CMOM’s health curriculum, aligned with National Health and Pre-K Standards, integrates arts and literacy to address the many different ways children play and learn. This interactive approach helps educators create classroom environments where every child can succeed. The EatPlayGrow™ curriculum incorporates art-making, storytelling, music and movement activities into fun and hands-on educational lessons to teach young children and their adult caregivers about the importance of making positive choices in areas that most affect health: nutrition, physical activity and, based on the latest medical research, sleep.
EatPlayGrow™ art activities give children an opportunity to apply new health expertise in creative ways, reinforcing essential health messages. Being creative with art materials allows children to express themselves and make independent choices. As you introduce these art activities, encourage the process of exploration and creation in your students, rather than focusing on the finished product.
EatPlayGrow™ song and movement activities get everyone moving and singing — habits we want to help our children develop from an early age! Music is a great way to engage young children in building key language and listening skills. The use of simple rhythmic songs provide fun, engaging ways to reinforce the importance of making healthy choices. These movement songs also offer an opportunity for children to demonstrate physical control and coordination of muscle groups, and to follow a sequence of movements.
The EatPlayGrow™ approach to integrating health and literacy includes New Word lists to explore in each lesson and some of our favorite books that highlight key health messages. Reading during each lesson is an important time for making further literacy connections to the health topic and helps build vocabulary. When reading is fun, silly and surprising, children want to read stories over and over again. As children hear stories, they learn new health vocabulary, and develop listening and reading readiness skills. They also build group participation skills and learn to be part of a group.