Author: Katelyn Squires
Planning Unit: Green County CES
Major Program: LEAP
Plan of Work: Making Healthy Lifestyle Choices
Outcome: Initial Outcome
According to, The Partnership for a Fit Kentucky “16.3% of children between the ages of pre-school and kindergarten are considered overweight”. Because of this statistic Green County Family and Consumer Sciences Extension partnered with Green County Head Start and Little Lambs Preschool to offer a maximum of forty-nine preschool aged children the LEAP curriculum each month. This program consists of learning about Literacy, Nutrition, and Physical activities. Each month since September, the Green County FCS Agent has attended Green County Head Start and Little Lambs preschool to present a book followed along with a nutritious snack and some variation of physical activity.
In December, the FCS agent read the book “You are Healthy” by Todd Snow which spoke about all the different ways in which we are healthy from brushing our teeth to being happy. Students were given the chance to tell ways they are healthy, and their answers varied from “I eat good foods” to “I play outside with brother”. Both examples are different components of what LEAP is about: nutrition and physical activity. Since beginning LEAP in September, there have been 134 participants with 108 of them reporting that they would eat my fruits & vegetables, be more physically active, try new foods, and drink more healthy beverages.
Those statistics are reported from a survey presented to the children at the beginning of each lesson of the month. They raise their hands on each of the questions such as “Who went and played outside with someone this month” which is considered physical activity. When you put something into understanding for the kids, they have a higher percentage of answering it rather than just asking who was physically active this month.
https://www.fitky.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/12/Obesity-Fact-Sheet.pd
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