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What We Do

Developing physical literacy and delivering quality sport

Recent Articles

on our blog

Dr. John Cairney explores impacts of pandemic on physical literacy delivery

Posted in News April 30, 2021

There’s no disputing the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted traditional models of sport and physical activity delivery, but according to Dr. John Cairney that’s not necessarily a bad thing. During a webinar in early June that he delivered in collaboration with Sport for Life that drew nearly 1000...
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Engage Sport North activates physical literacy initiatives during pandemic

She saw it as an opportunity. Mandi Graham is the executive director of Engage Sport North, an organization that promotes physical literacy across a broad swath of northern B.C. When the COVID-19 pandemic forced everyone to isolate at home, she knew her organization would have to innovate in order to keep...
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Basin Plays brings online physical literacy and quality sport to the Columbia Basin

Columbia Basin Trust faces a unique challenge when trying to bring people together to promote physical literacy and quality sport across their region: distance. With communities that span the length of the Canadian portion of the Columbia River Basin, Columbia Basin Trust supports the ideas and efforts of people from Valemount,...
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Fédération du sport francophone de l’Alberta grows its physical literacy mandate

Alberta has one of the fastest growing French-speaking populations in Canada, with over 270,000 citizens who can speak the language and over 80,000 francophones and francophiles residing within its borders. To ensure these people are healthy, the Fédération du sport francophone de l'Alberta has launched a number of campaigns to...
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PLAY Shuswap unveils new Sicamous daycare

They’re calling it Little Bear’s Childcare Centre. The small Shuswap town of Sicamous has never had a daycare centre before, despite a growing need. The local population works irregular hours, as the region is outdoorsy and tourism-oriented, so for many years parents have been calling for a solution. That’s where...
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Sport for Life mobilizes Inclusive Physical Literacy

Sport for Life is putting together a special team. If sport and physical activity organizations across the country want to get serious about physical literacy development for participants with disabilities, then our PL 501 -- Inclusive Physical Literacy workshop is the perfect place to start. And now we’ve trained six...
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PLAYBuilder activities to stay active inside

Have you heard of PLAYBuilder? We are sharing some of the activities from our PLAYBuilder tool to try out at home to keep kids moving and mentally engaged. Whether it’s, Animal Play or Balance on Three, these games should help keep you and your family moving and laughing in no...
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What is PL4C?

For Drew Mitchell, overseeing the Physical Literacy for Communities (PL4C) program feels a little bit like being the conductor of a giant orchestra. First, there’s each community that’s working on developing physical literacy: over 25 in B.C., six in Ontario and two in Nunavut. He oversees their working groups, each...
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This website is meant to inform you about programs, partnerships, projects, best practices, research, leading-edge innovations, and opportunities within the physical literacy movement.

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National Center on Health, Physical Activity and Disability (NCHPAD)

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How Inclusive Physical Education in School Benefits All Students

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Unstructured, outdoor play is essential for healthy child development. This play often involves some element of risk (i.e., challenge or uncertainty in the environment). A risk is not the same thing as a hazard.

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Preserving Indigenous Culture Through Play

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Preserving Indigenous Culture Through Play

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The Inuit played kneel jump to help improve their speed, agility and balance. For instance, if hunters had to face predators or injured animals, they needed to be quick to avoid getting harmed by them. Kneel jump also helped ice fishers and hunters move fast across the ice to safety if the ice started to break. This game also helped with the technique required for other agility games like the one-foot high kick and two-foot high kick.

What you need to play kneel jump

1. Use the masking tape to mark the designated starting/jumping line.

2. To begin, kneel with your shins flat on the ground, feet pointed and tucked flat beneath your buttocks. Your knees should line up with the designated starting line.

3. Use up and down arm movements as momentum to "pendulum" and help thrust your body upward and forward.

4. You should land on both feet, about shoulder-width apart, while keeping your balance.

5. Each player gets three tries to successfully jump as far as they can. The longest distance of the three tries is taken, as measured with the tape measure from whatever back heel is closest to the starting/jumping line.

