Keeping active has so many benefits. Here are just a few:

  • Helps healthy growth teaching emotional wellbeing skills including teamwork
  • Supports us to maintain good mental health, boosting mood and self-confidence.
  • Supports maintaining a healthy weight
  • Reduces the risks of suffering from long term illnesses in adulthood

It is essential that children learn about the benefits of physical activity and understand how to be physically active so that they can carry this knowledge with them as they grow up. Being physically active from a young age can help influence activity levels as an adult, so let's give them the right start.

The Healthy Tots programme has been developed to support your early years setting in teaching your children about physical activity, so why not sign up here now?

Video resources

  • Cosmic Kids Yoga: Cosmic Kids Yoga is designed specially for children aged three and above. Stream all the videos ad-free.
  • Oti's Boogie Beebies: Oti will be dancing onto CBeebies and into households across the country as she motivates pre-schoolers to get moving and dancing from her own front room!

  • Andy's Wild Workouts: Andy travels the world to amazing places and learns to move like the animals he meets on his wild adventure. Can you adventure with Andy and learn some animal moves of your own?

Useful Websites

Websites offer a wide range of advice and resources for professionals on physical activity and can be great to signpost your parents and carers to also.

  • NHS Healthier Families: Better Health: Healthier Families is the new home of Change4Life. They have a new name and look, but don't worry – they're still here to help you with idea's to get children to eat better and move more.
  • There is also a great range of resources and advice for adults including how to become more active, lose weight, stop smoking and drink less. Visit the Better Health website for more information.
  • Early Movers: Early movers is a collaborative project between Loughborough University, the NCSEM and Loughborough campus nursery. The programme gives guidance on the overall expected developmental progress in Physical Development, to assist practitioners in observing babies and young children moving. It also gives ideas and activities that practitioners can use to look ahead and plan appropriate activities for the next expected developmental stage, or to 'back up' (when necessary) to consolidate earlier stages.
  • Health for Under 5s: Health for Under 5s provides early years settings with additional information and resources to assist with the health and well-being of children in their care.

  • Sport England: On their website you can find a range of ideas for getting active with kids from Disney workouts, 10-minute Shake-ups and Couch to Family Fit suggestions. There are also activities which have been created specifically for disabled young people too.

Guidance Documents

In these documents you will gain a better understanding of the impact that physical activity has on children's development Early Years Evidence Briefing and Early Years Practice Briefing.

Physical Activity guidance for children with additional needs (SEND)

  • Health for Under 5s: Health for Under 5s provides support to early years settings. Click here to access their support
https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga

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NHS Better Health

Want to gain more ideas to try in your setting or help families get more physically active? then look at these exciting quick games that everyone can enjoy and get healthier at the same time! Ten Minute shake up activities

Be a superhero and see what super powers you have!

Be a superhero and see what super powers you have!

Active Together

As a professional working in early years you can sign up and create an account to access lots of useful resources to support children to be active!

Children's Physical Activities