AEL program componentsa | Week of introduced components | Description and typical duration |
---|---|---|
1. Group/mat time and Transitions | 1 to 4 | Group/Mat time: daily periods when children are gathered together, movement experiences with a focus on fundamental movement skill; 5 to 20 min. Example: Educator holds up pictures of animals or objects and children explore associated movements, such as frog’s jump, rocks’ stillness. Transitions: periods between different centre events e.g. arrival at the centre, moving from inside to outside, or from group time to meal tables with a focus on movement creativity and exploration; 1 to 5 min. Example: Children mimic their favourite animal as they move from mat time to hand washing. |
2. Movement education | 5 to 8 | Educator guided individual or group physical activity challenges which may involve equipment, sports and games; 10–20 min. Example: Games incorporating balls and other equipment; obstacle course challenges |
3. Cross-curricular movement education | 9 to 12 | Activities complementing the day’s curriculum learning theme; usually integrating a story and book reading; 20–30 min. Example: Children are read a story about the circus. The educator guides children to discuss and perform circus movements such as walking along a line of tape (tight rope walking), exploring bean bags (juggling). |
4. Encourage challenging free play | 13 to 16 | Educator enhancement of free-time active play to promote exploration and opportunities to develop confidence and risk assessment skill with challenging play; 10–30 min. Challenging play in this study was communicated to educators as using movement to explore boundaries and test children’s limits. Example: Coach and educators discuss and then encourage challenging play using a selected piece of outdoor equipment (such as a balance beam or slide) while taking safety precautions. |