Getting Started
Safety
It is important to make sure that all physical activity is conducted safely, minimising the risk of injury or accident. There are many easy ways that early childhood services can keep children safe during indoor and outdoor physical activity:
- Make sure children are engaged in tasks and activities that match their skills and abilities.
- Ensure there is plenty of room for activities.
- Encourage parents to dress their children in appropriate clothing and footwear that allows mobility.
- Always have adults supervising all activities.
- Maintain and regularly check all equipment and resources to ensure that they are not a hazard to young children. For further safety information regarding a variety of playground equipment and toys see these Kidsafe ACT fact sheets or these fact sheets from the Children's Hospital at Westmead.
- Ensure that all fixed playground equipment meets the current Australian Standards Guidelines and is appropriate for the ages, interests and abilities of the children attending the service. In addition, it is important to consider the layout of the service and take precautions to avoid injuries to children from things such as trip hazards, protruding objects and inappropriate surfacing beneath equipment.
- Use the Cancer Council's SunSmart guidelines when children are playing outdoors.
- Encourage children to drink plenty of water when they are being active or playing outdoors.
Tips for parents and carers
The play environment
A positive, safe environment is very important for indoor or outdoor play. Being outdoors has the added benefit of providing children with space to carry out 'gross motor' activities such as jumping, running, climbing and leaping at different speeds. Outdoor play also allows children to get to know their environment and connect with nature.
Parents and children should be sun smart when outdoors. For example, wear long-sleeved polo shirts, knee length shorts, and wide-brimmed hats. Also, make sure you regularly apply 30+ sunscreen.
Role of parents and carers
Parents are important role models and should be active with their children every day. Try to also plan some opportunities for the whole family to be active on a weekly basis. Carers and other family members, such as grandparents, can also share in the fun and responsibility of planning activities.
It's good to keep play items in your car and at home which assist in creating opportunities for play, such as blow-up beach balls, soccer balls, bats, and buckets and spades.
Role of staff members
Staff should encourage and plan for children to be active every day. They can act as role models and should join in playing with the children as often as possible.
The best way to maintain variety and interest is by programming a wide range of structured and unstructured opportunities for active play and rotating the program every couple of days.
By keeping a record of the activities you will be able to develop your own active play resource folder. This may be particularly useful for new staff.
Alternative equipment options
As equipment can be a barrier in some early childhood settings, particularly family day care, this list of alternative suggestions have been included to assist carers in overcoming this hurdle.
Be creative, consider what you have available and produce your own ideas should the following suggestions not suit.
Alternative equipment options for physical activity
| Object | Alternative item |
| Rolling wedge | prop one side of a couch cushion up on pillows |
| Beanbags | scrap material sewn in a square or rectangle and stuffed with dried beans, dried corn or sand inside |
| Buckets | ice-cream containers, boxes or a washing basket |
| Skittles | empty plastic bottles and cartons |
| Markers | empty ice-cream containers |
| Parachute | an old bed sheet or blanket |
| Potato Sacks | old pillow cases or they can easily be made out of Hessian material |
| Building Blocks | empty food or milk cartons |
| Soccer Goals | simply laying out markers to kick between or cutting the front out of a large box laid on its side |
| Goal Rings | hula hoops can be secured with tape between the backs of two chairs or simply use an upright box with a hole cut out at the bottom of one side |
| Horse Sticks | pool noodles, cling-wrap cylinders or any long objects |
| Totem tennis pole | suspending a tennis ball in an old stocking from a tree branch or veranda cross beam away from any windows |
| Balls | balloons or beach ball |
| Balance beam | masking tape; a line drawn with chalk; a skipping rope |
| Tunnel | cardboard boxes |
| Target | old sheet with a target drawn on it, target drawn on a wall with chalk |
| Throwing items | bath sponge, scrunched up scarf or paper bound with masking tape |
| Bats | rolled up newspaper bound with masking tape; inside tubes of cling wrap or cut up pool noodles |
Warm up and cool down
A structured activity session should commence with a warm-up activity and finish with a cool-down activity lasting approximately five minutes each.
The warm-up activity helps children to get their muscles ready to start playing the games, and the cool-down helps children relax their muscles and gives them time to calm down before moving onto other activities.
Warm up
Start warm-ups in a large cleared space. This may be inside or outside depending on the space available.
The warm-up starts with an action song and follows with a bending, stretching, twisting or balancing activity. Some examples include:
| Action song | Heads and shoulders, knees and toes |
| Hokey Pokey | |
| The chicken dance | |
| Bending, stretching and twisting activities | Toe touch and sky reach - Stand with feet apart and the knees slightly bent. Ask the children to bend forward and try to touch their ankles or toes. Then walk the fingers up their legs and then stretch up to reach for the sky as high as you can. Repeat. |
| Body twists - Stand with legs apart and hands on the hips. Keeping the hips still, ask the children to rotate their upper body to face the right and hold this position for five seconds, then return the body to the front. Keeping the hips still, ask the children to rotate their upper body to face the left and hold this position for five seconds, then return the body to the front. Repeat the whole activity. | |
| Ankle movement - Sitting down and moving at the ankle only draw a circle with the right foot in one direction five times and then the five times the other way. Repeat with the left ankle. | |
| Sky reaches - Stretch one arm up to the sky, then stretch the other arm up to the sky and repeat. | |
| Shoulder shrugs - Shrug shoulders up and down and repeat. | |
| Shoulder rolls - Roll the shoulders forward and backward and repeat. | |
| Jelly shake - Shake each arm, then each leg and then wiggle the whole body like jelly. | |
| Belly button circles - Pretend the bellybutton is the middle of a circle. Do three circles to the right then three circles to the left as if using a hula hoop. Repeat the belly button circles, but this time start with three circles to the left then three circles to the right. | |
Cool down
Start any cool-down activity in a large clear space. This may be inside or outside depending on what space you have available.
The cool-down starts with an action song, followed by a transition activity and then a relaxation activity to help settle and relax the children. Some examples include:
| Action song | "Cockatoo is flapping, flapping, flapping. Cockatoo is flapping, flapping, flapping. The cockatoo is flapping just like this". |
| Transition song | Play an adapted version of "Simon says ..." using the common instructions but don't let any of the children "get out". The aim is for the children to copy you. Include stretching activities such as touch your toes, hop on one foot, roll your shoulders, turn your bodies etc. |
| Relaxation | Ask the children to sit down and breathe deeply and slowly in and out. Encourage them by saying slowly "Breathe in through your nose... breathe out through your mouth". |
| While in the sitting or lying position, ask the children to stretch their arms out in front and reach to the sky while inhaling (breathing in). Then bring the arms down while exhaling (breathing out). Ask the children to close their eyes while they are doing this. | |
| You could also suggest the children curl up on the floor with eyes shut and simply rest for a short while. | |
Please visit the Active Play Games and Activities page to view example session plans for warm up and cool down activities.
