WORDS & PICTURES: Gabrielle Versmessen
“GO, SLOW, and WHOA!” are words one can hear children shouting when participating in the CATCH Early Childhood program. These catchphrases are readily recognized and easy to remember for young students when identifying healthful foods. Although the CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health) program has been nationwide since 1988, Manatee CATCH has been around for about three years. The program is facilitated by the Early Learning Coalition (ELC) and is designed to encourage physical activity and teach healthy eating habits to preschool-aged children. The ELC’s CATCH program started with ten sites and has grown to 15.
CATCH has three components. The first is “it’s fun to be Healthy!” Classroom curricula consisting of interactive nutrition and garden-based lesson plans. The second component is structured physical activities provided in a CATCH EC Physical Activity Box. The third component is “Family Education” and helps parents incorporate these healthy habits at home for children, so it becomes a part of their way of life. These lessons and activities only take approximately 30 minutes each.
ELC’s Doris Papa is a CATCH program educator who goes out to schools to provide and teach the curriculum. “The teachers are to do the program at least three times a week, but preferably daily, and then the ELC comes in twice a month to guide the teachers and observe,” she says.
Many of the CATCH sites in Manatee County are funded through a grant from the Children Services Advisory Board, and these particularly funded sites require the child to live in a specific zip code.
At Harvest United Methodist Church’s early childhood center, Just Grow, CATCH has been used since November of 2021. No stranger to education involvement, Leanne Badham, Director of Just Grow, has been a certified trainer for the Division of Early Learning and the Early Learning Coalition of Collier County until her move to Manatee County in June of 2021. She says that not only do these young students love the CATCH program, but the parents do too!
“All of our parents are really involved. We have a PTA, and they love any program that comes with learning about health,” says Leanne. Along with CATCH, Just Grow has been a part of the ELC’s STEAM Machine. They also include yoga, cooking, and music woven into their extracurriculars. While their philosophy and open curriculum are very similar to that of the Montessori school, Leanne says the most significant difference is just a bit more structure and separation in age groups in order to include age-appropriate learning activities for each child. Here, the CATCH program is geared toward the VPK students, and all other extracurriculars include ages two and older.
