Eat Play and Grow
Eat Play Grow is an early childhood health curriculum that teaches children and their caregivers how to make healthy nutrition and physical activity choices. The curriculum offers a series of 11 healthy lifestyle lessons with hands-on activities, essential facts, and simple strategies that make healthy choices fun and easy to include in daily routines. Each educational lesson addresses the multiple ways children learn through storytelling, art-making, and music and movement activities to teach the importance of making positive choices in the areas that most affect health.
Topics include:
- My Five Senses
- Families use their five senses to understand how to listen to their body’s nutrition and physical activity needs.
- GO, SLOW, WHOA!
- Families learn the three We Can! food categories and how to recognize foods that are better choices for a healthy body.
- Fabulous Fruits
- Families learn the importance of eating a variety of fruit every day as they learn to categorize, count, and sort fruit choices.
- Move to the Beat
- Families learn the importance of physical activity and are introduced to heart health through music, rhythm, and physical activity.
- Energy Balance
- To attain a healthy weight, families learn energy in (foods eaten) must balance with energy out (physical activity).
- I Love My Veggies!
- Families learn the importance of eating vegetables every day as they explore color, textures, and patterns, and learn new vocabulary.
- Perfect Portion
- Families learn the important connection between portion control and healthy meals.
- Dem Bones
- Families are introduced to the skeletal system and the importance of calcium to build strong bones.
- Healthy Beverages
- Families discover the benefits of drinking fat-free or low-fat milk and water instead of sweetened beverages.
- Smart Sleep
- Families learn that developing a healthy sleep routine is as important as proper nutrition and physical activity.
- Family Meal
- A chef-led class provides strategies for creating an easy, well-balanced, affordable meal, and a positive meal time environment.
For more information, please contact Christy Burger with Team Nutrition at cburger2@unl.edu.
Nebraska Team Nutrition is working to train childcare providers on using and implementing EatPlayGrow in classrooms across the state.