sports Archives - Early Learning Childhood Education

14/09/201715/09/2017

Active children are happier children

Many studies have shown the strong link between physical activity and children’s behavioural, social and psychological outcomes. And the research consistently indicates that active children are happier children.

They become happier adolescents and adults too, demonstrating that laying a foundation for life that involves regular physical activity has far-reaching impact. It’s important that we set the groundwork for active children so they grow into happy adults.

Encouraging Physical Activity: The benefits

Regular physical activity has a range of benefits for children, including:

promoting healthy growth and development
helping to achieve and maintain a healthy weight
building strong bones and muscles
improving cardiovascular fitness
improving balance, coordination and strength
maintaining and developing flexibility
improving posture
assisting with the development of gross motor and fine motor skills
providing the opportunity to develop fundamental movement skills
helping to establish connections between different parts of the brain
improving concentration and thinking skills
improving confidence and self-esteem
relieving stress and promoting relaxation
providing opportunities to develop social skills and make friends
improving sleep.

(Source: https://www.healthykids.nsw.gov.au/teachers-childcare/physical-activity.aspx)

There’s no doubt about it – physical activity is vital for optimal development in children!

Promoting Physical Wellbeing in Children: Bush Kinder and Sports-inspired Games

If you and your educators attended our recent Bonkers Beat Wellness Summits, you’ve probably learned so many incredible ways to embed physical wellness practices into your centre. For those who didn’t attend, the information provided by our guests speakers was invaluable in guiding us towards the best ways of promoting physical wellness for the children in our care.

Bush Kinder founder Doug Fargher presented at the Bonkers Beat Wellness Summits and shared his expertise and experience working in outdoor spaces with children. Doug is an expert with extensive knowledge on the strong connections between nature and children’s physical wellness during the first five years of development and beyond.

Justin Kuchel from Active Start Sports presented at our recent Wellness Summits as well. Justin’s approach enables children of all ages to engage with fun, physical activities that leave them wanting more. Justin shared insights and showed us how his age-appropriate sports-inspired games get children truly excited about physical activity.

Thank you to all who attended—what a fantastic event it was, and thank you for contributing to it with your commitment to early childhood education!

See the photos from the Melbourne event here.

See the photos from the Sydney Wellness Summit here.

Are you passionate about physical and overall wellbeing? To find out more and join our Wellness Summits call us on 13000-B-BEAT (2-2328).

22/09/201622/09/2016

Be Fit, Stay Fit

To optimise the wellbeing of young children, it’s important to give them the tools they need in life to achieve and maintain good health. Physical activity is an essential ingredient, contributing to a child’s development, ability to learn and mental health.

Physical Activity for Children Every Day

At Bonkers Beat we are dedicated to early childhood development incorporating a range of learning experiences that involve physical activity. Our Bonkers Beat Music Kinder in Aspendale, Victoria incorporates daily yoga for children as well as a variety of active fun.

In our upcoming school holiday program we organise incursions from Active Start Sports who specialise in sports programs for young children. These incursions are always a hit with children at the centre. The sessions equip them with new skills, get them working on their motor skills and allow them to release plenty of energy!

The Benefits of Physical Activity for Children

So what are the benefits of physical activity for children? Here’s our top 5:

Improve children’s balance, coordination, flexibility and strength
Group sports provide a valuable socialising opportunity to make friends and learn how to be a part of a team
Improve cardiovascular fitness and endurance
Maximise children’s ability to learn by improving concentration
Promote relaxation and happiness through burning off energy and the release of endorphins (the happy hormone)

Getting Active Together

Bonkers Beat Music Kinder’s upcoming Working Bee has a physical activity theme too – Be Fit, Stay Fit!

With plenty of digging, lifting and tidying to be done around the centre, it’s an excellent example of how we can work on improving our physical fitness in daily activities. Plus, being active is always more fun when we’re doing it together!

Taking our commitment to staying physically fit and healthy even further, during this year’s Working Bee we will be installing bike racks at the centre! This is to encourage children and their families to ride their bikes to kinder or childcare.

A mini-gym is also a part of our Working Bee plan – another fun way for pre-school children to get active!

Be Fit, Stay Fit

As adults we know how challenging it can feel to embark on physical activity, especially when we’ve let our fitness levels lapse. What a wonderful thing to do for children to embed a love, understanding and appreciation of physical activity and its benefits while they are young. In fact, a commitment to physical activity won’t just benefit children now – it is a gift that can improve their futures and will also have a huge positive impact on their overall wellbeing as they move into adolescence and adulthood.

How do you encourage children to be active and stay fit? Share with us on Facebook!

04/08/201605/08/2016

Your Guide to Celebrating the Rio 2016 Olympic Games

As we all know, the Olympics only comes around once every four years so it can be a novel event to celebrate in centres – not to mention a lot of fun! The Rio 2016 Olympic Games take place from August 5 – 21.

The Olympic Games provide early childhood educators (as well as educators at all levels) the opportunity to explore many different topics with children, but to make it simple for you we’ve narrowed it down:

1. What are the Olympic Games?

Start with a discussion of what the Olympic Games are. Keep it simple – pick from a few of the main features that children will find exciting. You could talk about the whole world working together, the teamwork, the sports, the Olympic torch and the medals.

Here are some leading questions to help you with your Olympics discussions:

What do you know about Olympic Games?
How often do the Olympic Games run?
Which countries participate in Olympic Games?
Where will Olympic Games run this year?
Which country is Rio de Janeiro the capital city of?
Do you like playing sport?
Which sport is your favourite?
Does your mummy or daddy play sport?
Why do people like to do sport?
Does playing sport make you healthy?
Why do we need to be healthy?

2. Get physical

Check out the full list of the sports featured at Rio 2016 here and adapt them to allow children to try at your centre. Children could line up chairs and row in an imagined kayak! Or get outside for one of the many ball games like basketball.

3. Get creative

Children can explore elements of the Olympics creatively using visual arts. Here are a few ideas:

-Colouring or creating Olympic rings is a classic Olympic activity for children. Here’s a printable, or try using plastic cups dipped in paint.

-Children can create their own Olympic medals using ribbon, cardboard, coloured paper, felt, foil – whatever else you can find!

-Roll up some paper into a cone shape, secure with glue or tape and stuff with orange and red tissue paper to create an Olympic torch!

4. Talk about teamwork

Children watching the Olympics and any sport will notice that in many cases teams need to work together and help one another. A simple parachute game of trying to keep a ball or balls on the parachute/sheet will help demonstrate the importance of teamwork to children! Observing and discussing uniforms can be fun too.

The Olympic Games are an exciting time all over the world, so above all keep it fun! If you have some amazing ideas to add, we would absolutely love to hear about them! Share with us on our Facebook page, or if you’re a Bonkers Beat member, share in our private group here. Parents, feel free to post in our private Facebook group for Bonkers Beat