the activities in appendix.

Section V contains a list of foods and their calcium content which you can share with the girls.

Section VI contains an on-line comment form to help us evaluate these materials.