This video from the Centers for Disease Control highlights one early education program’s effort to promote healthy eating and prevent childhood obesity. Look at it closely, and you notice that it also contains important examples of the kind of language-rich environment that promotes literacy development. In leading children in exercise, Claudia Mendoza, a teacher in the Los Angeles Universal Preschool program, asks them to “inhale” and “exhale.” She is helping children build vocabulary. Colorful printed cards—with text and pictures – illustrate the preschool yoga poses they are learning. The garden the children plant and their discussions of nutrition build the background knowledge that is critical for learning to read with comprehension. Likewise, Mendoza stresses family engagement. In focusing on the whole child, high-quality early learning programs prepare young children for productive and healthy futures.