Keeping Children Active in the Winter Weather

By Marnie Wills, Founder of Sporty Minis https://sportyminis.com/

It’s easy to find yourself putting off outdoor activities during the winter months as the cold and dark can seem unappealing. Personally, I’m a great believer in wrapping children up and taking them outside to play, learn and have fun just as they would in the summer.

It’s vital that we recognise the importance of exercise to our children’s lifestyles. When you look into the statistics there are some astonishing figures. Did you know that only 9% of under 5s meet the UK’s CMO guidelines for being active for 3 hours a day? This target becomes even more difficult to reach in the winter when daylight hours are shorter. 

However, there are numerous pieces of evidence to support the benefits of outdoor play which include;

• Developing an array of learning abilities 

• Exposure to Vitamin D – essential for healthy teeth, muscles and bones

• Improved sleep quality (which I am sure we could all do with!)

• Builds cardiovascular strength 

These 3 hours of daily activity should be spread across the day ensuring children are active and moving as often as possible. This is particularly important in children below the age of 5 as it helps them to develop their motor skills and teaches them to socialise in an active environment.

One of the Government's key learning criteria is ensuring early years children are being active and outdoors.  “Opportunity for children to take part in and develop a love of sport and physical activity is vital to ensuring their long-term enjoyment and participation. We want to see healthy, happy active children becoming healthy, happy active adults’ - Edward Timpson MP Minister for Children and Families Department for Education

Core physical literacy skills provide the common language for all types of participation in sport and all types of physical activity. The distinctions between different ball games or between different racquet sports are far less important than developing the skills needed to play those sports later on in life. According to the Department of Health, developing the ABCs of physical literacy – agility, balance and coordination is very important and should be the focus at the youngest ages.  

Here are some ideas I’ve put together for games that you can play in the colder months:

It's getting colder! - Movement and Listening Fun

• Ask the children to jog around your chosen space avoiding each other and listening to instructions. 

• If you shout ‘It’s Summer’ children can continue to jog at a steady pace as normal

• When you shout ‘It’s Autumn – it’s getting colder!’ the children must pretend to put on items of clothing (Coats, Hats, Gloves etc) and jog on the spot as fast as they can to warm themselves up.

• When you shout ‘WINTER is HERE!’ – the children should jump either on the spot or on the move until you call ‘SPRING TIME WALK!’.   

• Repeat the above instructions adding any variations you believe are relevant.  Do try to keep children moving (not running) for around 5 mins  

Winter Wonderland Adventure

• Let’s put on our hats, scarves, gloves and big snow boots on.  

• Let’s warm up with big snow marching legs, lets skate through the ice (hop from 1 leg to the other), Skiing (jump side to side), Snow Angels (jumping jacks), and Snowboarders (90' jumps).  

• Ask children to decide where they would like to go on their winter adventure and the movements they would like to do.    

• Again do try to keep children moving (not necessarily running) for around 5 mins  

Freeze Tag

• Children move around your designated safe area moving in any of the winter wonderland movements above 

• When tagged by their teacher they FREEZE!  

• When a child is frozen they do 5 snow angels to be free

• The game can continue with different children being the taggers and lots of adaptations can be used here e.g. a snow angel saver, all children tagging each other, or for the under 2’s, snow angels can be done at different points of the game 

I believe that in order for kids to find exercise fun, they need lots of variety. And when they find exercise fun, they’re much more likely to stick with it over an extended period of time. Avoid the boredom factor by offering as many different options for activity as possible. Plus, trying new physical activities together as a family will not only benefit your kids’ health, but can help fight the winter exercise blues too. So get up, get moving, and stay active this winter!