UPDATE: The Breath of Fresh Air Summit 2023 is SOLD OUT! The Breath of Fresh Air Summit 2023 will run from September 27-29, 2023 at the Ottawa Forest and Nature School and Wesley Clover Parks Campground in Ottawa ON! This two-day Outdoor Play Summit will bring together thought leaders, practitioners, researchers, and policy makers to connect and...
The Parks Accessibility Conference runs virtually from August 23-25, 2022 and is free to attend! Led by Engineering Health at the KITE (Knowledge Innovation Talent Everywhere) Research Institute, the conference will bring together those with a desire to improve accessibility at national parks in Canada. Conference themes surround three main questions: What does National Park accessibility...
Join Okanagan College on May 16th, in collaboration with Bow Valley College, Saskatchewan Polytechnic and New Brunswick Community College, and colleagues at the YMCA and University of Fraser Valley, for a virtual conference called Outdoor Pedagogy: Change makers from diverse perspectives. The full day virtual conference features keynote speaker Dr. Rebecca Isbell, acclaimed ECE author of...
Thank you to Laura Molyneux, Cloudberry Forest School, Newfoundland and Labrador, for providing this post. A colleague and I are writing a book together. We’re calling it “Things You Didn’t Think You’d Do As An ECE”. Today’s entry was about what to do when you find a dead blue jay. Last week we wrote a risk...
A New Research Chair in Outdoor Education (Chaire de recherche sur l’éducation en plein air (CREPA)) has been created at Sherbrooke University, Quebec! Professor Jean-Philippe Ayotte-Beaudet, the Research Chair for this program, will receive $625,000 in financial support over five years from the Ministry of Education in Quebec for his work exploring outdoor teaching practices...
This article was originally published in the BC Aboriginal Child Care Society's Caring for our Children Newsletter. Thank you to Rachel Ramsden, PhD student, and Dr. Mariana Brussoni, Associate Professor, from the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia for providing this post. “It’s too cold!” “It could be dangerous!” “It’s so much easier...
The Canadian Parks and Recreation Association (CPRA) workshop series 'Gender Equity in Recreational Sport' is an educational series that aims to help build organizational capacity in four areas: organizational culture change and shared commitment, creative community engagement, facility design to attract and encourage use, and evaluating outcomes. This series is in direct alignment with the...
Thank you to Dr. Eva Oberle, Dr. Mariana Brussoni and Megan Zeni (University of British Columbia) for providing this post. This article was originally published in The Conversation. When children step out of their traditional elementary school classroom to learn outdoors, they experience a wide range of benefits. Outdoor learning is fun, active and fosters creativity and problem solving. Outdoor...
Thank you to Beverlie Dietze, Play Outdoors Magazine, for providing this post. In partnership with some of Canada’s outdoor play educators, Play Outdoors magazine is offering a multitude of workshop topics to educate, inspire, and bring new ideas to educator's early learning and childcare practice. The 2021 Fall workshops include: Exploring the Benefits of Taking Learning Outdoors Presenter: Dr....
On Friday, June 18th, OPC's Dr. Louise de Lannoy presented at the 2021 Virtual Play Conference, an annual educational conference held by the US Play Coalition. This year, due to pandemic restrictions, the conference was held online from April 1st to June 30th, 2021 with weekly networking events and presentations, recorded and available for viewing...
