EARLY YEARS PHYSICAL LITERACY
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Early Years Physical Literacy!
What is Early Years Physical Literacy?
Our team uses a basic definition proposed by Dr. Margaret Whitehead in 2010: the motivation (love of movement), confidence, and competence to move for a lifetime. Active play is how young children develop physical literacy and can be planned throughout every day. Hence, the theme of our work: APPLE - Active Play and Physical Literacy Every Day! Each year, new and exciting questions have presented themselves for our team to investigate.
Why Early Years Physical Literacy
The EYPL Team
All members of the EYPL team work in the Early Childhood field in some capacity or another, as educators, instructors, and researchers. Everything included on this website has been developed and tested by Early Childhood Educators (ECEs), students, and children. We started by developing a basic theoretical framework called the APPLE Model (Active Play and Physical Literacy Everyday!) which focuses on relating the concepts of physical literacy to Early Childhood philosophy of play.
EYPL Resources
The EYPL website includes the following free resources:
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Activity manuals such as A Hop, Skip, and a Jump; and APPLE Seeds
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Observation tools such as the Physical Literacy Observation Tool (PLOT)
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‘How to’ manuals such as the APPLE Seeds Manual
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Stories, videos, and infographics of our work with early childhood programs across the country
We also explore challenging questions such as risky or adventurous play and, soon to come, how to provide active play and physical literacy in the northern Canadian territories.
Our work has show that providing enhanced opportunities for active play and physical literacy benefits ECEs as well as children. When everyone is active, especially outdoors, the day is calmer, more productive, and happier for all!
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