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Preserving Indigenous cultures through play: A glimpse into 3 traditional Indigenous sports - ParticipACTION

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Learn about the origins of and how to play three traditional Indigenous sports.

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Early Years Physical Literacy

The Early Years Physical Literacy Team consists of faculty members and undergrad students from a variety of disciplines at Mount Royal University who have been exploring physical literacy for preschool children since 2007.

What is physical literacy? Our team uses a basic definition proposed by Dr Margaret Whitehead in 2010: the motivation, confidence, and competence to move for a lifetime. Each year, new and exciting questions have presented themselves for our team to investigate.

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We have followers around the globe and we love hearing from you! Comment, like, and share our Instagram posts or in "What's the Buzz?", a page where we share and upload new content.

About Us

We began with an innocent student question in a Child Studies research class: How much physical activity does a child receive during an average ten-hour day in child care? We were concerned to learn that, in 2007 in Calgary, preschool children were receiving an average of only 30 minutes of activity! That led our team to launch an innovative applied research program to provide resources and education for early childhood educators and to impact policy.

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Past and current research, as well as videos, a physical literacy planning manual for early childhood educators, webinars, and resources, are just a few of the things you'll find while exploring our site!

Instagram

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Home | Early Years Physical Literacy | Calgary, Alberta

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Early Years Physical Literacy The Early Years Physical Literacy Team consists of faculty members and undergrad students from a variety of disciplines at Mount Royal University who have been exploring physical literacy for preschool children since 2007. What is physical literacy?

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We know more than ever about how children learn and develop, and this includes physical activity and sport. Active for Life collects the best research behind raising healthy, physically literate kids and presents it in ways that parents can understand and put into practice.

This toolkit will help parents anywhere their children are active: recreation centres, community associations, local health and wellness groups, even libraries.

Articles

If you are looking for engaging content for your website or newsletter, you are welcome to reprint any of the more than 1,000 Active for Life articles. We just ask that you follow our reuse guidelines. Here are some favourites.

Curated lists of articles

Want to take a deeper dive into a particular topic? Our curated pages are lists of the best articles on specific sports, special topics, and information of interest to different communities and groups.

Tools

We've got materials that can help you educate parents about physical literacy. They include bookmarks and postcards you can order, posters you can download and print, presentations you can use (and slides you can use in your own presentations), and fun things like a quiz and a fortune teller you can download.

Share translated resources

Help newcomers to Canada by sharing our resources and posters translated in 9 more languages.
Share our translated resources
Activities and lesson plans

Ready to get kids moving and developing physical literacy? Here are some ideas for program leaders:

Sound bites and shareable graphics

You can use the memes on the following pages on your social media channels, web pages, newsletters, and anywhere else you think they'd work:

Get social with Active for Life

Social media is a great way to build understanding in parents and to inspire them to add more movement into each day, for their kids and themselves.

Follow Active for Life on social media and enrich your social media channels by reposting and retweeting AfL content:

Using hashtags is a great way to connect your club members with the broader discussion. Consider using these:

Sign up for our monthly newsletter

Our monthly newsletter is written for parents who want to raise happy, healthy, active kids. Your parents may benefit from signing up. You might want to also.

Download our logo

Link to active for life by posting a logo on your site and introduce your users to the world of physical literacy.

Contact us

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Articles If you are looking for engaging content for your website or newsletter, you are welcome to reprint any of the more than 1,000 Active for Life articles. We just ask that you follow our reuse guidelines. Here are some favourites. What exactly is physical literacy? This graphic makes it easy to understand.

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Step aside fads and internet hearsay! We're here with nothing but the expert-backed facts and research to guide you on your journey to a more active life.

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Educators play an important role in establishing physical literacy among students.

