Decolonization & JEDI Resource Guide for Outdoor Early Learning and Play The Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play (CCOP) is pleased to announce the launch of the Decolonization, Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) in Outdoor Early Learning and Play Resource Guide. Developed as a companion resource to Outdoor Play Canada’s Educators Teaching Educators: Canada’s Outdoor Early...
We are beginning to plan the Breath of Fresh Air (BoFA) Outdoor Play Summit, scheduled for September 23-25, 2027, and we are seeking individuals interested in joining one of our planning subcommittees! BREATH OF FRESH AIR is a three-day Outdoor Play Summit where thought leaders, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers come together to connect, collaborate, and...
Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play (CCOP) 2025-2026 Annual Report Now Available We are excited to share the CCOP 2025-2026 Annual Report!This year's report highlights the milestones, partnerships, and initiatives that have helped advance outdoor play across Canada. It showcases the collective efforts of our partners, researchers, and community members who continue to strengthen opportunities for all...
Thank you to Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput, Senior Scientist at the CHEO Research Institute, for providing this post! In a new commentary, entitled Nature as Medicine: The case for prescribing outdoor time published in Canadian Family Physician, the authors Dr. Jean-Philippe Chaput and Dr. Mark Tremblay, Senior Scientists at the CHEO Research Institute, call for Canadian...
September 30th is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, an opportunity for the public to recognize and commemorate the legacy of residential schools, the intergenerational harm they caused to Indigenous families and communities, and to honour those affected by this injustice. This federal holiday is an effort on behalf of the Government of Canada...
Thank you to Sam Grimmett Batt for providing this post. This article was originally published on August 5, 2026 by UK Community Foundations. My kids just broke up from school for the summer. Alongside the relief that the morning scramble is over for a time and a growing panic about filling four more weeks, I’ve been thinking...
We are seeking nominations for the Outdoor Play Canada Board Finance Committee! See terms of reference for the Finance committee in the affiliated link: Finance Committee. Purpose The purpose of the Finance Committee is to assist the President, Executive Director, and/or the Board of Directors of Outdoor Play Canada (OPC) by acting on behalf of the full...
Thank you to Tammy Potter, RECE, FNS Practitioner and Supervisor of Forest Explorers and Ottawa Forest and Nature School for providing this post! In 2025, Andrew Fleck Children’s Services, thanks to Lawson Foundation funding, partnered with Algonquin College on a year-long research project exploring the evolution of outdoor play and learning at our outdoor-focused early childhood education...
Thank you to Louise Zimanyi for providing this post. This article was originally published in the Conversation. In spring, on the traditional and treaty lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit, young children, Anishinaabe storytellers and educators walk together with Aki (Land) and Nibi (Water). I’m a researcher and professor of early childhood and someone of French-Canadian and Hungarian descent living as...
Going outdoors with young children is beneficial. Indigenous people have learned on the land for many generations. Many outdoor early childhood programs have been modelled after Scandinavian and Northern European programs where children spend the majority of the day outside. In the last 15 years outdoor and land-based (OLB) early childhood programs have expanded across...
