The Nature Connection Handbook, by Finding Nature's Dr. Miles Richardson and Dr. Carly W Butler, offers guidance and support to those seeking to promote connections with nature. This beautifully illustrated online resource highlights the importance of fostering nature connections, offers five simple pathways to start building nature connection, outlines the evidence-based pathways to nature connection...
The Alberta Recreation & Parks Association has a series of tools to support municipalities in creating Play Declarations; formal, signed commitments for communities/municipalities to share a vision for play. Resources include 'how-to' guides, video presentations and executive summaries for use with decision-makers, and webinar presentations for practitioners (featuring a quote from OPC Chair Dr. Mark...
PHE Canada has developed a robust resource of physical education activities to support children and youth in getting active both at home and in school. The activities are focused on promoting physical competencies surrounding the themes of 'move', 'think', 'feel', and 'act'. Activities are categorized according to grade level (K-3, 4-6, 7-12) and are downloadable...
Written by Tim Gill and published & copyrighted by Play Wales, the Weighing up risks and benefits in children's play info sheet outlines why risk is important in children's play, the importance of finding a balance between protecting against injury and promoting beneficial play opportunities, and guidance on how to do so. Read the full info...
Inclusive Playgrounds, led by the Canadian Disability Participation Project, presents thirteen evidence-informed recommendations for designing inclusive playgrounds to enable participation for children with disabilities, provides a diagram of a potential inclusive playground illustrating how these recommendations can be implemented, and provides a short description of how the recommendations were identified. Check out the Inclusive Playgrounds Resource...
EverActive Schools, a national charity that aims to create and support healthy school communities, put together the 'Exploring Loose Parts Play at Home' resource to support kids in getting outdoors and into play during the COVID-19 pandemic. The resource describes what loose parts play is, key concepts, and common items that make excellent loose parts...
Girl Gone Good provides insight and resources for trails in the Ottawa region and beyond, including an extensive library of trail guides, suggested itineraries (e.g., insight into local towns and cafes close to trails), a trail finder map, and resources on how to be a responsible and safe hiker. They also have a series of...
Coping with Changes: Social-Emotional Learning Through Play Online 9-week course, produced by the Lego Foundation, explores the practical and emotional challenges facing children, guides practitioners in discovering learning through play, and discusses COVID-19-related stress management strategies. Topics covered in the course include: Foundations of learning through play Importance of mental health and psychological support/social emotional learning...
The More Active People for a Healthier World global action plan, by the World Health Organization, provides updated guidance and a framework of effective and feasible policy actions to increase physical activity across cultural, environmental, and individual factors. The report highlights the observation that investing in policies to promote play can contribute directly to achieving...
Child Nature Alliance of Canada (CNAC)'s online resource portal Thrive Outside now includes a Teacher's Guidebook for bringing learning outside. This resource includes a number of strategies, tips, and ideas, including how to meet your curriculum in the outdoors, document learning in play, proposing outdoor learning to your administration, and more! Check out the guidebook here. Read...
