Play to Thrive, a white paper produced by Maximum City, makes the case for the fundamental importance of play for children's ability to learn and thrive in the 21st century. The report provides an overview of the current state of global crises, how play may help children navigate these crises, why it is important to...
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...
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...
As part of Canada's Outdoor Learning Store fall virtual workshop series, Christina Pickles from Get Outside and Play led a webinar on the importance of outdoor play for learning in the early years, with some practical ideas and resources on how to support children in their play and learning outdoors. Watch the full webinar here. Watch other...
The UK-based Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) project released a literature review on academic evidence that can inform OPAL's approach to play in schools. The report discusses the value of playtime in schools, in terms of monetary, intrinsic (children's enjoyment), and instrumental (play's value for things other than play itself), with the ultimate goal of improving...
Schoolyards Count, produced by Kelly Gallagher-Mackay (Wilfrid Laurier University), Christine Corso (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), and Tammy Shubat (Ophea), reports on the quality of schoolyards across Ontario using data from citizen scientists. The report provides a review of why schoolyards matter for the health and wellbeing of students, a review of the gaps...
The Declaration on the Child's Right to Play in Canada, produced by IPA (International Play Association) Canada is a call for individuals and organizations across Canada to promote the child's right to play at local, regional and national levels. The Declaration outlines the benefits of play for children, the role of adults in supporting the...
New America's Policy Recommendations to build outdoor play and learning opportunities aim to promote outdoor activities that help young children learn safely and effectively. They have created one-pager sheets for US state and federal policy makers that outline the health benefits of, and how to promote and support, outdoor play and learning opportunities. Useful resources...
The Scottish Government published a review of global evidence on the associations between nature-based early learning and childcare (ELC) and young children's physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. They found that nature provides more opportunities for children to be active, diversify their play, and engage in risky play. Additionally, they found that nature-based ELC, when...
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. Learn more here....
