On June 9th 2015, ParticipACTION released the 11th Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. In that report the authors identified that 'the biggest risk is keeping kids indoors' and highlighted findings from the Position Statement on Active Outdoor Play on the importance of outdoor play and outdoor risky play for children's health...
Forest School Canada is the flagship educational project of the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada. They provide evidence-based, practical, and inspiring professional learning opportunities for everyone interested in supporting the healthy development of children through play and learning outside. Professional learning opportunities include the Forest and Nature School Practitioners Course as well as a number...
DASH (Dedicated Action for School Health) has created a resource to help support educators in bringing their classrooms outdoors, including an outdoor classroom checklist, tips for working with parents and school administrators, and links to other supporting information. Learn more about the DASH Outdoor Classroom here....
Nature Canada has created Nature HomeSchool, a library of outdoor learning and play resources and tools, to help educators, caregivers, guardians, community leaders, and learners learn and connect to nature. Check out the Nature HomeSchool Library here. ...
The Trottibus is a walking school bus project initiated by the Canadian Cancer Society to help elementary school children walk to school together in the morning, accompanied by parents and volunteers. The program aims to promote physical activity among children, parents, and volunteers, all while reducing car traffic around schools. Just like with a school...
Play Outdoors Magazine: Exploring Outdoor Experiences in Early Learning is devoted to bringing articles, inspiration and creative ideas to those who play a key role in shaping the first five years of a child's life. Articles are written by educators, practitioners, and researchers and include: how-to incorporate loose parts in the outdoor environment, books and...
Evergreen’s National School Ground Greening program works with school boards and school communities to transform their grounds into vibrant, nature rich environments, for play and learning. As part of this program, Evergreen has launched the Climate Ready Schools project to improve the overall design, management, and educational use of schools and schoolgrounds by mitigating flood...
Since 2006, the OCDSB has offered an outdoor education experience to all OCDSB grade 3 and 7 classes through the “Every Student Attends Program”. The OCDSB “Every Student Attends Program” entitles each grade 3 & 7 class in the OCDSB to one free field trip per year to either Bill Mason or MacSkimming Outdoor Education...
Dr. Sarah Moore from the Healthy Populations Institute, Dalhousie University, is featured among a series of five whiteboard animation videos focused on ‘Staying Healthy During a Pandemic.’ In her video, Dr. Moore describes the impact of COVID-19 on the movement behaviours of children, where in Spring 2020, less than 3% of Canadian children and youth...
The Environmental Educators Provincial Specialist Association (EEPSA) in British Columbia put together a Position Statement on Education Outside the Classroom. In the Statement the authors outline the social, emotional, physical and academic benefits of spending time outside, recommendations on bringing education outdoors, as well as a call to action to discuss their recommendations, directed at...
