Health and Safety
Canada’s New Toll-Free 1-844 POISON-X Number for Poison Centres
Health Canada, in collaboration with poison centres servicing most provinces and territories, is implementing Canada’s toll-free number, 1-844 POISON-X (or 1-844-764-7669), to facilitate access to poison centre services. Poisoning is a major cause of illness and death in Canada and internationally. In 2020, Canada’s poison centres managed 215,589 cases, of which more than one-third involved a child aged 5 or under. Be sure to share this new number with parents and colleagues so they know who to call in a poison emergency!
57 Fun Physical Activities for Little Ones
Children between 2-4 years old don’t only need a lot of movement, they also need a lot of variety of movement. This age group is ready to move in new and exciting ways! So while it’s essential to make time for unstructured, active playtime, it’s also important to have access to plenty of fun, simple activities that you know will help them get active and develop skills in many different ways. Here's a list of 57 fun activities for kids that might help!29 Fun Games to Play in the Snow
Kids love to play in fresh snow. Building a snowman can be fun, but there are so many other activities kids can do to have fun and keep moving once winter comes along. From sledding to snowball fights, catching snowflakes and making snow angels, wintertime affords the whole family so many options and so much fun. Here is a list of fun games that you can share with parents to encourage some family fun in the snow this year!Try some holiday fun physical activities!
Active for Life has a fun list of holiday activity ideas for families that are always popular this time of year.Have some soccer fun during FIFA World Cup!
The FIFA World Cup is one of the world’s most widely watched sporting events, with countries around the world participating. So it's a great time to have some soccer fun with the children in your program! Just about any sport or physical activity will help to develop physical literacy and good movement skills. However, if you had to pick one sport that developed the most skills and capacities for little ones, it would have to be soccer.200+ activities you can do with kids at home
Children have been home a lot over the last few years. Here's an epic list of over 200 full of play ideas that you can share with parents: games to keep their minds and bodies moving!What is high-quality childcare?
Besides the obvious reasons, research shows that high-quality childcare is associated with an incredible variety of benefits for children of all ages. In short, quality care really matters! The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development recently did a comprehensive study on what makes quality care, and here's a summary of what they found.Have you tried the Active for Life Build Your Own Lesson Plan tool?
Do you want to build more physical activity into your CNC programming? You can use this Lesson Plan Builder to create custom lesson plans. Simply start by choosing your desired age range, and then click the skills you want to develop and the activities you want to use. When you are finished with your selections, you'll have a lesson plan that you can print out with a simple click of a button!Active Start
From 0-6 years, children need to be engaged in daily active play. Through play and movement, they develop fundamental movement skills and learn how to link them together. At this stage developmentally appropriate activities are important to help children feel competent and comfortable participating in all kinds of fun and challenging play!
CMAS Webinar: Supporting Newcomer Children through Active Play–Teaming up with Active for Life!
Incorporating physical literacy into your daily programming can be easy and inexpensive – and it can bring such a range of benefits for children, ECEs, and families!
When young children engage in physical literacy and active play, they can better cope with stress, build resilience, and start on their path toward a healthy and active life.
Watch this webinar where Dawne Clark, PhD, Early Years Physical Literacy discusses:
- What physical literacy (PL) and active play look like in the early years
- The benefits of PL and active play for children, educators, and families
- “Infusing” PL into everyday activities
- How to get children moving again and active for life after the pandemic
- The Active for Life website, tools and resources