A variety of brochures containing games and activities for different areas of development for children aged 0-5 years. They have practical ideas and games that use little or no equipment.

Watch and learn from Sport New Zealand's Active Movement Advisor Gill Connell. Gill recommends activities for children in the different age groups under 5, and shows you how you can get your child moving - and consequently, learning.

Sit Less, Move More, Sleep Well: Active play guidelines for under-fives resources: Resources to support the Sit Less, Move More, Sleep Well: Active play guidelines for under-fives.

The New Zealand Government in partnership with a number of organisations including Sport New Zealand, the Ministry of Education and Plunket have developed some new resources on ‘Raising Children’.

They have split these into the ‘Early Years’ (Years 1 -3) and the ‘Middle Years’ (preschool and primary years). There are over 50 stories in each including great information as to why we need to get children moving.

Making the connection between movement, music, learning and play (birth to 3 years). This resource helps recognise and develop the physical milestones and stages children go thorough. Includes a 67 CD track of original movement songs, chants and finger plays.

By Robyn Crowe and Gill Connell

An overview of the important stages of physical development that a child needs to have passed through in order to cope with educational tasks required in the classroom.

The Active Movement in Water resource aims to provide opportunities for under-fives to develop foundation aquatic skills. Source: Swimming NZ.

Research Article

Hanging on monkey bars, climbing trees, and tug-of-war are all valuable activities that prepare children for necessary skills such as writing at school.

We have tracked down a really good article that explains why some children may sit in this position, the long term affects and things that can be done to get children out of this habit.

Research Article

Do you ever think about how you approach a situation, why you see what you see, and what the potential impact of this could be? In terms of child development, what is your role as an early childhood educator? Are the opportunities you provide children allowing them to reach their potential? Are the movement opportunities you are providing children purposeful or out of habit?

Research Article

Here is some research done in Australia where they tracked children over a three year period after they had been involved in a 10 month movement skill intervention at an early childhood level.

The results show how important it is to be teaching fundamental movement skills in early childhood settings.

Research Article

While this research was completed in New Zealand back in 2007 it is still very relevant to today’s children illustrating how important it is to get the children outside using playground equipment.

Research article

We often get asked about what sorts of activities children under the age of five should be doing and whether they should be playing sport. Here at Sport Wellington we believe children under the age of five should not be playing sport specific games.