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The 2024 Winter Cycling Congress: What a Ride!

Written by:  Tracey Coutts and Katie Mahon, Ever Active Schools   Has this ever happened to you… You invite people to your favourite place, maybe it’s a pizza parlour, a place known for its delicious pizza but, just as your guests start to pour through the door, the parlour runs out of cheese. Like, completely.…
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SHAPING THE FUTURE 2024 RECAP

Different Location, Same Shaping the Future! 15 years of Shaping the Future. 15 years of memories, connection and learning all in the name of creating healthy communities and schools. This year, the annual Shaping the Future conference sponsored by Teach Nutrition and Belair Direct may have been held in a different location, but the atmosphere…
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WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN AN ACTIVE SCHOOL TRAVEL CHAMPION FACES CHALLENGES? REALLY GREAT SOLUTIONS.

Writers:  Trevor Henderson, Black Gold School Division Wellness Lead, with support from Tracey Coutts and Shauna Miller-Shaker   Ever Active School supports many Active School Travel (AST) projects across the province which boast some pretty amazing outcomes, one of which continues to shine in Leduc, Alberta. In 2020/2021, Black Gold School Division Wellness Lead, Trevor…
winter cycling on a fat tire bike

WINTER CYCLING IN ALBERTA

Winter cycling may seem exotic and strange, but if you’ve ever biked in the warmer weather, or cross-country skied, snowshoed, or even walked outside in the winter, you’re 89.6% prepared to ride your bike in winter! How so, you might ask? Well:  You already own the clothing. You know how to dress in layers so you…
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PHYS ED AND WELLNESS LESSON PLANS

Ahh, lesson planning: an all-important yet thankless task for teachers. You spend hours pouring over activities, making sure they connect to the curriculum and your targeted outcomes, and you hope your whole class will be invested and enjoy them. Wouldn’t it be nice if, once in a while, you could take all the time and…

GRANTING PERMISSION TO TRY WITH CYCLING

Written by Tracey Coutts, Ever Active Schools Watching young cyclists discover the freedom and thrill that comes with learning how to confidently navigate new neighbourhood and community routes is the equivalent of reading about C. S. Lewis’ Lucy moving deeper into the wardrobe, brushing past fur coats that transform to fir tree branches, on her…
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EVERYBODY PLAYS: LEAGUES OF PLAY

In the 2022/2023 school year, Ever Active Schools and Canadian Tire Jumpstart entered into a multi-year partnership centered around the dream that everybody plays. Through this work, we are providing: 100% opportunity to participate so that everybody plays. Focus on priority populations so that everybody plays. Capacity building through grassroots approaches so that everybody plays.…
Two people are playing Giants, Wizards, Elves – a game to help teach the Phys Ed and Wellness section of the Alberta K-6 Curriculum. The person on the left is posed like a wizard with fingers pointed like magic wands. The person on the right is crouched down in an elf pose using hands for elf ears.

TEACHING THE NEW ALBERTA K-6 CURRICULUM

The new Alberta K-6 curriculum has certainly been a hot topic, and we’ve heard a lot of questions about the Physical Education and Wellness (PEW) section. The biggest question: how do I teach this Alberta K-6 curriculum without losing active time with my class? Never fear: Ever Active Schools is here! We’ve compiled 8 games…

HOW TO HOST A TOURNAMENT

Written by Nathan White and Melissa Tierney, Ever Active Schools In our Everybody Plays project work, funded by Jumpstart, Ever Active Schools has been working with schools and communities to host leagues of play, which includes tournaments! This handy guide is intended to help you plan and host a tournament. It is important to note…

HOW DO I TEACH CANADA’S FOOD GUIDE?

Submitted by the team of Registered Dietitians at Teach Nutrition How to teach Canada’s Food Guide (CFG) is a question that our team of Registered Dietitians at Teach Nutrition hears… A LOT. CFG is part of the curriculum for all grade levels, so it requires different approaches for different ages and stages. Determining how, why,…

Recreation Passes in School Libraries

Active kids climbing on a wall in childrens attraction playground. Entertainment center. Happy childhood

Many children and families are without the financial flexibility to pay for access to participation in recreational activities. In addition to these financial barriers, new Canadian families in particular may experience cultural or language barriers to participation. These barriers can be mediated through a supportive school environment, creating the bridge to community physical activity and recreation settings.

In 2018, a collaborative initiative launched to create access for children and youth from local school communities to the recreation centre in their neighbourhood. Ever Active Schools, Healthy Hearts and Leduc Recreation Centre teamed up to create a strategy to enhance supportive environments for students to participate in physical activity across school and community setting: purchasing recreation membership passes to house within the school library, that any students can check out like a book and use for one week at a time.

This initiative provides opportunities for children and families to participate in recreation without the worry about financial strain. It allows students to try a new activity that they might not have ever been able to access before. Schools are responsible for promoting the initiative to families, managing the sign-out system, and tracking the number of sign-outs.

The program was piloted in 4 schools in the Leduc area from January to December 2018. Since then, we have helped to expand this opportunity into two additional communities and hope to continue to grow the reach of this idea.

Implementing this project requires buy-in from various stakeholders working together to address logistic and financial components. We need recreation centres interested in allowing a rotating family pass, schools interested in promoting and managing the passes, and of course, funding and capacity to oversee the project and assist with any challenges.

The biggest challenge we’ve seen in schools so far is that it’s so popular! With only one pass available, the pass is always rented with long waiting lists, preventing some families from being able to sign it out within the school year.

“Our Corinthia families are absolutely LOVING the passes. We have a great sign-out system set-up (cards in a pouch with a little scribbler to record your fun events) and our list of people who would like it, extends all the way in to next December!”

- Shelly McCubbing, Principal, École Corinthia Park

“We have access to 2 adult passes and then 3 child passes. They have been signed out on a regular basis weekly and there is a huge waiting list! They are booked until the end of the school year! We could definitely use another set of passes to increase the effectiveness of the program and allow for greater benefit for our families.”

- Trevor Henderson, Principal, West Haven Public School

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