Color Me Healthy is a program designed to reach limited resource children ages four and five. It provides fun, innovative, interactive learning opportunities on physical activity and healthy eating. The program is designed to stimulate all of the senses of young children; touch, smell, sight, sound, and, of course, taste. Color Me Healthy uses color, music, and exploration of the senses to teach children that healthy food and physical activity are fun!

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Color Me Healthy Kit Components Teacher’s Guide 4 Sets of Picture Cards 3 Colorful Classroom Posters CD and Cassette Tape with 7 Original Songs Hand Stamp 14 Reproducible Parent Newsletters 2 Colorful Parent Posters

The Color Me Healthy Teachers Guide contains 14 lessons designed to be used during Circle Time. The lessons provide caregivers with quick, easy ideas that can be taught in a variety of ways. Also included in the Teacher’s Guide are six imaginary trips that allow the children to use their imagination to travel to different places and events. The Color Your Classroom section of the guide provides the teachers with suggestions to make their classrooms come alive. Because teachers are role models for children, the Color Me Healthy Teacher’s Guide includes a section on how the teacher can eat healthy and stay active.

Four sets of picture cards are included in Color Me Healthy. They are used in many of the Circle Time activities. The sets include dairy foods, colors of foods, where foods grow, and places to be active.

Classroom posters bring color to the classroom and are used as educational tools in many of the Circle Time activities.

Seven original songs enhance the lessons in Color Me Healthy. Children and teachers enjoy the upbeat tunes and lyrics as they sing and dance-a-long.

A hand stamp is included with the program and can be used as a fun way to reward participation in Color Me Healthy.

The program reaches out to families with a series of 14 reproducible newsletters that reinforce the message the children are learning in the classroom. Color Me Healthy NEWS is designed to provide families information on healthy eating and physical activity such as how their family can be active together or how to encourage more fruit and vegetable consumption. Each issue contains an after work healthy food idea and a "Kids Kitchen" segment that encourages the parent to involve their little one in food preparation.

Parent posters convey a basic message about healthy eating and physical activity. They can be used in the child care facility anywhere where parents gather.

Color Me Healthy is designed to be used in family day-care homes, Head Start classrooms and child-care centers serving four and five year olds. Agents with the NC Cooperative Extension Service and their county partners conduct local trainings for child care providers. Color Me Healthy materials are available to child care providers after they participate in a comprehensive training that teaches creative and effective ways to use the program.

Color Me Healthy is brought to you by:

• NC Cooperative Extension Service
• NC Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Health
• NC Nutrition Network
• USDA
• Start With Your Heart
• NC Initiative for Healthy Weight in Children and Youth

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