Healthier Child Care Environments Toolkit

The Healthier Child Care Environments Toolkit is a curated list of online resources that help early care and education (ECE) providers create healthy, high-quality spaces for children. Compiled by Michigan State University Extension, it offers a comprehensive list of free tools from trusted sources for improving nutrition, physical activity, and emotional wellness of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

This toolkit is designed for home or center-based child care providers who aim to create healthier environments for the children in their care through a positive wellness culture. You can build this culture through policy, system, and environmental changes that are proven to support children in thriving physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Based on Tested Tools

This Toolkit is built from the best practices outlined in the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment for Child Care, also known as Go NAPSACC. Free to all Michigan child cares, it is an evidence-based program that provides a suite of tools to help child care providers evaluate their current practices and make improvements. Your first step in using Go NAPSACC will be to complete a self-assessment of your child care environment. Based on your results, Go NAPSACC will recommend practical steps to meet best practice goals.

This web-based Toolkit contains resources to help you meet those best practice goals. It is meant as a supplement to the roadmap that Go NAPSACC provides.

Discover the Impact

Here’s what you can gain from using this Toolkit:

A curated list of specific, free, web-based resources from trusted sources.
Links to materials that support improvements in program policies, professional development, child education, and communication with families.
A healthier environment for you and the children you care for!

Getting Started with this Toolkit

The Healthier Child Care Toolkit is organized into three sections:

Nutrition Best Practices
Physical Activity Best Practices
Social Emotional Wellness Best Practices

Under each section, you will find categories that lead you to specific best practices and resources to reach them. If you are unsure where to start, we recommend also viewing the following resources:

Go NAPSACC Starter Guide
Action Steps for Child Care Provides: Meeting Best Practices in Nutrition
Action Steps for Child Care Provides: Meeting Best Practices in Physical Activity