The Canada Games Council (CGC) has announced the Canada Games Activity Challenge as a Canada 150 Signature Project, supporting children and teachers in Canadian classrooms to build daily active healthy habits. The Canada Games Council has received formal notification from the Canada 150 Secretariat that its 2017 interactive activity program created to engage children aged 5-12 has been approved as one of the 41 Canada 150 Signature Projects celebrating Canada’s 150th anniversary.
“We are tremendously excited that our project to commemorate Canada’s 150thanniversary has been approved,” says Tom Quinn, Canada Games Council Chairman. “Canada’s centennial year in 1967 helped create many important legacies, including the creation of the Canada Games—the nation’s largest multi-sport event for youth. To this day, the Games continue to be a catalyst for the growth of sport and recreation across our country, and this new Activity Challenge will further enhance our impact by encouraging youth to be active.”
The Canada Games Activity Challenge will officially begin in schools in January 2017. The online physical literacy tracker and rewards program is aimed at inspiring the 90% of youth who are not currently meeting the recommended daily amount of physical activity, and supporting elementary teachers with physical literacy activities.
Participants in the Canada Games Activity Challenge will stick to a daily activity program, based on the principles of physical literacy. These fun activities and interactive challenges are developed to build healthy, habit-forming behaviours in students and will empower teachers with a database of age-appropriate and skill-specific activities, linked to Canada’s Long-Term Athlete Development (LTAD) model. Students will also participate individually at home, challenging themselves to accomplish personal bests. These efforts will be supported by a web-based application to help track participation and motivate—using the principles of gamification.
The Canada Games has been developing this program with the support of some of the nation’s leading physical literacy experts, along with the help of our national sport and government partners. The program will reach thousands of students across Canada.
More detailed information about the program and the launch date will be announced in the coming months.
For more information about the Canada Games Activity Challenge, please contact Alyson Gourley-Cramer agourley-cramer@canadagames2.ca
