The Busy Body Activity for Early On Brighton Summer Childcare
July 31, 2018, Brighton Public School
Get the Busy Body Game Activity Sheet here!
Objectives of The Busy Body Activity
- Increase the Early On Childcare Leaders’ knowledge and practical skills around implementing physical literacy into their programing
- Engage ALL children in the summer care group – childcare provider expressed concerns that a few children would not participate
- Get the children excited about being physically active
Planning Committee Summary
- Katherine Lawrence – Early On Brighton
- Molly Klintworth – Northumberland Sports Council
Katherine and Molly met once prior to the Busy Body Activity at Brighton Public School to discuss physical literacy, the group of children we were designing the program for.
Katherine’s role was to:
- Review physical literacy and FUNdamental Movement Skills resources provided by Molly
- Deicide what movement skills and games would be included in the activity
- Provide support to Molly day of, and prep the kids for the day
Molly’s role was to:
- Mentor and advise Katherine on how to plan an activity that would engage all of the children in her group
- Develop and run an activity that would last about 1-1.5hrs on July 31, 2018
Participant Summary
All children who participated were apart of the Brighton Early On Summer Childcare. Children were a range of ages between 5-11. Katherine invited several of her staff to come and support the day and to observe the activities taking place.
Youth= 15, Adults = 3
Total = 18
Summary of Event
The Busy Body Game was created as a way to try and engage the “non-active” children in the group (see attached Busy Body Game Worksheet). All children were given a “Scroll” and told they had to complete all 6 activities to win a prize (the PLay Bags given out at Northumberland Families on the Move) The Busy body game used 8 activities to try and target multiple interests and increase the fun and inclusive component of physical activity. The games included:
- The Busy Body Book which was used to get kids comfortable with me and being active in front of each other in a non-traditional way – completed as the whole group
- Move like an Animal, Musical Hoops, and Camping Tag worked on a diverse set of locomotion skills, all involving music (Katherine shared that the children loved music and dancing) – completed as the whole group
- Scramble Throw which worked on throwing and accuracy – split into smaller groups and rotated through the three activities
- Crazy Hop-Scotch which worked on hoping, jumping and coordination – split into smaller groups and rotated through the three activities
- Rainbow Dribble which worked on agility, kicking, coordination, and gross motor skills – split into smaller groups and rotated through the three activities
- Obstacle Course which combined all the FUNdamental Movement Skills practied throughout the game into one wrap up activity –completed as the larger gorup
The activity engaged all the children, even those who were previously identified as non-movers. Although this activity took time to plan and organize it was well worth it to see all the children engaged, having fun and working together to complete all the challenges.
Lessons Learned from Outdoor Playgroup / General Comments
When you have such a diverse group of children it is important to include multiple components of fun so that some part of the activity resonates with each child.
Collaborating on this project gave Katherine and I the chance to network and build a closer relationship around the common goal of creating more opportunities for Northumberland’s children to grow and prosper in a healthy and supportive environment. Katherine also connected me with another Early On employee, Bryn, who is very interested in learning more about physical literacy and feels very passionate about getting children more physically active.
Katherine and Brynn will continue to be a reliable resource when it comes to trying out new activities and promoting the NSC values and goals to youth and parents in the East end of Northumberland county.
Email from Katherine after the Busy Body Game:
Hello Molly,
That was a great morning, thank you so much, the children really enjoyed it and I learned a lot too.
Some children said the hopscotch was their favourite, some liked the rings best … everyone said they loved the prizes 😀
Thank you again,
Katherine
Resources Used
Resources used to aid in the creation of this activity include
- Aboriginal S4L Resource
- Quality PL Assessments (OPHEA)
- PL Censes Statement
- Developing PL S4L Resource
- Facilitation of Healthy Communities Tool Kit
- Fundamental Movement Skills S4L
- Hop, Skip, Jump Childcare Resource (Alberta)
- LTAD for Athletes with a Disability
- Multi Cultural Community Activities
- Natural Play Review (Muskoka Health Unit)
- Participaction Report Card Summary
- Participaction Outdoor Play Position Summary
- Participaction PL Tool Kit
- PL MEGA Document (PISE)
- Play Tubs Flip Book (Linda Whitfield)
- Run, Jump, Throw, Wheel Poster (S4L)
- Run, Jump, Throw Resource
- Street Play Resource