GO, SLOW, WHOA!

GO, SLOW, WHOA can be confusing to young children. They sometimes confuse GO foods that are good to eat all the time, like apples, with WHOA foods that they would like to eat all the time, like candy. Act out how one might feel sick after eating too many WHOA foods, and how good one can feel after eating GO foods.

Learn the three We Can! food categories (GO, SLOW, and WHOA) and how to recognize foods that are the better choices for a healthy body.

NEW WORDS

Fresh

Slow

Whoa

Did you know that a blueberry muffin is a cupcake in disguise?

A blueberry muffin has lots of added sugar and fat, which makes it a WHOA food – a cupcake in disguise.

Teaching Health Through

Music & Movement

The Fruit Song: Go Bananas

Art

Stoplight Collage

Literacy

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Music & Movement

The Hello Song

Music & Movement

The Clean-Up Song

Demonstration

Go Slow Whoa Demo

This is our trademark song! It’s part of every Wellness Training session we do and everyone loves it. It’s especially great for this lesson because the word Go reinforces the concept of GO foods.

Having children visually place the different food types on the stoplight helps reinforce the meaning of the words. The GO, SLOW, WHOA positions on the stoplight help to bring the message home.

Stoplight Collage

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is excellent for stimulating discussion about the different food types, as the caterpillar first eats GO foods and then goes on to eat WHOA foods. Children often see themselves in the caterpillar.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Ask children to share some of the songs they sing at home as part of their bedtime routines. You can also sing a variation of this song, substituting the words good night for hello.

Just like a family meal, clean-up time is a family activity as well. In school, this song can be used with any lesson, and is a nice way to keep children moving through clean-up activities.

The comparison between a stoplight and GO, SLOW, WHOA can be tricky. Emphasize that green is for GO foods, yellow for SLOW foods, and red does not mean stop but WHOA, for once in a while foods.

Activities

Sing and dance to Grand Old Duke of York, Shake Your Sillies Out, or Hokey-Pokey. Follow exercise with a hydrating, nutritious smoothie: blend ice, strawberries, and fat-free or low-fat milk.

Recipes

Add blueberries to oat cereal in fat-free or low-fat milk.