Meal Kit Video Series: Enhancing Home-School Nutrition Education

Mulligan, E., Stapp, A., Wolff, K., Lambert, L., & Pittman, J. (2024–2025). The Growing Healthy Minds, Bodies, and Communities (GHMBC) team produced two instructional videos to accompany biannual meal kits distributed to more than 500 families across North Mississippi and the Mississippi Delta.

Developed in collaboration with a University of Mississippi nutrition professor/chef and young children, the videos model meal preparation while promoting culinary and early literacy skills. Delivered via QR code, the videos reinforce the GHMBC Pre-K4 nutrition curriculum and strengthen connections between classroom learning and home-based practice.

Mindful Yoga Video Series: Curriculum-Integrated Videos for Early Childhood Education

Mulligan, E., Wolff, K., Stapp, A., & Powell, B. (2023–2024). The GHMBC team developed a series of 36 mindful yoga videos in collaboration with eight certified yoga instructors from across Mississippi.

Filmed in Cleveland, Mississippi, and at the University of Mississippi, the videos align directly with the six instructional units of the GHMBC curriculum based on Mississippi's state-adopted Pre-K4 standards.

The bi-weekly series includes Mindful Monday, Mindfulness in Action Wednesday, and Friday Flow. Each video introduces a core mindfulness concept paired with yoga movement while reinforcing academic content, vocabulary, and social-emotional learning goals.

Jumpstart to Wellness: 5-Workshop Series for Mississippi Educators

Stapp, A. (2021). A five-session professional development series developed to expand wellness and physical activity concepts into the Mississippi educator community.

Delivered through the North Mississippi Education Consortium from March through May 2021, the series reached 53 educators who completed all five sessions and received free 0.5 CEUs. The program was subsequently kept online by NMEC so educators could continue accessing the professional development.

Moving Across Mississippi (MAM)

Stapp, A. & Prior, L. (2018–2020). Moving Across Mississippi is an online video platform featuring 22 movement-integrated videos developed by the researchers. The program was implemented by early childhood and elementary educators across Mississippi with 167 children.

The mission of MAM is to encourage educators across Mississippi to promote children's well-being through health and physical activity integration, brain and body activation, and whole child education.

Creating a Healthy Classroom and School: A Resource Guide for Educators

Stapp, A. (2016–2018). Supplementary videos were created to accompany the Healthy Classroom and School Resource Guide. The videos were designed as professional development resources for K–8 teachers to support the implementation of health and physical activity practices in schools.

Growing Healthy Minds, Bodies, and Communities Pilot Curriculum

Wolff, K., Stapp, A., Miller, S., Lambert, S., & Mann, G. (2020–present).

The Growing Healthy Minds, Bodies, and Communities (GHMBC) initiative is an innovative standards-based Pre-K4 curriculum integrating social-emotional learning, yoga and mindfulness, gardening and nutrition, outdoor and dramatic play, and physical activity to support the well-being of children.

During Phases II–IV, the team developed and piloted eight units containing 32 lessons and 16 corresponding yoga videos with 23 Pre-K4 teachers across five schools in North Mississippi.

During Phase V, the curriculum was realigned to Mississippi Beginnings, resulting in six units with five lessons each. Family engagement components were also expanded to include newsletters, virtual cooking experiences, summer resource bags, family engagement nights, and school-based gardens.

Phase I: Growing Healthy Minds, Bodies, and Communities Pilot Curriculum

Stapp, A., Wolff, K., & Johnson, C. T. (2019–2020).

During Phase I, three integrated units focused on gardening and nutrition and social-emotional development were developed and piloted with 11 teachers across North Mississippi. All units integrated academic content with whole child wellness concepts.