Go!Kids

Recognizing the importance of starting early to prevent childhood obesity before it takes root, The Children’s Aid Society launched CAS Go!Kids, a 24-week food and fitness curriculum that fits seamlessly into early childhood classrooms. Launched in 2003, the program instills healthy eating and active living practices in toddlers and their parents through participatory stories, songs, yoga, movement and cooking. Parents are engaged through home connection activities, newsletters, family fitness events and hands-on healthy cooking and wellness workshops. CAS Go!Kids serves children three to five years old in nine early childhood programs operated by Children’s Aid in Washington Heights, Harlem and the South Bronx.

In 2006, realizing that Go!Kids could be a valuable and low-cost resource for early care classrooms across the nation, we created an eight-hour training course and published a complete CAS Go!Kids Curriculum Kit. With this resource, we trained seven Head Start sites in New York City in 2007 in partnership with the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), as well as over 200 teachers nationwide at conferences in Nashville, TN, Palm Beach, FL and Dallas, TX.

The CAS Go!Kids Curriculum Kit and training are available for purchase. Please contact Stefania Patinella at stefaniap@childrensaidsociety.org if you are interested in this resource.