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CATCH Kids Club
Millions of children today have their only parent or both parents working outside the home. These families have a clear need for child care programs during after school hours and when school is not in session. The unstructured time after school and during the summer provides a ready-made opportunity for programs to fill this child care need with fun, hands-on nutrition activities as well as enjoyable structured physical activity. The CATCH Kids Club (CKC) is a physical activity and nutrition education program designed for elementary school aged children (grades K - 5) in an after-school/summer setting. CKC is composed of nutrition education materials (including snack activities) and a physical activity component. The CKC program offers an easy-to-use format that both children and staff enjoy and is ready to implement in the after-school and summer settings. During 1999-2000, the CKC underwent pilot testing and formative evaluation in 16 after-school sites in Texas . The results showed that CATCH Kids Club works – it has been kid-tested and approved, it is inclusive (everybody plays), and it has been demonstrated to increase children’s physical activity and their nutrition knowledge and intentions. The education component aims to equip children with the knowledge, skills, self-efficacy, and intentions to make healthy dietary and physical activity decisions. You can find more information about CKC, including training and cost of the program, at www.flaghouse.com.
The CKC uses a colorful story called Hearty Heart's Journey to the Planet Earth to introduce and teach children about healthy food choices and physical activity habits necessary to promote healthy lives and healthy bodies. The main character of the story is called Hearty Heart, who is from a planet called Strongheart, where he goes to school to learn about healthy living. CKC is divided into 32 lessons and physical activity sessions. Sessions 2, 5, 8, 10, 14, 17, 26, and 32 include a snack preparation/taste-testing activity. The first lesson introduces Hearty Heart and the story about his journey to Earth where he teaches kids about healthy food choices. There are 5 lessons focusing on fruits and vegetables, 4 lessons about choosing foods lower in fat and the importance of low fat dairy products, 6 lessons learning about fiber, and 3 lessons learning about the new MyPyramid. Each session involves approximately 15-25 minutes of time and are conducted once per week. The curriculum uses a variety of education strategies, including large group discussions, educational games and activities,goal setting, and hands-on snack preparation and taste-testing. Each session contains detailed descriptions of the procedure for presenting each activity, with direct questions and/or statements to students enclosed in boxes within the session descriptions. An integral component of the CKCN Program is the Family Component. Parental involvement contributes to the effectiveness of positive changes in eating and physical activity behaviors, and the family component reinforces this involvement. In the CKC parental involvement is encouraged through the CATCH Curriculum Home Letters. All home letter materials are in English and Spanish.
Students will be able to identify and understand the major concepts of the CKC including lower-fat, higher fiber foods as the most healthful foods to eat and regular active exercise as the most healthful physical activity. CKC is based on social learning theory, which suggests that most health behaviors are social behaviors that are learned in a social context. The curriculum targets changes in specific environmental, personal, and behavioral factors that influence children’s health behavior. Specifically, it encourages changes in the environment that would support healthful eating and physical activity patterns in children by providing opportunities to eat more healthful snack foods and to engage in physical activity by promoting role models for healthful eating and physical activity; and by creating peer support for selecting more healthful foods and doing regular physical activity. The curriculum focuses on changes in specific cognitive or personal attributes, especially children's knowledge about more healthful food selections and types of physical activity; their values about health, nutrition, and physical activity; and the sense of self-efficacy they have with food selection and preparation, as well as their physical activity patterns. If you aren't going all the way, why go at all?
SOFIT Lesson Observation Log - (Center Data Manager Use Only) SOFIT Lesson Summary Form - (Not for Data Entry) SOFIT Section B. Class Observations (page 3) After-School Student Questionnaire Physical Activity Observation Form Visit Documentation Log – Physical Activity
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