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First 5 County Profiles
Color Me Healthy
Color Me Healthy was developed in North Carolina for family child care, child care and Head Start programs for preschool-aged children. The program focuses on both physical activity and nutrition using music, color and five senses.The materials come as a kit that includes: a Teacher’s Guide, 4 Sets of Picture Cards (Available in Spanish), 3 Classroom Posters (Available in Spanish), a CD with 7 Original Songs, a Hand Stamp, 14 Reproducible Parent Newsletters (Available in Spanish) and 2 Parent Posters (Available in Spanish). A Training Manual is also available for purchase separately that includes meeting agendas, PowerPoint slides and handouts.
Strengths:
- Well organized with age-appropriate and engaging activities
- Simple to teach
- Visually-appealing materials; nice packaging (everything fits in a single portfolio)
- Well-rounded and cohesive physical activity program
- Nutrition and physical activity lessons introduced with brief learning objectives
- Section addressing the health and nutrition of the caregiver
- Extra emphasis into changing the classroom environment to reflect healthy lifestyles
Limitations:
- Materials do not fully integrate the concepts of nutrition and physical activity
- Food is limited to fruits and vegetables without proteins or whole grains and only one lesson on dairy
- Not a lot of variety or ways to extend the activities
- Limited ethnic and cultural diversity
- No suggestions for adaptations for differences in culture or ability
- None of the instructional materials are available in Spanish, although some visual materials are
- Materials for parents may be inappropriate for parents with low literacy
- No mention of children with special needs or the appropriate modifications for this population
- Minimal evidence presented for understanding the approaches used in this curriculum, although it appears to have been well reviewed prior to publication
Implementation:
- Easy to implement in most all settings including family child care homes
- Could be used by teachers with a range of educational and professional backgrounds
- Activities do not require much special equipment or materials
- Kit includes all necessary materials (except for those typically available in any child care setting)
- No additional training required