Active Living
Physical activity supports brain health. This leads to improved learning and academic outcomes. Communities, schools, and parents can work together to affect behaviour change. This helps students learn lifelong skills that promote physical activity and active lifestyles.
Resources to support implementation can be found in the sections below.
The 24-hour movement guidelines (all ages) contains guidance for physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep.
Ophea's Daily Physical Activity (DPA) Every Day (Grades 1-8) is designed to support teachers in helping students get physical and health literacy skills. This will help students thrive while leading a healthy, active life.
The Guide to Ride (Grades 4-6) is an educational tool that promotes safe cycling. It ensures that children have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to be safe on roads in our communities.
The RoadSMARTS4kids library of resources offers activities, challenges, downloadable lesson plans, presentations, videos and our RoadSMARTS E-cademy virtual courses, that make learning important road safety concepts, skills and awareness fun and engaging elementary age children. These resources are free, easy to use and cover a variety or age-appropriate road safety teachings. Topics such as cycling, walking, sharing our roads, booster seat safety and preparing to walk places alone for the first time are explored in engaging ways and satisfy Ministry curriculum requirements around health and safety, active living, spatial skills, reading and math.
The Walking School Bus (Grades K-8) is an organized system of walking with school children from home to school and back. Students in the same geographic area walk to school together under the supervision of an adult volunteer. Like a regular school bus, the Walking School Bus follows a planned and safe route with scheduled stops. Parents and other volunteers receive training and support to develop and implement the program and to supervise children walking to school.
For information on school bus policies, visit your school board's website.
Active for Life (Grades K-8) offers pre-made teaching units for educators, caregivers, and program leaders. It is a logical series of physical literacy lessons to children.
The School Travel website offers innovative ways in which your school can increase its physical activity goals throughout the day. Visit the Step Challenge page to choose which activity works best at your school. Students (and staff) are invited to track the number of steps they take on the journey to/from school and track their progress either as a class or a school. You may wish to create a shared goal or make it a competition to see who can take the most steps.
For more ideas on how you can take action to boost sustainable travel at your school, browse the Ideas Lab — a searchable catalogue of inspirational ideas and how-to resources that will help you get started.
Playground Activity Leaders in Schools (PALS)
Playground Activity Leaders in Schools (PALS): a playground leadership program for elementary schools that encourages all students to participate in activities regardless of their gender, size, or ability. The program content has been revised to include equity and inclusion, accessibility and mental health promotion, as well as infection prevention.
PALS objectives: to increase physical activity; to decrease conflict and reduce the incidence of playground bullying; and to provide a leadership opportunity for students. Selected students are trained to act as playground activity leaders for younger students. These students will plan and lead fun and safe activities on the playground, leading to more active students.
Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines – Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology. This resource outlines the Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines and Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines for the Early Years (0 to 4 years), for Children (5 to 11 years), for Youth (12-17years) and for adults. Additional resources and information sheets are also available for download.
ParticipACTION
ParticipACTION aims to inspire Canadians to move more and to make it easier to do so. Their website provides a number of resources including campaign information, programs and initiatives, press releases, e-newsletters and webinars. Activity plans, sedentary guidelines and the Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth are also available.
Physical and Health Education Canada
Physical and Health Education Canada advocates for, and advances quality physical and health education programs offered in “Health Promoting Schools”. Support is available through a range of programs, resources and initiatives to enable students to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to lead physically active and healthy lives, now and in their future. Physical and Health Education Canada has also created many useful tools and resources to assist teachers, coaches and parents with the development of physical literacy and overall health in children.
http://www.phecanada.ca/programs/physical-literacy/information-parents/what-you-need-know
Active for Life
Activities promote physical literacy by including fun games that develop skills in running, jumping, throwing, catching, kicking, hopping, and more.
A series educator lesson plans are available to assist with teaching fundamental movement skills to children ages 0-12.