BREAKING NEWS. Outdoor Play Canada, the Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group at the CHEO Research Institute, Andrew Fleck Children's Services and Algonquin College have recently been awarded $2M for a 5-year project to launch the Canadian Centre for Outdoor Play, a centre of excellence where practice, policy and research will come together to...
Thank you to Gerben Helleman, author of the blog Urban Springtime and Researcher Public Space and Child-friendly Cities at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, for providing this post. Fortunately, more and more municipalities are working on play-friendly public spaces. However, many policy visions and investments are still based on assumptions made by municipal officials or...
Thank you to ParticipACTION for providing this post. The 2022 ParticipACTION Children and Youth Report Card has arrived! The 15th edition of the Report Card contains grades based on data collected during the pandemic to better assess its impact on kids’ movement behaviours. The pandemic drove a sudden and drastic shift in how kids could access physical...
This posting was originally published by the Canadian Museum of Nature. Humber College Early Childhood Education Program, Etobicoke, Ontario: creation of course for nature-based play that incorporates Indigenous knowledge in the Not for Profit (large organization) is one of the 2022 national finalists for the Canadian Museum of Nature's Nature Inspiration award! Humber College’s Early Childhood Education...
Thank you to Take Me Outside for providing this post. Take Me Outside is a non-profit organization committed to raising awareness and facilitating action on nature connection and outdoor learning in schools across Turtle Island (North America). Last year, Take Me Outside Day had 8,900 educators and 400,000 learners participate in a week of events, activities and...
Thank you to the Outdoor Learning Store for providing this post. The Outdoor Learning Store has compiled a list of key dates and events/initiatives on outdoor learning professional development opportunities across North America and the world! Keep scrolling to explore and find an event (or many) that align with your outdoor learning and play interests! Ongoing, Online: #NatureForAll...
The Outdoor Learning Store and their Outdoor Learning Partners have collaborated on a series of FREE Fall Outdoor Learning Virtual Workshops! Held on Tuesdays from September - November 2022, these 60 minute workshops come jam-packed with ideas, inspiration and resources from some of the best outdoor learning organizations and leaders in North America. Included in the registration is a...
Thank you to Dr. Avril Johnstone, Dr. Anne Martin, and Dr. Paul McCrorie, from the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, University of Glasgow, Scotland, for providing this post. What is nature-based early childhood education and why is it important? "I like being outside with my friends, I like all the colours outside and all the space....
Thank you to Rachel Ramsden, PhD student at the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, for providing this post. Summer weather encourages many of us outdoors and, as we saw during the COVID pandemic, being outside brings us many benefits – to our health and wellbeing. The research in our lab focuses...
The Child Nature Alliance of Canada (CNAC) Forest and Nature School Practitioners Course is a year-long certificate course that consists of both in-person outdoor, experiential learning, as well as online self-directed learning. CNAC has been offering this course since 2012, adapting and improving it each year based on participant feedback and the ever-evolving Forest/Nature School...