The interactive wheel to the right outlines the nine principles of physical literacy which are based upon the acronym EDUCATION, and are consistent with a Quality Daily Physical Education program which is a key element of success. They also form a foundation to create a positive learning environment which supports students in becoming physically literate.

The EDUCATION acronym allows you to navigate through various pedagogical strategies, enhanced by podcasts, research papers, resources and activity ideas, that can help teachers foster the development of physically literate students

Enjoyment
Pedagogical strategies to help foster ENJOYMENT:

Intrinsically motivate students by providing students with choice and skill development.

Optimally challenge students where the challenge of an activity matches their skill level and encourages them to improve and succeed.

Provide developmentally appropriate student-centered classes.

Provide a high level of participation by all students in each class.

You can learn more about fostering ENJOYMENT by viewing the video.

Diverse
Pedagogical strategies to foster DIVERSE forms of activity:

Ask ALL students to identify the types of activities they would like to learn.

Use a wide range of forms of physical activity throughout the year (e.g., dance, gymnastics, games, fitness, and outdoor pursuits).

Include both traditional and non-traditional forms of physical activity.

Include activities that promote cultural understanding and awareness.

Use diverse forms of teaching styles to suit individual needs and multiple objectives

Find out more about fostering DIVERSITY by viewing the video.

Understanding
Pedagogical strategies to foster UNDERSTANDING:

Create well planned lessons that ensure all activities are linked to achieving curricular expectations and/or outcomes.

Encourage deeper forms of understanding that go beyond simple knowledge.

Encourage various forms of communicating knowledge, analyzing movement, and applying movement and its principles across and within a wide variety of physical activities.

Encourage students to be "intelligent movers."

You can learn more about fostering UNDERSTANDING by viewing the video.

Character

Pedagogical strategies to foster CHARACTER:

Ensure key character traits such as fair play, cooperation, and teamwork are reinforced through physical activities.

Infuse the development of life skills in all physical activities. For example, through physical activities, students can learn critical life skills such as cooperation, positive communication, leadership, personal and social management, decision making, problem solving, conflict resolution, stress management, interpersonal skills, spiritual and moral development.

You can learn more about fostering CHARACTER by viewing the video.

Ability

Pedagogical strategies to foster ABILITY:

Encourage individual improvement and avoid comparisons to others.

Foster the development of a wide variety of fundamental skills in order for students to develop movement competence. These skills in turn form the foundation for more complex movement skills in advanced grades. The transfer of these skills is encouraged in order to facilitate competence across a wide variety of physical activities.

Provide refining cues to enable learners to improve their motor skills.

You can learn more about fostering ABILITY by viewing the videos:
part 1 and part 2.

Totality

Pedagogical strategies to foster TOTALITY:

Provide students with opportunities to develop total body fitness. This includes providing a wide range of fitness activities that support the development of endurance, strength, and flexibility.

You can learn more about fostering TOTALITY by viewing the video.

Imagination

Pedagogical strategies to foster IMAGINATION:

Ensure creative and safe use of facilities and equipment.

Encourage individuals or groups to generate creative solutions to various movement challenges. This can come in the form of creativity in a dance or a gymnastics sequence; strategic thinking during a game or an outdoor pursuit activity, or innovation in designing a personal fitness program

You can learn more about fostering IMAGINATION by viewing the video.

Ongoing

Pedagogical strategies to foster ONGOING:

Ensure physical education is offered on a regular (preferably daily) basis.

Emphasize the importance of active living and the acquisition of the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that students need to make ongoing healthy choices now and throughout their lifespan. - Include physical activities that can be done throughout the lifespan.

Provide participation based intramural programs that enable students to apply their skills from physical education.

Identify areas of the community where students can be active outside of school (e.g., parks, trails, swimming pools, local sport clubs, etc).

You can learn more about fostering ONGOING by viewing the video.

