CATCH Early Childhood Classroom Curriculum The CEC classroom lessons are a rich collection of social interactive games an dactivities designed to teach children developmentally appropriate concepts and information in a fun, social approach.

Knowledge  Behavior  As mentioned many times today, knowing that certain behaviors are better than others for your health doesn’t man you will make the right choices. Knowledge coupled with application and repetition can work.

For most children . . . Eating and exercise behaviors are NOT HEALTH behaviors; they are SOCIAL behaviors As this slide suggests, behaviors are influenced, even molded, by the social environment we inhabit everyday. Living and working in a social environmnet that values and practices healthy behaviors creates a culture that expects people to act in healthy ways and rewards them for doing so through social reinforcement.

The ABC’s Always reinforce healthy behaviors. Be a role model. Praise students for making healthy choices. Encourage students to try a new Everyday Food or to try a new physical activity. Ask the kids on Monday what healthy choices they made over the weekend. Be a role model. Eat healthy snacks in front of the kids. Drink plenty of water in front of the kids. Have fun with games, and talk about what you do at home to physically active. Create & support a healthy environment. Have posters/signage highlighting healthy behaviors. Incorporate healthy habits into your routine every day! Start with the basics – it’s just like your ABC’s. Simply reinforcing healthy behaviors will go a long way toward helping kids establish healthy habits. State/review suggestions. Also, what the kids see you doing is very important – kids learn by what you do, not just what you say (optional: do the “OK” sign demo here). State/review suggestions. Again, also do things that help create and support a healthy environment. State/review suggestions.

Intro to CEC Classroom It’s Fun to be Healthy!! Lessons are: Short & informative with an emphasis on interactive and hands-on activities. User friendly & flexible for program staff. A great resource for program/ recreational staff to incorporate health topics into their programs. Before getting started with the Curriculum and materials, be sure to emphasize that the CATCH Classroom materials are user-friendly and flexible. We do not tell teachers what to teach or how to teach, they are the experts and know what will work best in their individual classrooms. The CATCH Classroom materials are there as a resource to incorporate health topics (focusing on diet, physical activity and tobacco use prevention) into their curriculum to deliver health messages to the kids and supplement what they are already doing.

CEC Lesson Objectives It’s Fun to be Healthy!! Children learn to make healthy choices with: Knowledge Skills practice Self-efficacy The objectives for the CEC Classroom Component are for the kids to be able to Identify, Practice, & Adopt healthy eating and physical activity behaviors. The curricula is based on Social Learning Theory, so it’s not just giving kids information, it involves lots of hands-on activities and practice.

CEC Classroom Lessons Targeted for 3-5 year olds 2 Sections: Good Food Kids = 9 Lessons Garden Kids = 10 Lessons Focus on: Knowledge Modeling by peers Skills training & practice Self-monitoring Social skills The CEC lessons include 2 sections: Good Food Kids and Garden Kids. Good Food Kids lessons establish the foundation of all CATCH nutrition programs: providing children with the knowledge and skill to be able to identify healthy foods that they can eat everyday versus foods that are to be eaten less frequently or only on special occasions. Garden Kids lessons reinforce the fun of eating Go Foods by employing a thematic approach focusing on growing your own health foods.

CEC Lesson Organization Each Lesson includes: Planning Notes Behavioral objectives Materials needed Content/Activities of the lesson Extension Activity Curriculum Connectors Highlight: Lessons are structured for flexibility so teachers can split them through the day or week! No matter which curriculum manual you are looking at, they are all organized the same way. That is, each session/lesson includes the listed items. For the materials, any materials needed for a particular lesson are listed in the session outline section. NOTE: in the curriculum the lessons are called sessions. 8

FYI Section & Multilingual Parent Tip Sheets The FYI section includes additional information on several topics to assist with responding to questions regarding the topics introduced. The Multilingual Parent Tip Sheets complement each lesson, and they provide additional information and tips to parents. There are also FYI & Food Service sections located in the back of each of the manuals. Throughout the lessons, there are notations referring teachers to the FYI section, which includes additional information about various topics introduced in the lessons so teachers can get more background information and perhaps assist with answering any questions posed. The Food Service section includes all the snack recipes, order forms, etc. that can be used to involve food service personnel in the delivery of the snack lessons. This section can also be used if parent volunteers are assisting with the snack preparation activities.

Sample CEC Lesson Layout One of the first concepts children are introduced to is the Language of CEC Nutrition. GO Foods (foods that can be eaten anytime). WHOA Foods (foods that should only be eaten once and awhile). Explain that this is a sample page from the first lesson . As you can see in the layout, the purpose and materials are identified, scripted parts are bolded, and there are suggested time allotments for each section. Also, the concept of GO Foods and WHOA Foods is introduced in this first lesson. Children learn that it’s not “good food vs. bad food”, but that some foods are healthier for you than others. Ask the trainees if they can identify some foods they think belong in each category. Explain that this concept can even be applied to physical activities.

GO & WHOA Snacks There are multiple visuals throughout the curriculum that provide lots of opportunities for the kids to identify familiar foods as either GO or WHOA

Sample Lesson Time

Sample Lesson Time

Am Do, Can Do, Will Do What are you already doing to support a healthy environment? What can you do that won’t take a lot of time or money? What will you do that might take a little more time to plan? Refer the participants to the “Am Do, Can Do, Will Do” page in their workbook. Allow time for them write in their workbook.