ActivePlay.ca, created by Active for Life, offers a rich collection of early childhood education resources designed to help children engage in physically active play every day. The site includes videos, posters, and evidence-informed articles on the benefits of active play available in 11 languages, making it an accessible tool for educators and families across diverse...
Active for Life has released a wide range of free, downloadable posters and activity guides to help families promote children's physical literacy including games, scavenger hunts, bingo cards and much more. These resources are available in 12 languages including Arabic, Chinese, French, Punjabi, Spanish, Ukrainian, Farsi and more! Find all posters here....
The Mixed Research Unit (UMR) Petite enfance, grandeur nature is a structural and multidisciplinary entity that supports and guides research projects on nature-based education, whether they originate from the needs of educational settings, researchers, decision-makers, or other community stakeholders. Learn more here....
This project led by UMR Petite enfance, grandeur nature, aimed to disseminate the results of the work carried out as part of the research project ‘Alex – Nature-Based Education: An Innovative Approach to Supporting the Educational Success of Young Children’, in collaboration with the Association québécoise des CPE (AQCPE). The dissemination was completed through three...
The SPROUT-able project aims to enhance the physical and social environments of outdoor childcare programs, support professional development for early childhood educators, and design evidence-based strategies to promote inclusive outdoor play. The SPROUT-able team has put together five videos and tip sheets to help caregivers and families wishing to support children with disabilities in engaging in...
A new policy brief from the Lawson Foundation explains the unique features of outdoor and land-based programs (OLBs) and provides a conceptual framework for developing a new category of regulations and licensing for OLBs. The brief is grounded in experience and evidence from leading practitioners, policymakers, and researchers in Canada and abroad....
Guidance on Nature Connection - Pre-birth to Age 5 Years A new Inspiring Scotland publication, Starting Out to Play, supports practitioners, working with parents, families, and carers, to make the most of the multiple benefits to health, well-being and learning found in connection to nature pre-birth to age 5. To ensure that all children aged 0-5 years have...
The Learning from Indigenous Perspectives: Land-Based Learning in the Early Years research project was a four-year initiative (2020-2024) based at The School of Early Childhood at George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario. It aimed to incorporate Indigenous perspectives and pedagogies into early years education. The project involved 20 educators from 10 childcare centres across Toronto. As the...
This project, part of the Lawson Foundation Outdoor Play Strategy 2.0, explored changes to provincial legislation in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) that would allow outdoor-based programs such as Forest and Nature Schools to operate as licensed Early Learning and Child Care programs (ELCCs). The NL government provided Cloudberry Forest School with an exemption to operate...
Applying an Indigenous Two-Eyed Seeing approach – taking the strengths from both Indigenous and Western ways of knowing, this resource guide was developed by Katy Cameron, a First Nations female and MSc former graduate student with the HALO Research Lab, as an information tool for families, practitioners and professionals on environmental considerations when playing outdoors in...