Nurturing

Pedagogical strategies to foster NURTURING:

Ensure the whole child is nurtured: physical development (e.g., fitness, skill development), cognitive development (e.g., thinking, understanding, problem solving skills), and affective development (e.g., positive peer interactions, communication, spiritual, teamwork, cooperation).

Plan appropriate activities for the age and stage of each student.

You can learn more about fostering NURTURING by viewing the video.

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Educators play an important role in establishing physical literacy among students. The interactive wheel to the right outlines the nine principles of physical literacy which are based upon the acronym EDUCATION, and are consistent with a Quality Daily Physical Education program which is a key element of success.

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The concept of physical literacy was first proposed in 1993 in a paper presented by Margaret Whitehead at the International Association of Physical Education and Sport for Girls and Women Congress in Melbourne, Australia.

The concept was founded on a doctoral study into the perceptions of our embodied nature by philosophers in the Schools of Existentialism and Phenomenology, principally Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau Ponty. Significant among their views is the centrality of human embodiment in life as we know it. Sartre took pains to highlight the importance of the embodiment-as-lived as distinguished from the embodiment as an object, while Merleau Ponty developed the idea of the ways in which our embodiment informs all perception of the world around us. Both philosophers worked from a monist position refuting dualism.

Reflection on these ideas and other key elements of these philosophies, created a picture of the unquestioned significance of our embodied dimension, an importance overlooked on account of the stranglehold of dualism in much of the developed world.

There was little doubt that our embodied potential was a significant capability alongside other capabilities described by Nussbaum (2000) and Sennett (2009) This capability was described as physical literacy. The authoritative support given to this aspect of our being by respected academics generated the confidence to argue that the fostering of this capability had a strong claim to be part of education, and to be of significance throughout life. As part of education physical literacy does not principally play a role in cognitive development rather it provides the opportunity to foster a key aspect of our personhood. In other words, physical literacy can be justified as having educational. validity in a broad and balanced curriculum.

From this study the concept of physical literacy developed and a definition and attributes were formulated. In addition, the implications of physical literacy being the goal of all structures were drawn up.

From 1993 to the present day papers have been presented at numerous conferences around the world, the book Physical Literacy: throughout the life course (Whitehead, 2010) was written and a number of conferences and workshops have been mounted.

The first conference was in 2008 at the University of Bedfordshire and this was followed up with workshops in Loughborough, Plymouth , Canterbury and Derbyshire. A significant element of each workshop was an extended time to take part in discussion. The concept developed as a result of these discussions. For example, the notion that physical literacy is a disposition came from Canterbury, physical literacy as a journey arose from Plymouth, systems of charting progress were introduced in Derbyshire and implications for practice were highlighted in Loughborough.

The second conference in 2011 was an international event at the University of Bedfordshire Conference Centre and focused on physical literacy in the early and primary years. The third conference, again international, was held in 2013 at Wyboston Lakes Conference Centre in Bedfordshire and looked particularly at physical literacy in the secondary phase of education. At the close of this last conference the notion of forming an international association was discussed and from those discussions the International Physical Literacy Association (IPLA) was established.

Credit for the development and establishment of the concept includes support and study by Elizabeth Murdoch, Liz Taplin, Len Almond, Patricia Maude, Margaret Talbot, Melanie McKee and Dominic Hadyn Davies - to name but a few.

Nussbaum, M.C. (2000) Women and Human Development The Capabilities Approach. Cambridge: CUP.

Sennett, R. (2009) The Craftsman. Penguin Books, UK.

Whitehead, M. (2010) Physical Literacy: Throughout The Lifecourse. Routledge, UK.

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Find out more about the International Physical Literacy Association, including our aims, objectives, and history (both of the IPLA and physical literacy).

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The Sport for Life Education Program • Sport for Life

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Our comprehensive Education Program offers a range of certifications designed to equip individuals with the knowledge and skills to become leaders and champions across three certification pathways.

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Stanford Psychologist Reveals How Movement Can Transform Your Life | Kelly McGonigal