In the News: Pandemic Activity Levels, and How We Can Encourage Movement Now - School Physical Activity and Physical Literacy in BC

As teachers, we’ve all witnessed and experienced the impacts of the pandemic on our students’ mental health, focus and enjoyment of learning. Moreover, the pandemic took a toll on students’ activity levels—data recently shared by the CBC, alongside information on how important schools are in promoting healthy behaviors as we move back into our pre-pandemic routines.

The article shared some important insights from Sarah Moore, a researcher at Dalhousie University’s School of Health and Human Performance: “In April 2020, a month after the pandemic was declared, a cross-country survey by Moore and other researchers found […] movement numbers had plummeted, with less than three per cent of Canadian kids meeting guidelines. In a follow-up study six months later, and after students began returning to in-person school, they found that figure had risen to about five per cent.”

As we all look to get back into our ‘normal’ day-to-day life, school can be an ideal space to change those sedentary behaviors learned during the pandemic. His published report, shared in the CBC article, explores the ways teachers can incorporate movement into the school day. His suggestions include:

Taking scheduled and unscheduled movement breaks;
Incorporating different types of movement; and
Incorporating movement-based learning.

Moore also speaks to the idea of thinking creatively about movement for kids, and we are here to help achieve just that!

The School Physical Activity and Physical Literacy project has simple, fun activities to support those movement suggestions and keep your students active and developing their physical literacy. Here are a few fun and free resources to get you started:

For more activities, and to learn more about how you can support physical activity and physical literacy in your classroom and school, visit the resource section of our website. You’ll be sure to find a multitude of ready-to-use activities. For even more fun, sign up for a free PLAYBuilder account, where you’ll get instant access to a combination of over 900 printable activities and lesson plans for B.C. educators, which are all but guaranteed to be popular amongst peers.